The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-10-19
Alexander Won Humboldt.

interest The address of Prof. Agassiz
at the Music Hail. Boston, is well worth
a careful perusal. We give below au
extract which our readers will be glad to
see.
| .Ut'. President, Ldliies and Gentlemen:
| am invited to an unwonted task.
Thus far have appeared before the pub
lie only as teacher of natural history.
To-day for the first time in my life, |
leave a field in which | am at home, to
take upon myself the duties of biograph-
er. If | succeed at all, it will be because
| so loved and honored the man whose
memory brings us together.
Alexander Won Humboldt was born in
Berlin, in 1769,-one hundred years ago
this day,-in that fertile year which gave
birth to Napoleon, Wellington, Canning,
Cuvier, Walter Scott, Chateaubriand, and
50 many other remarkable men. All
America was then the property of Euro
pean monarchs. The first throb Of the
American Revolution had not yet dis
turbed the relations of the mother country
and her colonies. Spain held Florida,
Mexico and the greater part of South
America Franco owned Louisiana and
all Brazil was tributary to Portugal.
What stupendous changes have taken
place since that time in the political
world Divine right of possession was
then the recognized law on which govern
ments were based. A mighty republic
has since been born, the fundamental
meaning of which is selfgovernment.
Progress in the intellectual world, the
world of thought, has kept pace with the
advance of civil liberty; reference to au-
thority has been superseded by free in
quiry and Humboldt was one of the
great leaders in this onward movement.
He has bravely fought the battle for in
dependence of thought against the tyran-
ny of authority No man impressed his
country intellectually more powerfully,
perhaps no man so powerfully as he.
Therefore he is so dear to the Germans,
with whom many nations unite to do him
honor to-day. Nor is it alone because of
what he has done for science, or for any
one department of research, that we feel
grateful to him, but rather because of that
breadth and comprehensiveness of know
ledge which lifts whole communities to
higher levels of culture, and impresses it.
self upon the unlearned as well as upon
students and scholars.
To what degree we Americans are in
debted to him, no one knows who is not
familiar with the history of learning and
education in the last century. All the
fundamental facts of popular education in
physical science, beyond the merest ele-
mcntary instruction, we owe to him. We
are reaping daily in every school through
out this broad land, where education is the
heritage even of the poorest child, the in
tellectual harvest sown by him. See this
map of the United States all its i'm
portant features are based upon his inves-
legations; for he first recognized the great
relations of the earth's features, the laws
of climate on which the whole system of
isothermal lines is based, the relative
height Of mountain chains and tablet lands,
the distributions of vegetation on the
whole earth. There is not textbook of
geography or school-atlas in the hands
of our children to-day which does not
bear, however blurred and defaced, the
impress of his great mind. But for him
our biographies would be mere enumera-
ations Of localities and statistics He first
suggested the graphic methods of repre-
sentng natural phenomena which are now
universally adopted. The first geological
sections, the first sections across an entire
continent, the averages of climate illus
trated by lines, were his. Every school
boy is familiar with his methods now, but
he does not know that Humboldt is his
teacher The fertilizing power of great
mind is wonderful but as we travel fur
ther from the source, it is hidden from us
by the very abundance and productivene.s
it has caused, How few of us remember
that the tidal lines, the present mode of
registering magnetic phenomena and
oceanic currents, are but the application
of Humboldts researches, ,and ofhis graph
ic mode of recording them
HIS AMERICAN JOURNEY.
There is, perhaps,no part of Humboldt's
life better known to the public, especially
in this country, than his American jour
ney. His fascinating personal Nara.
tive" is known to all, and need not
therefore, describe his course, or dwell
upon the details ofhis personal experience
No period of his life, however, has had a
more powerful influence upon knowledge
and education than these FIVE years Of
travel, and therefore I will speak at some
length of their scientific results. In the
very glory Of his youth, and yet with al
intellectual maturity which belongs tC
latter manhood, his physical activity anC
endurance kept pace with the fertility
and comprehensiveness of his mind
Never was the old proverbial wish, rs
jeunesse savait, 81 vieillesse pouvait,' 81
near fulflment; never were the strength
of youth and tho knowledge of age 81
closely combined.
AT the first step of the journey namely
his pause at the canary Islands and as
cension of the Peak of Teneriffe, he ha
, left us a graphic picture of the place, O
its volcanic phenomena, its geological
character, and the distribution of its vege
tation, in which are foreshadowed all hi
latter generalizations. Landing in Cuma
; ma, he made his first long station there
His explorations of the mountains, val
leys and sea-shore in that neighborhood
his geological researches, his astronomica
observations by which the exact positio
of various localities was determined, hi
meteorological investigations, and his col
lections of every kind, were ofva scier
tifc Importance. He had already begu
his studies upon averages of climate, tn
result of which, known as the isothel
NAL lines" was one of his most origins
contributions to science. With the il
tuition of genius he saw that the distribu
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