The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1858-09-03

Hpnko1t

Besides the regular members Of the Uni
versiiy, there are in Berlin quite number
Of celebrated >c',ol,rs aud authors who move
in the professional! circles, and belong to the
Academy OF Sciences, which adioins the
University bindings. OF these. l need only
mention Alexander Won Humboit, the world
renowned patriarch OF Natural Sciences the
intellectual! mirror Of the physical cosmos,
the living wonder Of the age. In his eighty
seventh vear-for he WAS born in 1869, the
same year with Napoleon and Wellington,
and within few months Of the elder
Srhleiernachcr, and the Younger Hcgel-
he still speaks aud writes with the freshness
OF youth and the vigor Of manhood, and
seems to defy the wasting power of time up
on the mortal frame. He never was m az
rie'l but to sciences. He talks with the
rapidity and tulness Of information as ever,
reads and answers some four thousand let
ters annually; dimes almost daily with the
King of Prussia, and performs, contrary to
the wishes of his royal friend, the duties of
chamberlain in his turn, refusing the indul-
gence of a chair; he is incessant in polite
attention to friends and distinguished slran-
gers during the day, and spends the half of
the night in severe scientific labor, allowing
his body only a few hours Of rest.
What n melancholy reflection that such
master Of all the mysteries of nature, the
daily companion Of a pious king, and. in
Il moral point of view, kind hearted, be-
nevo!cnt, and amiabe gentleman Of the
highest finish, should, like Gernany's
greatest poet, Goethe. content himself with
the wonders Of nature, without rising to ma.
tures God, and remain Indifferent to the
greater mysteries of grace. / may do him
injustice, butt cannot remember now to
have read even the name of God-not to
speak Of Christ--in the three volumes 80
far published Of his Cosmos, except IN an
approved quotation from lost work Of the
heathern Aristotle, rs preserved by the
heathern Cicero, (de natura Deoruna, ii,37.)
We mean the sublime passage that puts to
shame many. nomicalIy Christian pliloso
pher: "Nobly does Aristotle observe, that
it there were beings who had always lived
under ground, in convenient. nay, magnifi-
cent dwellings, adorned with statdes and
pictures and e everything that belongs to
prosperous life; if, then. these beings should
be told of the being and power of The gods,
and should come up, through open fssures
from their secret abodcs TO the places which
inhabit; if they should suddenly behold the
starry heavens, the changing moon, the
rising and setting Of the stars, and their r-eter-
naIIy ordained aud Interchangeable courses,
they would exc!aim with trutlis There are
gods, and such great things are their works" !"
How much is it to be sdesired that this
truly remarkable man, sbefore closing :his
unrivalled scientific career, should bow. down
in clliId-like alteration and faith before the
one and true God, whose living presence
alone gives strength, ondersand beatty to
thewolks Of 4 His haasi, and whose glory
s6ines from-tb starry heavens above Us,
S6omsthe solid .eaah beneath rs, and from
the rational: will within US, from ssbs Aeqki
Of nature, and the book Of Eistory, .bu.
brightest Of all, fsom,tbe Book ofbooks, and
the.faee of his only begqtten gpsralI OF
grace: and struthr - SchsG5 ,GerrgdEg. -
= Is; 80