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V. — "Cannot fail to fascinate those who are fond of music, or of contemplating the laws which in the wor'-. • of nature are seen in full operation." 1' How the Oeometrica. Lines Have T Pric< . r>aoer, 12 cents. \ :\ ETTE f I HUMBOLDT LIBRARY OP Popular Science Literature. No. 43.] NEW YORK: J. FITZGERALD. [Fifteen Cents Aoril 1883. Entered at the New York Post-Office as Second-Class Matter. $1.50 per Year ' . (12 Numbers). DjlRWIN Af HUMBOLDT; THEIR LIVES AND WORK. CHARLES DARWIN. I. INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. BY PROr IIUXLEY, F.R.S. Very few, even among tho.'^e wlio lave taken the keenest interest in the )rogress of the revolution in natural tnowledge set afoot by the publica- tion of the Or'ujin of Species, and 'who have watched, not without as- tonishment, the rapid and complete change which h&s been effected both inside and outside the boundaries of the scientific world in the attitude of men's minds toward the doctrines which are expounded in that great work, can have been prepared for the extraordir^ary manifestation of affec- tionate regard for the man, and of profound reverence for the philoso- pher, which followed the announce- ment of the death of Mr. Darwin. Not only in these islands, where so many have felt the fascination of personal contact with an intellect which had no superior, and with a character which was even nobler than the intellect ; but, in all parts of the civilized world, it would seem that those whose business it is to feel the pulse of nations and to know what interests the masses of mankind, were well aware that thousands of their readers would think the world the poorer for Darwin's death, and would dwell with eager interest upon every incident of his history. In France, in Germany, in Austro-Hungary, in Italy, in the United States, writers of all shades of opinion, for once unani- mous, have paid a willing tribute to the worth of our great countryman, ignored in life by the ofHcial represen- tatives of the kingdom, but laid in. 535507 2 [306] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. death among his peers in Westminster Abbey by the will of the intelligence of the nation. It is not for us to allude to the sacred sorrows of the bereaved home at Down ; but it is no secret that, outside that domestic group, there are many to whom Mr. Daiiwin's deatli is a wholly irreparable loss. And this not merely because of his wonderfully genial, simple, and gener- ous nature; hischeerfiil and animated conversation, and the infinite variety and accuracy of his information ; but because the more one knew of him, the more he seemed the incorporated ideal of a man of science. Acute as were his reasoning powers, vast as was his knowledge, marvelous as was his tenacious industry, under physical difficulties which would have convert- ed nine men out of ten into aimless invalids ; it was not these qualities, great as they were, which impressed those who were admitted to his inti- macy with involuntary veneration, but a certain intense and almost pas- sionate honesty by which all his thoughts and actions were irradiated, as by a central fire. It was this rarest and greatest of endowments which kept his vivid imagination and great speculative powers within due bounds ; which compelled him to undertake the pro- digious labors of original investiga- tion and of reading, u]>on which his published works are based; which made him accept criticisms and suggestions from any body and every body, not only without impatience, but with expressions of gratitude sometimes almost comically in excess of their value ; which led him to allow neither himself nor others to be deceived by phrases, and to spare ncillicr time nor pains in order to obtain clear and distinct ideas u])on every topic with which he occupied hinihclf. One could not converse with Dar- win wiUicut being reminded of So- crates. There was the same desire to find some one wiser than himself ; the same belief in the sovereignty of reason ; the same ready humor ; the same sympathetic interest in all the ways and works of men But instead of turning away from the problems of nature as hopelessly insoluble, our modern Philosopher devoted his whole life to attacking them in the spirit of Heuacutus and of De- MocRiTUs, with results which are as the substance of which their specula- tion Avere anticipatory shadows. The due appreciation or even enumeration of these results is neither j)racticable nor desirable at this mo- ment. There is a time for all things — a time for glorying in our ever- extending conquests over the realm" of nature, and a time for mourning over the heroes who have led us to victory. None have fought better, and none have been more fortunate, than Chari.ks Darwin. He found a great truth trodden under foot, re- viled by bigots, and ridiculed by all the world ; he lived long enough to see it, chiefly by his own efforts, irrefragably established in science, insei)arably incorporated with the common thoughts of men, and only hated and feared by those who would revile, but dare not. What shall a man more desire than this? Once more the image of Socrates rises un- bidden, and the noble peroration of the Apology rings in our ears as if it were Chari.es Darwin's farewell : "The hour of departure has ar- rived, and we go our ways — I to die, and you to live. Which is the better, God only knows." II. CHARACTER AND LIFE. BY Ct. .J. ROMANES, F.R.S. The object of this notice is to gire a brief account of the life, and a pro- portionately still more brief account of the M'ork of Mr. Darwin, But while we recognize in him perhaps the greatest genius and the most fertile thinker, certainly the most important generalizer and one of the few most DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [307] 3 auccessf 111 observers in the whole histo ry of biological science, we feel that no less great, or even greater than the wonderful intellect was the character of the man. Therefore it is in his case particularly and pre-eminently true that the first duty of biographers will be to render some idea, not of what he did, but of what he was. And this, unfortunately, is just the point where all his biographers must nec- essarily fail. For while to those favored few who were on terms of intimate friendship with him, any language by which it is sought to portray his character must seem inadequate, to every one else the same language must appear the result of enthusiastic admiration, finding vent in extravagant panegyric. Whatever is great and whatever is beautiful in human nature found in him so lux- uriant a development, that no place or chance M-as left for any other growth, and in the result we beheld a magnifi- cence which, unless actually realized, we should scarcely have been able to imagine. Any attempt, therefore, to describe such a character must be much like an attempt to describe a splendid })iece of natural scenciry or a marvelous work of art; the thing must itself have been seen, if any de- scription of it is to be understood. But without attempting to describe Mr. Daravin's character, if v-:e were asked to indicate the features which stood out with most marked prom- inence, we should first mention those which, from being conspicuous in liis writings, are already more or less known to all the world. Thus, the absorbing desire to seek out truth for truth's sake, combined with a clinr- ucLeristic disregard of self, led not only to the caution, patience, and <;andor of his own work — which are proverbial — and to the generous sat- isfaction which he felt on finding any of his thoughts or results inde- pendently attained by the work of others ; but also to a keen and vivid freshness of interest in every detail of a new research, such as we have sometimes seen approached by much younger men when the research happens to have been their own. And indeed what we may call this fervid youthfulness of feeling extended through all Mr. Darwin's mind, giv- ing, in combination with his immense knowledge and massive sagacity, an indescribable charm to his manner and conversation. Animated and fond of humor, his wit was of a singularly fascinating kind, not only because it was always brilliant and amusing, but still more because it was always hearty and good-natured. Indeed, he was so exquisitely refined in his own feelings, and so almost painfully sensitive to any display of questionable taste in otliers, that he could not help showing in his humor, as in the warp and woof of his whole nature, that in him the man of science and the philosopher were subordinate to the gentleman. His courteous con- sideration of others, also, which went far beyond anything that the ordinary usages of society require, was simi- larly prompted by his mere spontane- ous instinct of benevolence. For who can always act ? but he, To whom a thousand memories call Not being less but more than all The gentleness he seemed to be, Best seem'dthe thing he was, and joiu'd Each oftice of the social hour To noble manners, as the flower And native growth of noble mind ; Nor ever narrowness or spite, Or villain fancy fleeting by, Drew in the expression of an eye. Where God and nature met in light. And this leads us to speak of his kindness, which, whether we look to its depth or to its width, must certain- ly be regarded as perhaps the most remarkable feature of his remarkable disposition. The genuine delight that he took in helping every one in their work — often at the cost of much personal trouble to himself — in throw- in": out numberless sufji^estions for Others to profit by, and in kindling the enthusiasm of the humblest tyro in science ; this was the outcome of a great and generous heart, quite as 4 [308] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. much as it was clue to a desire for the advancement of science. Nothing seemed to give him a keener joy than being able to write to any of his friends a warm and glowing congratu- lation upon their gaining some success; and the exuberance of his feelings on such occa.ssions generally led him to conceive a much higher estimate of the imi>ortance of the results attained than he would have held had the suc- cess been achieved by himself. For the modesty with which he regarded his own work was no less remarkable than his readiness enthusiastically to admire the work of others ; so that, to any one who did not know him well, this extreme modesty, from its very completeness and unconscious- ness, might almost have appeared the result of affectation. At least, speak- ing for ourselves, when we tirst met him, and happened to see him convers- ing with a greatly younger man, quite unknown either in science or literature, we thought it must have been impossible that Mr. Darwin — then the law giver to the world of biology — could with honest sincerity be submitting, in the way he did, his matured thought to the judgment of such a youth. But afterward we came fully to learn that no one was so unconscious of Mr. Darwin's worth as Mr. Darwin himself, and that it was a fixed habit of his mind to seek for opinions as well as facts from every available quarter. It must be added, however, that his tendency to go beyond the Scriptural injunction in the matter of self- approval, and to think of others more highly than he ought to think, never clouded his final judgment upon the value of their opinions ; but spontane- ously following another of these in- junctions, while proving all things, he held fast only to that which was good. " In malice be ye children, but in understanding be ye men." On the whole, then, we should say that Mr. Darwin's character was chiefly marked by a certain grand and cheerful simplicity, strangely and beautifully united with a deep and thoughtful wisdom, which, together with his illimitable kindness to others and complete forgetfulness of him- self, made a combination as lovable as it was venerable. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that no man ever passed away leaving behind him a greater void of enmity, or a depth of adoring friendship more profound. But, as we have said, it is im- possible to convey in words any adequate conception of a character which in beauty as in grandeur can only, with all sobriety, be called sublime. If the generations are ever to learn, with any approach to accu- racy, what Mr. Darwin was, his biog- raphers may best teach them by allowing this most extraordinary man to speak for himself through the medium of his correspondence, as well as through that of his books; and therefore, as a small foretaste of the complete biography which will some day appear, we shall quote a letter in which he describes the char- acter of his great friend and teacher, the late Prof. Henslow, of Cambridge. We choose this letter to quote from on account of the singular manner in which the writer, while describing the character of another, is uncon- sciously giving a most accurate de- scription of his own. It is of im- portance also that in any biographical history of Mr. Darwin, Professor IIensi.ow's character should be duly considered, seeing that he exerted sa great an influence upon the expanding powers of Mr. Darwin's miurofited at all by whatever instruction he received ; for not only did it fail to awaken in liim any special love of natural history, but even seems to have had the contrary effect. The prospect of being a medical practitioner proving distasteful to him, he was, after two sessions at Edinburgh, removed to Christ's Col- lege, Cambridge, with the view of his entering the Church. He took his B.A. in 1831, and his M.A. in 1887. There being no Natural Sci- ences Tripos at that time, his degree was an ordinary one. While at Cambridge he attracted the notice of the late Rev. Prof. Henslow, who had just previously exchanged the Professorship of Mineralogy for that of Botany. From the above de- scription of tliis man's character and attainments, it is sulficiently evident that he was a worthy teacher of a worthy pupil ; and the world owes an immense debt of gratitude to hJm for having been the means of enthu- siastically arousing and sagaciously directing the first love and the early study of natural science in the mind of Dauwin. No one can be more deeply moved by a sense of this gratitude than was Mr. Darwin him- self. His letters, written to Prof. Henslow during his voyage round the world, overflow with feelings of affection, veneration, and obligation to his accomplished master and dearest friend — feelings which throughout his life he retained with undiminished intensity. As he used himself to say, before he knew Prof. Henslow, the only objects of natu- ral history for which he cared were foxes and partridges. But owing to the impulse wliich he derived from the field excursions of the Hensi-ow class, he became while at Cambridge an ardent collector, especially in the region of entomology ; and we re- member having heard him observe that the first time he ever saw his own name in print was in connection with the capture of an insect in the fens. During one of the excursions Prof. Henslow told him that he had been commissioned (through Prof. Peacock) to offer any competent young naturalist the opportunity of accompanying Captain Fitzroy as a guest on the surveying voyage of the J^eagle, and that he would strongly urge its acceptance on him. Mr. Darwix had already formed riesire to travel, having been stimulated thereto by reading Humboldt's Per- sonal Narrative y so after a short hesitation on the part of his father, who feared that the voyage might "unsettle" him for the Church, the matter was soon decided, and in De« cemberof 1838 the expedition started. Daring the voyage he suffered greatly from sea-sickness, Avhich, together with the f.asting and fatigue incident- al to long excursions over-land, was probably instrumental in producing the dyspepsia to which, during the remainder of his life, he was a victim. Three years after returning from thia voyage of circumnavigation, he mar- ried, and in 1842 settled at Down, in Kent. The work which afterward emanated from that quiet and happy English home, which continued up to the day of his death, and which has^ been more effectual than any other ia making the nineteenth century illus- trious, will form the subject of our subsequent articles. DARWIN AND HUiMBOLDT. L^ll] 7 III. WORK IN GEOLOGY. BT ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S. No man of his time has exercised upon the science of Geology a pro founder influence than Charles Dar- win. At an early period of his life he look much interest in geological studies, and in later years, while en- gaged in other pursuits, he kept him self accpuiinted with the progress that was being made in this department of natural knowledge. His influence upon it has been twofold, arising partly from the importance and orig- inality of some of his own contribu- tions to the literature of the science, but chiefly from the bearing of his work on other branches of natural history. When he began to direct his atten- tion to geological inquiry the sway of the Cataclysmal school of geology was still paramount. But already the Uniformitarians were gathering strength, and, before many years were past, had ranged themselves un- der the banner of their great champion, Lteli . Darwix, who always re- cognized his indebtedness to Lyell's teaching, gave a powerful impulse to its general reception by the way in which he gathered from all ]>arts of the world facts in its support. He continually sought in the phenomena of the pi-esent time the explanation of those of the past. Yet he was all the while laying the foundation on which the later or Evolutional school of geology has been built up. Darwin' s specially geological mem- oirs are not numerous, nor have they been of the same epoch-making kind as his biological researches. But every one of tliera bears the stamp of his marvelous acuteness in observa- tion, his sagacity in grouping scatter- ed facts, and his unrivalled far- reaching vision that commanded all their mutual bearings, as well as their place in the general economy of things. His long travels in the Beagle afford- ed him opportunities of making him- 1 self acquainted with geological phe- nomena of the most varied kinds. With the exception of one or two minor papers written in later years, it may be said that all his direct con- tributions to geology arose out of the Beagle voyage. The largest and most important part of his geological work deal with the hypogene forces of nature — those that arc concerned in volcanoes and earthquakes, in the elevation of mountains and continents, in the subsidence of vast areas of the sea-bottom, and in the crumpling, foliation, and cleavage of the rocks of the earth's crust. His researches in these subjects were mainly embod- ied in the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle — a work which, in three successive parts, was published under the auspices of the Lords of the Treasury. The order chosen by Darwin for the subjects of these three parts probably indicates the relative im- portance Avith Avhich they were re- garded by himself. The first was en- titled The /Structure and Distribu- tion of Coral Reefs (1842). This well-known treatise, the most orig- inal of all its author's geological memoirs, has become one of the re- cognized classics of geological litera- ture. The origin of those remarkable rings of coral-rock in mid-ocean had given rise to much speculation, but ]io satisfactory solution of the problem had been proposed. After visiting many of them, and examining also coral-reefs that fringe islands and continents, he offered a theory which for simplicity and grandeur strikes every reader with astonishment. It is pleasant after the lapse of many years to recall the delight with which one first read the Coral Beefs, how one watched the facts being marshal- led into their places, nothing being ignored or passed lightly over, and how step by step one was led up to the grand conclusion of wide oceanic subsidence. No more admirable example of scientific method was ever given to the world, and even if he had written nothing else, this [:!l-2] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. treatise alone would have placed Dak- wm in the very front of investigators of nature. The second part was entitled Geological Observations of the Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of II.M t:^. Beagle^ together .with some .Brief Notices on the Geology of A ustralia and the Cape of Good Hope (1844). Full