characteristic of the man. After a of study to pursue,-these were the cordial greeting, he walked straight things of which he talked to me on to what was then my library,-a small that delightful evening. I do not book-shelf containing a few classics, mention this trivial incident without the meanest editions bought for a feeling that it may seem too familiar trifle along the quays, some works on for the occasion; nor should I give philosophy and history, chemistry it at all, except that it shows the and physics, his own Views of Na sweetness and kindliness of HUMture, ARISTOTLE's Zoology, LINNEUS'S BOLDT'S nature. It was not enough Systema Naturæ, in several editions, for him to cheer and stimulate the CURVIER'S Règne Animal, and quite student; he cared also to give a rare a number of manuscript quartos, indulgence to a young man who could copies which, with the assistance of allow himself few luxuries. my brother, I had made of works I The last period of his life was spent was too poor to buy, though they cost in Berlin, and while there to the end but a few francs a volume. Most of his long and laborious career he conspicuous of all were twelve vol- was engaged with the publication of umes of the new German Cyclopædia his Cosmos, and also in editing the presented to me by the publisher. I great work, on the Kavi language, shall never forget, after his look of left by his brother WILLIAM, Who mingled interest and surprise at my little collection, his half sarcastic question as he pounced upon the great Encyclopædia," Was machen Sie denn mit dieser Eselsbrücke?" What are you doing with this ass's bridge? -the somewhat contemptuous name given in Germany to similar compilations. "I have not had time," I said, "to study the original sources of learning, and I need a prompt and easy answer to a thousand questions I have as yet no other means of solving."

died in 1835. Besides these important undertakings, he was unceasingly engaged in fostering magnetic observations and the establishment of magnetic observatories. He likewise felt a lively interest in the proposed interoceanic Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the lines for which he had carefully considered in earlier years. Surrounded by loving and admiring friends, covered with honors and distinctions, these days were rich in peaceful enjoyment.

One of the most prominent features It was no doubt apparent to him of HUMBOLDT's mind, as philosopher that I was not over familiar with the and student of nature, consists in the good things of this world, for I shortly keenness with which he perceives the afterward received an invitation to most remote relations of the phenommeet him at six o'clock in the Galerie ena under consideration, and the vitrée of the Palais Royal, whence he felicity with which he combines his led me into one of those restaurants, facts so as to draw the most comthe tempting windows of which I prehensive pictures. This faculty is had occasionally passed by. When more particularly exhibited in the we were seated, he half laughingly, Cosmos, the crowning effort of his mahalf inquiringly asked me whether I ture life. With a grasp transcending would order the dinner. I declined the most profound generalizations of the invitation, saying that we should the philosophers of all ages, he draws fare better if he would take the at first in broad outlines a sketch of trouble. And for three hours, which passed like a dream, I had him all to myself. How he examined me, and how much I learned in that short time! How to work, what to do, and what to avoid; how to live; how to distribute my time; what methods

the whole Universe. With an eye sharpened by the most improved instruments of the Observatory, and exalted by the experience of all his predecessors, he penetrates into the remotest recesses of space, to seek for the faintest ray of light that may

emphatically his own, has led many specialists to underrate HUMBOLDT'S familiarity with different branches of science; as if knowledge could only be recorded in pedantic forms and 2 set phraseology.

furnish any information concerning stars, etc., are discussed in turn The the expanse of the heavenly vault and changes which our globe has underthe age of the celestial bodies. He gone in the course of ages are next thus makes the rapidity with which described: how the lands gradually light is propagated a measure of the rose above the level of the sea: how distance which separates the visible they first formed disconnected archiparts of the whole system from one pelagos; how mountains grew up in another, as well as a means of ap- succession, and their relative age: the proximately estimating the duration form and extent of successively larger of their existence. He next con- continental islands, their plants and siders the various appearances of the animals;-nothing escaped his attencelestial bodies, the different kinds of tion; everything is represented in its nebulæ, their form and relations to true place and relation to the whole. one another and to the so-called fixed Especially attractive are his delineastars; describes in graphic and fas- tions of the distribution of plants and cinating language the landscape-like animals upon the present surface of loveliness of their combinations in the the earth, of which an account has Milky-Way and the various con- already been given. stellations; discusses the nature of This mode of treating his subjects, the doublestars, and, gradually approaching our own system by a comparison of our sun to other suns, rises, by a sublime effort of the imagination, to a conception of the form of their united systems in space. In the description of our solar system one But HUMBOLDT is not only an ob might have expected an exposition server, not only a physicist, a geogsimilar to the methods adopted by rapher, a geologist of matchless astronomers; but the object of our power and erudition, he knows that great physicist is not to write a syn- nature has its attraction for the soul opsis of Astronomy. He plunges of man; that, however uncultivated, without hesitation into the earliest man is impressed by the great phehistory of the formation of our earth, nomena amid which he lives; that he the better to illustrate the relations to is dependent for his comforts and the one another of the sun and the planets progress of civilization upon the world with their satellites, the comets, and that surrounds him This leads to an the hosts of meteors of all kinds which appreciative analysis of the enjoyment come flashing, like luminous showers. derived from the contemplation of nathrough the atmosphere. Our globe ture, and to considerations of the is reviewed in its turn. First, its highest order respecting the influence structure, the density of its mass, in which natural highways have had the estimation of which the oscilla- upon the races of men, in their distritions of the pendulum become a plum-bution upon the whole surface of the met-line with which to fathom the globe. inapproachable deep; then the volcanoes are made to reveal the everlasting conflict between the interior caldrons of melted materials and the consolidation of the ruffled surface; the distribution of heat and light, the climates, as depending upon the in equalities of form and relief, the currents of the ocean, as modifying the temperature, the magnetic phenomena, the aurora borealis, the shooting

