HUMBOLDT

The Baron and Baroness von Hollwede were not happily married.

The Baroness had intellect, spirit, aspiration, with an appreciation of

all that was best in art, music and the world of thought. As to the

Baron, he had drunk life's wine to the lees and pronounced the draft

bitter. He was a heavy dragoon with a soul for foxhounds. Later, when

gout got to twinging him, he contented himself with cards and cronies.

And then Destiny, like a novelist who does not know what to do with a

character, sent him on an excursion across the River Styx.

This was a good move all round, and the only accommodating action in

which the Baron ever had a part. He left a large estate, not being able

to take it along.

There are two kinds of widows, the bereaved and the relieved. In India

no widow is allowed to remarry. The canons of the Episcopal Church

forbid any widow or widower to remarry whose former partner is living. A

member of the Catholic Church who makes a marital mistake is not allowed

to rectify it. Yet Nature, sometimes, as if to prove the foolishness of

fearsome little man, justifies that of which man hotly disapproves.

To be a widow of thirty-six, fair of face and comely in form, to own a

beautiful home and have an income greater than you can spend, and still

not enough to burden you--what nobler ambition!

The Baroness had a little encumbrance--a son aged ten. I would like to

tell of his career, but alas, of him history is silent, save that he was

heir to some of his father's proclivities, grew up, became an army

officer and passed into obscurity in middle life, dishonored and unsung.

Such a widow as the Baroness von Hollwede is not apt to mourn for long.

She was courted by many, but it was Major Humboldt who found favor in

her heart. I assume that all of my gentle readers have in them some of

the saltness of time, so that details may safely be omitted--let

imagination bridge the interesting gap.

The Major was a few years younger than the lady, but like the gallant

gentleman that he was, he swore i' faith before the notary that they

were of the same age, just as Robert Browning did when officially

interrogated as to the age of Elizabeth Barrett. Thomas Brackett Reed

avowed that no gentleman ever weighed over two hundred pounds, and I

also maintain no gentleman ever married a woman older than himself.

The marriage of Major Humboldt and the Baroness von Hollwede was a most

happy mating that fully justified the venture. The Major had done his

work bravely in the Seven Years' War, and was now an attache of the

King's Court--a man of means, of intellect, and of many strong and

beautiful virtues. After the marriage he became known as Baron von

Humboldt, and as to just how he succeeded to the noble title let us not

be curious--his wife undoubtedly bestowed it on him, good and generous

woman that she was.

They lived in the romantic Castle Tegel, near Berlin, and separated from

the city by a park, where the dark pines still tower aloft and murmur

their secrets to the night breeze.

Tegel is a most beautiful place; it was first a hunting-lodge occupied

by Frederick the Great. It is shut out from the world by its high stone

walls; and in its dim, dense woods, one might easily imagine he was far

indeed from the madding crowd.

Here there were two sons born to the Baron and Baroness--two years

apart. One of these sons sleeps now beneath the turret where he first

saw the light, and from which he made others see the light as long as he

lived.

In Goethe's "Faust" is an allusion to a mysterious legend that had its

rise in storied Tegel. On May Eighteenth, in the year Seventeen Hundred

Seventy-eight. Goethe came here, walking over from Berlin, dined, and

walked on to Potsdam. But before he left he saw two beautiful boys, aged

eight and ten, playing beneath the spreading Tegel trees. The boys

remembered the event and wrote of it in their journal, mentioning the

kindly pats on their heads and the prophecy that they would grow up and

be great men.

Goethe was always patting boys on the head and saying graceful things,

and it is doubtful whether his prophecy was more than a mere

commonplace. But Goethe always claimed it was divine prophecy. These

boys were William and Alexander von Humboldt.

History does not supply another instance of two brothers attaining the

intellectual height reached by Alexander and William von Humboldt. This

being so, it seems meet that we should tarry a little to inspect the

method adopted in the education of these boys--something that the

educated world for the most part has not done.

* * * * *

This world of ours, round like an orange and slightly flattened at the

poles, has produced only five men who were educated. Of course all

education is comparative; but these five are so beyond the rest of

mankind that they form a class by themselves.

An educated man means a developed man--a man rounded on every side of

his nature. We are aware of no limit to which the mind of man may

evolve; other men may appear who will surpass the Immortal Five, but

this fact remains: none that we know have. Great men, so-called, are

usually specialists: clever actors, individuals with a knack, talented

comedians--who preach, carve, paint, orate, fight, manipulate, manage,

teach, write, perform, coerce, bribe, hypnotize, accomplish, and get

results. There are great financiers, sea-captains, mathematicians,

football players, engineers, bishops, wrestlers, runners, boxers, and

players on zithern-strings. But these are not necessarily very great

men, any more than poets, painters and pianists, with wonderful hirsute

effects and strange haberdashery are great men.

For it is intellect and emotion expanded in every direction that give

the true title to greatness. Judged in this way, how rare is the

educated man--five in six thousand years! And yet one of these five

educated men had a brother nearly as great as he.