of de- tailed observations, this work still remains the hest authority on the gen- eral geological structure of most of the regions it describes. At the time it was written, the " Crater of Eleva- tion theory," though o])po.sed by ' Constant, Frevost, Sorope, and Lyell, was generally accepted, at least on the Continent. Darwin, however, could not receive it as a valid explanation of the facts, and though he did not adopt the views of its chief opponents, but ventured to propose a hjq>othesis of his own, the observations impartially made and described by him in this volume must be regarded as having contributed toward the final solution of the ques- tion. The third and concluding part bore the title of Geological (Observations on South America (1846). In this work the author embodied all the materials collected by him for the illustration of South American geol- ogy save some which had already been published elsewhere. One of the most important features of the book was the evidence which it brought forward to ])rove the slow, interrupted elevation of the South American Continent during a recent geological period. On the western sea-board he showed that beds of marine shells could be traced more or less continuously for a distance of upward of 2,000 miles, that the elevation had been unequal, reaching in some })laces at least to as much as 1,300 feet, that in one instance, at a hight of 85 feet above the sea, un- doubted traces of the presence of man occurred in a raised beach, and hence that the land had there risen 85 feet since Indian man had inhabited Peru. These proofs of recent elevation may have influenced him in the conclu- sion which lie drew as to the marine origin of the great elevated plains of Chili. But at that time there was a general tendency among liritish geol- ogists to detect evidence of sea-action everywhere, and to ignore or minimize the action of running water and wind- drift upon the land An im])ortant chapter of the volume, devoted to a discussion of the phenomeni of cleav- age and foliation, is well known to every student of the literature of metamorj)hism. The official records of the Beagle did not, however, include all that Darwin wrote on the geology of the voyage. lie contributed to the Trans- actions of the Geological Society (vol. V. 1840) a paper on the connec- tion of volcanic phenomena. In the same publication (vi. 1842) appears another, on the erratic boulders of South America ; while a third, on the geology of the Falkland Islands, was published later While dealing with the subterrane- an agents in geological change, he kept at the same time an ever wach- ful eye upon the siqjerticial operations by which the surface of the globe is modified, lie is one of the earliest writers to recognize the magnitude of the denudation to which even recent geological accunnilations have been subjected. One of the most impres- sive lessons to be learnt from his account of Volcanic Islands is the prodigious extent to which they have been denuded. As just stated, he was disposed to attribut3 more of this work to tiie action of the sea than most geologists would now admit; but he lived himself to modify his original views, and on this subject his latest utterances are quite abreast of the time. It is interesting to note that I one of his early geological papers was on the Formation of Mould (1840), and that after the lapse of forty years he returned to this subject, devoting to it the last of his volumes. In tlie first sketch we see the patient observ- ation and shrewdness of inference so DARWIR AND HUMBOLDT, [313] 9 >eminently characteristic of the writer, and in the finished work the same faculties enriched witli the experience of a long and busy life. In bringing to light the operations of the earth- worm, he called the attention of geologists to an agency, the real efficiency of which they probably do not yet appreciate. Emk de Beau- mont looked upon the layer of grass- covered soil as a permanent datum- line from which tho denudation of ex- posed surfaces might be measured. But, as Dakwix showed, tfie constant transference of soil from beneath to the surface, and the consequent ex- posure of the mateiials so transferred to be dried and blown away by wind, or to be washed to lower levels by rain, must tend slowly but certainly to lower the level even of undisturbed grass-covered land. To another of his early papers ref- erence may be made, from its interest in the history of British geology. BucKLAND, following in the footsteps of AftAssiz, had initiated that prodig- ious amount of literature which has now been devoted to the records of the Glacial period in this country, by reading to the Geological Society a paper " On Diluvio-glacial Phenome- na in Snowdonia and in adjacent parts of North Wales " (1841 ;. Dak- win, whose wanderings in South American had led him lo study the problems presented by erratic blocks, took an early ojjportunity of visiting the Welsh district described by Buck- land, and at once declared himself to be a believer in the former presence of glaciers in Britain. His paper (1843) in which this belief is stated and enforced by additional observa- tions, stands almost at the top of the long list of English contributions to the history of the Ice Age. The influence exercised upon the progress of geology by Dauwin's researches in other than geological fields, is less easy to be appraised. Yet ic has been far more wi(les])read and profound than that of his direct geological work. Even as far back as the time of the vovage of the Beagle, he had been led to reflect deeply on some of Lyell's specula- tions upon the influence of geological changes on the geographical distribu- tion of animals. From that time the intimate connection between geologi- cal history and biological progress seems to have been continually pre- sent in his mind. It was not, how- ever, until the appearance of the Orighi of /Species in 1859 that the full import of his reflections was per- ceived. His chapter on the " Imper- fection of the Geological Record ' ' startled geologists as from a profound slumber. It would be incorrect to say that he was the first to recognize the incompleteness of the record; but certainly until the appearance of that famous chapter the general body of geologists was blissfully unconscious of the essentially fragmentary char- acter of the geol()gic;d record. Dar- win showed why this must necessarily be the case ; how multitudes of organ- ic types, both of the sea and of the land, must have decayed and never have been preserved in any geologi- cal deposit; how, even if entombed in such accumulations, they would in great measure be dissolved away by the subsequent percolation of water. Returning to some of his early specu- lations, he ])ointed out that massive geological deposits rich in fossils could only have been laid down dur- ing subsidence, and only where the supply of sediment was sufficient to let the sea remain shallow, and to entomb the organic remains on its floor before they had decayed. Hence, by the very conditions of its forma- tion, the geological record, instead of being a continuous and tolerably coujplete chronicle, must be intermit- tent and fragmentary. The sudden appearance of whole groups of allied species of fossils on certain horizons had been assumed by some eminent authorities as a fatal objection to any doctrine of the transmutation of species. But Dauwin now claimed this fact as only another evidence of the enormous gaps in geological history. Reiterating again and again 10 [314] DARWIN ARD HUMBOLDT. that only a small fraction of the world had been examined geologically, and that even that fraction was still hut imperfectly known, he called atten- tion to the history of geological dis- covery as furnishing itself a strong ar- gument against those who reasoned as if the geological record were a full chronicle of the history of life upon the earth. There is a natural tendency to look upon the horizon upon which a fossil species tirst appears as mark- ing its birtli, and that on which it finally disappears as indicating its extinction. Daravin declared this assumption to be "rash in the extreme." No palaeontologist or geologist will now gainsay this asseition. And yet how continually do we still hear men talking of the stages of the geologi- cal record, as if these were sharply marked oif everywhere by the first appeax-ance and final disappearance of certain species. The boldness with which Darwin challenged some of these long-rooted beliefs is not less conspicuous than the modesty and deference with which his own sugges- tions were always given. "It is notorious," he remarked, "on what excessively slight diflFerences many palaeontologists have founded their species ; and they do this the more readily if the specimens come from diflFerent sub-stages of the same forma- tion." Starting from this conception of the nature of the geological record, Darwin could show that the leading facts made known by palaeontology could be explained by his theory of descent with modification through natural selection. New species had slowly come in, as old ones had slowly died out. Once the thread of succes- sion had been broken it was never taken up again ; an extinct species or group never reappeared, yet extinction was a slow and unequal process, and a few descendants of ancient types might be found lingering in protect- ed and isolated situations. " We can understand how it is that all the forms of life, ancient and recent, make together one grand system ; for all are connected by generation. From the continued tendency to divergence, the more ancient a form is, the more generally it differs from those no*v living. The inhabitants of each successive period m the world's history have beaten their predecessors in the race for life, and are in 'so far liigher in the scale of nature; and this may account for that vague, yet ill-de- 1 fined sentiment, felt by many palae- I ontologists, that organization on the ! whole has progressed. If it should hereafter be proved that ancient animals resemble to a certain extent the embryos of more recent animals of the same class, this fact will be intel- ligible" Again, what a flood of fresh light was poured upon geological inquiry by the two chapters on Geographical Distribution in the Origin of Species/ A new field of research, or, at least, one in which comparatively little had been yet attempted, was there opened out. The grouping of living organ- isms over the globe was now seen ta have the most momentous geological bearings. Every species of plant and animal must have had a geological history, and might be made to tell its story of the changes of land and sea. In fine, the spirit of !Mr. Darwin's teaching may be traced all through the literature of science, even in de- partments which he never himself entered. No branch of research has benefited more from the infusion of this spirit than geology. Time- honored prejudices have been broken down, theories that seemed the most surely based have been reconsidered, and, when found untenable, have been boldly discarded. That the Present must be taken as a guide to the Past, has been more fearlessly asserted than ever. And yet it has been re- cognized that the present differs widely from the past, that there has been a progress everywhere, that Evolution and not Uniformitarianism has been the law by which geological history has been governed. For the impetus with which these views have been advanced in every civilized country. DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [315] 11 we look up with reverence to the loved and immortal name of Cuaules Darwix. IV. WORK IN BOTANY. BY W. T. THISELTON DYER, F.R.S. In attempting to estimate tlie influence which Mr. Darwin's writ- ings have exerted on the progress of botanical science, we must necessarily discriminate between the indirect effect which his views have had on botanical research generally, and the direct results of his own contributions. No doubt in a sense the former will seem in the retrospect to overshadow the latter. For in his later writings Mr. Darwin was content to devote himself to the consideration of prob- lems which, in a limited field, brought his own theoretical views to a detailed test, and so may ultimately seem to be soxewhat merged in them. Yet these writings can never fail to command our admiration even viewed apart from all else that Mr. Darwin did. It is wonderful enough that so great a master in biological science should, at an advanced age, have been content to work with all the fervor and assiduity of youth at jjhenomena of vegetable life apparently minute and of the most special kind. To him, no doubt, they were not minute, but instinct with a significance that the professed botanical world had for the most part missed seeing in them fail- ing the point of view which Mr. Dar- win himself supplied. It is not too much to say that each of his botanical investigations, taken on its own merits, would alone have made the reputation of any ordinary botanist. Mr. Darwin's attitude toward bot- any, as indeed to biological studies generally, was, it should always be remembered, in his early life essen- tially that of a naturalist of the school of LiNNyKus and Humboldt — a point of view unfortunately now perhaps a little out of fashion. Nature in all its aspects spoke to his feelings with a voice that was living and direct. The wr* ter of these lines can well re- member Mr. Darwin gently complain- ing that some of this warm enthusiasm for nature, as it presents itself un- analysed to ordinary healthy vision, seemed to be a little dulled in the younger naturalists of the day. The pages of the Journal of Researches show no such restraint, but abound with passages in which Mr. Darwin's unstudied and simple language is car- lied by the force of warm impression and perfect joy in nature to a level of singular beauty. One passage may be quoted as an illustration ; it is from the description of Bahia in chapter xxi: " When quietly walking along the shady pathways, and admiring each successive view, I wished to find language to express my ideas. Epi- thet after epithet was found too weak to convey to those who have not visited the intertropical regions, the sensation of delight which the mind experiences. I have said that the plants in a hothouse fail to communi- cate a just idea of the vegetation, yet I must recur to it. The land is one great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse, made by nature for herself, but taken possession of by man, who has studded it with gay houses and formal gar- dens. How great would be the desire in every admirer of nature to behold, if such were possible, the scenery of another planet ! Yet to every person in Europe, it may be truly said, that at the distance of only a few degrees from his native soil, the glories of another world are opened to him. In my last walk I stopped again and again to gaze on these beauties, and endeavored to fix in my mind forever, an impression which at the time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the orange-tree, the cocoa- nut, the palm, the mango, the tree- fern, the banana, will remain clear and separate ; but the thousand beau- ties which unite these into one per- fect scene must fade away ; yet they will leave, like a tale heard in child- hood, a picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful figures." 12 [316] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. A spirit such as this, penetrating an intelligence such as Mr. Darwin's, would not content itself with the superticial interest of form and color. These, in his eyes, were the outward and visible signs of the inner secrets. The fascination of sense which the former imposed upon him but stimu- lated his desire to unveil the latter. In the Galapagos we are not then surprised to lind liim ardently ab- sorbed in the }»roblems which the extraordinary distriV»ution of the plants, no less than of other organ- isms presented : — " I indiscriminately collected," he sa3's, '-everything in flower on the diifei'ent islands, and fortunately kept my collections sep- arate." After tabulating the results which they yielded after systematic determ- ination, lie proceeds : " Hence we liave the truly wonder- ful fact, that in James Island, of the tliirty-eight Galapageian plants, or those found in no other part of the world, thirty are exclusively confined to tliis one island ; and in Albemarle Island, of the twenty-six aboriginal Galapageian plants, twenty-two are ■confined to this one island, that is, only four are known to giow on the other islands of the Archipelago ; and so oji, as shown in the above table, with the ])lants from Chatham and Charles Island.'' It is iin])Ossible in reading the Origin of Species not to peiceive how deejily j\Ir. Dakwik had been : impressed by the ])roblems presented ; })y such singularities of ]jlant distribu- ; tion as he met with in the Galapagos, j And of such problems up to the time of its ]»ublication no intelligible ex- : planatioii had seemed possible. iSii: | JosKPii lIooKKK had indeed ))repared , tlie ground by bringing into prom- 1 ineuce, in numerous ijuportant papers, | the no less striking phenomena which \ were presented when the vegetation i of large areas came to be analysed i and compared. No one therefore <;ould estimate more justly what Mr. Darwin did for those who worked in j this field. How the whole theory of I the geographical distribution of plants stood after the publication of the Origin of Species cannot then be better estimated than from the summary of the position, contained in Sjii .TosKPu Hooker's recent Address to the Geographical Section of the meeting of the liritish Associdtiou at York. " Before the publication of the doc- trine of the origin of species by varia- tion and naturalselection, allreasoning on their -distribution was in subordina- tion to the idea that these were per- manent and special creations ; just as, before it was shown that species were often older than the islands and mountains they inhabited, naturalists had to make their theories accord with the idea that all migration took . place under existing conditions of land and sea. Hitlierto the modes of dispersion of species, genera and fam- ilies had been traced, but the orii>in ot representative species, genera, and families, remained an enigma ; these could be explained 0!ily by the sup- [tositiou that the localites where they occurred presented conditions so similar that they favored the crea- tion of simihir organisms. But this failed to account for representation occurring in the far more numer- ous cases where there is no dis- coverable similarity of })hysical conditions, and of their not occurring in places where the conditions are similar. Now under the theory of modification of species after migra- tion and isolation, iheir representation in distant localities is only a question of time and cliaiiged })hysical con- ditions. In fact, as Mr. Darwin well sums up, all the leading facts of dis- tribution are clearly explicable under this theory ; such as tl)e multiplica- tion of new forms, the inijmrtance of barriers in forming and separating zoological and botanical provinces ; the concentration of related species in the same area ; the linking together under different latitudes of the in- habitants of the plains and mountains, of the forests, m.irshes, and deserts, and the linkiutr uf these with the DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [31TJ 13- extinct beings which formerly in- habited the same areas ; and the fact of different forms of life occurring in areas having nearly the same physical conditions." If Mr. Darwin had done no more than this for botanical science he would have left an indelible mark on its progress. But the consideration of the various questions which the problem of the origin of species pre- sented led him into other inquiries in which the results were scarcely less important. The key-note of a whole series of his writings is struck by the words with which the eighth chapter of the Origin of Species cova.