In speaking of his later days I cannot omit some allusion to a painful fact connected with his residence at Berlin. The publication of a private correspondence between VARNHAGEN VON ENSE and HUMBOLDT has led to many unfriendly criticisms upon the latter. He has been blamed for holding his place at court, while, in private, he criticised and even satirized severely everything connected with

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it. It is not easy to place one's self remember that his official station in the right point of view with ref- there gave him the means of inerence to these confidential letters. fluencing culture and education in his It must be remembered that HIUM- native country in a way which he BOLDT was a Republican at heart. could not otherwise have done, and His most intimate friends, from that in this respect he made the FORSTER, in his early youth, to noblest use of his position. His symARAGO, in his mature years, were pathy with the oppressed in every land ardent Republicans. He shared their was profound. We see it in his feelenthusiasm for the establishment of ing for the aborigines in South Amerself-government among men. An ica, in his abhorrence of slavery. I anecdote preserved to us by LIEBER believe that he would have experienshows that he did not conceal his ced one of the purest and deepest sympathies, even before the King joys of his life had he lived to hear of who honored him so highly. LIEBER, the abolition of slavery in the United who was present at the conversation, States. His dislike of all subserviency gives the following account of it: and flattery, whether toward himself The King of Prussia, HUMBOLDT, or others, was always openly exand NIEBUHR were talking of the pressed, and was unquestionably genaffairs of the day, and the latter spoke uine. in no flattering terms of the political The philosophical views of HIUMviews and antecedents of ARAGO, who, BOLDT, his position with reference to it is well-known, was a very advanced the gravest and most important Republican of the Gallican School, an questions concerning man's destiny, uncomprimising French democrat. and the origin of all things, have been FREDERIC WILLIAM the Third simply often discussed, and the most opabominated Republicanism; yet when posite opinions have been expressed NIEBUIR had finished, HUMBOLDT respecting them by men who seem said with a sweetness which I vividly equally competent to appreciate the remember: "Still this monster is the meaning of his writings. The modern dearest friend I have in France." school of Atheists claims him as their Can we, therefore, be surprised, that leader; as such we find him representin his confidential letters to a sym-ed by BURMEISTER in his scientific pathizing friend, he should not refrain letters. Others bring forward his from expressing his dislike of the sympathy with Christian culture as petty intrigues and low sentiments evidence of his adherence to Chriswhich he met among courtiers. I re- tianity in his broadest sense. It is ceived, myself, a letter from HUM difficult to find in HUMBOLDT'S OWN BOLDT, written in the days when the writings any clew to the exact nature reactionary movements were at their of his convictions. He had too great height in Prussia, in which, in a strain regard for truth, and he knew too well of deep sadness and despondency, he the Aryan origin of the traditions expresses his regret at the turn po- collected by the Jews, to give his litical affairs had taken in Europe, countenance to any creed based upon and his disappointment at the failure them. Indeed, it was one of his of those aspirations for freedom with aims to free our civilization from the which he had felt the deepest sym- pressure of Jewish tradition; but it is pathy in his youth. We may wish impossible to become familiar with his that this great man had been wholly writings without feeling that, if HUMconsistent, that no shadow had rested BOLDT was not a believer, he was no upon the loyalty of his character, that scoffer. A reverential spirit for everyhe had not accepted the friendship thing great and good breaths through and affection of a King whose court all his pages. Like a true philosopher, he did not respect and whose weak- he knew that the time had not yet nesses he keenly felt. But let us come for a scientific investigation in

to the origin of all things. Before inquirer may even infer that Hгмhe attempted to discuss the direct BOLDT believed in a special Provi action of a Creator in bringing about dence. For he says with much feelthe present condition of the Universe, ing: "Our friends are no more, the he knew that the physical laws which house we lived in is a pile of ruins; govern the material world must be the city I have described no longer first understood; that it would be a exists. The day had been very hot, mistake to ascribe to the agency of a the air was calm, the sky without a Supreme Power occurrences and phe- cloud. It was Holy Thursday; the nomena which could be deduced from people were mostly assembled in the the continued agency of natural churches. Nothing seemed to forecauses. Until some limit to the action shadow the threatening misfortune. of these causes has been found, there Suddenly, at four o'clock in the afteris no place, in a scientfic discussion, noon, the bells which were struck as such, for the consideration of the mute that day began to toll. It was intervention of a Creator. the hand of God, and not the hand of man, which rang that funeral dirge." In his own words: "Es war Gottes, nicht Menschenhand, die hier zum Grabgeläute zwang."

