The Invention of Nature

Chapter 15: Return to Berlin

1

‘tedious, restless life’: AH to Varnhagen, 13 December 1833, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.15.

2

chamberlain honorary title: AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, pp.18–19.

3

‘court life robs’: AH, 1795, Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.212; for AH at Prussian court, see Bruhns, vol.2, pp.104–5.

4

‘swinging of a pendulum’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 22 June 1833, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.181.

5

‘endless display of uniforms’: A.B. Granville, October 1827, Granville 1829, vol.1, p.332.

6

‘above their humble’: Briggs 2000, p.195.

7

school of chemistry and mathematics, observatory: Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.126; AH to Samuel Heinrich Spiker, 12 April 1829, AH Spiker Letters 2007, p.63; AH to Friedrich Wilhelm III, 9 October 1828, Hamel et al. 2003, pp.49–57.

8

‘sycophantic courtier’: Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy to Henriette von Pereira-Arnstein, 12 September 1827, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, p.20.

9

‘during an idle moment’: Karl Gutzkow on AH, after 1828, Beck 1969, p.252.

10

‘enviable talent for’: Carl Ritter to Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, winter 1827–8, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.107.

11

AH saw Canning: AH to Arago, 30 April 1827, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.28; see also F. Cathcart to Bagot, 24 April 1827, Canning 1909, vol.2, pp.392–4.

12

‘We are on the brink’: George Canning, 3 June 1827, Memorandum by Mr Stapelton, Canning 1887, vol.2, p.321.

13

‘the volcano which’: Klemens von Metternich, Davies 1997, p.762.

14

‘a head that’s gone’: Biermann 2004, p.8

15

‘mummy’s sarcophagus’: Ibid.

16

spirit of 1789: AH to Bonpland, 1843, AH Bonpland Letters 2004, p.110.

17

pan-American congress: Lynch 2006, pp.213–15; Arana 2013, pp.353–5.

18

‘era of blunders’: Pedro Briceño Méndez to Bolívar, 26 July 1826, Arana 2013, p.374.

19

‘illegal, unconstitutional and’: Joaquín Acosta, 24 March 1827, Acosta de Samper 1901, p.211.

20

‘influence of slavery’: Rossiter Raymond, 14 May 1859; see also AH to Benjamin Silliman, 5 August 1851, AH to George Ticknor, 9 May 1858, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.291, 445, 572; and George Bancroft to Elizabeth Davis Bliss Bancroft, 31 December 1847, Beck 1959, p.235.

21

‘estrangement from politics’: AH to Thomas Murphy, 20 December 1825, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.49.

22

‘With knowledge comes thought’: AH to Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, 1851, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.125; similarly AH wrote in

Cosmos

that ‘knowledge is power’, AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.37; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.36.

23

AH’s Cosmos lectures: AH to Johann Friedrich von Cotta, 1 March 1828, AH Cotta Letters 2009, pp.159–60; CH to Alexander von Rennenkampff, December 1827, Karl von Holtei to Goethe, 17 December 1827, Carl Friedrich Zelter to Goethe, 28 January 1828, AH Cosmos Lectures 2004, pp.21–3; see also p.12; Ludwig Börne 22 February 1828, Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.80; WH to August von Hedemann, 10 January 1828, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.7, p.326.

24

WH about Cosmos lectures: WH to August von Hedemann, 10 January 1828, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.7, p.325.

25

crowds and police: Ludwig Börne, 22 February 1828, Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.80

26

‘jostle is frightful’: Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy to Karl Klingemann, 23 December 1827, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, p.20.

27

‘listen to a clever word’: Ibid.

28

‘The gentlemen might scoff’: Ibid.

29

‘twice the width of’: Carl Friedrich Zelter to Goethe, 7 February 1828; Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy to Karl Klingemann, 5 February 1828, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, pp.20–21.

30

AH’s gentle voice: Roderick Murchison, May 1859, Beck 1959, p.3.

31

‘entire great

Naturgemälde

’: CH to Rennenkampff, 28 January 1828, AH Cosmos Lectures 2004, p.23.

32

AH’s lecture notes: See for example, Stabi Berlin NL AH, gr. Kasten 12, Nr. 16 and gr. Kasten 13, Nr. 29.

33

his ‘new method’:

Spenersche Zeitung

, 8 December 1827, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.116.

34

‘The listener’:

Vossische Zeitung

, 7 December 1827, ibid., p.119

35

‘I have never heard’: Christian Carl Josias Bunsen to Fanny Bunsen, ibid., p.120.

36

extraordinary clarity: Gabriele von Bülow to Heinrich von Bülow, 1 February 1828, AH Cosmos Lectures 2004, p.24.

