Alexander von Humboldt
(1769 - 1859) |
Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt, (1769 - 1859),
was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister,
philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt.
Early life and education
Von Humboldt's father, who was a major in the Prussian army, belonged to a Pomeranian family of
consideration, and was rewarded for his services during the Seven Years' War with the post of
royal chamberlain. He married in 1766 Maria Elizabeth von Colomb, widow of Baron von Hollwede,
and had by her two sons, of whom the younger is the subject of this article.
The childhood of
Alexander von Humboldt was not a promising one as regards either health or intellect. His
characteristic tastes, however, soon displayed themselves; and from his fancy for collecting
and labelling plants, shells and insects he received the playful title of "the little apothecary."
The care of his education, on the unexpected death of his father in 1779, devolved upon his
mother, who discharged the trust with constancy and judgment. Destined for a political career,
he studied finance during six months at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder; and a year
later, 25. April 1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then eminent for the lectures of CG Heyne
and J. F. Blumenbach.
His vast and varied powers were by this time fully developed, and during
the vacation of 1789 he gave a fair earnest of his future performances in a scientific excursion
up the Rhine, and in the treatise thence issuing, Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige
Basalte am Rhein (Brunswick, 1790). His native passion for distant travel was confirmed by the
friendship formed by him at Göttingen with Georg Forster, Heyne's son-in-law, the distinguished
companion of Captain James Cook's second voyage.
Henceforth his studies, which his rare
combination of parts enabled him to render at once multifarious, rapid and profound, were
directed with extraordinary insight and perseverance to the purpose of preparing himself for
his distinctive calling as a scientific explorer. With this view he studied commerce and
foreign languages at Hamburg, geology at Freiberg under A. G. Werner, anatomy, astronomy
and the use of scientific instruments at Jena. 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 muscular irritability, then recently discovered by L. Galvani, were contained
in his Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser (Berlin, 1797), enriched in the French
translation with notes by Blumenbach.
Travels and work in Europe
In 1794 he was admitted to the intimacy of the famous Weimar coterie, and contributed (June 1795)
to Schiller's new periodical, Die Horen, a philosophical allegory entitled Die Lebenskraft, oder
der rhodische Genius. In the summer of 1790 he paid a flying visit to England in company with
Forster. In 1792 and 1797 he was in Vienna; in 1795 he made a geological and botanical tour
through Switzerland and Italy. He had obtained in the meantime official employment, having been
appointed assessor of mines at Berlin, 29. February 1792.
Although the service of the state was
consistently regarded by him but as an apprenticeship to the service of science, he fulfilled its
duties with such conspicuous ability that he not only rapidly rose to the highest post in his
department, but was besides entrusted with several important diplomatic missions. The death of
his mother, on the 19. November 1796, set him free to follow the bent of his genius, and,
finally severing his official connections, he waited for an opportunity of executing his
long-cherished schemes of travel.
The Latin American expedition
On the postponement of Captain Baudin's proposed voyage of circumnavigation, which he had been
officially invited to accompany, he left Paris for Marseilles with Aimé Bonpland, the designated
botanist of the frustrated expedition, hoping to join Bonaparte in Egypt. Means of transport,
however, were not forthcoming, and the two travellers eventually found their way to Madrid,
where the unexpected patronage of the minister d'Urquijo determined them to make Spanish
America the scene of their explorations.
Armed with powerful recommendations, they sailed in the Pizarro from A Coruña, on 5. June 1799,
stopped six days at Tenerife for the ascent of the Peak, and landed, on 16. July at Cumana. There
Humboldt observed, on the night of the 11-12. November, a remarkable meteor shower (the
Leonids) which forms the starting-point of our acquaintance with the periodicity of the
phenomenon; thence he proceeded with Bonpland to Caracas; and in February 1800 he left the
coast for the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco River. This trip, which lasted
four months, and covered 1725 miles of wild and uninhabited country, had the important result
of establishing the existence of a communication between the water-systems of the Orinoco and
Amazon River, and of determining the exact position of the bifurcation. Electric eels were
captured by von Humoldt (with Bonpland) around 19. March 1800. The researchers received massive
electric shocks during their investigations.