- mences : "The view generally entertained by naturalists is that species, when intercrossed, have been specially endowed with the quality of sterility, in order to prevent the confusion of all organic forms." The examination of this principle necessarily obliged him to make a profound study of the conditions and limits of sterility. The results em- bodied in his well-known papers on [ dimorphic and trimorphic plants af- forded an absolutely conclusive proof that sterility was not inseparably tied up with specific divergence. But the question is handled in the most cau- tious way, andAvhenthe reader of the chapter on hybridism arrives at the concluding words, in which Mr. Dar- win declares that on this ground "there is no fundamental distinction between species and varieties," he finds himself in much the same intellectual position as is produced by the Q.E.D. at the end of a geometrical demonstration. It Avas characteristic of Mr. Dak- win's ffiethod of study to follow up on its own account, as completely as pos- sible, when opportunity presented, any side issue which had been raised apparently incidentally in other dis- ussions. Indeed, it was never pos- sible to guess what amount of evi- ience Mr. Dakwin had in reserve behind the few words which marked 1 mere step in an argument. It is Tom his practice of bringing out from , time to time the contents of his un- I seen treasure-house that we gain I some insight into the scientific fertil- ! ity of his later years, at first sight so inexplicably prolific. Many of his works published during that period may be properly regarded in the light of disquisitions on particular j.oints of his great theory. The researches on the sexual phenomena of hetero- styled plants, alluded to above, which were communicated to the Linnean Society ia a series of papers ranging over the years 1862-8, ultimately found their complete development in the volume On the Different Forms of Flowers 07i Flajits of the same /S}?ecies, published in 1877. In the same way, the statement in the Origin of Species, that "the crossing of forms only slightly differentiated favors the vigor and fertility of their offspring," finds its complete ex- pansion in The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom, published in 1876. The Origin of Species in the form in Avhich it has become a classic in scientific literature was originally only intended as a preliminary /)recis of a vast accumulation of facts and argu- ments which the author had collected. It was intended to be but the precur- sor of a series of works in which all the evidence was to be methodically set out and discussed. Of this vast undertaking only one portion, the Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, was ever actu- ally published. Apart from its pri- mary purpose it produced a profound impression, especially on botanists. This was partly due to the undeniable force of the argument from analogy stated in a sentence in the introduc- tion: "Man may be said to have been trying an experiment on a gigan- tic scale; and it is an experiment which nature, during the long lapse of time, has incessantly tried." But it was still more due to the unex- pected use of the vast body of appar- ently trivial facts and observations which Mr. Darwin with astonishing industry had disinterred from weekly 14 [318] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT journals and ephemeral publications of all sorts and unexpectedly forced in- to his service. Like Moliere's Mon- sieur Jourdain, who was delighted lo iind that he had been unwittingly talking prose all his life, horticultur ists who had unconsciously molded plants almost at their will at the impulse of taste or profit were at ■once amazed and charmed to find that they had been doing scientific work and helping to establish a great theory. The criticism of practical men, at once most tenacious and dif- ficult to meet, was disarmed ; these found themselves hoisted with their own petard. Nor was this all. Tho exclusive province of science was in biological phenomena forever broken down ; every one whose avocations in life had to do with the rearing or use of living things, found himself a party to the " experiment on a gigantic ficale," which had been going on ever since the human race withdrew for their own ends plants or animals from the feral and brought them into the domesticated state. Mr. Dakwin Avith characteristic modesty had probably underrated the effect which the Origin of tipecies would have as an argumenta- tive statement of his views. When he came to realize this, it probably seemed to him unnecessary to submit to the labor of methodizing the vast accumulations which lie had doubt- leas made for the seeond and third installments of the detailed exposition of the evidence which he had promised. As was hinted at the commencement, his attention was rather drawn away from the study of evidence already at the disposal of those who cared to digest and weigh it, to the exi)lora- tion of the field of nature with the new and ])enetrating instrument of reseai'ch w^hich he had himself forged. Something too must be credited to the intense delight which he felt in investigating the phenomena of liv- ing things. But he doubtless saw that the work to be done was to show how morphological and physiological complexity found its explanation from the principle of natural eelec- tion. This is the idea which is ever dominant. Thus he concludes his work on climbing plants: "It has often been vaguely asserted that plants are distinguished from animals by not having the power of move- ment. It should raiher be said that jdants acquire and display this power only when it is of some advantage to them; this being of comparatively j rare occurrence, as they are alfixed to ! the ground, and food is brought to i them by the air and rain." The \ diversity of the power of movement I in plants naturally engaged his atteu- I tiou, and the last but one of his works — in some respects perhaps the most remarkable of his botanical writings — was devoted to showing that this diversity could be regarded as derived from a single fundamental property: "All the parts or organs of every plant while they continue to . grow . . . are continually circumuuta- ting." Whether this masterly con- ception of the unity of what has hitherto seemed a chaos of unrelated phenomena will be sustained time alone will show. But no one can doubt the importance of what Mr. Darwin has done in showing that for the future the phenomena of plant movement can and indeed must be studied from a single point of view. Along another line of work Mr. Dakwin occupied hiuiself with show- ing what aid could be given by the princii)le of natural selection in ex- plaining the extraordinary structural variety exhibited by plant morpho- logy. The fact that cross-fertilization was an advantage, was the key with which, as indicated in the pages of the Origin of S2)ecies, the bizarre complexities of orchid flowers could be unlocked. The detailed facts were set out in a well-known work, and the principle is now generally accepted! with regard to flowers generally, Tho work on insectivorous plants gave the results of an exploration similar in its object, and bringing under one com- mon physiological point of view a variety of the most diverse and DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT [319] 15 most remarkable modifications of leaf- form. lu the beginning of these remarks the attempt has already been made to do justice to the mark Mr. Darwin has left on the modern study of geo- graphical botany (and that implies a corresponding influence on })hyto- palceontology). To measure the in- fluence which he has had on any other brandies of botany, it is suffi- cient to quote again from the Origin of Species : " The structure of each part of each species, for whatever purpose used, will be the sum of the many inherited changes through which the species has passed during its successive adaptations to changed liabits and conditions of life." These words may almost be said to be the key-note of Sachs's well-known text- book, which is the most authoritative modern exposition of the facts and . principles of plant-structure and func- tion ; and there is probably not a botanical class-room or work-room in the civilized world where they are not the animating principle of both instruction and research. Noth withstanding the extent and variety of his botanical work, Mr. Darwix always disclaimed any right to be regarded as a professed botanist. He turned his attention to plants t doubtless because they were con venient objects for studying organic :; phenomena in their least complicated forms; and this point of view, which, ' if one may use the expression without disrespect, had something of the amateur about it, was in itself of the l^reatest imj)ortance. For, from not being, till he took up any point, fa- miliar Avith the literature bearing on it, his mind was absolutely free from any prepossession. He was never afraid of his facts or of framing any liypothesis, however startling, which «eemed to explain them. However mucli weight he attributed to inherit- ance as a factor in organic ])henomena, tradition went for nothing in studying them. In any one else such an atti- tude would have produced much work that M':is crude and rash. But Mr. Darwin — if one may venture on lan- guage which will strike no one who had conversed with him as over- strained — seemed by gentle persuasion to have penetrated that reserve of nature which baffles smaller men. In other words, his long experience had given him a kind of instinctive in- sight into the method of attack of any biological pi-oblem, however un- familiar to him, while he rigidly controlled the fertility of his mind in hypothetical explanations by the no less fertility of ingeniously-devised experiment. Whatever he touched, he was sure to draw from it some- thing that it had never before yielded, and he was Avholly free from that familiarity which comes to the pro- fessed student in every branch of science, and blinds the mental eye to the significance of things which are overlooked because always in view. The simplicity of Mr. Darwin's character pervaded his whole method of work. Al.PHONSE I)E CaNUOL'LE visited him in 1880 and felt the im- pression of this : " He was not one of those who would construct a palace to lodge a laboratory. I sought out the greenhouse in which so many admirable experiments had been made on hybrids. It contained nothing but a vine." There was no affectation in this. Mr. Darwin provided himself with every resource which the meth- ods of the day or the mechanical ingenuity of his sons could supply, and when it had served its purpose it was discarded. Nor had he any pre- possession in favor of one kind of scientific work more than another. His scientific temperament was thor- oughly catholic and syinjnatlietic to anything which was not a mere re- grinding of old scientific dry bones. He would show his visitors an Epi- pactls which for years came up in the middle of one of his gravel walks with almost as much interest as some new point which he had made out in a ])iece of work actually in hand. And though lie had long abandoned any active interest in systematic work, 16 [320] DARWIN ARD HUMBOLDT. only a few months before his death he had arranged to provide funds for the preparation of tiie ncAv edition of SxEUDEL'sNomenclator,* which, at hia earnest wish, has been projected at Kew. V. WORK IN ZOOLOGY. BT G. J. ROMANES, F.R.S. The influence which our great naturalist has exerted upon zoology- is unquestionably greater than that which has been exerted by any other individual ; and as it depends on his generalizations much more than upon his particular researches, we may best do justice to it by taking a broad view of the effects of Darwinism on zoology, rather than by detailing those numberless facts which have been added to the science by the ever vigilant observations of Darwin. Nevertheless, we may begin our sur- vey by enumerating the more im- portant results of his purely zoologi- cal work, not so much because these have been rarely equaled by the Avork of any other zoologist, as because we may thus give due prominence to the remarkable association of qualities which was presented by Mr. Dak- win's mind. This association of qualities was such that he was able fully to appreciate and successfully to cultivate every dej)artment and rami- lication of biological research — wheth- er morphological, physiological, syste- matic, descriptive, or statistical — and at the same time to rise above the tninutice of these various branches, to take those commanding views of the whole range of nature and of natural science which have produced so enormous a change upon our means of knowledge and our modes of thought. No laborer in the field of science has ever plodded more patiently through masses of small de- * An enumeration of the names and syn- onyms of all described flowerings plants with their native countries. tail ; no master-mind on the highest- elevation of philosophy has ever grasped more world- transforming truth. Taking the purely zoological work in historical order, we have first to consider the observations made during the voyage of the JBeagle. These, however, are much too numer- ous and minute to admit of being here detailed. Among the most curious are those relating to the scissor-beak bird, niata cattle, aeronaut spiders, upland geese, sense of sight and smell in vultures; and among the most important are those relating to the geographical distribution of species. The results obtained on the latter head are of peculiar interest, inasmuch as it was owing to them, that I\Ir. Dakwin was first led to- entertain the idea of evolution. As displaying the dawn of this idea in his mind we may quote a passage or two from his Voyage of a Naturalist, where these observations relating to distribution are given : ''These mountains (the Andes) have existed as a great barrier since the present races of animals have appeared, and therefore, unless we suppose the same species to have been created in two different places, we ought not to expect any closer similarity between the organic beings on the opposite sides of the Andes, than on the opposite shores of the ocean." "The natural history of these islands (of the Galapagos Archipelago) is eminently curious, and well deserves attention. Most of the organic pro- ductions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else ; there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands ; yet all show a marked relationship with tliose of America, though separated from that continent by an open space of ocean between 500 and 600 miles in width. The Archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its DARWIR AND HUMBOLDT. .[321] 17 indigenous productions. Considering the small size of the islands, we feel astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their con- fined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appear- ance of new beings on this earth." Next in order of time we have to notice the Monograph of the Cirrl- pedia. This immensely elaborate work was published by the Ray So ciety in two volumes, comprising to- gether over 1,000 large octavo pages, and 40 plates. These massive books (which were respectively published in 1851 and 1854) convey the results of several years of devoted inquiry, and arc particularly interesting, not only on account of the intrinsic value of the work, but also because they show that Mr. Darwin's powers of research were not less remarkable in the direc- tion of purely anatomical investiga- tion than they were in that of physio- logical experiment and philosophical generalization. No one can even glance through this memoir without perceiving that if it had stood alone it would have placed its author in the very first rank as a morphological in- vestigator. The prodigious number and minute accuracy of his dissections, the exhaustive detail with which he worked out every branch of his sub- ject — sparing no pains in procuring every species that it was possible to procure, in collecting all the known facts relating to the geographical and geological distribution of the group, in tracing the complicated history of metamorphoses represented by the in- dividuals of the sundry species, in disentangling the problem of the homologies of these perplexing ani- mals, etc. — all combine to show that had Mr. Darwin chosen to devote himself to a life of purely morpholog- ical work, his name would probably have been second to none in that de- partment of biology. We have to thank his native sagacity that such was not his choice. Valuable as without any question are the results of the great anatomical research which we are considering, we cannot peruse these thousand pages of closely- writ- ten detail without feeling that, for a man of Mr. Darwin's exceptional powers, even such results are too dearly bought by the expenditure of time required for obtaining them. We cannot, indeed, be sorry that he engaged in and completed this solid piece of morphological work, because it now stands as a monument to his great ability in this direction of in- ([uiry ; but at the same time we feel sincerely glad that the conspicuous success which attended the exercise of such ability in this instance did not betray him into other undertakings of the same kind. Such undertak- ings may suitably be left to establish the fame of great though lesser men ; it would have been a calamity in the history of our race if Charles Dar- win had been tempted by his own ability to become a comparative anat- omist. But as we have said — and we repeat it lest there should be any possibility of mistaking what Ave mean — the results which attended this laborious inquiry were of the highest import- ance to comparative anatomy, and of the highest interest to comparative anatomists. The limits of this article do not admit of our giving a summary of these results, so we shall only allude to the one which is most im- portant. This is the discovery of •'Coraplemental Males." The manner in which this discovery was made in its entii'ety is of interest, as showing the importance of remembering ap- parently insignificant observations which may happen to be incidentally made during the progress of a re- search. For Mr. Darwin writes : "When first dissecting Scalpelhim vulgar e^ I was surprised at the almost constant uresence of one or more very 18 [322] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. minute parasites, on the margins of both scuta, close to the umboues. I carelessly dissected one or two speci- mens, and concluded that they be- longed to some new class or order among the Articulata, but did not at the time ev^en conjecture that they were Cirripedes. Many months af- terward, when T had seen in Ibla that an hermaphrodite could have a complemental male, I remembered that I had been surprised at the small size of the vesiculaj seminales in the hermaj)hrodite S. vulgare, so that I resolved to look with care at these parasites : on doing so I now dis- covered that they were Cirripedes, for I found that they adhered by ce- ment, and were furnished with pre- hensile antenna;, which latter, I ob- served with astonishment, agreed in every minute character, and in size, with those of S. vulgare. I also found that these parasites were destitute of R mouth and stomach ; that con- sequently they were short-lived but that they reached maturity ; and that all were males. Subsequently five other species of the genus Scalpellum were found to present more or Isss closely- analogous ])henomeua. These facts, together with those given under Ibla (and had it not been for this latter genus, I never probably should have struck on the right line in my investi- gation), appear sufficient to justify me in provisionally considering the truly wonderful parasites of the seve- ral species of Scalpellum, as Males and Complemental Males." (vol. i. pp. 292-3). The remai'kable phenomena of sexuality in these animals is summed up thus : " The simple fact of the diversity in the sexual relations displayed within the limits of the genera Ibla and Scal- pellum, appears lo me eminently curi- ous. We have (1) a female, with a male (or rarely two) permanently attached to her, protected by her, and nourished by any minute animals which may enter her sac ; (2) a female, with successive pairs of short-lived /nales, destitute of mouth and stom- ach, inhabiting the pouches formed on the under sides of her two valves; (3) an hermaphrodite, with from one or two, up to five or six, similar short-lived males without mouth or stomach, attached to one particular spot on each side of the orifice of the ca- pitulum ; and (4) hermaphrodites, with occasionally one, two, or three males, capable of seizing and devouring their prey in the ordinary Cirripedal meth- od, attached to two parts of the capitulum, in both cases being pro- tected by the closing of the