Alexander von Humboldt was past fifty before the world of thinking men

realized that he had outstripped his brother William--and Alexander

would never admit he had.

These two men, handsome in face, form and feature: strong in body and

poised in mind, with souls athirst to realize and to know--happy men,

living long lives of useful effort--surely should be classed as educated

persons.

And in passing, let us note that all education is preparatory--it is

life that gives the finals, not the college. The education of the von

Humboldt boys was the Natural Method--the method advocated by

Rousseau--the education by play and work so combined that study never

becomes irksome nor work repulsive. Rousseau said, "Make a task

repugnant and the worker will forever quit it as soon as the pressure

that holds him to it is removed."

The parents of Alexander and William von Humboldt carefully studied the

new plan of education that was at that time being advocated by some of

the best professors at Berlin. "A child must have a teacher," said Jean

Jacques, "but a professional teacher is apt to become the slave of his

profession, and when this occurs he has separated himself from life, and

therefore to that degree is unfitted to teach."

A school should not be a preparation for life: a school should be life.

The Kindergarten Idea, among other things, suggests that a child should

never know he is in school.

The discipline is kept out of sight, and the youngster finds himself a

part of the busy life. He blends in with the others, and works, plays

and sings under the wise and loving care of his "other mother," the

teacher. He is living, not simply preparing to live. All life should be

joyous, spontaneous, natural. The Rousseau Idea, which was modified and

refined by Froebel, is the utilization of the propensity to play.

Major von Humboldt found a man who was saturated with the true Froebel

spirit, although this was before Froebel was born.

The man's name was Heinrich Campe. Heinrich was hired to superintend the

education of the Humboldt boys. That is to say, he was to become

comrade, friend, counselor, fellow-scholar, playmate and teacher.

Play needs direction as well as work. Campe played with the boys. They

lived with Nature--made lists of all the trees at Tegel, drew sketches

of the leaves and fruit, calculated the height of trees, measured them

at the base, and cut them down occasionally, first sitting in judgment

on the case, and deciding why a certain tree should be removed, thus

getting a lesson in scientific forestry.

They became acquainted with the bugs, beetles, birds and squirrels. They

cared for the horses, cattle and fowls, and best of all they learned to

wait on themselves.

Campe told them tales of history--of Achilles, Pericles and Cæsar. Then

they studied Greek, that they might read of Athens in the language of

the men who made Athens great. They translated "Robinson Crusoe" into

the German language, and Campe's translation of "Robinson Crusoe" is

today a German classic. It was all natural--interesting, easy. The day

was filled with work and play, and joyous tales of what had been said by

others in days agone.

"Teach only what you know, and never that which you merely believe,"

said Rousseau.

There is still a cry that religion should be taught in the public

schools. If we ask, "What religion?" the answer is, "Ours, of course!"

Religious dogma, being a matter of belief, was taught to the Humboldts

as a part of history.

So these boys very early became acquainted with the dogmas of

Confucianism, Mohammedanism, Christianity. They separated, compared and

analyzed, and saw for themselves that dogmatic religions were all much

alike. To know all religions is to escape slavery to any. In studying

the development of races these boys saw that a certain type of religion

fits a certain man in a certain stage of his evolution, and so perhaps

to that degree religion is necessary. An ethnologist is never a Corner

Grocery Infidel. The C.G.I. is very apt to be converted at the first

revival, outrivaling all other "seekers," and when warm weather comes,

falling from grace and dropping easily into scofferdom.

The Humboldts, like Thoreau, never had any quarrel with God, and they

were never tempted to go forward to the Mourners' Bench.

Origin and destiny did not trouble them; predestination and

justification by faith were not even in their curriculum; foreordination

and baptism were to them problems not to be taken seriously.

By studying religions in groups and incidentally, they learned to

distinguish the fetish in each. They read Greek mythology side by side

with Judean mythology and noted similarities. The intent of Tutor Campe

was to give these boys a scientific education. Science is only

classified commonsense. To be truly scientific is to know

differences--to distinguish between this and that. Every successful

farmer has traveled a long way into science, for science deals with the

maintenance of life. To know soils, animals and vegetation is to be

scientific.

But when the average farmer learns to transmute compost into grass and

grain, and these into beef, he usually stops, content. To be a scientist

in the true sense, one must love knowledge for its own sake, and not

merely for what it will bring on market-day, and so the Humboldts were

led on through the stage of wanting to make money, to the stage of

wanting to know the why and wherefore. It will be seen that the

education of the Humboldts was what the Boylston Professor of English at

Harvard calls "faddism, or the successful effort at flabbiness." Our

Harvard friend thinks that education should be a discipline--that it

should be difficult and vexatious, and that happiness, spontaneity and

exuberance are the antitheses and the foes of learning. To him grim

earnestness, silence, sweat and lamp-smoke are preferable to sunshine

and joyous, useful work so wisely directed that the pupil thinks it

play. He believes that to be sincere we must be serious. In these

latter-day objections there is nothing new. Socrates met them all;

Rousseau heard the cry of "fad"; Heyne, Pestalozzi, Campe, Knuth and

Froebel met the carpist and answered him reason for reason, just as

Copernicus, Bruno and Galileo told the reason the earth revolved. The

professional teacher who can do nothing but teach--the college professor

who is a college professor and nothing else--hates the Natural Method

man about as ardently as the person who wears a paste diamond hates the

lapidary.

