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HUMBOLDT, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH ALEXANDE...

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 875 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUMBOLDT, See also:FRIEDRICH HEINRICH See also:ALEXANDER, See also:BARON See also:vow (1769-1859), See also:German naturalist and traveller, was See also:born at See also:Berlin, on the 14th of See also:September 1769. His See also:father, who was a See also:major in the Prussian See also:army, belonged to a Pomeranian See also:family of See also:consideration, and was rewarded for his services during the Seven Years' See also:War with the See also:post of royal See also:chamberlain. He married in 1766 Maria See also:Elizabeth von See also:Colomb, widow of Baron von Hollwede, and had by her two sons, of whom the younger is the subject of this See also:article. The childhood of Alexander von Humboldt was not a promising one as regards either See also:health or See also:intellect. His characteristic tastes, however, soon displayed themselves; and from his See also:fancy for See also:collecting and labelling See also:plants, shells and See also:insects he received the playful See also:title of " the little See also:apothecary." The care of his See also:education, on the unexpected See also:death of his father in 1779, devolved upon his See also:mother, who discharged the See also:trust with constancy and See also:judgment. Destined for a See also:political career, he studied See also:finance during six months at the university of See also:Frankfort-on-the-See also:Oder; and a See also:year later, See also:April 25, 1789, he matriculated at See also:Gottingen, then eminent for the lectures of C. G. See also:Heyne and J. F. See also:Blumenbach. His vast and varied See also:powers were by this See also:time fully See also:developed; and during the vacation of 1789 he gave a See also:fair See also:earnest of his future performances in a scientific excursion up the See also:Rhine, and in the See also:treatise thence issuing, Mineralogische Beobachtungen fiber einige Basalte am Rhein (See also:Brunswick, 1790). His native See also:passion for distant travel was confirmed by the friendship formed by him at Gottingen with See also:George See also:Forster, Heyne's son-in-See also:law, the distinguished See also:companion of See also:Captain See also:Cook's second voyage.

Henceforth his studies, which his rare See also:

combination of parts enabled him to render at once multifarious, rapid and profound, were directed with extra-See also:ordinary insight and perseverance to the purpose of preparing himself for his distinctive calling as a scientific explorer. With this view he studied See also:commerce and See also:foreign See also:languages at See also:Hamburg, See also:geology at See also:Freiberg under A. G. See also:Werner, See also:anatomy at See also:Jena under J. C. Loder, See also:astronomy and the use of scientific See also:instruments under F. X. von See also:Zach and J. G. Kohler. His researches into the vegetation of the mines of Freiberg led to the publication in 1793 of his Florae Fribergensis Specimen; and the results of a prolonged course of experiments on the phenomena of See also:muscular irritability, then recently discovered by L. See also:Galvani, were contained in his Versuche fiber See also:die gereiate Muskei- u;zd Nervenfaser (Berlin, 1797), enriched in the See also:French See also:translation with notes by Blumenbach. In 1794 he was admitted to the intimacy of the famous See also:Weimar coterie, and contributed (See also:June 1795) to See also:Schiller's new periodical, Die Horen, a philosophical See also:allegory entitled Die Lebenskraft, oder der rhodische See also:Genius.

In the summer of 1790 he paid a flying visit to See also:

