Frederick Henry Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin on
September 14, 1769. In 1788 he made the acquaintance of George
Forster, one of Captain Cook's companions, and geological
excursions made with him were the occasion of his first
publications, a book on the nature of basalt. His work in the
administration of mines in the principalities of Bayreuth and
Anspach furnished materials for a treatise on fossil flora; and in
1827, when he was residing in Paris, he gave to the world his
"Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent," which
embodies the results of his investigations in South America. Two
years later he organised an expedition to Asiatic Russia, charging
himself with all the scientific observations. But his principal
interest lay in the accomplishment of that physical description of
the universe for which all his previous studies had been a
preparation, and which during the years 1845 to 1848 appeared under
the comprehensive title of "Cosmos, or Sketch of a Physical
Description of the Universe." Humboldt died on May 6, 1859.
_I.--The Physical Study of the World_
The natural world may be opposed to the intellectual, or nature to art
taking the latter term in its higher sense as embracing the
manifestations of the intellectual power of man; but these
distinctions--which are indicated in most cultivated languages--must not
be suffered to lead to such a separation of the domain of physics from
that of the intellect as would reduce the physics of the universe to a
mere assemblage of empirical specialities. Science only begins for man
from the moment when his mind lays hold of matter--when he tries to
subject the mass accumulated by experience to rational combinations.
Science is mind applied to nature. The external world only exists for us
so far as we conceive it within ourselves, and as it shapes itself
within us into the form of a contemplation of nature. As intelligence
and language, thought and the signs of thought, are united by secret and
indissoluble links, so, and almost without our being conscious of it,
the external world and our ideas and feelings melt into each other.
"External phenomena are translated," as Hegel expresses it in his
"Philosophy of History," "in our internal representation of them." The
objective world, thought by us, reflected in us, is subjected to the
unchanging, necessary, and all-conditioning forms of our intellectual
being.
The activity of the mind exerts itself on the elements furnished to it
by the perceptions of the senses. Thus, in the youth of nations there
manifests itself in the simplest intuition of natural facts, in the
first efforts made to comprehend them, the germ of the philosophy of
nature.
If the study of physical phenomena be regarded in its bearings not on
the material wants of man, but on his general intellectual progress, its
highest result is found in the knowledge of those mutual relations which
link together the general forces of nature. It is the intuitive and
intimate persuasion of the existence of these relations which at once
enlarges and elevates our views and enhances our enjoyment. Such
extended views are the growth of observation, of meditation, and of the
spirit of the age, which is ever reflected in the operations of the
human mind whatever may be their direction.
From the time when man, in interrogating nature, began to experiment or
to produce phenomena under definite conditions, and to collect and
record the fruits of his experience--so that investigation might no
longer be restricted by the short limits of a single life--the
philosophy of nature laid aside the vague and poetic forms with which
she had at first been clothed, and has adopted a more severe character.
The history of science teaches us how inexact and incomplete
observations have led, through false inductions, to that great number
of erroneous physical views which have been perpetuated as popular
prejudices among all classes of society. Thus, side by side with a solid
and scientific knowledge of phenomena, there has been preserved a system
of pretended results of observation, the more difficult to shake because
it takes no account of any of the facts by which it is overturned.
This empiricism--melancholy inheritance of earlier times--invariably
maintains whatever axioms it has laid down; it is arrogant, as is
everything that is narrow-minded; while true physical philosophy,
founded on science, doubts because it seeks to investigate
thoroughly--distinguishes between that which is certain and that which
is simply probable--and labours incessantly to bring its theories nearer
to perfection by extending the circle of observation. This assemblage of
incomplete dogmas bequeathed from one century to another, this system of
physics made up of popular prejudices, is not only injurious because it
perpetuates error with all the obstinacy of ill-observed facts, but also
because it hinders the understanding from rising to the level of great
views of nature.
Instead of seeking to discover the _mean_ state around which, in the
midst of apparent independence and irregularity, the phenomena really
and invariably oscillate, this false science delights in multiplying
apparent exceptions to the dominion of fixed laws, and seeks, in organic
forms and the phenomena of nature, other marvels than those presented by
internal progressive development, and by regular order and succession.
