The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-10-27
HUMBOLDT.
BY JAMES PARTON.

i
in four quarters of the globe2 Wha
| did he do, that the inhabitants of 9,
many countries should be impelled t,
pay this unusual honor to his memo
ry? He was simply man who in
creased the sum of human knowledg,
which is one ofthe greatest services 1
3 man can do his fellows. s--... .
He was the son of a Prussian Off
Ger, a major in the army with which
Frederick the Great so gauantly de
Tended his kingdom during the Sever
Years. War. Born in 1859, he lost
his father. while he was yet a child
but his mother was enabled to give
him every advantage of education
which Germany afforded. At the
university he became particularly in
terested in geology, and during his va
cations he was accustomed to make
geological excursions in the Hartz
mountains and along the banks of the
Rhine, the results of which he pub,
lished, while he was still little more
than a youth. These early excursions
awakened in him a strong desire to ex-
plore the regions of the world lyin G
| beyond the ocean-the great noun
tain ranges OF Asia and South Ameri-
ca-of which then nothing was accu-
rstely known in Europe. He tells
US himself how the passion for scien-
tific travel arose within him. ..
"a student" he says, Sin a coun-
try which held no direct communica-
ton with the colonies of the two In
dies, iGhabiting mountainous region
remote from the sea- coast, ! never
theless felt growing within me q true
passion for the sea, and for extensive
Journeys My early taste for. botany,
the study of geology, and rapid
journey through Holland. England
and France, in the spring of 400,
with celebrated man-Mr. George
Foster-who. had had the happiness
to accompany Captain Cook in his
second voyage around the world,
contributed to give a fixed direction
to the plans of travel which I had
formed at the age OF eighteen. 1t
was no longer a mere desire for ex-
citement, and the love of wandering
life. What Inow wished to see was ma
ture, wild, majestic, and varied in its
productions. 1t was the hope of dis
covering some facts useful to the sci
ences which urged me necessarily to
ward those beautiful regions situated
beneath the torrid zone. My position
not permitting me then to execute
the projects which so exclusively oc-
cupied my mind, l had leisure during
six wears to prepare myself for the
observations which wished to make
in the new world. f l..
1t was of his feelings in his twenty
first year that he spoke in this pas
sage and his educltion was then in
complete. Although his family was
in liberal circumstances. it was ex-
peeled of him that he should prepare
for professional life. 1t was intend
ed that he should enter what we
should call the Treasury Department
of the Prussian Government, and he
studied a while with this object but
his passion for study of nature was
such that he joined a celebrated school
of mining at Freiberg, where he ob
served not merely the geology of the
subterranean regions, but its flowers
and plants-if such they can be call
ed. AT twenty three we find. him
holding a public employment. that of
director-general OF the mines OF two
small German DucIiies, Occasional
ly in these yearshe published work
upon the sciences TO which his voca-
ton directed him. Nor did he con-
fine himself to those sciences. When
Galvani, for example, in 1892, pub
-lished an account of his experiments
upon frogs, which led to the science
of Galvanisn, Humboldt threw him.
self into this new inquiry, and Ignve
the world the results of his expert
ments and reflections in two octavos.
At the same time-he" contributed lit
erary articles to periodical conduct
ed by Schiller, with the assistance of
Goethe. Thus his life passed until
his twenty-seventh year, when the
death of his mother released him
from the necessity of confining his
studies to his native country. 70" .'
Henow resigned his public employ
ments, and after spending somesweeks
IN becoming familiar with astrono-
mical instruments and operations, he
set out for Italy, intending to make
particular study of the volcanoes, We
suvius and Etna, But young Gener-
al Buonaparte was then in the midst
of his Italian. career. Italy being
closed to science, Humboldt returned
to Germany, and spent a winter in
close observations OF the weather, a
subject then and always of vital inter-
est to him. He was invited by an
English nobleman, Lord Bristol, to
accompany him on scientific explora-
ton of the sources of the Nile, which
he accepted with delight, and hasten
ed to Paris to buy the requisite in
struments. The first news he heard
at Paris was, that the same General
Buonaparte, the conqueror of Italy,
was about to lead his victorious troops
into Egypt. His first thought was
to Join the French expedition but,
disappointed in this, he made the tour
of fSpain, where he was received with
particular distinction 5.o. 80
His residence in Spain proved to be
of importance, for there was then at
the bead of affairs in the Peninsula a
Minister intelligent enough to enter
most warmly into Humboldt's vast
plans for he4study of the. new world.
Encouraged and assisted by the Span
ish minister. he embarked for Amer
lea witha single companion; in 1893,
on board the Spanish frigate Pizarro-
On the uav8 che two tnatllralists5 8 as