Famous Men of Science

Much of their time was spent at their summer home at Tegel, on the banks of the Havel, about eight miles from Berlin. In 1778 Goethe went there for a visit, and the two Humboldt lads, nine and eleven years of age, played and talked with the leading mind of Germany.

The children were not altogether happy there, as Alexander wrote a friend years afterward. "Vine-clad hills which here we call mountains, extensive plantations of foreign trees, the meadows surrounding the house, and lovely views of the lake with its picturesque banks awaiting the beholder at every turn, render this place undoubtedly one of the most attractive residences in the neighborhood. If, in addition, you picture to yourself the high degree of luxury and taste that reigns in our home, you will indeed be surprised when I tell you that I never visit this place without a certain feeling of melancholy… I passed most of that unhappy time (my youthful days) here at Tegel, among people who loved me, and showed me kindness, but with whom I had not the least sympathy, where I was subjected to a thousand restraints and much self-imposed solitude, and where I was often placed in circumstances that obliged me to maintain a close reserve, and to make continual self-sacrifices.

"Now that I am my own master, and living here without restraint, I am unable to yield myself to the charms of which nature is here so prodigal, because I am met at every turn by painful recollections of my childhood, which even the inanimate objects around me are continually awakening. Sad as such recollections are, however, they are interesting from the thought that it was just my residence here which exercised so powerful an influence in the formation of my character and the direction of my tastes to the study of nature."

Much which seems trying and unsatisfactory is, after all, our best discipline for life. The strongest and noblest characters are not developed in the perpetual sunshine of happiness. Rain and sun are alike necessary for growth.

Alexander early showed great fondness for natural history, collecting flowers, plants, butterflies, shells, and stones, so that he was called the "Little Apothecary." He likewise found great delight in drawing. He says of himself: "Until I reached the age of sixteen, I showed little inclination for scientific pursuits. I was of a restless disposition, and wished to be a soldier. This choice was displeasing to my family, who were desirous that I should devote myself to the study of finance, so that I had no opportunity of attending a course of botany or chemistry; I am self-taught in almost all the sciences with which I am now so occupied, and I acquired them comparatively late in life. Of the science of botany I never so much as heard till I formed the acquaintance in 1788 of Herr Willdenow, a youth of my own age, who had just been publishing a Flora of Berlin. His gentle and amiable character stimulated the interest I felt in his pursuits. I never received any lessons professedly, but I used to bring him the specimens I collected, and he gave me their classifications. I became passionately devoted to botany, and took especial interest in the study of cryptogamia. The sight of exotic plants, even when only as dried specimens in an herbarium, fired my imagination with the pleasure that would be derived from the view of a tropical vegetation in southern lands."

At sixteen, then, the boy did not know for what he was best fitted in life. How important for young men and women to study themselves, and know their own tastes and capacities! At nineteen he had never heard of botany, and yet he became one of the most distinguished of botanists!

The boy also longed to go to sea, not an unusual desire in restless and ambitious natures. But he was frail in body, and gave little evidence that he would ever be able to accomplish any of the things for which he longed.

At nineteen he was ready for college, and with his brother entered at Frankfort-on-the-Oder. He gave his time largely to finance and political economy, by his mother's desire, that he might be able to act in some capacity under the government.

At college, as ever after in life, he found one devoted friend, who became his inseparable companion. At Frankfort, it was Wegener, a young theologian, with a warm heart, and great zeal for knowledge. Nor did this friendship cease when he went to Göttingen some months later, for better opportunities in the study of science. He wrote to Wegener: "If God only spare us, nothing can break the bond between two friends who are to each other more than brothers… My fervent love and sincere friendship for you are as imperishable as the soul which gives them birth… How happy, how inexpressibly happy should I be, if I had a friend like you by my side!.. I doubt not that among eight hundred men there must be some with whom I could form a friendship, but how long is it often before we find each other out! Were not you and I acquainted for three months before we discovered how completely we were made one for the other? To be without a friend, what an existence! And where can I hope to find a friend whom I could place by your side in my affections!"