* * * * *

Heinrich Campe was the tutor of the Humboldts for two years, when he

entered the employ of the King as Commissioner of Education.

After this, however, he continued to spend one day a week at Tegel for

some time. He loved the boys as his own, and his hope for their future

never relaxed. Possibly his interest was not wholly disinterested--with

the help of these lads he was working out and proving his pedagogic

theories.

When Campe resigned his immediate tutorship he was allowed to select his

successor, and he chose a young man by the name of Christian Knuth.

The mother was a member of this little university of four persons;

Knuth, of course, was a member, for he always considered himself more of

a student than a teacher.

When Campe resigned in favor of Knuth his action was in degree prompted

by his love and consideration for the boys. Knuth was only a little past

twenty, and was able to enter into the out-of-door sports and work of

the youngsters better than the older man. Knuth was their hero--together

they rode horseback, climbed mountains, excavated tunnels, mined for

ore, built miniature houses. "Knuth made every good thing in Berlin

available to us," wrote William years afterward; "we visited stores,

factories, barracks and schools, and became familiar with a thousand

commonplace things never taught in schools and colleges."

When Alexander was twelve years old, the father died. This would have

been a severe blow to the boys were it not for Knuth, who seemed to

stand to them more as the real parent than did Major von Humboldt.

Knuth was a businessman of no mean ability. The Baroness now trusted him

with all her financial affairs. He called on the boys to help him in the

details of business, so the keeping of accounts and the economical

handling of money were lessons they learned early in life.

When Alexander was seventeen and William nineteen, the mother and Knuth

decided that the boys should have the advantages of university life.

Accordingly they were duly entered at the University of Frankfort as

"special students."

Knuth also entered as a student in the class with them. Special

students, let it be known, are usually those who have failed to pass the

required examinations. In this instance, Alexander and William were

beyond many of their classmates in some things, but in others they were

deficient. Especially had their education in the dead languages been

"neglected," so it is quite likely they could not have passed the

examinations had they attempted it.

It should also be explained that special students are not eligible to

diplomas or degrees.

But Campe and Knuth did not believe the nerve-racking plan of

examinations wise, any more than it is wisdom to pull up a plant and

examine the roots to see how it prospers. Neither did they prize a

college degree.

They knew full well that a college degree is no proof of excellence of

character; to them a degree was too cheap a thing to deviate in one's

orbit to secure. They were after bigger game.

At Frankfort, Knuth and his charges lived in the family of Professor

Loffler, "so as to rub off a little knowledge from this learned man."

They studied history, philosophy, law, political economy and natural

history. We would say their method was desultory, were it not for the

fact that they were always thorough in all that they undertook. They

were simply three boys together, intent on getting their money's worth.

William was a little better student than Alexander, and was the leader;

he was larger in stature and seemed to have more vitality.

Two years were spent at the University of Frankfort, and then our trio

moved on to the University of Gottingen, where there were distinguished

lecturers on Natural History and Archeology. Antiquity especially

interested the boys, and the evolution and history of races were

followed with animation.

William took especially to philosophy as expressed in the writings of

Kant, while Alexander developed a love for botany and what he called

"the science of out-of-doors."

Two years at Gottingen, following the bent of their minds and listening

only to those lectures they liked, and they moved on to Jena.

Here they were in the Goethe country. Soon there were overtures from

Berlin that they enter the service of the Government. These overtures

were set in motion by Campe, who, however, kept out of sight in the

matter, and when accused, stoutly declared that it was every man's duty

to help himself, and that he personally had never helped any one get a

position and never would.

William was twenty-three and Alexander twenty-one. William was gracious

and graceful in manner and made himself at home in the best society;

Alexander was studious, reserved and inclined to be shy.

An invitation came that they should visit Weimar and spend some weeks in

that little world of art and letters created by Goethe and Schiller. To

William this was very tempting; but Alexander saw at Weimar scant

opportunity to study botany and geology.

Besides that, he felt that sooner or later he would drift into the

employ of the Government, following in his father's footsteps. His

ambition was practical mining, with a taste for finance.

The brothers kissed each other good-by, and one went to Weimar to assist

Schiller in editing a magazine that did not pay expenses, to bask in the

sunshine of the great Goethe, and incidentally to secure a wife.

The other started on a geological excursion, and this excursion was to

continue through life, and make of the man the greatest naturalist that

the world had seen since Aristotle lived, two thousand years before.

* * * * *

Humboldt's first book was on the geological formation of the Rhine,

published when he was twenty-six years old. The work was so complete and

painstaking that it led to his being appointed to the position of

"Assessor of Mines" at Berlin. This was the same office that Swedenborg

once held in Scandinavia.