Ever disinclined to recognise in the present the analogy of the past, it
is always disposed to believe the order of nature suspended by
perturbations, of which it places the seat, as if by chance, sometimes
in the interior of the earth, sometimes in the remote regions of space.
_II.--The Inductive Method_
The generalisation of laws which were first applied to smaller groups of
phenomena advances by successive gradations, and their empire is
extended, and their evidence strengthened, so long as the reasoning
process is directed to really analogous phenomena. Empirical
investigation begins by single perceptions, which are afterwards classed
according to their analogy or dissimilarity. Observation is succeeded at
a much later epoch by experiment, in which phenomena are made to arise
under conditions previously determined on by the experimentalist, guided
by preliminary hypotheses, or a more or less just intuition of the
connection of natural objects and forces.
The results obtained by observation and experiment lead by the path of
induction and analogy to the discovery of empirical laws, and these
successive phases in the application of human intellect have marked
different epochs in the life of nations. It has been by adhering closely
to this inductive path that the great mass of facts has been accumulated
which now forms the solid foundation of the natural sciences.
Two forms of abstraction govern the whole of this class of
knowledge--_viz._, the determination of quantitative relations,
according to number and magnitude; and relations of quality, embracing
the specific properties of heterogeneous matter.
The first of these forms, more accessible to the exercise of thought,
belongs to the domain of mathematics; the other, more difficult to
seize, and apparently more mysterious, to that of chemistry. In order to
submit phenomena to calculation, recourse is had to a hypothetical
construction of matter by a combination of molecules and atoms whose
number, form, position, and polarity determine, modify, and vary the
phenomena.
We are yet very far from the time when a reasonable hope could be
entertained of reducing all that is perceived by our senses to the unity
of a single principle; but the partial solution of the problem--the
tendency towards a general comprehension of the phenomena of the
universe--does not the less continue to be the high and enduring aim of
all natural investigation.
_III.--Distribution of Matter in Space_
A physical cosmography, or picture of the universe, should begin, not
with the earth, but with the regions of space--the distribution of
matter in the universe.
We see matter existing in space partly in the form of rotating and
revolving spheroids, differing greatly in density and magnitude, and
partly in the form of self-luminous vapour dispersed in shining nebulous
spots or patches. The nebulæ present themselves to the eye in the form
of round, or nebulous discs, of small apparent magnitude, either single
or in pairs, which are sometimes connected by a thread of light; when
their diameters are greater their forms vary--some are elongated, others
have several branches, some are fan-shaped, some annular, the ring being
well defined and the interior dark. They are supposed to be undergoing
various and progressive changes of form, as condensation proceeds around
one or more nuclei in conformity with the laws of gravitation. Between
two and three thousand of such unresolvable nebulæ have already been
counted, and their positions determined.
If we leave the consideration of the attenuated vaporous matter of the
immeasurable regions of space, whether existing in a dispersed state as
a cosmical ether without form or limits, or in the shape of nebulæ, and
pass to those portions of the universe which are condensed into solid
spheres or spheroids, we approach a class of phenomena exclusively
designated as stars or as the sidereal universe. Here, too, we find
different degrees of solidity or density in the agglomerated matter.
If we compare the regions of space to one of the island-studded seas of
our planet, we may imagine we see matter distributed in groups, whether
of unresolvable nebulæ of different ages condensed around one or more
nuclei, or in clusters of stars, or in stars scattered singly. Our
cluster of stars, or the island in space to which we belong, forms a
lens-shaped, flattened, and everywhere detached stratum, whose major
axis is estimated at seven or eight hundred, and its minor axis at a
hundred and fifty times, the distance of Sirius. If we assume that the
parallax of Sirius does not exceed that accurately determined for the
brightest stars in Centaur (0.9128 sec.), it will follow that light
traverses one distance of Sirius in three years, while nine years and a
quarter are required for the transmission of the light of the star 61
Cygni, whose considerable proper motion might lead to the inference of
great proximity.
Our cluster of stars is a disc of comparatively small thickness divided,
at about a third its length, into two branches; we are supposed to be
near this division, and nearer to the region of Sirius than to that of
the constellation of the Eagle; almost in the middle of the starry
stratum in the direction of its thickness.