England in See also:company with Forster. In 1792 and 1797 he was in See also:Vienna; in 1795 he made a See also:geological and botanical tour through See also:Switzerland and See also:Italy. He had obtained in the meantime See also:official employment, having been appointed See also:assessor of mines at Berlin, See also:February '29, 1792. Although the service of the See also:state was consistently regarded by him but as an See also:apprenticeship to the service of See also:science, he fulfilled its duties with such conspicuous ability that he not only rapidly See also:rose to the highest post in his See also:department, but was besides entrusted with several important See also:diplomatic See also:missions. The death of his mother, on the ,9th of See also:November 1796, set him See also:free to follow the See also:bent of his genius, and, finally severing his official connexions, he waited for an opportunity of executing his See also:long-cherished schemes of travel. On the postponement of Captain Baudin's proposed voyage of circumnavigation, which he had been officially invited to accompany, he See also:left See also:Paris for See also:Marseilles with Aline See also:Bonpland, the designated botanist of the frustrated expedition, hoping to join See also:Bonaparte in See also:Egypt. Means of transport, however, were not forthcoming, and the two travellers eventually found their way to See also:Madrid, where the unexpected patronage of the See also:minister d'Urquijo determined them to make See also:Spanish See also:America the See also:scene of their explorations. Armed with powerful recommendations, they sailed in the " See also:Pizarro " from See also:Corunna, on the 5th of June 1799, stopped six days at See also:Teneriffe for the ascent of the See also:Peak, and landed, on the 16th of See also:July, at See also:Cumana. There Humboldt observed, on the See also:night of the 12-13th of November, that remarkable See also:meteor-shower which forms the starting-point of our acquaintance with the periodicity of the phenomenon; thence he proceeded with Bonpland to See also:Caracas; and in February 1800 he left the See also:coast for the purpose of exploring the course of the See also:Orinoco. This trip, which lasted four months, and covered 1725 M. of See also:wild and uninhabited See also:country, had the important result of establishing the existence of a communication between the See also:water-systems of the Orinoco and See also:Amazon, and of determining the exact position of the bifurcation. On the 24th of November the two See also:friends set See also:sail for See also:Cuba, and after a stay of some months regained the mainland at See also:Cartagena. Ascending the swollen stream of the Magdalena, and See also:crossing the frozen ridges of the Cordilleras, they reached See also:Quito after a tedious and difficult See also:journey on the 6th of See also:January 1802.

Their stay there was signalized by the ascent of Pichincha and Chimborazo, and terminated in an expedition to the See also:

sources of the Amazon en route for See also:Lima. At See also:Callao Humboldt observed the transit of See also:Mercury on the 9th of November, and studied the fertilizing properties of See also:guano, the introduction of which into See also:Europe was mainly due to his writings. A tempestuous See also:sea-voyage brought them to the shores of See also:Mexico, and after a year's See also:residence in that See also:province, followed by a See also:short visit to the See also:United States, they set sail for Europe from the mouth of the See also:Delaware, and landed at See also:Bordeaux on the 3rd of See also:August 1804. Humboldt may justly be regarded as having in this memorable expedition laid the See also:foundation in their larger See also:bearings of the sciences of See also:physical See also:geography and See also:meteorology. By his delineation (in 1817) of " isothermal lines," he at once suggested the See also:idea and devised the means of comparing the See also:climatic conditions of various countries. He first investigated the See also:rate of decrease in mean temperature with increase of See also:elevation above the sea-level, and afforded, by his inquiries into the origin of tropical storms, the earliest See also:clue to the detection of the more complicated law governing atmospheric disturbances in higher latitudes; while his See also:essay on the geography of plants was based on the then novel idea of studying the See also:distribution of organic See also:life as affected by varying physical conditions. His See also:discovery of the decrease in intensity of the See also:earth's magnetic force from the poles to the See also:equator was communicated to the Paris See also:Institute in a memoir read by him on the 7th of See also:December 1804, and its importance was attested by the speedy emergence of See also:rival claims. His services to geology were mainly based on his attentive study of the volcanoes of the New See also:World. He showed that they See also:fell naturally into linear See also:groups, presumably corresponding with vast subterranean fissures; and by his demonstration of the igneous origin of rocks previously held to be of aqueous formation, he contributed largely to the elimination of erroneous views. The reduction into See also:form and publication of the encyclopaedic See also:mass of materials—scientific, political and archaeological—collected by him during his See also:absence from Europe was now Humboldt's most urgent See also:desire. After a short trip to Italy with See also:Gay-Lussac for the purpose of investigating the law of magnetic See also:declination, and a sojourn of two years and a See also:half in his native See also:city, he finally, in the See also:spring of 18o8, settled in Paris with the purpose of securing the scientific co-operation required for bringing his See also:great See also:work through the See also:press. This See also:colossal task, which he at first hoped would have occupied but two years, eventually cost him twenty-one, and even then remained incomplete.