scuta." With reference to these Comple- mental Males (so-called " to show that they do not pair with a female, but with a bisexual individual.") Mr. DARwi>f further observes : "Nothing strictly analogous is known in the animal kingdom ; but amongst plants, in the Liunean class Polygamia, closely similar instances abound ; " and also that "in the series of facts now given we have one curious illustration more to the many already known, how gradually nature changes from one condition to the other, in this case from bisexuality to unisexuality." (ii. 29). Lastly, to give only one other quo- tation from this work, he writes : " As I am summing up the singu- larity of the phenomena here present- ed, I will allude to the marvelous assemblage of beings seen by me within the sac of an Ibla quadrival- vis, namely, an old and young male, both minute, worm-like, destitute of a capitulum, with a great mouth and rudimentary thorax and limbs, attach- ed to each other and to the hermaph- rodite, which latter is utterly dif- ferent in appearance and structure ; secondly, the four or five free, boat- shaped larva3, with their curious pre- hensile antennae, two great compound eyes, no mouth, and six natatory legs ; and lastly, several hundreds of the larva;, in their first stage of de- velopment, globular, with horn-shaped projections on their carapaces, minute single eyes, filiform antennae, pro- bosciform mouths, and only three pairs of natatory legs. What diverse DARWIN AJMl) HUMBOLDT. [323] 19 beinga, with scarcely anything in ooiumon, and yet all belonging to the itanie 8j)ecie8! " (i. 293). Scattered through the Origin of Sj}ccieH^ the Variation of Plants and Animals under J)omestication, and tJie jDesceyit of Man, we meet with many purely zoological observations of much interest and importance as such, or apart from their bearing on the general principles and arguments for the illustration or fortification of which they are introduced. In tliis connection we may particularly allude to the chapters on Variability, Hy- bridism, and Geographical Distribu- tion — chapters which contain such a large number of new facts, as well as new groupings of old ones, that we cannot undertake to epitomize them in a resume of Mr. Darwin's work so brief as the present. Nor should we forget to mention in the present con- nection his experimental proof of the manner in which bees make their hexagonal cells, ad of the important part played in the economy of nature t>y earthworms. Moreover, the hy- ])0thesi8 of sexual selection necessitat- ed the collection of a large body of facts relating to the ornamentation of all classes of animals, from insects and Crustacea upward ; and whatever we may think about the stability of the hypothesis, there can be no question, from a zoological point of view, con- cerning the value of this collection of facts as such. But without waiting to consider ■further the purely zoological results presented by the work before us, we must turn to consider the effects of this work upon zoological science it- self. And here avc approach the true magnitude of Darwin as a Koologist. Of very few mcji in the history of our race can it be said that they not only enlarged science, but changed it — not only added facts to the growing structure of natural knowledge, but profoundly nioditied the basal couce])tioi;s upon Avhicli the whole structure rested ; and of no one can this be said with more truth than it can be said of Dakwin. For although it is the case that the idea of evolution had occurred to other minds — in two or three instances with all the force of full conviction — it is no less certainly the case that the idea proved barren. Why did it prove so ? Because it had never be- fore been fertilized by the idea of natural selection. To demonstrate, or to render sufficiently probable by inference, X\\Qfact of evolution (ior direct observation of the process is from the nature of the case impossible), required some reasonable suggestion as to the cause of evolution, such as is supplied by the theory of natural selection ; and when once this suffges- tion was forthcoming, it mattered little whether it was considered as propounding the only, the chief, or but a subordinate cause ; all that was needed to recommend the evidence of evolution to the judgment of science was the discovery of some cause which could be reasonably regarded as not incommensurate with some of the effects ascribed to it. And, un- like the desperate though most laud- able groupings of Lamarck, the sim- ple solution furnished by Darwin was precisely what was required to give a locus standi to the evidence of tlescent. But we should form a very inade- quate estimate of the services render- ed to science by Mr. Darwin if we Avere to stop here. The few gen- eral facts out of which the theory of evolution by natural selection is formed — viz. struggle for existence, survival of the fittest, and heredity — were all previously well-known facts; and Ave may not unreasonably feel astonished that so apparently obvious a combination of them as that which occurred to Mr. Darwin should have occurred to no one else, with the single exception of Mr. Waliace. The fact that it did not do so is most fortunate in two respects — first, be- cause it gave Mr. Daravin the op- portunity of pondering upon the sub- ject a*^ initio, and next because it gavo the world an opportunity of Avitness- iniT the disinterested uuselfishnes* 20 [324] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. which has been so signally and so consistently displayed by both these English naturalists. But the great- ness of Mr. Darwin as the reformer of biology is not to be estimated by the fact that he conceived the idea of natural selection ; his claim to ever- lasting memory rests upon the many years of devoted labor whereby he tested this idea in all conceivable ways — amassing facts from every department of science, balancing evi- dence with the soundest judgment, shirking no difficulty, and at last astonishing the world as with a reve- lation by publishing the completed proof of evolution. Indeed, so co- lossal is Mr. Darwin's greatness in this respect, that we doubt whether there ever was a man so well fitted to undertake the work which he has so successfully accomplished. For this Avork required not merely vast and varied knowledge of many provinces of science, and the very exceptional powers of judgment which Mr. Dar- "wiN possessed, but also the patience to labor for many years at a great generalization, the honest candor which rendered the author his own best critic, and last, though perhaps not least, the magnanimous simplicity of character which, in rising above all petty and personal feelings, deliv- ered a thought-reversing doctrine to mankind with as little disturbance as possible of the deeply- rooted senti- ments of the age. In the chapter of accidents, therefore, it is a singularly fortunate coincidence that Mr. Dar- win was the man to whom the idea of natural selection occurred ; for al- though in a generation or two the truth of evolution might have be- come more and more forced upon the belief of science, and with it the ac- ceptance of natural selection as an operating cause, in our own genera- tion this could only have been ac- complished in the way that it was accomplished ; we required one such exceptional mind as that of Darwin to focus the facts, and to show the method. , It seems almost needless to turn from this aspect of our subject to enlarge upon the influence which a- general acceptance of the theory of descent has had upon biology. We do not state the case too strongly when we say that this has been the influence which has created organiza- tion out of confusion, brought the dry bones to life, and made all the previ- ously dissociated facts of science stand up as an exceeding great array. Let any one turn to the eloquent projihecy with which the pages of the Origin of /Species terminate — a prophecy Avhich sets forth in order the transforming effect that the doc- trine of evolution w^ould in the future exert upon every department of biol- ogy — and he may rejoice to think that Mr. Darwin himself lived to see every word of that prophecy ful- filled. For where is now the "syste- matist . . . incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt whether this or that form be a true species ? " And has it not proved that "the other and more general departments of natural history will rise greatly in interest — that the terms used by naturalists, of aflinity, relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology, adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs, etc , will cease to be metaphor- ical, and will have a plain significa- tion ? " Do we not indeed begin to feel that " we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension? And when we regard (U'ery production of nature as one which has had a long history, when we contemplate every complete struc- ture and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labor, the experi- ence, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen, when we thus view each organic being," may we not now all say with Darwin, "How far more interesting — I speak from experience — does the study of natural history become ? " And may we not now all see that " a grand and almost DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [325] 21 untrodden field of inquiry on the laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct action of external conditions " has been opened up ; that our classifica- tions have become " as far as they can be made so, genealogies, and truly give what may be called a plan of creation ; " that rules of classifying do " become simpler when we have a definite object in view;" and that "■ aberrant species, which may fanci- fully be called living fossils," actually ^re of service in supplying "a picture of ancient forms of life?" And again, must we not agree that "when we can feel assured that all the individuals of the same species and all the closely-allied species of most genera, have, within a not very remote period, descended from one parent, and have migrated from 6ome one birthplace ; and when we better know the many means of migra- tion, then, by the light which geology now throws, and will contiime to throw, on former changes of climate and of the level of the land, we shall eurely be able to trace in an admira- ble manner the former migrations of the inhabitants of the whole world" ? Aiid who is now able to question that "by comparing the differences be- tween the inhabitants of the sea on the opposite sides of a continent, and of the various inhabitants on that con- tinent the lavSt two-and-twenty years has in so astonishing a measure verified the prophecy of the Origin of Species, surely, in conclusion, we are more than ever constrained to agree with the sentiments expressed by its clos- ing words : " When I view all beings, not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some fewbeinfs which lived long before the first bed •of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become enno- bled . . . There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one ; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a be- ginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved." VI. WORK IN PSYCHOLOGY. BY a. J. ROMANES, K.B.S. The effects upon Psychology of Mr. Darwin's writings have been so im- mense, that we shall not overstate them by saying that they are fully comparable with those which we have previously considered as having been exerted by the same writings on geol- in relation to their apparent j ogy, botany, and zoology. This fact means of migration, some light can at first sight can scarcely fail to strike be thrown on ancient geography"? Or, if we turn to " the noble science of geology," do we not see that we are beginning to " gauge with some security the duration of intervals by a comparison of th^ preceding and succeeding forms of life " "? And last, though not least, have Ave not found this one short sentence so charged "with meaning that a new and extensive science, second in importance to none, may be almost said to have grown out of what it states : '' Embryology will often reveal to us the structure. us as remarkable, in view of the con- sideration that Mr. Dakwik was not only not himself a psychologist, but had little aptitude for, and perhaps less sympathy with, the technique of psychological method. The whole constitution of his mind was opposed to the subtlety of the distinctions and the mysticism of the conceptions which this technique so frequently involves ; and therefore he was ac- customed to regard the problems of mind in the same broad and general light that he regarded all the other in some degree obscured, of the prolo- problems of nature. But if at first itypes " ? sight we are inclined to feel surprised If the j)rogress of science during ' that, although possessing none of the Tl [:j'2G] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. special mental equipments of a peycbologiKt, he should have exert- ed BO enormous an influence upon psychology, our surprise must vanish when we consider the matter a little more attentively. P^or the truth of thiB matter is that psychology, in being the science furthest removed from the reach of experimental means and inductive method, is the science which has longest remained in the trammels of a priori analysis and metaphysical thought ; therefore Dar- win, by casting the eye of a philo- sophical naturalist upon the facts, without reference to the cobwebs which the specialists had woven around them, was able to gather directly much new information as to their meaning. And the rare sagac- ity with which he observed and reflected upon the phenomena of mind merely as phenomena or facts of nature, led to the remarkable results which we shall presently have to con- sider — results which have done more than any other to unrauflle the young science of psychology from the swad- dling clothes of its mediaeval nursery. The portions of Mr. Dauwin's writings which refer to mental science are very limited in extent — comprising, in fact, only one chapter in tlie Origin of S-pecies, three in the DeKcent of Matt, and a short paper on the development of in- fantile intelligence. The import- ance of the effect produced by them is therefore rendered all the more remarkable ; but in this con- nection it seems desirable to state that the chapters to which Ave have alluded represent, in an exceedingly condensed form, the result of extensive thought and reading. A year or two ago Mr. Dauv/ix lent the present writer the original drafts of these essaj'S, together with all the notes and mem- oranda which he had collected on psychological subjects during the pre- vious forty years, and so we can testi- fy that any one who reads these MSS. is more likely to be surprised at the amount of labor which they indicate than at the effect which has been produced by the compressed publica- tion of its results. What strikes one most in reading the MSS. is that which also strikes one most in read- ing the published resume that has grown out of them — namely, the honest adherence throughout to the strictly scientific, or, as the followers of CoMTK would say, positive method of seeking and interpreting facts; speculation, hypothesis, and straw- splitting are everywhere, not so much intentionally avoided, as alien to the whole conception of the manner in which the sundry problems are to be attacked. We all know that this con- ception has not met with univereal ap- proval — that moi*e than one writer, adhering to the traditional methods of psychological inquiry, has express- ly joined issue upon it. But although it is an easy matter for a technical psychologist to point to an absence of technical thought, and so of a rec- ognition of technical principles, in these parts of Mr. DARwax'swritingR, we are persuaded that the expose oxAy serves to reveal a beam in the eye of the technical psychologist which prevents him from seeing clearly hov to remove the mote from Mr. Dab* win's. In other words, although it is true that Mr. Dauwin does not rec- ognize the niceties of distinction which seem so important to what we may term the professional mind, it is no less true that in the ca-ses to which we have alluded, the profession- al mind has failed in its duty of fill- ing up for itself the technical lacunm in Mr. Darwin's expositions. Such lacHuce no doubt occur, but they never really vitiate the integrity of the con- clusions ; and a trained psycholo- gist would best fulfill his function as an undei'-builder, by supplying here and there the stones which the hand of the master has neglected to put in. To ourselves it always seems one of the most wonderful of the many wonderful aspects of Mr. Darwin's varied work, that by the sheer force of some exalted kind of common sense, unassisted by any special acquaintance with psychological method, he should DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT, [827j 23 have been able to strike, as it were, straight down iipon some of the most important truths which have ever been brought to light in the region of mental science. These we shall now proceed to consider. The chapter in the Origin of Species to which we have referred, is occupied chiefly with an application of the theory of natural selection to the phenomena of instinct, and in our opinion it has done more than all other psychological writings put together to explain what instinct is, why it is and how it came to be. Before this chapter was published, the only scien- tific theory concerning the origin of instincts that had been formed was the theory wh'ch regarded them as hereditary habits. Because we know that in the individual intelligent ad- justments become, by frequent rep- etition, automatic, it was inferred that the same might be true of the species, and therefore that all instincts were to be regarded as what Lewes has aptly termed "lapsed intelli- gence." In this view there is, with- out any question, much truth, and the first thing we have to notice about Mr. Darwin's writings with reference to instinct is that they not only rec- ognized this truth, but, by elucida- ting the whole subject of heredity, placed it in a much clearer light than it ever stood before. Mr. Darwin, however, carried the philosophy of the subject very much further when he agiied that, in conjunction with the cause formulated as "lapsing intelli- gence," there was another at least as potent in the formation of instincts — namely, natural selection. His own statement of the case is so terse that we cannot do better than quote it. "If Mozart, instead of playing the pianoforte at three years with won- derfully little practice, had played a tune with no practice at all, he might truly be said to have done so instinct- ively. But it would be a serious error to suppose that the greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit in one generation, and then transmitted by inheritance to succeed- ing generations. It can be clearly shown that the most wonderful in- stincts with which we are acquainted, namely, those of the hive-bee and of many ants, could not possibly have been acquired by habit.