For the benefit of our social-science friends, it is rather interesting

to note that at this time in Europe nearly all mines belonged to the

Government.

An individual might own the surface, and up to the sky, but his claim

did not go to the center of the earth. Iron, coal, copper, silver and

gold were largely mined, and the Government operated the mines direct,

or else leased them on a percentage.

I am told that in America all mining is done by individuals or private

companies, and that four-fifths of all mining companies have no mines at

all--merely samples of ores, blueprints, photographs and prospects. The

genus promoter is a very modern production, and is a creation Humboldt

never knew; the "salting" of mines was out of his province, and mining

operations carried on exclusively in sky-scrapers was a combination he

never guessed.

Whether society will ever take a turn backward, and the whole people own

and control the treasures deposited by Nature in the earth, is a

question I will leave to my Marxian colleagues to determine.

As a mine-manager Humboldt was hardly a success. He knew the value of

ores, utilized various by-products that had formerly been thrown away,

made plans for the betterment of his workers, and once sent a protest to

the King against allowing women and children to be employed underground.

But the price per ton of his product was out of proportion to the

expenses. While other men mined the ore he wrote a book on "Subterranean

Vegetation." The details of business were not to his liking. His own

private financial affairs were now turned over to Knuth, his modest

fortune resolved into cash and invested in bonds that brought a low rate

of interest. Freedom was his passion--to come and go at will was his

desire. The thirst for travel was upon him--travel, not for adventure,

but for knowledge.

He resigned his office and tramped with knapsack on back across the

Alps. The habit of his mind was that of the naturalist-investigator.

Geology, botany and zoology were his properties by divine right.

These sciences really form one--geognosy, or the science of the

formation of the earth. The plants dissolve and disintegrate the rocks;

the animal feeds upon the plants; and animal life makes new forms of

vegetation possible. So the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms

evolve together, constantly tending toward a greater degree of

refinement and complexity.

The very highest form of animal life is man; and the highest type of

man is evolved where there is a proper balance between the animal and

the vegetable kingdoms.

Humboldt discovered very early in his career that the finest flowers

grow where there are the finest birds, and man separated from birds,

beasts and flowers could not possibly survive.

Just about this time, Humboldt, taking the cue from Goethe, said: "Man

is a product of soil and climate, and is brother to the rocks, trees and

animals. He is dependent on these, and all things seem to point to the

truth that he has evolved from them. The accounts of special creation

are interesting as archeology, but biology is distinctly the business of

modern scientists. The scientist tells what he knows, and the theologist

what he believes." And again we find Humboldt writing from Switzerland

in Seventeen Hundred Ninety-six, making observations that have been

recently unconsciously paraphrased by the United States Secretary of

Agriculture, who said in a printed report: "Western farmers who raise

and sell hogs and cattle, feeding them grain instead of selling it, are

sure to acquire a competence. The farmers who sell grain are the ones

who do not pay off their mortgages."

Says Humboldt:

"Here on the sides of these towering and forbidding mountains we find

the most fertile and beautiful miniature farms, nestling in little

valleys or on plateaus.

"Indeed, I heard today of a man falling out of his farm and being

seriously injured. He ventured too near the edge.

"These Swiss gardens with their prosperous and intelligent owners are

only possible through the fact that the owners keep all the cows and

poultry that can comfortably exist on the acres. The peasants sell

butter, cheese and eggs, instead of grain and vegetables exclusively.

"They give back to the earth all that they take from it, so in the

course of a hundred years a fine soil evolves that supports valuable

animals, including valuable men; choice fruit, flowers and birds appear,

and we have what we are pleased to call Christian civilization. It is

not for me to quibble about terms, but civilization is not necessarily

Christian, since it is more a matter of economics and natural science

than religion."

Where the climate is fairly propitious, but not so much so but that it

compels watchfulness, economy and effort, man will work, and to aid him

in his work he utilizes domestic animals. And the very act of

domesticating the animal domesticates the man. As man improves the

animal, he improves himself. One reason why the American Indian did not

progress was because he had neither horses, camels, oxen, swine nor

poultry. He had his dog, and the dog is a wolf, and always remains one,

in that his intent is on prey. This fitted the mood of the Indian, and

he continued to live his predaceous career without a particle of

evolution. To stand still is to retreat, and there is evidence that long

before the year Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, there was a North American

Indian that was a better Indian than the Indians who watched the

approach of Columbus and exclaimed, "Alas! we are discovered!"

In crossing the Alps, Humboldt was impressed with the truth that man was

a necessary factor in working out "creation," just as much as the

earthworm. When men stir the soil so as to make it produce grain that

the family may be fed, and utilize animals in this work, civilization is

surely at hand.

Nations with a controlling desire to absorb, annex and exploit are still

to that degree savages. Creation is still going on, and this earth is

becoming better and more beautiful as men work in line with reason and

allow science to become the handmaid of instinct.