With the exception of See also:

Napoleon Bonaparte, he was the most famous See also:man in Europe. A See also:chorus of See also:applause greeted him from every See also:side. See also:Academies, both native and foreign, were eager to enrol him among their members. See also:Frederick See also:William III. of See also:Prussia conferred upon him the See also:honour, without exacting the duties, attached to the post of royal chamberlain, together with a See also:pension of 2500 thalers, afterwards doubled. He refused the See also:appointment of Prussian minister of public instruction in 181o. In 1814 he accompanied the allied sovereigns to See also:London. Three years later he was summoned by the See also:king of Prussia to attend him at the See also:congress of See also:Aix-la-Chapelle. Again in the autumn of 1822 he accompanied the same monarch tothe congress of See also:Verona, proceeded thence with the royal party to See also:Rome and See also:Naples, and returned to Paris in the spring of 1823. The French See also:capital he had long regarded as his true See also:home. There he found, not only scientific sympathy, but the social stimulus which his vigorous and healthy mind eagerly craved. He was equally in his See also:element as the See also:lion of the salons and as the savant of the institute and the See also:observatory. Thus, when at last he received from his See also:sovereign a See also:summons to join his See also:court at Berlin, he obeyed indeed, but with deep and lasting regret.

The provincialism of his native city was odious to him. He never ceased to See also:

rail against the bigotry without See also:religion, aestheticism without culture, and See also:philosophy without See also:common sense, which he found dominant on the See also:banks of the See also:Spree. The unremitting benefits and sincere See also:attachment of two well-meaning princes secured his gratitude, but could not appease his discontent. At first he sought See also:relief from the " nebulous See also:atmosphere " of his new See also:abode by frequent visits to Paris; but as years advanced his excursions were reduced to accompanying the monotonous " oscillations of the court between See also:Potsdam and Berlin. On the 12th of May 1827 he settled permanently in the Prussian capital, where his first efforts were directed towards the furtherance of the science of terrestrial See also:magnetism. For many years it had been one of his favourite schemes to secure, by means of simultaneous observations at distant points, a thorough investigation of the nature and law of " magnetic storms "—a See also:term invented by him to designate abnormal disturbances of the earth's magnetism. The See also:meeting at Berlin, on the 18th of September 1828, of a newly-formed scientific association, of which he was elected See also:president, gave him the opportunity of setting on See also:foot an extensive See also:system of See also:research in combination with his diligent See also:personal observations. His See also:appeal to the See also:Russian See also:government in 1829 led to the See also:establishment of a See also:line of magnetic and meteorological stations across See also:northern See also:Asia; while his See also:letter to the See also:duke of See also:Sussex, then (April 1836) president of the Royal Society, secured for the undertaking the wide basis of the See also:British dominions. Thus that scientific See also:conspiracy of nations which is one of the noblest fruits of See also:modern See also:civilization was by his exertions first successfully organized. In 1811, and again in 1818, projects of See also:Asiatic exploration were proposed to Humboldt, first by the Russian, and afterwards by the Prussian government; but on each occasion untoward circumstances interposed, and it was not until he had entered upon his sixtieth year that he resumed his See also:early role of a traveller in the interests of science. Between May and November 1829 he, together with his chosen associates Gustav Rose and C. G.

See also:

Ehrenberg, traversed the wide expanse of the Russian See also:empire from the See also:Neva to the Yenesei, accomplishing in twenty-five See also:weeks a distance of 9614 M. The journey, however, though carried out with all the advantages afforded by the immediate patronage of the Russian government, was too rapid to be profitable. Its most important fruits were the correction of the prevalent exaggerated estimate of the height of the Centrals Asian See also:plateau, and the discovery of diamonds in the See also:gold-washings of the Ural—a result which Humboldt's Brazilian experiences enabled him to predict, and by predicting to secure. Between 1830 and 1848 Humboldt was frequently employed in diplomatic missions to the court of See also:Louis Philippe, with whom he always maintained the most cordial personal relations. The death of his See also:brother, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who expired in his arms, on the 8th of April 1836, saddened the later years of his life. In losing him, Alexander lamented that he had " lost half himself." The See also:accession of the See also:crown See also:prince-,as Frederick William IV., on the death of his father, in June 184o, added to rather than detracted from his court favour. Indeed, the new king's craving for his society became at times so importunate as to leave him only some See also:hours snatched from See also:sleep for the See also:prosecution of his See also:literary labours. It is not often that a man postpones to his seventy-See also:sixth year, and then successfully executes, the crowning task of his life. Yet this was Humboldt's See also:case. The first two volumes of the Kosmos were published, and in the See also:main composed, between the years 1845 and 1847. The idea of a work which should convey, not only a graphic description, but an imaginative conception of the physical world—which should support generalization by details, and dignify details by generalization, had floated before his mind for upwards of half a See also:century. It first took definite shape in a set of lectures delivered by him before the university of Berlin in the See also:winter of 1827-1828.