* "It will be universally admitted ] that instincts are as impoitant as cor- poreal structures for the welfare of each species, under its present con- ditions of life. Under changed con- ditions of life, it is at least possible that slight modifications of instinct might be profitable to a species ; and if it can be shown that instincts do vai-y ever so little, then I can see no difficulty in natural selection preserv- ing and continually accumulating variations of instinct to any extent that was profitable. It is thus, I be- lieve, that all the most complex and wonderful instincts have originated." Briefly, then, in Mr. Darwin's view, instincts may arise by lapsing intelligence, by luxtural selection of accidental and possibly non-intelligent variations of habit, or by both prin- ciples combined — seeing that "a little dose of judgment "is often commin- gled with even the most fixed (or most strongly inherited) instincts. One good test of the truth of the view as a whole is that which Mr. Darwin has himself sup] ilied — namely, search- ing through the whole range of in- stincts to see Avhether any occur which are either injurious to the animals exhibiting them, or benefical only to other animals. Now there is really, no authentic case of the former, and the latter are so few in number that they may reasonably be regarded, either as rudiments of in- stincts once useful (so analogous to the human tail), or as still useful in some unobservable manner (so anal- ogous to the tail of the rattlesnake). The case of aphides secreting honey- * Because the individuals which exhibit them, being: neuters, can never have progeny. It is indeed surprising, as Mr. Darwin further on observes, that no one previously " advanced this demonstrative case of neuter insects against the well-lon such matters — when he writes of them as presenting to his mind "the simplest, and clearest, and most profound {>hilosophy that was ever written upon the subject." As the three chapters together cover only eighty pages, it seems needless to render an abstract of them, so we shall only observe that although it is easy to show in them, as Mr. Mivart and others have shown, a want of appreciation of technical terms, and even of Aristotelian ideas, nowhere in the whole range of Mr. Darwin's writings is his immense power of judicious generalization more con- spicuously shown. So much is this the case, that in studying these chap- ters we have ourselves always felt glad that Mr. Darwin was not the speciali.st in psychology which some of his critics seem to suppose that he ought to have been if he presumed to shake their science to its base ; had he been such a specialist the great sweep of his thought might have been hinder- ed by comparatively immaterial de- tails. Of the three chapters which we are considering, the most important is the one on the moral sense. As he j himself says : } " This great question (the origin of ' the moral sense) lias been discussed I by many writers of consummate abil- j ity ; and my only excuse for touching : upon it, is the impossibility of here j passing it over ; and because, so far 1 as I know, no one has approached it I exclusively from the side of natural DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [329] 25 history. The investigation possesses, also, some independent interest, as an attempt to see how far the study of the lower animals throws light on one of the highest psychical faculties of man." The result of this investigation and study has been to give, if not a new point of departure to the science of ethics, at least a completely new con- ception as to the origin of the faculties with which that science has to deal ; and without attempting to discuss the objections which have been raised against the doctrine, or to enumerate the points of contact between this doctrine and older ethical theories — to neither of which undertakings would our present space be adapted — we may say in general, that, as in the case of instinct, so in that of con- science, we feel persuaded that Mr. Darwin's genius has been the first to bring within the grasp of human understanding large classes of phe- nomena which had been previously wholly unintelligible. "The Ex'inession of the Emotions in Man and Animals" is an essay which may be more suitably men- tioned in the present division than in any of the preceding. The work is a highly interesting one, not only on account of its philosophical theories, but also as an extensive accumulation of facts. "The three chief principles" enunciated by the foi'mer are: (1) "the principle of serviceable asso- ciated habits " ; (2) "the principle of antithesis"; and (3) "the principle of actions due to tlie constitution of the Nervous System, independently from the first of the Will, and independent- ly to a certain extent of Habit." It is shown that the first of these prin- ciples leads to the performance of ac- tions expressive of emotions, because *'■ certain complex actions are of direct or indirect service under certain states of mind, in order to relieve or gratify certain sensations desired, etc. ; and whenever the same state of mind is in- duced, however feebly, there is a ten- dency through the force of habit and as- sociation for the same movements to be performed, though they may not then be of the least use. ' ' The second principle arises because, " when a directly opposite state of mind is induced, there is a strong and invol- untary tendency to the performance of movements of a directly opposite nature, though these are of no use ; and such movements are in some cases highly expressive." And the third principle occurs because, "when the sensorium is sti'ongly excited, nerve-force is generated in excess, and is transmitted in certain definite directions, depending on the connec- tion of the nerve-cells, and partly on habit." All these principles are more or less well substantiated by large bodies of facts, and although the essay, from the nature of its subject- matter, is necessarily not of so trans- forming a character in psychology as those which Ave have already con- sidered, and although we may doubt whether it gives a full explanation of every display of expressive movement, we think there can be no reasonable quCvStion that the three principles above quoted are shown to be true principles, and therefore that the essay is com- pletely successful within the scope of its purposes. Lastly, we have to allude to the l)rief paper published in Mind on the psychogenesis of a child. These notes were not published till long after they were taken, so that Mr. Darwin was the first observer, in a department of psychology which — owing chiefly to the attention which his other writings have directed to the phenomena of evolution — is now being very fully explored. The observations relate entirely to matters of fact, and dis- play the same qualities of thoughtful- ness and accuracy which are so con- spicuous in all his otlier work. On the whole, then, we must say that Mr. Darwin has left as broad and deep a mark upon Psychology as lie has upon Geology, Botany, and Zoology. Groups of facts which previously seemed to be separate, are now seen to be bound together in the most intimate manner ; and some of 26 [.'!30] DARWTN AND HUMBOLDT. what must he rogaraed as the first principles of the scionce, hitherto unsuspected, have been brought to light. No longer is it enough to say that such and such actions are the result of instinct, and so beyond the reach of explanation ; for .low the very thing to bo explained is the char- acter and origin of the instinct — the causes which led to its development, its continuance, its precision and its use. No longer is it enough to con- sider the instincts manifested by an animal, or a group of animals, as an isolated body of phenomena^ devoid of any scientific meaning because standing out of relation to any known causes ; for now the whole scientific import of instincts as manifested by one animal depends on the degree in which they are connected by general principles of causation with the in- stincts that are manifested by oth((r animals. And not only in respect of instincts, but also in respect of intelli- gence, the science of comparative psychology may be said for the first time really to have begun with the discovery of the general causes in question ; while from the simplest reflex actions, up to the most recondite I)rocesse9 of reason and t,he most im- [)erious dictates of conscience, we are able to trace a continuity of develop- ment. A revelation of truth so ex- tensive as this in the department of science which, in most nearly touch- ing the personality of man, is of most importance for man to explore, can- not fail to justify the anticipations of the revealer, who, in referring to psychology, could "in the future see open fields for far more important researches" than those relating to geology and biology. If the proper study of mankind is man, Mr. Dak- win has done more than any other human being to further the most de- sirable kind of learning, for it is through him that humanity in our generation has first been able to be- gin its response to the precept of antiquity — Know thyself. The series of urief resumes -whcrGhj we have endeavored to take a sort of bird's eye view of Mr. Dakwin's great and many lai)ors have now drawn to a close. l>iit we cannot finish this very rudimentary sketch of his work witliout alluding once more to what was said in the opening paragraphs of the series, and which cannot be more tersely repeated than in Mr. Darwin's own words there quoted with reference to Prof. Henslow: " Reflecting over his character with gratitude and reverence, his moral attributes rise, as they should do in the highest character, in pre-eminence over his intellect." In the gratitude and reverence which Ave feel in a measure never to be expressed, we sometimes regret that the ill-health which led to his seclusion prevented the extraordinary beauty of his character from being more gen- erally known by personal intercourse. True it is that the world has shown in a wonderful degree a just apprecia- tion of this character, so that many thousands, in many nations, who had never even seen the man, heard that CiiARi.Ks Darwix was dead with a shock like that which follows such an announcement in the case of a well- loved friend ; still it seems almost sad that when such an exalted character has lived, it should only have been to so comparatively few of us that the lasts farewell over the open grave at West- minster implied a severance of feel- ings which had never been formed before, and which, while ever living among the most hallowed lights of memory, we know too well can never be formed again. But to those of us who have now to mourn so unspeaka- ble a loss, it is some consolation to think, while much that was sweetest and much that was noblest in our lives has ended in that death, his great life and finished work still stand before our view; and in regarding them vre may almost bring our hearts to cry — Not for him, but for ourselves, we weep. Alexander von Humboldt.^ By LOUIS AGASSIZ. I am invited to an unwonted task. Thus far I have appeared before the public only as a teacher of Natural History. To-day, for the first time in my life, I leave a field in which I am at home, to take upon myself the duties of a biographer. If I succeed at all, it will be because I so loved and honored the man whose memoiy brings us together. Al.KXANDEU VON HuMBOLDT WaS born in Berlin in 1769, — one hundred years ago this day, — in that fertile year wliich gave birth to Napoleon, Wklmnoton, Canning, Cuvier, Chateaubriand, and so many other remarkable men. All America was then the property of European mon- archs. The first throb of the Amer- ican Revolution had not yet disturbed the relations of the mother country and her colonies. Spain held Florida, Mexico, and the greater part of South America; France owned Louisiana; and all Brazil was tributary to Por- tugal. What stupendous changes have taken place since that time in the political world ! Divine right of possession was then the recognized law on which governments were based. A mighty Republic has niiice been born, the fundamental principle of which is self-government. Progress in the intellectual world, the world of thought, has kept pace with the ad- vance of civil liberty ; reference to authority has been superseded by free inquiry; and liuMBOi.ur was one of the great leaders in this onAvard * An address delivered at the Centennial Anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Humboldt, under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural History, (Sept. 14, 1869). movement. lie bravely fought the battle for independence of thought against the tyranny of authority. No man impressed his century intel- lectually more powerfully, perhaps no man so powerfully as he. Therefore he is so dear to the Germans, with whom many nations unite to do him honor to-day. Nor is it alone be- cause of what he has done forscience, or for anyone department of research, that we feel grateful to him, but rather because of that breadtli and comprehensiveness of knowledge which lifts whole communities to higher levels of culture, and impres- ses itself upon the unlearned as well as upon students and scholars. To what degree we Americans are indebted to him, no one knows who is not familiar with the history of learn- ing and education in the last century. All the fundamental facta of popular education in physical science, beyond the merest elementary instruction, wo owe to him. We are reaping daily in every school throughout this broad land, where education is the heritage even of the poorest child, the intellec- tual harvest sown by him. Sec this map of the United States ; — all its important traits are based upon his in- vestigations ; for he first recognized the essential relations which unite the physical features of the globe, the laws of ^climate on which the whole system of insothermal lines is based, the relative height of mountain chains and tablelands, the distribution of vegetation over the whole earth. There is not a text-book of geography or a school-atlas in the hands of our children to-day which does not bear. 28 [332] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. however blurred and defaced, the impress of his great mind. But for him our geographies would be mere euumerations of localities and statist- ics. He first suggested the graphic methods of representing natural phe- nomena which are now universally adopted. The first geological sec- tions, the first sections across an entire continent, the fir.st averages of climate illustrated by lines, were his. Every school-boy is familiar with his methods now, but he does not know that Humboldt is his teacher. The fertilizing power of a great mind is truly wonderful ; but as we travel farther from the source, it is hidden from us by the very abundance and productiveness it has caused. Plow few remember that the tidal lines, the present mode of reg- istering magnetic phenomena and oceanic currents, are but the applica- tion of Hl'mboldt's researches, and of his graphic mode of recording them ! This great man was a feeble child, and had less facility in his studies than most children. For this reason his early education was intrusted to private teachers, his parents being wealthy, and of a class whose means and position command tlie advantages denied to so many. It is worthy of note that when he was a little fellow, not more than seven years old, his teacher was Campk, author of the German llobinson Crusoe. We can fancy how he amused the boy with the ever fresh story of Crusoe on his desert island, and inspired him even at that early age with the passionate love of travel and adventure which was to bear such fruit in later years. Neither should we omit, in recalling memories of his childhood, his tender relation to his older brother Wk.mam. These two brothers, so renowned in their different departments of learn- ing, — the elder as statesman and phi- lologist, the younger as a student of nature, — were united from their ear- liest years by an intimate sym})dthy which grew with their growth and strengthened with tlieir strength. They went together to the University I of Frankfort, the younger being then I seventeen, Wilmam nineteen. After ; two years at Frankfort they went to ! the University of Gottingen, where J they passed the two following years. j In these four pregnant years of stu- [ dent life At,kxani>i-:r already sketched the plans Avhich occupied his active I mind for more than threescore years and ten. The character of the German universities is so different from ours, that a word upon his studentlife may not be out of place here. Untrammel- ed by prescription and routine, every branch of learniiig was open to him. Instead of being led through a pre- scribed course of study, an absolute freedom of selection in accordance Avith his natural predilections was allowed him. The effect of this is j felt through his whole life ; there was I a universality, a comprehensiveness I in his culture, which could not be j obtained under a less liberal system j of education. Leaving the University at the age of twenty-one, he began to make serious j)reparations for the great journeys toward which all his hopes tended. Nothing has impressed me more in reviewing Humboldt's life, than the harmony between the aspira- tions of his youth and the fulfillment of his riper age. A letter to Pfafk, written in his twenty-fourth year, contains the first outline of the Cos- mos ; its last sheets were forwarded to the publisher in his ninetieth year, two months before his death. He had thus been an original investigator for nearly seventy years. His first journey after leaving the University was important rather for the circumstances under which it was made than for any local interest. He went to the Ilhine with Gkok(t FoRSTKK, who had accompanied Cook in his second journey round the world. He could hardly have been thrown with any one more likely to stimulate his desire to travel than this man, who had visited the South Seas, had seen the savages of the Pacific Islands, and had made valuable DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT, [338] 29 contributions to geographical science. Nor was this their only point of sympathy. Georg P"'orster was a warm republican ; lie had espoused the ideas of the French Kevohition, and when Mayence became united to the French Republic he was sent as deputy to the National Assembly in Paris. Humboldt Avas too ardent and too independent to be a laggard in the great public questions of the day. Like Fokster, he also believed in the Republic of France and in the dawn of civil liberty for Europe, Thus, both in political and scientific preferences, although so different in age, he ar.d Forster were sympa- thetic traveling companions. This excursion was by no means a pleasure trip. Young as he was, Humboldt had knowledge enough to justify him in approaching the most dilHcult geological question of the day, namely, the origin of the Basalt. At that time the great war was waging be- tween the Neptunists and Phitonists, — that is, between the two great schools in Geology, — one attributing the rocks to fire as the great con- structive agent, the other asserting that all rocks were the result of water deposits. The young student brought to these subjects the truthfulness and patience which marked all his later investigations. Carried away neither by theories nor by leaders, he left in abeyance the problem which seemed j to him not yet solved. His interest in this and kindred topics carried him j to Freiberg, where he studied Geol- j ogy with Werner, and where he | made acquaintance with Leopold VON BucH, who became the greatest geologist of the age, and was through life his trusted friend. He also applied himself to Anatomy and Physiology, and made physical in- vestigations on the irritability of the muscular fiber, which he afterward extended to the electric fishes, during his American journey. All the while he brooded over his schemes of travel, gathering materials in every direction, in order that his mind might be prepared to understand j Nature in all her aspects. His desires j turned especially toward India. He I wished to visit the East, and, reach- ing India by way of Egypt, Syria, and Persia, to cross the Pacific "and return to Europe through America. In this he was foiled ; but to his latest day he felt the same longing for a sight of that antique ground o^ civilization. At this moment all Europe was in a blaze; between con- tending armies there was little room for peaceful travel and investigation. We find him, therefore, floating be- tween various plans. He went to Paris with the hope of joining Bau- din's contemplated expedition to Australia. In this he was again battled, for the breaking out ofthe war between France and Austria postponed the undertaking indefinite- ly. Plis next hope was Spain ; he might obtain permission to visit her Transatlantic possessions and study tropical nature under the equator. Here he was successful. The scientific discoverer of America, as the Germans like to call him, was destined to start from the same shore as Christopher Columbus. He not only received per- mission to visit the colonies, but special facilities for his investigations were offered him. This liberality was unexampled on the part of the Spanish government, for in those days Spain guarded her colonies with jealous exclusiveness. His enthusiasm dis- armed suspicion, however, and the king cordially sustained his under- taking. Almost ten years had passed in maturing his plans, preparing himself for their execution and obtaining the means of carrying them out. • He was nearly thirty years of age Avhen he sailed from the harbor of Corunna, running out in a dark and