Humboldt, above all men, prepared the way for Darwin, Spencer and

Tyndall--all of these built on him, all quote him. His books form a mine

in which they constantly delved.

Humboldt in boyhood formed the habit of close and accurate observation,

and he traveled that he might gratify this controlling impulse of his

life--the habit of seeing and knowing. His genius for classification was

superb; he approached every subject with an open mind, willing to change

his conclusions if it were shown that he was wrong; he had imagination

to see the thing first with his inward eye; he had the strength to

endure physical discomfort, and finally he had money enough so he was

free to follow his bent.

These qualifications made him the prince of scientific travelers--the

pioneer of close, accurate and reliable explorers.

* * * * *

Before Humboldt's time travelers had been mostly of the type of Marco

Polo and Sir John Mandeville, who discovered strange and wondrous

things, such as horses with five legs, dogs that could talk, and

anthropophagi with heads that grew beneath their shoulders. The

temptation to be interesting at the expense of truth has always been

strong upon the sailorman. Read even the history of Christopher Columbus

and you will hear of islands off the coast of America inhabited

exclusively by women who had only one calling-day in a year when their

gentlemen friends from a neighboring island came to see them.

The world needed accurate, scientific knowledge concerning those parts

of the world seldom visited by man. Travel a hundred years ago was

accompanied by great expense and more or less peril. Nations held

themselves aloof from one another, and travelers were looked upon as

renegades or spies.

Alexander von Humboldt had explored deep mines, climbed high mountains,

visited that strange people, the Basques of Spain, got little glimpses

into Africa where the jungle was waiting for a Livingstone and a Stanley

before giving up its secrets. The Corsican had thrown Europe into a

fever of fear, and war was on in every direction, when in Seventeen

Hundred Ninety-nine Humboldt ran the blockade and sailed out of the

harbor of Coruna, Spain, on the little corvette "Pizarro," bound for

the Spanish possessions in the New World. Spain had discovered America

in the gross two hundred years before, but what this country really

contained in way of possibilities, Spain had most certainly never

discovered.

Humboldt's mind had conceived the idea of a Scientific Survey, and in

this he was the maker of an epoch. In this undertaking he secured the

assistance of the Prime Minister, who secretly issued passports and

letters of recommendation to Humboldt, first cautioning him that if the

Court of Madrid should know anything about this proposed voyage of

discovery it could never be made, so jealous and ignorant were the

officials.

Only one thing did Spain have in abundance, and that was religion.

At that time the Spanish Colonies included Louisiana, Florida, Texas,

California, Mexico, Cuba, Central America, most of the West Indies, and

most of South America, not to mention the Philippines. These colonies

covered a territory stretching over five thousand miles from North to

South. Twice a year Spain sent out her trading-ships, convoyed by armed

cruisers. Trade then was monopoly and extortion. The goods sent out were

as cheap and tawdry as could be palmed off; all that were brought back

were bartered for at the lowest possible prices.

Cheating in count, weight and quality was then considered perfectly

proper, and as the Government officials at home got a goodly grab into

all transactions in way of perquisites, all went swimmingly--or fairly

so.

For a Spaniard to trade with any other nation was treason, and if

caught, his property was confiscated and probably his head forfeited.

No foreigners were allowed in the colonies, and exclusion was the rule.

To hold her dependencies Spain thought she must keep them under close

subjection; and she seemed beautifully innocent of the fact that she was

the dependent, not they. She did not believe in Free Trade.

The Government was absolutely under military rule. Of the botany,

zoology, geology, not to mention the topography, of her American

possessions, the officials of Spain knew nothing save from the tales of

sailors.

Such were the Spanish conditions when Humboldt got himself smuggled on

board the "Pizarro," and sailed away, June Fourth, Seventeen Hundred

Ninety-nine. With Humboldt was one companion, Bonpland, a Swiss by

birth, and a rare soul.

Humboldt was a naturalist and a philosopher; by nature he was a

traveler. But he lacked that intrepid quality possessed by, say, Lewis

and Clarke.

He had too much brain--too fine a nerve-quality to face the forest

alone. Bonpland made good all that he lacked. He used to call Bonpland

his "Treasure." And surely such a friend is a treasure, indeed.

Bonpland was a linguist, as most of the Swiss are. He was a

mountain-climber, and had been a soldier and a sailor, and he knew

enough of literature and science, so he was an interesting companion.

He was small in stature, lithe, immensely strong, absolutely fearless,

and had left behind him neither family nor friends to mourn his loss. To

Humboldt he was guide, teacher, protector and friend. Bonpland was the

soul of unselfishness.

Perhaps a certain quality of man attracts a certain quality of friend--I

really am not sure. But this I know, that while Alexander von Humboldt

had few personal friends, he always had just those which his nature

required--his friends were hands, feet, eyes and ears for him, to quote

his own words. This voyage on the "Pizarro" occupied five years. The

travelers visited Teneriffe, Cuba, Mexico, and skirted the coast of

South America, making many little journeys inland.