These lectures formed, as his latest biographer expresses it, " the See also:

cartoon for the great See also:fresco of the Kosmos." The See also:scope of this remarkable work may be briefly described as the See also:representation of the unity amid the complexity of nature. In it the large and vague ideals of the 18th are sought to be combined with the exact scientific requirements of the 19th century. And, in spite of inevitable shortcomings, the See also:attempt was in an eminent degree successful. Nevertheless, the See also:general effect of the See also:book is rendered to some extent unsatisfactory by its tendency to substitute the indefinite for the See also:infinite, and thus to ignore, while it does not deny, the existence of a See also:power outside and beyond nature. A certain heaviness of See also:style, too, and laborious picturesqueness of treatment make it more imposing than attractive to the general reader. But its supreme and abiding value consists in its faithful reflection of the mind of a great man. No higher eulogium can be passed on Alexander von Humboldt than that, in attempting, and not unworthily attempting, to portray the universe, he succeeded still more perfectly in portraying his own comprehensive intelligence. The last See also:decade of his long life—his " improbable " years, as he was accustomed to See also:call them—was devoted to the continuation of this work, of which the third and See also:fourth volumes were published in 1850-1858, while a fragment of a fifth appeared posthumously in 1862. In these he sought to fill up what was wanting of detail as to individual branches of science in the sweeping survey contained in the first See also:volume. Notwithstanding their high See also:separate value, it must be admitted that, from an See also:artistic point of view, these additions were deformities. The characteristic idea of the work, so far as such a gigantic idea admitted of literary See also:incorporation, was completely developed in its opening portions, and the attempt to convert it into a scientific See also:encyclopaedia was in truth to nullify its generating See also:motive. Humboldt's remarkable See also:industry and accuracy were never more conspicuous than in the erection of this latest See also:trophy to his genius.

Nor did he rely entirely on his own labours. He owed much of what he accomplished to his rare power of assimilating the thoughts and availing himself of the co-operation of others. He was not more ready to incur than to acknowledge obligations. The notes to Kosmos overflow with laudatory citations, the current See also:

coin in which he discharged his intellectual debts. On the 24th of February 1857 Humboldt was attacked with a slight apoplectic stroke, which passed away without leaving any perceptible trace. It was not until the winter of 1858-1859 that his strength began to decline, and on the ensuing 6th of May he tranquilly expired, wanting but six months of completing his ninetieth year. The honours which had been showered on him during life followed him after death. His remains, previously to being interred in the family resting-See also:place at Tegel, were conveyed in state through the streets of Berlin, and received by the prince-See also:regent with uncovered See also:head at the See also:door of the See also:cathedral. The first See also:centenary of his See also:birth was celebrated on the 14th of September 1869, with equal See also:enthusiasm in the New and Old Worlds; and the numerous monuments erected in his honour, and newly explored regions called by his name, See also:bear See also:witness to the universal See also:diffusion of his fame and popularity. Humboldt never married, and seems to have been at all times more social than domestic in his tastes. To his brother's family he was, however, much attached; and in his later years the somewhat arbitrary sway of an old and faithful servant held him in more than matrimonial bondage. By a singular example of weakness, he executed, four years before his death, a See also:deed of See also:gift transferring to this man Seifert the See also:absolute See also:possession of his entire See also:property.

It is right to add that no undue See also:

advantage appears to have been taken of this extraordinary concession. Of the qualities of his See also:heart it is less easy to speak than of thoseof his head. The clue to his inner life might probably be found in a certain egotism of sell-culture scarcely separable from the promptings of genius. Yet his attachments, once formed, were sincere and lasting. He made innumerable friends; and it does not stand on See also:record that he ever lost one. His benevolence was throughout his life active and disinterested. His early zeal for the improvement of the See also:condition of the miners in See also:Galicia and See also:Franconia, his consistent detestation of See also:slavery, his earnest patronage of rising men of science, bear witness to the large humanity which formed the ground-work of his See also:character. The faults of his old See also:age have been brought into undue prominence by the injudicious publication of his letters to Varnhagen von Ense. The See also:chief of these was his See also:habit of smooth speaking, almost amounting to flattery, which formed a painful contrast with the See also:caustic See also:sarcasm of his confidential utterances. His vanity, at all times conspicuous, was tempered by his sense of See also:humour, and was so frankly avowed as to invite sympathy rather than provoke ridicule. After every See also:deduction has been made, he yet stands before us as a colossal figure, not unworthy to take his place beside See also:Goethe as the representative of the scientific side of the culture of his country. The best See also:biography of Humboldt is that of See also:Professor Karl Bruhns (3 vols., 8vo, See also:Leipzig, 1872), translated into See also:English by the Misses Lasseil in 1873.