stormy night, and so evading the English cruisers which then blockaded the Spanish coast. There is perhaps no part of Hum- boldt's life better known to the public, especially in this country, than his American journey. His fascinating "Personal Narrative" ie 30 [334] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. known to all, and I need not, there- fore, describe liis course, or dwell upon the details of his personal ex- perience. No period of his life, how- ever, has had amore powerful influence upon knowledge and education than those live years of travel, and there- fore I will speak at some length of their scientific results. In the very glory of his youth, and yet with an intellectual maturity which belongs to later manhood, his physical activity and endurance kept pace with the fertility and comprehensiveness of his mind. Never was the old proverbial wish, '■'• iSijemiesse savait, sivieillesse pouvait,^'' so near fulfillment ; never were the strength of youth and the knowledge of age so closely com- bined. / At the first step of the journey, / namely, his pause at the Oanaiy Islands and ascension of the Peak of Teneriffe, he has left us a graphic picture of the place, of its volcanic phenomena, its geological character, and the distribution of its vegetation, in whicii are foreshadowed all his later generalizations. Landing in Cumana he made his first long station there. His explorations of the mountains, valleys, and sea-shore in that neighbborhood, his geological researches, liis astronomical observa- tions by which the exact position of various localities was determined, his meteorological investigations, and his collections of every kind, were of vast scientific importance. lie had already begun his studies upon averages of climate, the result of which, known as the " isothermal lines," was one of his most original contributions to science. With the intuition of genius he saw that the distribution of tem- ]jerature obeyed certain laws. He collected, both from his own observa- tion and from report, all that could' be learned of the average temperature in various localities, and combining all these facts he first taught geogra phers how to trace upon their maps those curves which give in one un- dulating line the varying aspects of climate upon the whole globe. His ' physical experiments upon animals and plants, and his cqllectious were also of great value. At Paris he had made the acquaintance of Boni'land, a young botanist, equally determined with liimself to see distant lands, who accompanied him in his journey to South America ; and when Hum- boldt was too exclusively engaged in physical experiments to join in the botanical researches, they were never- theless not neglected, for Bonpi.and was unremitting in the study of plants and in making collections. After months thus spent in the neighborhood of the coast, Humboldt crossed the Llanos, the great plains Avhich divide the basin of the Orinoco from the sea shore. Here again every step of his journey is marked by orig- inal research. He has turned those desert plains into enchanted land by the power of his thought, and left us descriptions, as fascinating from their beauty as they are valuable for their novelty and precision. In his long and painful journey through the valley of the Orinoco he traced the singular network of rivers by which this great stream connects, through the Cassiquiare and the Rio Negro, with the Amazons, — a fresh-water route which is, no doubt, yet to become one of the highways of the world. Had it not been for the illiberality of the Portuguese government, he would probably have gone down the Kio Negro to the Amazons, and would perliaps have changed completely the course which he ultimately took. He was, however, turned back from the mighty river by a prohibition which made it dangerous to proceed farther on pain of imprisonment and the possible renunciation of all his cher- ished plans. When, in ray late ex- ploration of the Amazonian Valley, I read his narrative again, on the spot, I could not but contrast the cordial liberality which smoothed every dif- ficult}'' in my path with the dangers, obstacles, and suffering which beset his. I approached, however, so near the scene of his labors that I was constantly able to compare my results DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT p35J 81 with his, and to recognize the extent of his knowledge and the comprehen- siveness of his views, even where the progress of science led to a different interpretation of the facts. I omit all notice of his visit to Cuba, and his journey through Mexico, interesting as they were, remarking only that to him we owe the first accurate maps of those regions. So imperfect were those published before him, that even toward the close of the last century the position of Mexico differed by about three hundred miles in the maps published by different geographers. Humboldt's is the first general map of Mexico and Cuba based upon astronomical observa- tions. The next great stage of the Amer- ican journey is along the ridge of the Andes. There is a picturesque charm about this part of the undertaking which is irresistible. At that time traveling in those mountains was infinitely more difficult than it is now. Wo follow him with his train of mules, bearing the most delicate Instruments, the most precious scien- tific apparatus, through the passes of the great chain. Measuring the mountains, — sounding the valleys as he went, — tracing the distribution of Tegetation on slopes 20,000 feet high, -—examining extinct and active volca- noes, — collecting and drawing animals and plants, — he brought away an in- credible amount of information which iias since filtered into all our scien- tific records, remodeled popular education, and become the common property of the civilized world. Many of these ascensions were attendeil ••-fith infinite danger and ditficulty. He climbed Chimborazo to a height of 18,000 feet at a time when no other man had ever ascended so iar above the level of the sea, and was prevented from reaching the summit by an impassable chasm, in which he nearly lost his life. When, a few years later, Gay Lussac made his famous ascent in a balloon, for the sake of studying atmospheric j)heuomena, he rose only 1,200 feet heigher.* Returning from the An- des, Humboldt skirted the Pacific from Truxillo to Acapulco, and paused in Mexico again. There he ascended all the great mountains in the neigh- borhood, continuing and completing the same investigations which he had pursued with such persistency through his whole laborious journey. He studied volcanic action, mines, the production of precious metals, their influence upon civilization and com- merce, latitudes and longitudes, aver- ages of climate, relative heights of mountains, distribution of vegetation, astronomical and meteorological phe- nomena. From Mexico he went to Havana, and from Havana sailed for Philadelphia. His stay in this country was short. He was cordially received by Jefkkrson on his visit to Wash- ington, and warmly welcomed by scientific men in Philadelphia. But ho made no important researches in the United States, and sailed for Europe soon after his arrival. He returned to Paris in 1804, hav- ing been five years absent from Europe. It was a brilliant period in science, letters, and politics in the great capital. The Ue})ublic was still in existence ; the throes of Revolu- tion were over, and the reaction to- ward monarchical ideas had not yet culminated in the Empire. Laplace, Gay-Lussac, CuviKit, Deskontainks, Dklambue, Oltmanns, Foukckoy, Bkkthollet, Biot, Dolomiku, La- marck, and Lacei'F.de were leaders then in the learned world. Tiie young traveler, bringing intellectual and material treasures even to men who had grown old in research, was wel- comed by all, and iu this great centre of social and intellectuariife he niaile his home for the most }>art, from 1805 to 1827 ; from the last days of the Republic, through the rise and fall of * The ascension of Mont Ulanc by De Saussure was t!)e only exploit of that Und on record before. Even as late as 1842 the ascent of the Junjjfrau attracted some attention. Nowadays tourists may run up the highest summits of the Alps to drink the healtii of their friends. 32 [33G] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT, the Empire, to the restoration of the Bourbons. lie devoted himself to the publication of liis results, and secured as his collaborators in this work the ablest men of the day. Cuvier, La- TREiixE, and Valenciennes worked up the zoological collections, Box- PLAND and KuNTii directed the publica- tion of the botanical treasures, Olt- MANNS undertook the reduction of the astronomical and barometrical ob- servations, while he himself jointly with Gay-Lussao and Provencal made investigations upon the respira- tion of fishes and upon the chemical constitution of the atmosphere and the composition of water, which have left their mark in the annals of chem- istry. While of course superintend- ing more or less all the publications, HrMBOi.DT himself was engaged espe- cially with those upon physical geography, meteorology, and geology. The mere enumeration of the volumes resulting from this great expedition is impressive. It embraces three folio volumes of geographical, })hysical, and botanical maps, including scenery, antiquities, and the aboriginal races ; twelve quarto volumes of letter-press, three of which contain the personal narrative, two are devoted to New Spain, two to Cuba, two to zoology and comparative anatomy, two to astronomy, and one to a physical de- scription of the tropics. The botanic- al results of the journey occupy not less than thirteen folio volumes, ornamented with magnificent colored })late8. As all these works are in our Public Library « in Boston, I would invite my hearers to a real intellectual treat and a gi-atification of their {esthetic tastes, in urging them to devote some leisure hour to turning over the leaves of these magnificent volumes. A walk through the hot^ houses of the largest botanical garden — and unfortunately we have no such on this continent-— could hardly be more impressive than an examination of these beautiful plates. Add to these a special work on the position of rocks in the two hemis})heres, one on the isothermal lines, his innumera- ble smaller papers, and lastly, five volumes on the history of geography and the progress of nautical astronomy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, more or less directly con- nected with Humboldt's own journey, though published in later years. His investigations into the history of the discovery of America have a special in- terest for us. We learn from him that the name of our continent was first introduced into the learned world by Waltz EEMULLER, a German profes- sor, settled at St. Didie, in Lorraine, — Hylacomylus, as he called himself at a time when scholars were wont ta translate their names into the dead languages, and thought it more digni- fied to appear under a Greek or Latin garb. This cosmographer published the first map of the New World, with an account of the jour- neys of Americus Vespucci, whose name he affixed to the lands recently discovered. Humboldt shows us, also, that Columbus's discovery was no accident, but grew naturally out of the speculations of the time, them- selves the echo of a far-off dream, which he follows back into the dim- ness of Grecian antiquity. We rec- ognize again here the characteristic features of Humboldt's mind, in hie constant endeavor to trace discoveries through all the stages of their pro- gress. Although he made his head-quarters in Paris, it became necessary for Humboldt, during the preparation of so many extensive works, to under- take journeys in various parts of Europe ; to examine and re-examine Vesuvius, and compare its mode of action, its geological constitution, and the phenomena of its ernptions with what he had seen of the volcanoes of South America. On one of these oc- casions he ascended Vesuvius in com- pany with Gay-Lussac and Leopold VON J)UCH. That single excursion, undertaken by such men, was fruitful in valuable additions to knowledge. At other times he went to consult rare books in the great libraries of Ger- many and England, or to discuss with DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [337] 33 his brother in Berlin, or with trusted friends in other parts of Europe, the work in which he was engaged, comparing notes, assisting at new ex- periments, suggesting further in quiries, ever active, ever inventive, ever suggestive, ever fertile in resource, — neither disturbed by the great po litical commotions which he witness- ed, nor tempted from his engrossing labors by the most brilliant offers of public service or exalted position. It was during one of his first visits to Berlin, where he went to consult about the organization of the Univers- ity with his brother William, then Minister of State in Prussia, that he published those fascinating '"Views of Nature," in which he has given pic- tures of the tropics as vivid and as ex- citing to the imagination as if they liv- ed on the canvas of some great artist^ v^The question naturally arises. Who provided for the expenses of these extensive literary undertakings ? Humboldt himself. No one knows exactly what he spent in the pub- licacion of his works. Some ap- proach to an estimate may, however, be made by computing the cost of printing, paper, and engraving, which cannot have amounted to less than two hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars. No doubt the sale indemnified him in some degree, but all know that such publications do not pay. The price of a single copy of the complete work on America is two thousand dollars, — double that of the great national work published by France upon Egypt, for the publica- tion of which the government spent about eight hundred thousand dollars. Of course veiy few copies can be sold of a work «f this magnitude. But from his youth upward Hum- boldt spent his private means liber- ally, not only for the carrying out and subsequent publication of his own scientific undertakings, but to forward the work of younger and poorer men. The consequence was that in old age he lived upon a small pension granted to him by the King of Prussia. His many-sideness was remarkable. He touched life at all points. He was the friend of artists, no less than of scientific and literary men. His desire to make his illubtrations worthy of the great objects they were to represent brought him into constant and intimate relation with the draughtsmen and paiLiers of his day. Even David did not think it below his dignity to draw an allegoric title- l^age for the great work. He valued equally the society of intelligent and cultivated women, such as Madame de Stael, Madame Recamier, Raiiei, Bettina, and many others less known to fame. He was intimate with states- men, politicians, and men of the world. Indeed, the familiarity of Humboldt with the natural resources of the coun- tries he had visited, — with their min- eral products and precious metals, — made his opinion valuable not only in matters of commerce, but important also to the governments of Europe ; and after the colonies of South Amer- ica had achieved their independence, the allied powers of Europe invited him to make a report upon the po- litical condition of the new republics. In 1822 he attended the Congress of Verona, and visited the South of Italy with the King of Prussia Thus his life was associated with the political growth and independence of the New World, as it was intimately allied with the literary, scientific, and artist- ic interests of the Old. He never, however, took an active part in pol- itics at home, and yet all Germany looked upon him as identified with the as[)ii-ations of the liberal party, of which his brother William was the most jtrominent representative. Before closing this period of Hum- boldt's life I would add a few words more in detail upon the works pub- lished by him after his return from South America. One of the first fruits in the rich harvest reaped from this expedition was the successful attempt to which I have alread/ alluded at representing graphically the physical features of that con- tinent. Thus far such representations 34 [338] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. had mainly consisted in maps and the delineation of the characteristic plants and animals. Humboldt devised a new method, equally impressive to the eye and comprehensive in its out- lines. Impressed by the fact that vegetation changes its character as it ascends upon the side of high mount- ains, — thus presenting successive ter- races upon their slopes, — he conceived the idea, already suggested by his ex- amination of the Peak of Tenei'iffe, of drawing upon the outline of a conical mountain the different aspects of its surface from the level of the sea to its highest peak. Thus he could ex- hibit at a glance all the successive zones of vegetation. Afterward he extended these comparisons to the temperate and arctic zones, and ascertained that, as we proceed further north, the gradation of the vegetation, at the level of the ocean, corresponds to its succession upon mountain slopes, — until, toward the Arctics, it assumes a remarkable resemblance to the plants found near the line of perpetual snows under the Tropics. But this is not all. The intervening expanse from North to South, as far as the equator, and then in reverse order to the Antai-ctic regions, also exhibits, in proportion to the elevation of the laud, a vegetation characterized by intermediate forms. In the same way he reproduced the general appearance of the inequalities of the earth's surface by drawing ideal sections across the regions described. In the first place, through Spain, af- terward from La Guayra to Caraccas across the Curabre, from Cartagena to Santa Fd de Bogota, and finally through the whole continent of America, from Acapulco to Vera Cruz. And this not by mere ap- proximations, but founding his pro- files upon his own barometric and astronomical observations, which he multiplied to such an extent that his works are to this day the chief source of information concerning the physical geography of the regions visited by him. Not satisfied with this, he under- took to represent, in like manner, the internal structure of the earth, draw- ing similar charts upon which the relative position of the rocks, with signs to indicate their mineralogical character, is faithfully portrayed. The first chart of this kind was drawn by him in Mexico in 1804, and presented to the School of Mines of that city. It was afterward published in the Atlas of the American Journey. — We are thus indebted to him for the whole of that graphic method which has made it j^ossible to delineate, in visible outlines, the true characterist- ics of physical phenomena; for after- ward this method was applied to the representation of the oceanic currents, the direction of the prevalent winds, the tidal waves, the rise and fall of our lakes and rivers, the amount of rain falling upon differentpartsof the earth's surface, the magnetic phenom- ena, the lines of equal average tem- perature, the relative height of our plains, tal>le-lands and mountain chains, their internal structure, and the distribution of plants and animals. Even the characteristic features of the History of Mankind are now tabulated in the same way upon our ethnographical mips, in which the distribution of the races, the high- ways of navigation and commerce, the difference among men as to lan- guage, culture, creeds, nay, even the records of our census, the estimates of the wealth of nations, down to the statistics of agriculture and the aver- ages of virtue and vice, are represent- ed. In short, every branch of mental activity has been vivified by this process, and has undergone an entire transformation under its influence. , His paper upon the isothermal lines was published in the ^^ Memoires de la Societe d'Arcueil,'" a scientific club to which, in the beginning of this century, the most eminent men of the age belonged. Though a mere sketch, the first delineation of the curves uniting different points of the earth's surface which possess the same average annual temperature un- der varying latitudes, exhibits already DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [339] 35 the characteristic features of these lines, which myriads of observations of a later date have only contirmed. No other series of investigations