These words seem like those of a lover, or an affectionate woman, but they come from a mind that now, as in after years, towered like a giant oak in the trees of a forest. Beautiful union of brain and heart! Such only makes an ideal character.

Humboldt had already met Willdenow, and begun to love botany. Again he writes to Wegener: "I have just come in from a solitary walk in the Thiergarten," – he was for a short time in Berlin, – "where I have been seeking for mosses, lichens, and fungi, which are just now in perfection. How sad to wander about alone! And yet there is something attractive in this solitude, when occupied with nature… I am collecting materials for a work on the various properties of plants, medicinal properties excepted; it is a work requiring such great research, and such a profound knowledge of botany, as to be far beyond my unassisted powers, and I am therefore endeavoring to enlist the coöperation of several of my friends… Pray do not imagine that I am going to appear as an author forthwith; I do not intend that shall happen for the next ten years, and by that time I trust I shall have discovered something startlingly new and important."

Göttingen was now at the height of its glory. Humboldt attended courses of lectures on archæology, on trade and commerce, on light, heat, and electricity, on agriculture, and on ancient tragic poets, under Heyne, of whom he said, "Heyne is undoubtedly the man to whom this century is the most deeply indebted; to him we owe the spread of religious enlightenment, by means of the education and training he has instituted for young village school-masters; to him is due the introduction of a more liberal tone of thought, the establishment of a literary archæology, and the first association of the principles of æsthetics with the study of philology."

Humboldt was also fond of Greek. He said, "The more I know of the Greek language, the more am I confirmed in my preconceived opinion, that it is the true foundation for all the higher branches of learning."

With some friends, he soon founded the Philosophical Society, which, with the admirable libraries and museums at hand, became of great assistance to the students.

The next year, 1790, he had become so interested in science, that he wrote Wegener: "I was away from Göttingen for two months, spending the vacation in making a scientific tour with a Herr van Genns, a Dutchman with whom I became acquainted through his writings on botanical subjects… Amid the numberless distractions of the journey, which was made sometimes on foot and sometimes by carriage, and with the incessant occupation of packing up minerals and plants, I was not very well able to write to you." The result of this tour was a pamphlet, "Mineralogical Observations on some Basalts of the Rhine." His next works were two small treatises, "The Aqueous Origin of Basalt," and "The Metallic Seams in the Basalt at Unkel." And this youth of twenty-one was self-taught both in mineralogy and geology!

The wonder was not so great, perhaps, that a young man of his age should have written these sketches, as that, being wealthy and of the best social position, the temptations to ease and enjoyment did not draw him away from such subjects. Poverty may not be a delight, but the larger part of the world's work has been done under its stimulus. Wealth should be an incentive, because it gives leisure for careful study, but this is not always the case.

At Göttingen, Humboldt found a friend among the eight hundred. At the house of Heyne he made the acquaintance of George Foster, Heyne's son-in-law, a man who exerted a remarkable and lasting influence over him. Foster was thirty-six; Humboldt, fifteen years his junior. He had been around the world with Captain Cook in his second voyage, and had published an able book upon the subject. He was skilled in chemistry, philosophy, literature, and politics, understood Latin, Greek, French, English, Dutch, and Italian, and was somewhat conversant with the Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Polish languages.

The influence of such a man can well be imagined. He became a guiding star to the young Göttingen student. If we could but estimate the value of right friendships in life! We flatter ourselves that we are too strong to be influenced, and yet we are greatly influenced for good or for evil by those with whom we associate. Humboldt always chose intellectual friends, and the natural result followed.

In the spring of 1790, he left Göttingen, and, with Foster and Van Genns, took a journey to the Lower Rhine, Holland, Belgium, England, and France, studying docks, mines, botanic gardens, manufactures, and churches, and visiting literary celebrities. Still the new friends did not take the place of the old, for he writes to Wegener: "I beseech you, dearest Wegener, by all the affection which you know I bear you, never to forget our brotherly love and friendship. You are infinitely more to me than I can ever be to you. I have now seen the most celebrated places in Germany, Holland, and England – but, believe me, I have in seeing them never been so happy as while sitting in Steinbart's arm-chair."