They climbed mountains that had never been scaled before; they ascended

rivers where no white man had ever been, and pushed their way through

jungle and forest to visit savage tribes who fled before them in terror

thinking they were gods. On the return trip they visited the United

States; spent some weeks in Washington, where they were the guests of

the President, Thomas Jefferson. A firm friendship sprang up between

Humboldt and Jefferson: they were both freethinkers, and when Humboldt

recorded in his journal that Jefferson was by far the greatest man

living in America, he not only recorded his personal conviction, but he

spoke the truth.

And as if not to be outdone, although he did not then know what Humboldt

had said of him, Jefferson declared that Alexander von Humboldt was the

greatest man he ever saw.

Most of the vast number of rare specimens and natural-history

curiosities gathered by Humboldt and Bonpland were placed on a

homeward-bound ship that sailed from South America. This ship was lost

and all the precious and priceless cargo went for naught. Had Humboldt

and his companion sailed on this ship, as they had at first intended,

instead of returning by way of the United States, the world would not

have known the name of Alexander von Humboldt.

But Fate for once was kind--the world had great need of him.

* * * * *

When Humboldt landed at Bordeaux in August, in Eighteen Hundred Four,

after his five-year journey, he immediately set out to visit his

brother, who was then German Ambassador at Rome. We can imagine that it

was a most joyous meeting.

Of it William said: "I could not recognize him for my tears--but beside

this he seemed to have grown in stature and was as brown as a Malay. Was

he really my brother? Ah, the hand was the hand of Esau, but when he

spoke, it was the same kind, gentle, loving voice--the voice of my

brother."

A few weeks at Rome and Alexander grew restless for work. He had made

great plans about publishing the record of his travels. This work was to

outstrip anything in bookmaking the world had ever seen, dealing with

similar subjects. The writing was done on shipboard, by campfires, and

in forest and jungle, but now it had all to be gone over and revised and

much of it translated into French, for the original notes were sometimes

in English and sometimes in German. Only in Paris could the work of

bookmaking be done that would fill Humboldt's ideals. In Paris were

printers, engravers, artists, binders--Paris was then the artistic

center of the world, as it is today.

The results of this first great scientific voyage of discovery were

written out in a work of seventeen volumes.

It was entitled, "The Travels of Humboldt and Bonpland in the Interior

of America." Humboldt wrote the book, but wanted his friend to have half

the credit. This superb set of books, containing many engravings, was

issued under Humboldt's supervision and almost entirely at his own

expense. It was divided into five general parts: Zoology and Comparative

Anatomy; Geography and the Distribution of Plants; Political Essays and

Description of Peoples and Institutions in the Kingdom of New Spain;

Astronomy and Magnetism; Equinoctial Vegetation. It took two years to

issue the first volume, but the others then came along more rapidly, yet

it was ten years before the last book of the set was published. The

total expense of issuing this set of books was more than a million

francs, or, to be exact, two hundred twenty-six thousand dollars.

The cost of a set of these books to subscribers was two thousand five

hundred fifty dollars, although there were a few sets containing

hand-colored plates and original drawings that were valued at twenty

thousand dollars. One such set can now be seen at the British Museum. In

all, only three hundred sets of these books were issued.

One set at least came to North America, for it was presented to Thomas

Jefferson, and, if I am not mistaken, is now in the Congressional

Library at Washington.

This American Expedition forever fixed Alexander von Humboldt's place in

history, but after it was completed and the record written out, he had

still more than half a century to live.

* * * * *

At a time when few men could afford the luxury, Alexander von Humboldt

was an atheist. Fortunately he had sufficient fortune to place him

beyond reach of the bread-and-butter problem, and all of his books were

written in the language of the esoteric. He did not serve as an

iconoclast for the common people--his name was never on the tongue of

rumor--very few, indeed, knew of his existence. His books were issued in

deluxe, limited editions, and were for public libraries, the shelves of

nobility or rich collectors.

Humboldt was judicial in all of his statements, approaching every

question as if nothing were known about it. He built strong, and was

preparing the way, such as throwing up ramparts and storing ammunition

for the first decisive battle that was to take place between Theology

and Science.

In his day Theology was supreme, the practical dictator of human

liberties. But a World's Congress of Freethinkers has recently been held

in Rome.

There were present more than three thousand delegates, representing

every civilized country on the globe. The deliberations of the Congress

were held in a hall supplied by the Italian Government, and all

courtesies and privileges were tendered the delegates. The only protest

came from the Pope, who turned Protestant and in all the Catholic

churches in Rome ordered special services, to partially mitigate the

blot upon the fair record of the "Holy City." Forty years ago armed men

would have routed this Congress by force, and a hundred years ago the

bare thought of such a meeting would have placed a person who might have

suggested it in imminent peril.

Humboldt prophesied that the world would not forever be ruled by

religious superstition--that science must surely win. But he did not

expect that the change would come as quickly as it has; neither did he

anticipate the fact that the orthodox religion would admit all the facts

of science and still flourish. The number of Church communicants now is

larger than it was in the time of Humboldt. The Church is a

department-store that puts in the particular goods that the people ask

for.