shows, more plainly than this, to what accurate results an observer may an-ive, who understands how to weigh critically the meaning of his facts however few they may be. The barometrical and astronomical observations upon Avhich his numer- ous maps are based were computed and reduced to their final form by his friend Oltmanns. They fill two large quarto volumes, and amount to the accurate determination of nearly one thousand localities. They are not taken at random, but embrace points of the highest importance, with ref- erence to the geographical distribu- tion of plants and animals and the range of agricultural j^roducts. Hu.ai- COLDT has himself added an introduc- tion to this work in which he gives an account of the instruments used in his observations and the methods pursued by him in his experiments, and discusses the astronomical refrac- tions in the torrid zone. y Thus the physical geography of our days is based upon Humboldt's investigations. He is, indeed, the founder of Comparative Geography, that all-embracing science of our globe, unfolded with a master hand by Kakl Ritter, and which has now its ablest representative in our own Guyot. His correspond- ence with Bergiiaus testifies his , intense intercbt in the progress of geographical knosvledge. To Hum- Bor.DT this world of ours is indeed not only the abode of man, it is a growth in the history of the Universe, shaped according to laws, by a long process of successive changes, which have resulted in its prc^>ent configura- tion with its mutually dependent fea- tures. The work upon the Position of Rocks in the two hemisphere tells the history of that growth as it could be told in 1823, and is of course full of gross anachronisms ; but at the same time it exhibits the wonderful power of generalization and combina- tion which Humboldt possessed, — as, for instance, where he says in few beautiful words, fertile in consequences not yet fully appreciated by the natu_^ ralists of our day : " When we ex- amine the solid mass of our planet, Ave perceive that the simple minerals are found in associations Avhich are everywhere the same, and that the rocks do not vary, as organized beings do, according to the differences of latitude or the isothermal lines under which they occur " ; thus contrasting in one single phrase the Avhole organic Avorld with the inorganic in their essen- tial character. In practical geology Ave owe to him the first recognition of the Jurassic formation. It was he who introduced into our science those happy expressions, "geological ho- rizon" and "independence of geological formations." He also paved the Avay for Elie de Beaumont's determina- tion of the relative age of mountain chains by his discussion upon the direc- tion of stratified rocks and by the parallels he dreAv between the age of plutonic and sedimentary formations; nor had it escaped him that distant florae and faunae, though of the same age, may be entirely different. The collection of zoological and anatomical papers, in two quarto volumes, with numerous colored plates, is full of valuable contributions to the Natural History of Animals, from his own pen, as Avell as that of his collaborators. The most remarka- ble are his description of the Condor, Avhich must have delighted the French zoologists, who could not fail to compare it Avith the glowing pages of their own Buffon ; his Synopsis of the South American Monkeys, rivalling the works of Audebert and Geoffroy St.-Hilaire; his account of the Electric Eel and the Catfish throAvn out by the burning volcanoes of the Andes, contrasted with the Great Natural History of Fishes by Lac6- pede; his paper on the respiration of Crocodiles and the larynx of Birds and Crocodiles, daring upon his own ground the greatest anatomist of the age, the immortal Cuvier. In- 36 [340] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. deed, it must have created a pro- found sensation in tlie learned world when a naturalist, all whose previous publications related to ])hysical sub- jects, suddenly came forward as a master among masters in the treat- ment of zoological and anatomical questions. The botanical works appeared imder several titles. We have first the " Plantes Equinoxiales" in two folio volumes, with 140 plates, by BoNPLANU ; the monograph of the Melastomacdes and that of the Rhexiees, in two folio volumes, with 120 plates, also by Bonpland ; then the Mimosdes by KirxTn, in one folio volume, with 60 plates ; the revision of the Gramineos, in one folio volume, watli 220 plates, by Kunth ; and finally the " Nova Genera et Species Plantaruni'''' by Kuntii, in seven folio volumes, ^vith 700 plates. Al- together thirteen folio volumes, with 1240 plates, most of which are beauti- fully colored, and remain unsurpassed for fidelity of description and fullness of illustration. Though the descriptive part of these splendid volumes is from the pen of his fellow- traveler Bonpland, and his younger friend Kunth, it would be a mistake to sup- pose that HuMJBOi.DT had no share in their preparation. Not only did he assiduously collect specimens during the journey, but it was he who made, on tlie spot, from the living plant, drawings and analyses of the most remarkable and characteristic trees ; the general aspect of which could not be preserved in the specimens gathered for the herbarium. Besides this there are entire chapters concern- ing the geographical distribution of the most remarkable families of plants, their pi-operties, their uses, etc., entirely written by Humboldt himself. It was he, also, who for the first time divided the areas of the regions he had explored into botanical provinces, according to their natural physical features ; thus distinguishing the Flora of New Andalusia and Venezuela from that of the Orinoco basin, that of New Granada, that of Quito, that of the Peruvian Andes, and those of Mexico and Cuba. It was he, also, who first showed that the whole Vegetable Kingdom con- tains, after all, but a few distinct types, which characterize the vegeta- ble carpet of the earth's surface, in different parti of the world under different latitudes and at different heights. He closes one of these ex- positions with a few words, which I cannot pass by without quoting. " Such investigations," he says, " af- ford an intellectual enjoyment and foster a moral strength which fortify us against misfortunes, and which no human power can overcome " y''^^ In 1827, at the urgent solicitafion of his brother, Humboldt transferred his residence from Paris to Berlin. With this step there opens a new phase in his life. Thus far he had been absolutely independent of public or official position. Conducting his researches as a private individual, if he appeared before the public at all, it was only in reading his papers to learned Academies. Now he began to lecture in the University. In his first course, consisting of sixty-one lectures, he sketched the physical histoiy of the world in its broadest outlines, — it was, in truth, the pro- gramme of the Cosmos. Since I shall give an analysis of this work in its fitting place, I will say nothing of the lectures here, except that as a teacher, he combined immense knowl- edge with simplicity of expression, avoiding all technicalities not abso- lutely essential to the subject. In the midst of his lectures there came to him an invitation from the Russian government to visit the Russian provinces of Asia. Nothing could be more gratifying to a scien- tific man than the terms in which this proposition was made. It was ex- pressly stipulated by the Emperor that he wished the material advant- ages which might accrue from the expedition to be a secondary con- sideration. Humboldt was to make scientific research and the advance- ment of knowledge his first aim, and DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [341] 37 he might turn his steps in whatever direction he chose. Never before had any government organized an ex- pedition with so little regard to pure- ly utilitarian considerations. This second great journey of Hum- boldt is connected with a hope and disappointment of my own. I was then a student in Munich. That University had opened under the most brilliant auspices. Almost every name on the list of professors was also prominent in some department of science or literature. They were not men who taught from text-books or even read lectures made from ex- tracts of original works. They were themselves original investigators, daily contributing to the sum of human knowledge. Martius, Oken, DoLUNGER, SCHELLING, Fr. VON Baader, Wagi.er, Zcccarini, Fuchs, VoGEL, VON KoBELL, werc our teach- ers. And they were not only our teachers but our friends. The best spirit prevailed among the professors and students. We were often the companions of their walks, often pi'esent at their discussions, and when we met for conversation or to give lectures among ourselves, as we con- stantly did, our professors were often among our listeners, cheering and stimulating us in all our efforts after independent research. My room Avas our meeting-place, — bedroom, study, museum, library, lecture-room, fencing room, — all in one. Students and professors used to call it the little Academy. Here SciiiMPER and Braun for the first time discussed the laws of phyllo- taxis, that marvelous rhythmical arrangement of the leaves in plants which our great mathematician in Cambridge has found to agree with the periods of the rotation of our planet. Among their listeners were Professors Martius and Zuccarini ; and even Robert Brown, while in Munich, during a journey through Germany, sought the acquaintance of these young botanists. Here for the first time did Michahet.f.es lay before us the results of his exploration of the Adriatic and adjoining regions. Here Born exhibited his wonderful pre- parations of the anatomy of the Lamper-Eel. Here Rudolphi made us acquainted with his exploration of the Bavarian Alps and the shores of the Baltic. These my fellow students in Munich were a bright, promising set, — boys then in age, many of whom did not live to make their names famous in the annals of science. It was in our little Academy that DoLLiNGER, the great master in physiology and embryology, showed to us, his students, before he had even given them to the scientific world, his Avonderful preparations exhibiting the vessels of the villosities of the alimentary canal ; and here he taught us the use of the microscope in embryological iuA^estigation. And here also the great German anatomist, Meckel, came to see ray collection of fish skeletons, of which he had heard from Dollinger. Such as- sociations, of course, made us ac- quainted with everything of import- ance which was going on in the scientific world. The preparations of Humboldt for his Asiatic journey excited our deepest interest, and I was filkd with a passionate desire to accompany the expedition as an assistant. General La Harpe, then residing in Lausanne, who had been the preceptor of both the Emperors Alexander and Nicholas of Russia, and who knew Humboldt personally, was a friend of my family, and he wrote to Humboldt in my behalf, ask- ing that I might join the expedition as an assistant. But it was not to be. The preparations for the journey were already made, and Ehrenbero and GusTAv Rose, then professors at the University of Berlin, were to be his traveling companions. I shoidd not mention the incident here, but that, sl'ght as it was, it marks the beginning of ray personal relation with Humboldt. The incidents of Humboldt's Asi- atic journey are less known to the public at large than those of his longer 38 [342] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. American ramblinga. Short aa it was, however, — for he was absent only nine months, — he brought to tlie undertaking such an amount of collateral knowledge, that its scijn- titic results are of the utmost import- ance, and may be considered as the culmination of his mature research and comprehensiveness of views. His success was insured also by the ample preparations of the Russian govern- ment, orders having been given along the whole route to grant him every facility. Descending the Volga to Kasan, and hence crossing to Ikate- rinenburg over the Ural Mountains, he passed through Tobolsk on the Irtish, to Barnaul on the Obi, and reached the Altai Mountains on the borders of China, thus penetrating into the heart of Asia. His researches into the physical constitution of what was considered the high table-land of Asia revealed the true features of that vast range of mountains. Touch- ed by his cultivated genius, the most insignificant facts became fruitful, and gave him at once a clew to the real character of the land. The presence of fruit-trees and other plants, belonging to families not known to occur in elevated regions, led him to distrust the existence of an unbroken, high, cold table-land, extending over the whole of Central Asia, and by a diligent comparison of all existing documents on the sub- ject, combined with his own observa- tions, he showed that four great par- allel mountain ridges, separated by gradually higher and higher level grounds, extend in an east- westerly direction. First, the Altai, bordering on the plains of Siberia, from the northern slope of which descend all the great rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean, — as the Irtish with the Obi, the Jenisei and the Lena ; then the Thian-Shan, south of the plateau of Soongaria ; next, the Kuenlun, south of the plateau of Tartary ; finally, the Himalaya range, separating the i)la- teau of Thibet from the plains of the Ganges. He showed also the con- nection of the Himalaya Mountaiiis through the Ilindoo-koo and the De- mavend with the far-off range of the Caucasus. These east-westerly ranges, giving form and character to the continent of Asia, are then contrasted with the north-southerly direction of the Ghauts, the Soliman and Bolor range, and the Ural Mountains which divide Europe from Asia. Approach- ing the great highways, over which the caravans of the East, from Uelhi and Lahore, reach the northern marts of Samarcand, Bokhara, and Oren- burg, he opens to us the most striking vistas of the early communication be- tween the Aryan civilization and the Western lands lying then in the darkness of savage life. He inquired also into the course of the old Oxus, I and the former channels between I Lake Aral and the Caspian Sea. The j level of that great inland salt lake, about two or three hundred feet lower j than the surface of the sea, suggested to him its former communication with the Arctic Ocean, when the Steppes of the Kirghis formed an open gulf I and the northern Avaters poured over I those extensive plains. After ex- I amining the German settlements I about the Caspian Sea, he returned to I St. Petersburg by way of Orenburg and Moscow. I Tlie scientific results of this journey I are recorded in two separate works, j the first of which, under the title of 'Asiatic Fragments of Climatology ! and Geology," is chiefly devoted to [ an account of the inland volcanoes Avhich he had had an opportunity of ; studying during this journey. He had now examined the volcanic phe- \ nomena upon three continents, and had gained an insight more penetrat- ing and more comprehensive than was possessed by any other geologist into their deep connection with all the changes our globe has undergone. Volcanoes were no longer to him mere local manifestations of a limited focus of eruption ; he perceived their relation to earthquakes and to all the phenomena coincident with the for- mation of the inequalities of the earth's surface. DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [343] 39 The contrast between the Siberian winter and the great fertility of the neighborhood of Astracan, where he found the finest vineyards he had ever seen, led him to consider anew the causes of the irregularities of tem- j'eiature under corresponding lati- tudes, and thus to enlarge his knowl- edge of the isothermal lines, which he had first sketched in his younger years, and the rationale of which he now clearly set forth. In one com- prehensive view he showed the con uectiou between the rotation of the earth, the radiation of its surface, the currents of the ocean, and especially among the latter the Gulf Stream, in their combined influence upon condi- tions of temperature, producing under identical latitudes such contrasts of climate as exist between Boston, Madrid, Naples, Constantinople, Tif lis on the Caucasus, Hakodadi in Japan, and that part of our own coast in California, where stands the city which bears his own venerated name. The second work relating to the Asiatic journey appeared under the title of '' Central Asia," being an ac- count of his researches into the mountain systems and the climate of that continent. The broadest gen- eralizations relating to the physics of the globe, showing Humboldt's won- derful familiarity with all its external features, are liere introduced in a short paper upon the average eleva- tion of the continents above the level of the sea, as compared with the average depths of the ocean. La- place, the great geometer, had al- ready considered the subject ; but Humboldt brought to the discussion an amount of facts which showed conclusively that tlie })urely mathe- matical consideration of the inquiry, as handled by Lai'lace, had been premature. Taking separately into consideration the space occupied upon the earth's surface by mountain ridges Avith that occupied by high table-lands, and the far more ex- pensive tracts of low plains, Hu.m- BOLDT showed that the averanre eleva- tion of the earth, estimated by La- I'LACE at more than one thousand metres, could in fact be scarcely one third that amount, — a great deal less, indeed, than the average depth of the sea. In 1830, after his return to Berlin, he was chosen as the fitting mes- senger from one great nation to an- other. The Restoration which fol lowed the downfall of Napoleon had been overturned by the July revolu- tion, and Humboldt who had lived through the glory of the Republic and the most brilliant days of the Empire was appointed by the King of Prussia to carry an official greeting to Louis Philippe and the new dy- nasty. He had indeed the most friendly relations with the Orleans family, and was, from private as well as public considerations, a suitable ambassador on this occasion. Paris had greatly changed since his return from his first great journey. Many of those who had made the glory of the Academy of Sciences, in the beginning of the century, had passed away, and a new generation had come up. Elie de Bkaumont, DuFRENOY, the younger Brongniart, Adrien de Jussieu, Isidore Geoff - ROY, Milne Edavards, Audouin, Flourens, Guillemain, Pouillet, Ddperrey, Babinet, Decaisne, and others, had risen to distinction, while the older Ampere, the older Brongni- art, Valenciennes, De Blainnille, Arago and Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, had come forward as leaders in science. Cuvier, just the age of Humboldt himself, was still active and ardent in research. His salon, frequented by statesmen, scholars, and artists, was, at the same time, the gathering-place of all the most orig- inal thinkers in Paris ; and the pleasure of those delightful meetings was unclouded, for none dreamed how soon they were to end forever, — how soon that bright and vivid mind was to pass away from among us. In those days a fierce discussion was carried on before the Academy as well as in public lectui'es. Goethe 40 [344] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT, had declared the unity of structure in the bony frame of all the Verte- brates, and had laid the foiandation of the morphology of plants. These new views had awakened the interests and passions of the whole world of science to a degree hitherto unknown in her peaceful halls. Cuvikr, strange to say, had taken ground in opposition to Goethe's views upon the Verte- brate type, while Geoffrot St.- HiLAiRE, a devoted adherent of Goe'he's ideas, had expressed his convictions in words not always courteous toward Cuvier. The latter had retorted with an overwhelming display of special knowledge, under which the brilliant generalizations of St.