The influence of this journey was never lost. Sixty-eight years afterward, Humboldt said: "For the space of thirty years I have never known leisure but of an evening, and the half-century that I have spent in this ceaseless activity has been occupied in telling myself and others how much I owe my teacher and friend George Foster in the generalization of my views on nature, and in the strengthening and development of that which had already dawned in me, before those happy days of intimate friendship."

In the latter part of 1790, Humboldt went to Hamburg, to enter the School of Commerce. He wished to study political economy further, and to learn practical book-keeping. He wrote to a friend: "I am contented with my mode of life at Hamburg, but not happy, less happy even than at Göttingen, where the monotony of my existence was relieved by the society of one or two friends and the vicinity of some moss-grown mountains. I am, however, always contented when I feel that I am accomplishing the purpose I have in view… My leisure hours are occupied with geology and botany… In addition, I have begun to learn Danish and Swedish."

To Wegener he writes: "I have made considerable progress in general information, and I am beginning to be somewhat more satisfied with my attainments. I worked very hard at Göttingen, but all I have learned makes me feel only the more keenly how much remains still to know. My health suffered severely, but improved somewhat during my journey with Foster; yet even here I continue so closely occupied that I find it difficult to spare myself. There is an eager impulse within me, which often carries me, I fear, beyond the bounds of reason; and yet such impetuosity is always necessary to insure success."

The "eager impulse" was a sure indication of something to be accomplished by and by. Success does not come with half-hearted effort; it comes only through a force and persistence that will allow no barriers between us and the goal.

At Easter, 1791, Humboldt left Hamburg and hastened to the famous School of Mines at Freiberg, to study under the celebrated Werner. Here, as ever, he attached one ardent friend to himself, Freiesleben, a student in geology. Here every moment was occupied. He studied the works of the French chemists; Guyton de Moreau, Fourcroy, Lavoisier, and Berthollet. He was daily in the mines, from six o'clock till twelve. He crowded six lectures into each afternoon. He made a study of the vegetation of that lower world, from which the sunlight is ever excluded, and the results were used later in his comprehensive work, "Flora Subterranea Fribergensis." He wrote articles for several scientific journals. A busy life, indeed, for the young man of twenty-two!

His friend Freiesleben says of Humboldt at this time: —

"The salient points of his attractive character lay in his imperturbable good-nature, his benevolence and charity, his remarkable and unselfish amiability, his susceptibility of friendship and appreciation of nature; simplicity, candor, and the absence of all pretension characterized his whole being; he possessed conversational powers that made him always lively and entertaining, together with a degree of wit and humor that led him sometimes to waggishness. It was these admirable qualities which in later years enabled him to soften and attach to himself the untutored savages, among whom he dwelt for months at a time, which obtained for him in the civilized world admiration and sympathy wherever he went, and which gained for him, while a mere student, the esteem and devotion of all classes at Freiberg.

"He was kindly disposed towards every one, and knew how to make himself useful and entertaining in every circle of society; and it was only against every species of inhumanity and coarseness, against every kind of insolence, injustice, or cruelty, that he ever manifested either scorn or indignation."

How the world loves "unselfish amiability;" a person who goes through life thinking for others, not irritable, not supersensitive, not censorious!

On Humboldt's return to Berlin in 1792, he was at once made "Assessor in the Administrative Department of Mines and Smelting Works," a position for which he had previously applied. As a rule, places do not seek persons, however brilliant; they must seek places.

This was a fine opening for a young man, not yet twenty-three. He went to work with unbounded energy. He investigated the general form of mountains, collected information as to former methods of working the mines, by having three chests of mining documents, belonging to the sixteenth century, brought to him for careful study, and made a report on the salt, alum, and vitriol works, and on the porcelain manufactory. The government authorities were so pleased with his thorough report that he was appointed superintendent of mines in the two Franconian duchies.