Brief accounts of his career are given by A. See also:

Dove in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, and by S. See also:Gunther in Alexander von Humboldt (Berlin, 1900). The Voyage aux regions equinoxiales du Nouveau See also:Continent, fait en 7799-1804, See also:par See also:Alexandre de Humboldt et Aline Bonpland (Paris, 1807, &c.), consisted of See also:thirty See also:folio and See also:quarto volumes, and comprised a considerable number ofsubordinate but important See also:works. Among these may be enumerated Vue See also:des Cordilleres et monuments des peuples indigenes de l'Amerique (2 vols. folio, 181o) ; Examen critique de l'histoire de la geographic du Nouveau Continent (1814–1834); See also:Atlas geographique et physique du royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1811); Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (181I); Essai sur la geographie des plantes (1805, now very rare ; and Relation historique (1814-1825), an unfinished narrative of his travels, including the Essai politique sur See also:file de Cuba. The Nova genera et See also:species plantarum (7 vols. folio, 1815–1825), See also:con- taining descriptions of above 4500 species of plants collected by Humboldt and Bonpland, was mainly compiled by C. S. Kunth; J. Oltmanns assisted in preparing the Recueil d'observations astronomiques (1808); See also:Cuvier, See also:Latreille, See also:Valenciennes and Gay-Lussac co- operated in the Recueil d'observations de zoologie et d'anatomie comparee (1805-1833). Humboldt's Ansichten der Natur (See also:Stuttgart and See also:Tubingen, 18o8) went through three See also:editions in his lifetime, and was translated into nearly every See also:European See also:language. The results of his Asiatic journey were published in Fragments de geologie et de climatologie asiatiques (2 vols. 8vo, 1831), and in Asie centrale (3 vols.

8vo, 1843)—an enlargement of the earlier work. The See also:

memoirs and papers read by him before scientific See also:societies, or contributed by him to scientific See also:periodicals, are too numerous for See also:specification. Since his death considerable portions of his See also:correspondence have been made public. The first of these, in See also:order both of time and of importance, is his Briefe an Varnhagen von F_nie (Leipzig, 186o). This was followed in rapid See also:succession by Briefwechsel mit einem jungen Freunde (Friedrich Althaus, Berlin, 1861); Briefwechsel mit Heinrich See also:Berghaus (3 vols., Jena, 1863) ; Correspondance scientifique et litteraire (2 vols., Paris, 1865–1869) ; Lettres a Marc-Aug. Pictet," published in Le Globe, tome vii. (See also:Geneva, 1868) ; Briefe an See also:Bunsen (Leipzig, 1869) ; Briefe zwischen Humboldt and See also:Gauss (1877) ; Briefe an seinen Bruder Wilhelm (Stuttgart, 188o) ; Jugendbriefe an W. G. Wegener (Leipzig, 1896) ; besides some other collections of less See also:note. An octavio edition of Humboldt's See also:principal works was published in Paris by Th. Morgand (1864–1866). See also Karl von See also:Baer, Bulletin de l'acad. des sciences de St-Petersbourg, xvii.

529 (1859); R. See also:

Murchison, Proceedings, Geog. Society of London, vi. (1859); L. See also:Agassiz, See also:American Jour. of Science, See also:xxviii. 96 (1859); Proc. See also:Roy. Society, X. xxxix. ; A. See also:Quetelet, Annuaire de l'acad. des sciences (See also:Brussels, 186o), p. 97; J. Madler, Geschichte der Himmelskunde, ii.113 ; J.

C. Houzeau, Bibl. astronomique, ii.168. (A. M.

End of Article: HUMBOLDT, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH ALEXANDER, BARON

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