-Hilaire seemed to be crushed. Cuvier was then giving a course of lectures in the College de F'rance on the history of science, into which he wove with passionate animation his objections to the new doctrine. Hum- boldt attended these lectures regular- ly, and I had frequently the pleasure of sitting by his side and being the recipient of his passing ci-iticism. While he was impressed by the ob- jections of the master-anatomist, he could not conceal his sympathy for the conception of the great poet, his countryman. Seeing more clearly than Cuvier himself the logic of his investigations, in whispered com- ments during the lectures, he constant- ly declared that whatever deficiencies the doctrine of unity might still con- tain, it must be essentially true, and Cuvier ought to be its e.vpounder in- stead of its opponent. The great French naturalist did not live to complete these lectures, but the view expressed by his friend was prophetic. Cuvier's own researches, especially those bearing upon the characteristics of the four different plans of struc- ture of the animal kingdom, have helped to prove, in his own despite, though in a modified form, the truth of the doctrine he so bitterly opposed. The life which Humuot-dt now led was less exclusively that of a student than it had been during his former Paris life. He was the ambassador of a foreign court. His official posi- tion and his rank in society, as well as his great celebrity, made him everywhere a cherished guest, and HuMBiu.uT had the gift of making himself ubiquitous. He was as famil- iar with the gossip of the fashionable and dramatic world as with the higher walks of life and the abstruse researches of science. He had at this time two residences in Paris, — his lodging at the hotel des Princes, where he saw the great world, and his working-room in the Rue de la Harpe, where he received with less formality his scientific friends. It is with the latter place I associate him ; for there it was my privilege to visit him frequently. There he gave me leave to come to talk with him about my work and consult him in my dif- ficulties. I am unwilling to speak of myself on this occasion, and yet I do not know how else I can do justice to one of the most beautiful sides of Humboldt's character. His sym- pathy for all young students of nature was one of the noblest traits of his long life. It may truly be said that toward the close of his career there was hardly one prominent or aspiring scientific man in the world who was not under some obligation to him. His sympathy touched not oidy the work of those in whom he was in- terested, but extended also to their material wants and embarrassments. At this period I was twenty-four; he was sixty-two. I had recently taken my degree as Doctor of Medicine^nd was struggling not only for a scientific position, but for the means of exist- ence also. I have said that he gave me permission to come as often as I pleased to his room, opening to me freely the inestimable advantages which intercourse with such a man gave to a young investigator like my- self. But he did far more than this. Occupied and surrounded as he was, he sought me out in my own lodging. The first visit he paid me at my nar- row quarters in the Quartier Latin, where I occupied a small room in the' hotel du Jardin des Plantes, was DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [345] 41 characteristic of the man. After a cordial greeting, he walked straight to what was then my library, — a small bookshelf containing a few classics, the meanest editions bought for a trifle along the quays, some works on philosophy and histoiy, chemistry and physics, his own Views of Xa- ture, Aristotle's Zoology, Linx^eus's Systema Naturae, in several editions, Curvier's Regne Animal, and quite a number of manuscript quartos, copies which, with the assistance of my bi'Other, I had made of works I was too poor to buy, though they cost but a few francs a volume. Most conspicuous of all were twelve vol- umes of the new German Oyclopadia presented to me by the publisher. I shall never forget, after his look of mingled interest and surprise at my little collection, his half sarcastic question as he pounced upon the great Encyclopaedia, — " Was machen Sie denn mit dieser EselshriXckeV What are you doing with this ass's bridge? — the somewhat contemptuous name given in Germany to similar compila- tions. "I have not had time," I said, "to study the original sources of learning, and I need a prompt and easy answer to a thousand questions I have as yet no other means of solv- ing." It was no doubt apparent to him that I was not over familiar with the good things of this world, for I shortly afterward received an invitation to meet him at six o'clock in the Galerie vitree of the Palais Royal, whence he led me into one of those restaurants, the tempting windows of which I had occasionally passed by. When we were seated, he half laughingly, half inquiringly asked me whether I would order the dinner. I declined the invitation, saying that we should fare better if he would take the trouble. And for three hours, Avhich passed like a dream, I had him all to myself. How he examined me, and how much I learned in that short time ! How to work, what to do, arid what to avoid ; how to live ; how to distribute my time ; what methods of study to pursue, — these were the things of which he talked to rae on that delightful evening. I do not mention this trivial incident without feeling that it may seem too familiar for the occasion ; nor should I give it at all, except that it shows the sweetness and kindliness of Hu.h- boldt's nature. It was not enough for him to cheer and stimulate the student ; he cared also to give a rare indulgence to a young man who could allow himself few luxuries. The last period of his life was spent in Berlin, and while there to the end of his long and laborious career he was engaged with the publication of his Cosmos, and also in editing the great work, on the Kavi language, left by his brother William, who died in 1835. Besides these import- ant undertakings, he was unceasingly engaged in fostering magnetic observ- ations and the establishment of mag- netic observatories. He likewise felt a lively interest in the proposed inter- oceanic Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the lines for which he had carefully considered in earlier years. Surrounded by loving and admiring friends, covered with honors and distinctions, these days were rich in peaceful enjoyment. One of the most prominent features of Humboldt's mind, as philosopher and student of nature, consists in the keenness with which he perceives the most remote relations of the phenom- ena under consideration, and the felicity with which he combines his facts so as to draw the most com- prehensive pictures. This faculty is more particularly exhibited in the Cosmos, the crowning efifort of his ma- ture life. With a grasp transcending the most profound generalizations of the philosophers of all ages, he draws at first in broad outlines a sketch of the whole Universe. With an eye sharpened by the most improved in- struments of the Observatory, and ex- alted by the experience of all his predecessors, he penetrates into the remotest recesses of space, to seek for the faintest ray of light that may 42 [346] DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. furnish any information concerning the expanse of the heavenly vault and the age of the celestial bodies. He thus makes the rapidity with which light is propagated a measure of the distance which separates the visible parts of the whole system from one another, as well as a means of ap- proximately estimating the duration of their existence. He next con- siders the various appearances of the celestial bodies, the different kinds of nebuUe, their form and relations to one another and to the so-called fixed stars ; describes in graphic and fas- cinating language ttie landscape-like loveliness of their combinations in the Milky-Way and the various con- stellations ; discusses the nature of the doublestars, and, gradually ap- proaching our own system by a com- parison of our sun to other suns, rises, by a sublime effort of the imagina- tion, to a conception of the form of their united systems in space. In the description of our solar system one might have expected an exposition similar to the methods adopted by astronomers ; but the object of our great physicist is not to write a syn- opsis of Astronomy. He plunges without hesitation into the earliest history of the formation of our earth, the better to illustrate the relations to one another of the sun and the planets with their satellites, the comets, and the hosts of meteors of all kinds which come flashing, like luminous showers, through the atmosphere. Our globe is reviewed in its turn. First, its structure, the density of its mass, in the estimation of which the oscilla- tions of the pendulum become a plum- met-line with which to fathom the inapproachable deep ; then the vol- canoes are made to reveal the ever- lasting conflict between the interior caldrons of melted materials and the consolidation of the ruilied surface ; the distribution of heat and light, the climates, as depending upon the in equalities of form and relief, the cur- rents of the ocean, as modifying the temperature, the magnetic phenom- ena, the aurora boreaUs, the shooting stars, etc., are discussed in turn. The changes which our globe has under- gone in the course of ages aie next described: how the lands gradually rose above the level of the sea : how they first formed disconnected archi- pelagos ; how mountains grew up in succession, and their relative age ; the form and extent of successively larger continental islands, their plants and animals; — nothing escaped his atten- tion ; everything is represented in its true place and relation to the whole. Especially attractive are his delinea- tions of the distribution of plants and animals upon the present surface of the earth, of which an account has already been given. This mode of treating his subjects, emphatically his own, has led many specialists to underrate Humboldt's familiarity with different branches of science ; as if knowledge could only be recorded in pedantic forms and a set phraseology. But Humboldt is not only an ob- server, not only a physicist, a geog- rapher, a geologist of matchless power and erudition, he knows that nature has its attraction for the soul of man ; that, however uncultivated, man is impressed by the great phe- nomena amid which he lives; that he is dependent for his comforts and the progress of civilization upon the world that surrounds him This leads to an appreciative analysis of the enjoyment derived from the contemplation of na- ture, and to considerations of the highest order respecting the influence which natural highways have had upon the races of men, in their distri- bution upon the whole surface of the globe. In speaking of his later days I can- not omit some allusion to a painful fact connected with his residence at Berlin. The publication of a private correspondence between Varnhagex VON Ense and Humboldt has led to many unfriendly criticisms upon the latter. He has been blamed for holding his place at court, while, in private, he criticised and even satirized severely everything connected with DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [347] 43 it. It is not easy to place one's self in the right point of view with ref- erence to these conlidential letters. It must be remembered that Hum- boldt was a Republican at heart. His most intimate friends, from FoRSTER, in his early youth, to Arago, in his mature years, were ardent Republicans. He shared their enthusiasm for the establishment of self-government among men. An anecdote preserved to us by Lieber shows that he did not conceal his sympathies, even before the King who honoi-ed him so highly. Lieber, who was present at the conversation, gives the following account of it : "The King of Prussia, Humboldt, and NiEBUHR were talking of ihe affairs of the day, and the latter spoke in no flattering terms of the political views and antecedents of Arago, who, it is well-known, was a very advanced Republican of the Galilean School, an uncomprimising French democrat. Frederic William the Third simply abominated Republicanism ; yet when Niebuhr had finished, Humboldt said with a sweetness which I vividly remember: "Still this monster is the dearest friend I have in France." Can we, therefore, be surprised, that in his confidential letters to a sym- pathizing friend, he should not refrain from expressing his dislike of the petty intrigues and low sentiments which he met among courtiers. I re- ceived, myself, a letter from Hum- ttOLDT, written in the days when the reactionary movements were at their height in Prussia, in which, in a strain of deep sadness and despondency, he expresses his regret at the turn po- litical affairs had taken in Europe, and his disappointment at the failure of those aspirations for freedom with which he had felt the deepest sym- pathy in his youth. We may wish that this great man had been wholly consistent, that no shadow had rested upon the loyalty of his character, tluit he had not accepted the friendship and affection of a King whose court he did not respect and whose weak- nesses he keenly felt. But let us remember that his official station there gave him the means of in- fluencing culture and education in his native country in a way which he could not otherwise have done, and that in this respect he made the noblest use of his position. His sym- jjathy with the oppressed in every land was profound. We see it in his feel- ing for the aborigines in South Amer- ica, in his abhorrence of slavery. I believe that he would have experien- ced one of the purest and deepest joys of his life had he lived to hear of the abolition of slavery in the United States. His dislike of all subserviency and flattery, whether toward himself or others, was always openly ex- pressed, and was unquestionably gen- uine. The philosophical views of Hum- boldt, his position with reference to the gravest and most important questions concerning man's destiny, and the origin of all things, have been often discussed, and the most op- posite opinions have been expressed respecting them by men who seem equally competent to appreciate the meaning of his writings. The modern school of Atheists claims liim as their leader ; as such we find him represent- ed by Burmeister in his scientific letters. Others bring forward his sympathy with Christian culture as evidence of his adherence to Chi'is- tianity in his broadest sense. It is difficult to find in Humboldt's own writings any clew to the exact nature of his convictions. He had too great regard for truth, and he knew too well the Aryan origin of the traditions collected by the Jews, to give his countenance to any creed based upon them Indeed, it was one of his aims to free our civilization from the pressure of Jewish tradition ; but it is impossible to become familiar with his writings without feeling that, if Hum- boldt was not a believer, he was no scoffer. A reverential spirit for every- thing great and good breaths through all his pages. Like atruephiloso])her, he knew that the time had not yet come for a scientific investigation in- 44 [348] DARWIN AND HUMBOL .k. to the origin of all things. Before < he attempted to discuss the direct action of a Creator in bringing about . the present condition of the Universe, { he knew that the physical laws wliich j govern the material world must be l first understood ; that it would be a ' mistake to ascribe to the agency of a Supreme Power occurrences and phe- nomena which could be deduced from the continued agency of natural causes. Until some limit to the action of these causes has been found, there is no place, in a scientfic discussion, as such, for the consideration of the intervention of a Creator. t In the closing ])aragraph of the first / volume of the Cosmos Humboldt ' distinctly objects to the consideration of the sphere of intelligence in con- nection with the study of Nature. But the time is fast approaching, and indeed some daring thinkers have actually entered upon the question, — Where is the line between the in- evitable action of law and the inter- vention of a higher power? where is the limit? And here we find the most opposite views propounded. There are those who affirm that, inas- much as force and matter are fotnid to be a sufficient ground for so many physical phenomena, we are justified in assuming that the whole universe, including organic life, has no fuither origin. To these, I venture to say, HuMiiOi.DT did not belong. He had too logical a mind to assume that an harmoniously combined whole could be the result of accidental occurrences. In the few instances where, in his works, he uses the name of God, it appears plainly that he believes in a Creator as a lawgiver and primary orijirinator of all thingrs.. There are X two passages ni his writings especially significant in this respect. In the second volume of the Cosmos, when speaking of the impression man re- ceives from the contemplation of the physical world, he calls nature God's majestic realm, — " Gottes erhabenes Reich.''' In his allusion to the fear ful catastrophe of Carracas, destroyed by an earthquake in 1812, the critical inquirer may even infer that HtJM- BOLrx believed in a special Provi- dence. For he says with much feel- ing : " Our friends are no more, the house we lived in is a pile of ruins ; the city I have described no longer exists. The day had been very hot, the air was calm, the sky without a cloud. It was Holy Thursday ; the people were mostly assembled in the churches. Nothing seemed to fore- shadow the threatening misfortune. Suddenly, at four o'clock in the after- noon, the bells which were s- truck mute that day began to toll. It was the hand of God, and not the hand of man, which rang that funeral dirge." In his own words : " Es war Gottes, nicht Menschenhand, die hier znm Grabgeldute zxoangy One word more before I close. I have appeared before you as the rep- resentative of the Boston Natural History Society. It was their pro- position to celebrate this memorable anniversary. I feel grateful for their invitation, for the honor they have done me. I feel still more grateful for the generous impulse which has prompted them to connect a Hum- boldt scholarship, as a memorial of this occasion, with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. I trust this token of good-will may only be another expression of that emulation for progress which I earnestly hope may forever be the only rivarly between these kindred institutions and their younger sister in Salem. We have all a great task to perform. It should be our effort, as far as it lies in our power, to raise the standard of culture of our people, as Humboldt has elevated tkat of the world. May the community at large feel Avith equal keenness the imi ort- j auce of each step now taken for the ' expansion, in every direction, of all the means of the highest culture. j The physical suffering of humanity, the wants of the poor, the craving of I the hungry and naked, appeal to the I sympathy of every one who has a ■ human heart. But there are neces- ' sities which only the destitute stu- DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. [349] 45 dent knows ; there is a hunger and thirst which only the highest charity can understand and relieve, and on this solemn occasion let me say that every dollar given for higher educa- tion, in whatever special department of knowledge, is likely to have a greater influence upon the future char- acter of our nation than even the thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions which have already been spent and are daily spending to raise the many to matei'ial ease and com- fort. In the hope of this coming golden age, let us rejoice together that Hum- boldt's name will be permanci tly connected with education and learning in this country, with the prospects and institutions of which he felt so deep and so affectionate a sympathy. At the Evening Reception which followed the Memorial Address, Professor Frederic H. Hedge, of Harvard University, spoke as follows: Mr. Chairman — It is hard gleaning in a field in which Agassiz has been with his sickle. But since you call upon me, I will say that the thing which most impressed me, as I listened to the discourse this afternoon, was the psychological marvel of such a na- ture as Humboldt's, and the illustra- tion it affords of the capabilities of the human mind. Here was a man whose inappeasable greed of knowl- edge had appropriated all the science of his time, who knew all that was known in his day of things below and things above. The word ' Cosmos,^/ the title he gave to his immortal work, is an apt