He wrote to Freiesleben: "I am quite intoxicated with joy… Do not feel anxious about my health; I shall take care not to over-exert myself, and after the first the work will not be heavy. I cannot conclude without acknowledging that it is again to you that I am indebted for this happiness; indeed I feel it only too keenly. What knowledge have I, dear Freiesleben, that has not been taught me by you!.. How sweet is the thought to me that it is to you that I owe all this; it seems as if it bound me closer to you, as if I carried something about me that had been planted within me and cultivated by yourself…"

Thus all through life was the appreciative, warm-hearted man glad to show his gratitude for the stimulus of intellectual friends.

Who does not love to be appreciated! How many of us wait to say kind things to our friends until death makes it impossible!

Again he wrote: "I possess a certain amount of vanity, and am willing to confess it; but I know the power of my own will, and I feel that whatever I set myself to do I shall do well."

While so earnestly engaged in study, Humboldt, with his benevolent heart, could not see the children of the miners grow up in ignorance. He therefore opened free schools for them, and paid the teachers from his own purse. Not many young men at twenty-four would have thought of so admirable a plan.

Meantime he was experiencing the first keen joy of fame. The Elector of Saxony had sent the author of "Flora Fribergensis" a gold medal. The Swedish botanist Vahl had named a magnificent species of an East Indian laurel after him, the laurifolia Humboldtia. It had paid to be a student; to be led by the "eager impulse" within him.

The next year he wrote to Freiesleben: —

"You are aware that I am quite mad enough to be engaged upon three books at once… I have discovered several new lichens. I have also been occupied upon the history of the weaving of the ancients… My head is quite distracted with all I have to attend to – mining, banking, manufacturing, and organizing; … the mines, however, are prospering… I am promoted to be counsellor of mines at Berlin, with a salary, probably, of fifteen hundred thalers (here I have four hundred), and, after remaining there a few months, I shall most likely be appointed director of mines, either in Westphalia or Rothenburg, and receive from two thousand to three thousand thalers. I tell you everything, and open my heart to you."

In 1795, having resigned his position in the service of the state, because of his desire for travel and scientific work, with two friends, Freiesleben, and Lieutenant Reinhard von Haften, of Westphalia, he journeyed to Venice, going through the Tyrol and the Alps into Switzerland. They visited the mountains around Schaffhausen, Zürich, and Berne, and such notable men of science as De Luc, Pictet, and Saussure. As Freiesleben said, "No subject having any reference to the physical constitution of the earth, the atmosphere, or any point of natural history, was allowed to escape his attention."

An especial bond united Humboldt and the highly educated Von Haften, since between the latter's sister Minette and the young scientist there existed a devoted affection. This was cherished for ten years, but Humboldt's life of travel and exposure prevented a union which both ardently desired. He sacrificed his affections to science, and the loneliness of his later years proved the unwisdom of his choice.

On his return home, Humboldt set himself earnestly to the writing of two books: one on geology, the disposition of strata in mountain masses; the other on the "Excitability of the Nerves and Muscles," describing over four thousand experiments. His devotion to science was shown by the painful experiments upon his own body, which brought permanent harm to his nervous system.

He wrote to a friend: "I applied two blisters to my back, each of the size of a crown-piece, and covering respectively the trapezius and deltoid muscles… When the blisters were cut, and contact made with zinc and silver, I experienced a sharp pain, which was so severe that the trapezius muscle swelled considerably, and the quivering was communicated upwards to the base of the skull and the spinous processes of the vertebræ."

He also experimented with the noxious gases in mines, inventing lamps which were the forerunner of Sir Humphrey Davy's. Sometimes he was deprived of consciousness by the gases and saved only by the timely aid of friends.

Always longing for foreign travel, he went to Weimar, to make himself more fully ready for it, especially by the study of anatomy. Here lived his brother William, who had married a brilliant and intellectual woman, the intimate friend of the wife of Schiller.

