The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1860-02-15
Mistellan
From the Madison Journal.
BAYARD TAYLOR UPON
ENBOLDT.

The lecture by BAYARD TAYLOR, last
evening, attracted one of the largest audi.
ences we have over seen gathered in our
city. 1t was an exceedingly interesting
sketch of the life, character and services
of Alexander Won Humboldt with some
personal "reminiscences of him.
The lecturer began by remarking that,
between the physical and the human Cos
mos, we find many curious parallels; that
in both realms there are periods in which
the creative energies seem to slumber, and
some in which they exert themselves in
splendor. AS the aloe is popularity suppos-
cd to rest for ninety-nins years, aud in
the hundredth to burst into blossom, SO
often, the mind of a century bursts into
cffloresence, and nature atones for her
seeming sleep by the sudden cxertion OF
great vital forces. Great minds dawn
upon the world in consultations Some
times decade sees the birth of those
who shall give character to the century,
sometimes a single year. One of these
ann; mirabii was 1860. In that year
were born Cuvier, Walter Scott. Yelling
ton, Napoleon, and Alexander Won Hum
boldt. The lecturer would not endeavor
to contrast characters so varied, destinics
so unlike; but to him the life of Hum
boldt presented a beautiful symmetry and
completeness which mono of his renowned
compeers could show. The lecturer
would treat of Hunboldt's ideas and feel
ings, not only in the realm of knowledge,
but prominently as man i'll the world
of men. 1t is good to contemplate TIE
union of sharp character with n har-
monious destiny. Like the Grecian
mother who toasted her eyes upon beauti-
full statues that her unborn child might
receive something of that leauty, that or
der which Humboldt sought in the ma
terial world. seems to have been reflected
at last in his life.
He then gave sketch of Humboldt's
early life, his wonderful hunger for all
kinds of knowledge, his passionate desire
for travel, his perseverance in pursuing
the objects to which he had devoted his
life, his travels in the tropical regions of
America, the marvellous descriptive pow
err manifested in some of his writings,
pieturing with more than Photographic
fidelity the magnificent scenery Of the
tropics.
The lecturer said that Humboldt's re-
searches and acquisitions were too vast to
allow him to take prominence in any one
department Of science, but with the ex-
ceDtion of Aristotle and Bacon no man
had ever stood forward so prominently
as the representative of the aggregate
knowledge Of his age. He was in fact
Bacon an practice. In his case the diff
iculty is rather to find out what he did
not, than what he did know. He sue
ceeded in raising physical geography to
the dignity of science. He WAS the sug-
gestor, if not the discover, of that system
of distribution Of plants and animals
which opens to our view another field of
the creative order. He established q
more perfect theory of climate; lie devel.
oped, to a great extent, the laws of volcan-
ic action; and shed new light on cleo
tricity and magnetism. The labors of
his life, however, were but colossal frag
ments of plan to vast for any single life
to complete. He doubtless aspired to
comprehend the secrets of that divine wis
dom to which the order of the VIII Sle
creation moves. Shallow bigots have
endeavored to discredit the man and his
works because his devotion was too pro-
found to be demenstrative. An Ameri-
can newspaper has said that bis Cosmos
is world without Gsd. What would
they have? A God without world -
Because there is nothing in botany which
substantiates infant baptims, i'll the
palnzoic rocks no evidence of heaven, and
only hints of purgatory in chemical gases,
they denounce oil science as atheism.
Which best understands the sun, tho
owl or the eagle! The ideal of Hum
boldt's life was too sacred to be offered
for popular inspection. He never feign-
cd sentiment which he did not really
feel. He did not often attend divine ser
vice, because he never attended as mere
form, but always for special need. His
was an exceptional nature, above the
needs and above the criticisms of the mass
of mankind. When the King of Prussia
became suddenly pious and his courtiers
followed his example, enc Of them met
HUMBOLDT. one day, IN the porch of the
church, and said, "Ah! one would hard
ly except to see you here" "Why," re-
piled Humboldt, "don't you suppose I
want to keep in favor, as well as the
res. of you!"
When the lecturer last saw him, he
showed him chameleon in box, and
directed Mr.. Taylor's attention particular
" to its projecting eyes. "One Of this
creatures peculiarities," said he, ''is that
it can look two ways at the same time;
it can lift one eye to heaven while it
bends the other to the earth-thers are
many clergymen who possess the same
faculty" But his religion was a deep
and true one. When he lay on his
deathbed, the dreary pail which covered
the sky parted for q moment, and the sun
burst suddenly into tie room. "How