New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-12-03

Mr. BAYARD TAILOR gave before large audience
last evening in the Cooper Institute address ON
the Life and Character OF Alexander Ven Humboldt.
He said that as the aloe aevsvsA but in hundred
years, 80 the worlds gI,sEeh came fourth only in
rare years. Such y@1s>~ V69, which produced
Cuvier, Walter Scott arsa 5ton, Napoleon, and
Humboldt His infancy - childhood We're spent
under the most favorable circumstances, and his
teacher George Foster the tran isor of Robinson
Crusoe that fiction more real than any reality. lie
taught the boy Humboldt botany in his walks with
him. so that he had mastered the Inean System at II
years of age. This les him To other studies, be
found that each part OF all He studied nearly
all the sciences with persons eminent in those scien
ces. Wen prepared ~ all he at last sold HE
patrimony and ret out ON hls survey of the world with
special reference TO the tropical regions With BouP
land he projected several journeys; the first which he
complshed was in l799 nom Spain 10 the Spanish pos
sessions in South America He had an absolute hunger
for knowledge he was scientific detectOr, and once
onk war he affected by ANYTHING sublime MAG
nCent that he forgot bis scientific observations. lie
seldom referred to himself in his works; the Only graf
featon which be had ever heard him express at any
honor paid 10 him. at The reception of paper
Humboldt County, California, called The Humboldt
AeuS. But his pictures of scenery We're incompara-
bic. Mr.. 1tylo gave some instances Of his power
in that respect. This hrst journey, he said,
consumed twenty years of his lie and nearly all his
patrimOny. lie had projected journey into Central
Asia and Thbet and il was the regret of his life that he
WAS not able TO accomplish il. his later journey into
Russia was undertaken when sixty years old IL was
difficult 10 say in what Humboldt was great because
u was dlfcHlt 10 say in What he not great. tie
Vas rs general Aristotle and Bacon. The labors Of
his life but colossal fragments OF plan too vast
tOI any single mind 10 couplete Hls dream was
not merely of the general survey of the
earth, bHt Of the discovery of those eternal
laws which governed it's creation, and which
regulated its existence. He intended a Jour
ney OF discovery into Central Asia and Tibet
and, when the observations Of thai Journey had been
reduced to scientific results search for the secrets Of
Airica- Then, from the hight OF his vast experience
overlooking every realm of physical knowledge he
would strive to comprehend the laws Of that Divine
Misdolu from which the order Of Creation moved
When kepler discovered hls great laws, he
claimed in a burst OF religious emotion 80,
Almighty God | think thy thoughts after
"thee~ OF this sort the religious aspiration
al Hun bOlSt And yet he had been accused OF imp
ETY., called an assassin OF souis and had been sid
that his work. was world without God Because
issre was noshing in botany which supported infant
tptism, evidence in the Ia9ozolc rocks OF heaven
and only imperfect hints Of purgatoy ia the nature Of
the chemical gaaes hey denounced all sceace athe-
istic lIangh,er.l Humboldt rarely attended Divine
q roe and be possessed an unbOunded scorn for much
that is called religion. His religious nature per-
bars too deep to pd expression by such methods His
MAS NJ exceptional nature, beyond the needs Of The
lass Of mankind
H.. gayor raid that when he irst visited HumbolSt
70 showed him chaSeleon, al d after pointing out his
nsular ewes, said: One peculiarly Of this creature
II his power Of looking two ways At the tine
he can Eft one eve 10 heaven while the other
mans fixed TO the earth. There are many clergy
men who have the same faculty" Laughter and
Humboldts mind was amoSs phenoue-
ION, in that Re possessed both the investigating and
faculties. He was not bewildered by
etails. Lady Morgan said Of his mind: ''It re- |
minds ne Of the trunk of an elephants il |
can snap an oak or pick up PIN"
facaulay himself who, il said could repeat the
ykole Of the Paradise Lost, must yield 10 Humboldt in
lemory. A friend of Mr. Taylor, who was engaged |
3 work on Palestine, called on him 10 discuss some
oint relating to the topography Of Jerusalem. As