Here Humboldt and Goethe became earnest friends. Goethe says: "During Humboldt's visit, my time has been usefully and agreeably spent; his presence has had the effect of arousing from its winter sleep my taste for natural science." Years afterward Goethe said to Eckermann: "Alexander von Humboldt has been with me for some hours this morning; what an extraordinary man he is! Though I have known him for so long, I am always struck with fresh amazement in his company. He may be said to be without a rival in extent of information and acquaintance with existing sciences. He possesses, too, a versatility of genius which I have never seen equalled. Whatever may be the subject broached, he seems quite at home in it, and showers upon us treasures in profusion from his stores of knowledge. He resembles a living fountain, whence flow many streams, yielding to all comers a quickening and refreshing draught. He will remain here a few days, and I already feel that I shall have lived through years in the time."

That Humboldt valued this friendship is shown by the dedication to Goethe of the first part of his "Travels in America."

The project of foreign travel was long delayed by sickness, war, and various disappointments. But, in life, obstacles are the common lot of mortals, and he alone is wise who breasts them cheerfully, patiently, and persistently. Humboldt said, "It is impossible not to feel the severity of this disappointment; but it is the part of a man to work, and not to yield to unavailing regrets."

"Hard! well, and what of that?

Didst fancy life one summer holiday,

With lessons none to learn, and naught but play?

Go, get thee to thy task. Conquer or die!

It must be learned. Learn it then, patiently."

At last, in 1799, when Humboldt was thirty, the long contemplated journey to South America was about to be realized. He had already published some astronomical treatises on the determination of latitudes, trigonometrical measures of the Alpine ranges, etc.; had given lectures in Paris, before the National Institute, on the nature of nitrous gas, and the possibility of a more exact analysis of the atmosphere; and had spent some time in Spain, with the well known botanist Bonpland, in collecting plants, and making observations in connection with meteorology, geology, and magnetism. While at Madrid, through Herr von Forell, a distinguished patron of science, Humboldt was received at court and obtained permission of the king to visit the Spanish colonies in America.

At his own expense, the best scientific instruments were procured, and June 5, 1799, at two o'clock in the afternoon, he and Bonpland, with their crew and a few others, sailed away, in the corvette Pizarro, for a five years' journey. He sent tender farewell messages back to "his family," as he called William's children, and then stifled any feelings of loneliness or homesickness which he had in his heart, by his favorite motto, "Man must ever strive after all that is good and great."

June 20, they were at the foot of the Peak of Teneriffe. He wrote to his brother: "I am quite in a state of ecstasy at finding myself at length on African soil, surrounded by cocoa-nut palms and bananas… I returned last night from an excursion up the peak. What an amazing scene! What a gratification! We descended some way into the crater, perhaps farther than any previous scientific traveller… What a remarkable spectacle was presented to us at this height of eleven thousand five hundred feet… At two in the morning we were already on our way towards the last cone. The heavens were bright with stars, and the moon shone with a gentle radiance; but this calm was soon to be disturbed. The storm raged violently round the summit; we were obliged to cling fast to the edge of the crater. The wind rushed through the rifts with a noise like thunder, while a veil of cloud separated us from the world below."

After a voyage of nineteen days, the ship entered the harbor of Cumana, on the north coast of South America. Here they enjoyed the new and strange scenes; the houses built of satin-wood; the copper-colored Indians outside the town, living in bamboo huts, covered with the leaves of the cocoa-nut palm; these great trees from fifty to sixty feet high, with large red bunches of flowers. "Even the crabs," said Humboldt, "are sky-blue and gold!"

By November they had dried more than sixteen hundred plants, and described about six hundred new varieties. He had taken observations of the solar eclipse of October 28, and so severely burnt his face that he was obliged to remain in bed for two days.

Going to Caracas, they spent two months and a half climbing mountains, visiting hot springs, and forming an intimate acquaintance with tigers, crocodiles, monkeys, and boa constrictors. Here they discovered the singular cow-tree, with dry and tough leaves, but which gives out a sweet nourishing milk when an incision is made in its stem. "At sunrise this vegetable spring is the richest: then the negroes and the natives come from all sides, provided with large vessels to collect the milk, which turns yellow and thickens on the surface."