Freethinkers do not leave the Church; the Church is built on a Goodyear

patent, and its lines expand when Freethinkers get numerous, so as to

include them.

The Church would rather countenance vice, as it has in the past, than

disband. In New York City we now have the spectacle of the Church

operating a saloon and selling strong drink. In all country towns,

religion, failing in being attractive, has, to keep churches alive,

resorted to raffles, lotteries, concerts, chicken-pie socials, and

lectures and exhortations by strange men in curious and unique garb, and

singers of reputation.

The Church, being a part of society, evolves as society evolves.

Christianity is a totally different thing now from what it was in

Humboldt's time; it was a different thing in Humboldt's time from what

it was a hundred years before.

Behold the spectacle of a thousand highly educated and gentle men, from

all over the world, decorating with garlands the statue of Bruno in

Rome, on the site where Churchmen piled high the fagots and burned his

living body! I foretell that when the next World's Congress of

Freethinkers occurs in Rome, the Pope will welcome the delegates, and

their deliberations will occur by invitation in the wide basilica of

Saint Peter's. The world moves, and the Pope and all the rest of us move

with it.

When a meeting was recently called in Jersey City to welcome Turner, the

so-called anarchist, the Mayor forbade the meeting and then placed a

cordon of policemen around the intended meeting-place. But, lo, in their

extremity the "anarchists" were invited by a clergyman to come and use

his church and he led the way to the sacred edifice, warning the police

to neither follow nor enter. As we become better we meet better

preachers.

Humboldt could see no rift through the clouds outside of the death of

the Church and the disbanding of her so-called sacred institutions. We

now perceive that very rarely are religious opinions consciously

abandoned; they change, are modified and later evolve into something

else. Churches are now largely social clubs. In America this is true

both of Catholic and of Protestant. Most all denominations are

interested in social betterment, because the trend of human thought is

in that direction.

The Church is being swept along upon the tide of time. In a few

instances churches have already evolved practical industrial

betterments, which are conducted directly under the supervision of the

church and in its edifice. There are hundreds of Kindergartens now being

carried on in church buildings that a few years ago were idle and vacant

all the week. Others have sewing-circles and boys' clubs, and these have

metamorphosed in some instances into Manual-Training Schools where girls

are taught Domestic Science and boys are given instruction in the

Handicrafts. I know a church that derives its support from the sale of

useful things that are made by its members and workers under the

supervision of its pastor, who is a master in handicraft. So this pretty

nearly points the ideal--a church that has evolved into an ethical and

industrial college, where the pastor is not paid for preaching, but for

doing.

Charles Bradlaugh once said:

"A paid priesthood blocks evolution. These men are really educated to

uphold and defend the institution. They can do nothing else. Most of

them have families dependent upon them--do you wonder that it is a fight

to the death? It is not truth that the clergy struggles for--they may

think it is--but the grim fact remains, it is a fight for material

existence."

We all confuse our interests with the eternal verities--the thing that

pays us we consider righteous, or at least justifiable. This is the most

natural thing in the world. An artist who painted very bad pictures once

took one of his canvases to Whistler for criticism.

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders and made a grimace that spoke volumes. "But

a man must live some way!" pleaded the poor fellow in his extremity.

"I do not see the necessity," was the weary reply.

Preachers must live; their education and environment have unfitted them

for useful effort; but they are a part of the great, seething struggle

for existence. And so we have their piteous and plaintive plea for the

obsolete and the outworn. Disraeli once in an incautious moment

exclaimed: "If we do away with the Established Church, what is to become

of the fourteen million prepared and pickled sermons? Think for a moment

of the infinite labor of writing new sermons, all based upon a different

point of view--let us then be reasonable and not subject a profession

that is overworked to the humiliation of destroying the bulk of its

assets."

Science deals directly with the maintenance of human life and the

bettering of every condition of existence through a wider, wiser and

saner use of the world. Civilization is the working out and

comprehending and proving how to live in the best way. Theology

prepares men to die; science fits them to live.

Science deals with your welfare in this world; theology in another.

Theology has not yet proved that there is another world--its claims are

not even based upon hearsay. It is a matter of belief and assumption.

Science, too, assumes, and its assumption is this: The best preparation

for a life to come is to live here and now as if there were no life to

come.

Your belief will not fix your place in another world--what you are, may.

The individual who gets most out of this life is fitting himself to get

most out of another if there is one.

And this brings us up to that paragraph in the "Cosmos" where Humboldt

says: "I perceive a period when the true priesthood will not be paid to

defend a fixed system of so-called crystallized truth. But I believe the

time will come when that man will be most revered who bestows most

benefits here and now. The clergy of Christendom have stood as leaders

of thought, but to hold this proud position they must abandon the

intangible and devote themselves to this world and the people who are

alive."

* * * * *

Most of Humboldt's time during his middle life was spent at Paris, where

he was busily engaged in the herculean task of issuing his splendid

books. He varied his work, however, so that several hours daily were

devoted to study and scientific research; and from time to time he made

journeys over Europe and Asia.