On 24. November the two friends set sail for Cuba, and after a stay of some months regained the
mainland at Cartagena. Ascending the swollen stream of the Magdalena, and crossing the frozen
ridges of the Cordillera Real, they reached Quito after a tedious and difficult journey on
6. January 1802. Their stay there was marked by the ascent of Pichincha and Chimborazo, and
concluded with an expedition to the sources of the Amazon en route for Lima. At Callao, Humboldt
observed the transit of Mercury on 9. November and studied the fertilizing properties of guano,
the introduction of which into Europe was mainly due to his writings. A tempestuous sea-voyage
brought them to Mexico, where they resided for a year, followed by a short visit to the United
States of America, they set sail for Europe from the mouth of the Delaware, and landed at Bordeaux
on 3. August 1804.
Achievements of the Latin American expedition
Humboldt may justly be regarded as having in this memorable expedition laid the foundation in
their larger bearings of the sciences of physical geography and meteorology. By his delineation
(in 1817) of "isothermal lines," he at once suggested the idea and devised the means of comparing
the climatic conditions of various countries.
He first investigated the rate of decrease in mean
temperature with increase of elevation above the sealevel, and afforded, by his inquiries into
the origin of tropical storms, the earliest clue to the detection of the more complicated law
governing atmospheric disturbances in higher latitudes; while his essay on the geography of
plants was based on the then novel idea of studying the distribution of organic life as affected
by varying physical conditions.
His discovery of the decrease in intensity of Earth's magnetic
field from the poles to the equator was communicated to the Paris Institute in a memoir read by
him on the 7. December 1804, and its importance was attested by the speedy emergence of rival
claims. His services to geology were mainly based on his attentive study of the volcanoes of the
New World. He showed that they fell naturally into linear 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 form and publication of the encyclopaedic mass of materials - scientific,
political and archaeological - collected by him during his absence from Europe was now Humboldt's
most urgent desire. After a short trip to Italy with Gay-Lussac for the purpose of investigating
the law of magnetic declination, and a sojourn of two years and a half in his native city, he
finally, in the spring of 1808, settled in Paris with the purpose of securing the scientific
cooperation required for bringing his great work through the press. This colossal task, which he
at first hoped would have occupied but two years, eventually cost him twenty-one, and even then
remained incomplete.
Humboldt acclaimed
Humboldt |
With the exception of Napoleon Bonaparte, Humboldt was now the most famous man in Europe. A
chorus of applause greeted him from every side. Academies, both native and foreign, were eager
to enrol him among their members. Frederick William III of Prussia conferred upon him the honour,
without exacting the duties, attached to the post of royal chamberlain, together with a pension
of 2500 thalers, afterwards doubled. He refused the appointment of Prussian minister of public
instruction in 1810.
In 1814 he accompanied the allied sovereigns to London. Three years later
he was summoned by the king of Prussia to attend him at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. Again
in the autumn of 1822 he accompanied the same monarch to the congress of Verona, proceeded thence
with the royal party to Rome and Naples, and returned to Paris in the spring of 1823.
The French capital he had long regarded as his true 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 element as the lion of the salons and as the savant of the institute and the
observatory.
Thus, when at last he received from his sovereign a summons to join his 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 rail against the bigotry without religion, aestheticism
without culture, and philosophy without common sense, which he found dominant on the banks of
the Spree.
The unremitting benefits and sincere attachment of two well-meaning princes secured
his gratitude, but could not appease his discontent. At first he sought relief from the
"nebulous atmosphere" of his new abode by frequent visits to Paris; but as years advanced his
excursions were reduced to accompanying the monotonous "oscillations" of the court between
Potsdam and Berlin.
On the 12. May 1827 he settled permanently in the Prussian capital,
where his first efforts were directed towards the furtherance of the science of terrestrial
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 term invented by him to designate abnormal disturbances of Earth's
magnetism.
The meeting at Berlin, on the 18. September 1828, of a newly-formed scientific
association, of which he was elected president, gave him the opportunity of setting on foot
an extensive system of research in combination with his diligent personal observations. His
appeal to the Russian government in 1829 led to the establishment of a line of magnetic and
meteorological stations across northern Asia; while his letter to the duke of Sussex, then
(April 1836) president of the Royal Society, secured for the undertaking the wide basis of
the British dominions. Thus that scientific conspiracy of nations which is one of the noblest
fruits of modern civilization was by his exertions first successfully organized.