The place of our solar system and the form of the whole lens are
inferred from a kind of scale--_i.e._, from the different number of
stars seen in equal telescopic fields of view. The greater or less
number of stars measures the relative depth of the stratum in different
directions; giving in each case, like the marks on a sounding-line, the
comparative length of visual ray required to reach the bottom; or, more
properly, as above and below do not here apply, the outer limit of the
sidereal stratum.
In the direction of the major axis, where the greater number of stars
are placed behind each other, the remoter ones appear closely crowded
together, and, as it were, united by a milky radiance, and present a
zone or belt projected on the visible celestial vault. This narrow belt
is divided into branches; and its beautiful, but not uniform brightness,
is interrupted by some dark places. As seen by us on the apparent
concave celestial sphere, it deviates only a few degrees from a great
circle, we being near the middle of the entire starry cluster, and
almost in the plane of the Milky Way. If out planetary system were far
outside the cluster, the Milky Way would appear to telescopic vision as
a ring, and at a still greater distance as a resolvable disc-shaped
nebula.
_IV.--On Earth History_
The succession and relative age of different geological formations are
traced partly by the order of superposition of sedimentary strata, of
metamorphic beds, and of conglomerates, but most securely by the
presence of organic remains and their diversities of structure. In the
fossiliferous strata are inhumed the remains of the floras and faunas of
past ages. As we descend from stratum to stratum to study the relations
of superposition, we ascend in the order of time, and new worlds of
animal and vegetable existence present themselves to the view.
In our ignorance of the laws under which new organic forms appear from
time to time upon the surface of the globe, we employ the expression
"new creations" when we desire to refer to the historical phenomena of
the variations which have taken place at intervals in the animals and
plants that have inhabited the basins of the primitive seas and the
uplifted continents.
It has sometimes happened that extinct species have been preserved
entire, even to the minutest details of their tissues and articulations.
In the lower beds of the Secondary Period, the lias of Lyme Regis, a
sepia has been found so wonderfully preserved that a part of the black
fluid with which the animal was provided myriads of years ago to conceal
itself from its enemies has actually served at the present time to draw
its picture. In other cases such traces alone remain as the impression
which the feet of animals have left on wet sand or mud over which they
passed when alive, or the remains of their undigested food (coprolites).
The analytical study of the animal and vegetable kingdoms of the
primitive world has given rise to two distinct branches of science; one
purely morphological, which occupies itself in natural and physiological
descriptions, and in the endeavour to fill up from extinct forms the
chasms which present themselves in the series of existing species; the
other branch, more especially geological considers the relations of the
fossil remains to the superposition and relative age of the sedimentary
beds in which they are found. The first long predominated; and the
superficial manner which then prevailed of comparing fossil and existing
species led to errors of which traces still remain in the strange
denominations which were given to certain natural objects. Writers
attempted to identify all extinct forms with living species, as, in the
sixteenth century, the animals of the New World were confounded by false
analogies with those of the Old.
In studying the relative age of fossils by the order of superposition of
the strata in which they are found, important relations have been
discovered between families and species (the latter always few in
numbers) which have disappeared and those which are still living. All
observations concur in showing that the fossil floras and faunas differ
from the present animal and vegetable forms the more widely in
proportion as the sedimentary beds to which they belong are lower, or
more ancient.
Thus great variations have successively taken place in the general
types of organic life, and these grand phenomena, which were first
pointed out by Cuvier, offer numerical relations which Deshayes and
Lyell have made the object of researches by which they have been
conducted to important results, especially as regards the numerous and
well-preserved fossils of the Tertiary formation. Agassiz, who has
examined 1,700 species of fossil fishes, and who estimates at 8,000 the
number of living species which have been described, or which are
preserved in our collections, affirms that, with the exception of one
small fossil fish peculiar to the argillaceous geodes of Greenland, he
has never met in the Transition, Secondary, or Tertiary strata with any
example of this class specifically identical with any living fish; and
he adds the important remark that even in the lower Tertiary formations
a third of the fossil fishes of the _calcaire grossier_ and of the
London clay belong to extinct families.