In Eighteen Hundred Twenty-seven a personal request came from the King

of Prussia that Humboldt should thereafter make Berlin his home. He was

too big a man for Germany to lose.

He acceded to the King's request, moved to Berlin and was spoken of as

"The First Citizen," although he would not consent to hold office, nor

would he accept a title.

In vexed questions of diplomacy he was often consulted by the King and

his Cabinet, and in a great many ways he furthered the interests of

education and civilization by his judicial and timely advice.

He was always a student, always an investigator, always a tireless

worker. He lived simply and quietly--keeping out of society and away

from crowds, except on the rare occasions when necessity seemed to

demand it.

The quality of the man was well mirrored in those magnificent books--all

that he did was on the scale of grandeur.

His books were too high in price for the average reader, but on request

of the King he consented to give a course of five, free, popular

lectures for the people.

No one foresaw the result of these addresses. The course was so

successful that it extended itself into sixty-one lectures, and covered

a period of more than ten years' time. No admittance was charged, free

tickets being given out to applicants. Very soon after the first

lecture, a traffic sprang up in these free tickets, carried on by our

Semitic friends, and the tickets soared to as high as three dollars

each. Then the strong hand of the Government stepped in: the tickets

were canceled, and the public was admitted to the lectures without

ceremony. Boxes, however, were set apart for royalty and foreign

visitors, some of whom came from England, Belgium, Switzerland and

France. The size of these audiences was limited simply by the capacity

of the auditorium, the attendance at first being about a thousand;

later, a larger hall was secured and the attendance ran as high as four

thousand persons at each address.

The subjects were as follows: three lectures on the History of Science;

two on reasons why we should study Science; four on the Crust of the

Earth, and the nature of Volcanoes and Earthquakes; two on the form of

Earth's Surface and the elevation of the Continents; five on Physical

Geography; five on the nature of Heat and Magnetism; sixteen on

Astronomy; two on Mountains and how they are formed; three on the Nature

of the Sea; three on the Distribution of Matter; ten on the Atmosphere

as an Elastic Fluid; three on the Geography of Animals; three on Races

of Men.

Every good thing begins as something else, and what was intended for the

common people became scientific lectures for educated people. "The man

who was most benefited by these lectures was myself," said Humboldt.

Men grow by doing things. Lectures are for the lecturer.

Humboldt found out more things in giving these lectures than he knew

before--he discovered himself. And long before they were completed he

knew that his best work was embodied right here--in doing for others he

had done for himself.

In attempting to reveal the Universe or "Cosmos," he revealed most of

his own comprehensive intelligence. That many of his conclusions have

since been abandoned by the scientific world does not prove such ideas

valueless--they helped and are helping men to find the truth.

These sixty-one "popular" and free lectures make up that stupendous work

now known to us as "Humboldt's Cosmos."

* * * * *

Says Robert Ingersoll in his tribute to Alexander von Humboldt:

"His life was pure, his aims were lofty, his learning varied and

profound, and his achievements vast.

"We honor him because he has ennobled our race, because he has

contributed as much as any man, living or dead, to the real prosperity

of the world. We honor him because he has honored us--because he has

labored for others--because he was the most learned man of the most

learned nation of his time--because he left a legacy of glory to every

human being. For these reasons he is honored throughout the world.

"Millions are doing homage to his genius at this moment, and millions

are pronouncing his name with reverence and recounting what he

accomplished.

"We associate the name of Humboldt with oceans, continents, mountains,

volcanoes--with towering palms--the snow-lipped craters of the

Andes--the wide deserts--with primeval forests and European

capitals--with wilderness and universities--with savages and

savants--with the lonely rivers of unpeopled wastes--with peaks, pampas,

steppes, cliffs and crags--with the progress of the world--with every

science known to man and with every star glittering in the immensity of

space. Humboldt adopted none of the soul-shrinking creeds of his day; he

wasted none of his time in the inanities, stupidities and contradictions

of theological metaphysics; he did not endeavor to harmonize the

astronomy and geology of a barbarous people with the science of the

Nineteenth Century.

"Never, for one moment, did he abandon the sublime standard of truth: he

investigated, he studied, he thought, he separated the gold from the

dross in the crucible of his brain. He was never found on his knees

before the altar of superstition. He stood erect by the tranquil column

of Reason. He was an admirer, a lover, an adorer of Nature, and at the

age of ninety, bowed by the weight of nearly a century, covered with the

insignia of honor, loved by a nation, respected by a world, with kings

for his servants, he laid his weary head upon her bosom--upon the bosom

of the Universal Mother--and with her loving arms about him, sank into

that slumber which we call Death.

"History added another name to the starry scroll of the immortals.

"The world is his monument; upon the eternal granite of her hills he

inscribed his name, and there, upon everlasting stone, his genius wrote

this, the sublimest of truths: The universe is governed by law."

[Illustration: WILLIAM HERSCHEL]