Explorations in Russia
In 1811, and again in 1818, projects of 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 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. Ehrenberg, traversed the
wide expanse of the Russian empire from the Neva to the Yenesei, accomplishing in twenty-five
weeks a distance of 9614 miles.
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 Central Asian plateau, and the discovery of diamonds in the gold-washings of the TJrala
result which Humboldt's Brazilian experiences enabled him to predict, and by predicting to
secure.
Humboldt as diplomat
Between 1830 and 1848 Humboldt was frequently employed in diplomatic missions to the court of
Louis Philippe, with whom he always maintained the most cordial personal relations. The death
of his 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 accession of the crown prince Frederick William IV, on the death of his father, in June 1840,
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 hours snatched from sleep for
the prosecution of his literary labours.
The "Kosmos"
It is not often that a man postpones to his seventy-sixth year, and then successfully executes,
the crowning task of his life. Yet this was Humboldt's case. The first two volumes of the Kosmos
were published, and in the 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 century. It first took definite shape in a set of
lectures delivered by him before the University of Berlin in the winter of 1827-1828. These
lectures formed, as his latest biographer expresses it, "the cartoon for the great fresco of
the Kosmos."
The scope of this remarkable work may be briefly described as the 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 attempt was in an eminent degree successful. A certain heaviness
of 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 decade of his long life - his "improbable" years, as he was accustomed to call them -
was devoted to the continuation of this work, of which the third and 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 volume. Notwithstanding their high separate value, it
must be admitted that, from an artistic point of view, these additions were deformities. The
characteristic idea of the work, so far as such a gigantic idea admitted of literary
incorporation, was completely developed in its opening portions, and the attempt to convert
it into a scientific encyclopaedia was in truth to nullify its generating motive.
Humboldt's
remarkable industry and accuracy were never more conspicuous than in the erection of this
latest 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 coin in which he discharged his
intellectual debts.
Illness and death
On the 24. 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 6. 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-place
at Tegel, were conveyed in state through the streets of Berlin, and received by the prince-regent
with uncovered head at the door of the cathedral. The first centenary of his birth was celebrated
on the 14. September 1869, with equal enthusiasm in the New and Old Worlds; and the numerous
monuments erected in his honour, and newly explored regions called by his name, bear witness to
the universal diffusion of his fame and popularity.
Personal life
Humboldt's romantic life is controversial. Some have argued that he was sexually involved with
other men and would today be considered gay, but there is no direct evidence to support this
assertion, or many other assertions about his personal life. The lack of evidence is largely
because his sister burned many of his personal papers and letters after his death.
He clearly
did form strong, clearly emotional, friendships with other men, never expressed any emotional
interest in women, and he never married. To his brother's family he was 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 generosity (or some people would say weakness),
he executed, four years before his death, a deed of gift transferring to this man Seifert the
absolute possession of his entire property.
It is right to add that no undue advantage appears
to have been taken of this extraordinary concession. Of the qualities of his heart it is less
easy to speak than of those of his head. The clue to his inner life might probably be found in
a certain egotism of self-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 record that he ever lost one.
His benevolence was throughout his life active and
disinterested. His early zeal for the improvement of the condition of the miners in Galicia and
Franconia, his consistent detestation of slavery, his earnest patronage of rising men of science,
bear witness to the large humanity which formed the ground-work of his character. The faults of
his old age have been brought into undue prominence by the injudicious publication of his letters
to Varnhagen von Ense.
The chief of these was his habit of smooth speaking, almost amounting to
flattery, which formed a painful contrast with the caustic sarcasm of his confidential utterances.
His vanity, at all times conspicuous, was tempered by his sense of humour, and was so frankly avowed as to invite sympathy rather than provoke ridicule.
After every deduction has been made, he yet stands before us as a colossal figure, not unworthy to
take his place beside Goethe as the representative of the scientific side of the culture of his
country.
Banknote showing Alexander von Humboldt:
5 Mark 1964 (GDR)
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