In the closing paragraph of the first volume of the Cosmos HUMBOLDT distinctly objects to the consideration of the sphere of intelligence in connection with the study of Nature. One word more before I close. I But the time is fast approaching, and have appeared before you as the repindeed some daring thinkers have resentative of the Boston Natural actually entered upon the question, History Society. It was their pro-Where is the line between the in- position to celebrate this memorable evitable action of law and the inter- anniversary. I feel grateful for their vention of a higher power? where is invitation, for the honor they have the limit? And here we find the done me. I feel still more grateful most opposite views propounded. for the generous impulse which has There are those who affirm that, inas- prompted them to connect a HUMmuch as force and matter are found BOLDT Scholarship, as a memorial of to be a sufficient ground for so many this occasion, with the Museum of physical phenomena, we are justified Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. in assuming that the whole universe, I trust this token of good-will may including organic life, has no further only be another expression of that origin. To these, I venture to say, emulation for progress which I HUMBOLDT did not belong. He had too logical a mind to assume that an harmoniously combined whole could be the result of accidental occurrences. In the few instances where, in his works, he uses the name of God, it appears plainly that he believes in a Creator as a lawgiver and primary originator of all things. There are two passages in his writings especially significant in this respect. In the second volume of the Cosmos, when speaking of the impression man receives from the contemplation of the physical world, he calls nature God's majestic realm,-" Gottes erhabenes the hungry and naked, appeal to the Reich. In his allusion to the fear ful catastrophe of Carracas, destroyed by an earthquake in 1812, the critical

earnestly hope may forever be the only rivarly between these kindred institutions and their younger sister in Salem. We have all a great task to perform.

It should be our effort, as far as it lies in our power, to raise the standard of culture of our people, as HUMBOLDT has elevated that of the world. May the community at large feel with equal keenness the importance of each step now taken for the expansion, in every direction, of all the means of the highest culture. The physical suffering of humanity, the wants of the poor, the craving of

sympathy of every one who has a human heart. But there are necessities which only the destitute stu

dent knows; there is a hunger and all. We cannot stop at NEWTON or thirst which only the highest charity LEIBNITZ, though NEWTON seems to can understand and relieve, and on have gravitated with a more absolute this solemn occasion let me say that every dollar given for higher education, in whatever special department of knowledge, is likely to have a greater influence upon the future character of our nation than even the thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions which have already been spent and are daily spending to raise the many to material ease and comfort.

In the hope of this coming golden age, let us rejoice together that HUмBOLDT's name will be permanently connected with education and learning in this country, with the prospects and institutions of which he felt so deep and so affectionate a sympathy.

At the Evening Reception which followed the Memorial Address, Professor FREDERIC H. HEDGE, of Harvard University, spoke as follows:

was

a

aplomb to the truth of fact, aud though LEIBNITZ pierced with a finer aperou to the heart of things. We cannot stop at BACON, whose merit is not to have found, nor even to have sought with sincerity, but only to have taught men what and how to seek. We cannot stop till we come to ARISTOTLE. And here we have an even parallel. Between HMBOLDT and ARISTOTLE there are, it seems to me, some points of striking resemblance. Both of these sages mastered and extended the science of their time,— with this difference in favor of the Greek, that he explored the realm of ideas as well as of things; with this difference in favor of the German, that the science of things and their relations-cosmic science thousand-fold more complex and difficult in the nineteenth century of the Christian era than in the fourth of MR. CHAIRMAN-It is hard gleaning the ante-Christian. Both were fortuin a field in which AGASSIZ has been nate in being partakers of the recent with his sickle. But since you call stimuolus given by a great philosophic upon me, I will say that the thing movement, that of SOCRATES in the which most impressed me, as I listened one case, in the other that of KANT. to the discourse this afternoon, was Both were contemporaries of great the psychological marvel of such a na-world-conquerors and shared the imture as HUMBOLDT's, and the illustra- pulse imparted to their time,—the tion it affords of the capabilities of one by ALEXANDER, the other by NAthe human mind. Here was a man POLEON the first. whose inappeasable greed of knowledge had appropriated all the science of his time, who knew all that was known in his day of things below and things above. The word "Cosmos," the title he gave to his immortal work, is an apt designation of the Another thing which fills my soul mind of the author,-a mind in which with profound admiration when I the universe mirrored itself in all its think of HUMBOLDT is the heroism of vastness and all its minuteness, with his life,-a life which exceeded in its infinitely great and its no less breadth as well as in length the ordiamazing infinitely little. Where nary limits of mortality. I admire shall we look for the parallel and peer his loyal devotion to the single aim of of such a mind? To find his match extending the area of the huma we have to go back two thousand mind. I admire the indomitable enyears. We cannot stop at the name terprise which ransacked the globe of LAPLACE or of BUFFON; these in search of materials with which to men were great in single provinces of build his monumental Cosmos I science, but HMBOLDT was great in admire no less the indefatigable in

DANTE called ARISTOTLE "il maestro di color' che sanno,"-master among them that know. And what better title can be conferred upon HuмBOLDT? Master among them that know, -the master savant.