We have seen that fishes, which are the oldest vertebrates, first appear
in the Silurian strata, and are found in all the succeeding formations
up to the birds of the Tertiary Period. Reptiles begin in like manner in
the magnesian limestone, and if we now add that the first mammalia are
met with in Oolite, the Stonefield slate; and that the first remains of
birds have been found in the deposits of the cretaceous period, we shall
have indicated the inferior limits, according to our present knowledge,
of the four great divisions of the vertebrates.
In regard to invertebrate animals, we find corals and some shells
associated in the oldest formations with very highly organised
cephalopodes and crustaceans, so that widely different orders of this
part of the animal kingdom appear intermingled; there are, nevertheless,
many isolated groups belonging to the same order in which determinate
laws are discoverable. Whole mountains are sometimes found to consist of
a single species of fossil goniatites, trilobites, or nummulites.
Where different genera are intermingled, there often exists a
systematic relation between the series of organic forms and the
superposition of the formations; and it has been remarked that the
association of certain families and species follows a regular law in the
superimposed strata of which the whole constitutes one formation. It has
been found that the waters in the most distant parts of the globe were
inhabited at the same epochs by testaceous animals corresponding, at
least in generic character, with European fossils.
Strata defined by their fossil contents, or by the fragments of other
rocks which they include, form a geological horizon by which the
geologist may recognise his position, and obtain safe conclusions in
regard to the identity or relative antiquity of formations, the
periodical repetition of certain strata--their parallelism--or their
entire suppression. If we would thus comprehend in its greatest
simplicity the general type of the sedentary formations, we find in
proceeding successively from below upwards: (1) The Transition group,
including the Silurian and Devonian (Old Red Sandstone) systems; (2) the
Lower Trias, comprising mountain limestone, the coal measures, the lower
new red sandstone, and the magnesian limestone; (3) the Upper Trias,
composing the bunter, or variegated sandstone, the muschelkalk, and the
Keuper sandstone; (4) the Oolitic, or Jurassic series, including Lias;
(5) the Cretaceous series; (6) the Tertiary group, as represented in its
three stages by the _calcaire grossier_ and other beds of the Paris
basin, the lignites, or brown coal of Germany, and the sub-Apennine
group of Italy.
To these succeed transported soils (_alluvium_), containing the gigantic
bones of ancient mammalia, such as the mastodons, the dinotherium, and
the megatheroid animals, among which is the mylodon of Owen, an animal
upwards of eleven feet in length, allied to the sloth. Associated with
these extinct species are found the fossil remains of animals still
living: elephants, rhinoceroses, oxen, horses, and deer. Near Bogota, at
an elevation of 8,200 French feet above the level of the sea, there is a
field filled with the bones of mastodon (_Campo de Gigantes_), in which
I have had careful excavations made. The bones found on the table-lands
of Mexico belong to the true elephants of extinct species. The minor
range of the Himalaya, the Sewalik hills, contain, besides numerous
mastodons, the sivatherium and the gigantic land-tortoise
(_Colossochelys_), more than twelve feet in length and six in height, as
well as remains belonging to still existing species of elephants,
rhinoceroses, and giraffes. It is worthy of notice that these fossils
are found in a zone which enjoys the tropical climate supposed to have
prevailed at the period of the mastodons.
_V.--The Permanence of Science_
It has sometimes been regarded as a discouraging consideration that,
while works of literature being fast-rooted in the depths of human
feeling, imagination and reason suffer little from the lapse of time, it
is otherwise with works which treat of subjects dependent on the
progress of experimental knowledge. The improvement of instruments, and
the continued enlargement of the field of observation, render
investigations into natural phenomena and physical laws liable to become
antiquated, to lose their interest, and to cease to be read.
Let none who are deeply penetrated with a true and genuine love of
nature, and with a lively appreciation of the true charm and dignity of
the study of her laws, ever view with discouragement or regret that
which is connected with the enlargement of the boundaries of our
knowledge. Many and important portions of this knowledge, both as
regards the phenomena of the celestial spaces and those belonging to our
own planet, are already based on foundations too firm to be lightly
shaken; although in other portions general laws will doubtless take the
place of those which are more limited in their application, new forces
will be discovered, and substances considered as simple will be
decomposed, while others will become known.