37

‘wonderful depth’: CH to Adelheid Hedemann, 7 December 1827, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.7, p.325.

38

a ‘new epoch’:

Spenersche Zeitung

, 8 December 1827, AH Cosmos Lectures 2004, p.16.

39

Cotta and lectures: AH to Heinrich Berghaus, 20 December 1827, AH Berghaus Letters 1863, vol.1, pp.117–18.

40

outings, excursions and meetings: Engelmann 1969, pp.16–18; AH, Opening Speech German Association of Naturalists and Physicians, 18 September 1828, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.135.

41

‘Without a diversity’: AH, Opening Speech German Association of Naturalists and Physicians, 18 September 1828, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.134.

42

an ‘eruption of nomadic’: AH to Arago, 29 June 1828, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.40.

43

pure ‘oxygen’: Carl Friedrich Gauß to Christian Ludwig Gerling, 18 December 1828; see also AH to Carl Friedrich Gauß, 14 August 1828, AH Gauß Letters 1977, pp.34, 40.

44

Goethe envious and requesting details: Goethe to Varnhagen, 8 November 1827, Goethe Correspondence 1968–76, vol.4, p.257; Carl Friedrich Zelter to Goethe, 7 February 1828, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, p.21; Karl von Holtei to Goethe, 17 December 1827, AH Cosmos Lectures 2004, p.21.

45

had ‘always accompanied’: Goethe to AH, 16 May 1821, Goethe Correspondence 1968–76, vol.3, p.505.

46

AH’s letters invigorating: Goethe to AH, 24 January 1824, Bratranek 1876, p.317; AH to Goethe, 6 February 1806, Goethe Correspondence 1968–76, vol.2, p.559; Goethe, 16 March 1807, 30 December 1809, 18 January 1810, 20 June 1816, Goethe Diary 1998–2007, vol.3, pt. 1, p.298; vol.4, pt.1, pp.100, 111; vol.5, pt.1, p.381; AH to Goethe, 16 April 1821, Goethe AH WH Letters 1876, p.315; Goethe, 16 March 1823, 3 May 1823, 20 August 1825, Goethe’s Day 1982–96, vol.7, pp.235, 250, 526.

47

everybody lived too far apart: Goethe to Johannn Peter Eckermann, 3 May 1827, Goethe Eckermann 1999, p.608.

48

‘on my isolated path’: Ibid., p.609.

49

AH’s change from Neptunist to Vulcanist: Pieper 2006, pp.76–81; Hölder 1994, pp.63–73.

50

‘a single volcanic furnace’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.222; AH Views 2014, p.247; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.263; see also AH, ‘Über den Bau und die Wirkungsart der Vulcane in den verschiedenen Erdstrichen’, 24 January 1823, and Pieper 2006, p.77ff.

51

examples graphic and terrifying: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, pp.222–3; AH Views 2014, p.248; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, pp.263–4.

52

‘a subterranean force’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.285; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.311; see also AH Geography 2009, p.67; AH Geography 1807, p.9.

53

like ‘savages’: Goethe to Carl Friedrich Zelter, 7 November 1829, Goethe Correspondence 1968–76, vol.4, p.350.

54

It was ‘absurd’: Goethe, 6 March 1828, Goethe’s Day 1982–96, vol.8, p.38.

55

‘rigid and proud’: Goethe to Carl Friedrich Zelter, 5 October 1831, Goethe Correspondence 1968–76, vol.4, p.454. 000 ‘cerebral system’: Ibid

56

‘I appear to myself’: Goethe to WH, 1 December 1831, Goethe Correspondence 1968–76, vol.4, p.462.

57

‘I know where my happiness’: AH to WH, 5 November 1829, AH Letters Russia 2009, p.207.

58

‘work together scientifically’: AH, Aus Meinem Leben (1769–1850), in Biermann 1987, p.116.

59

‘the mysterious and wonderful’: WH to Karl Gustav von Brinkmann, Geier 2010, p.282.

60

‘language was the formative’: WH 1903–36, vol.7, pt.1, p.53; see also vol.4, p.27.

61

‘image of an organic’: Ibid., vol.7, pt.1, p.45.

62

to India through Russia: AH to Alexander von Rennenkampff, 7 January 1812, AH Letters Russia 2009, p.62.

63

Cancrin’s request for information from AH: Cancrin to AH, 27 August 1827, ibid., p.67ff.; Beck 1983, p.21ff.

64

‘most burning desire’: AH to Cancrin, 19 November 1827, AH Letters Russia 2009, p.76.

65

‘the sweetest images’: AH to Cancrin, 19 November 1827, ibid.

66

AH confirms his vitality: AH to Cancrin, 10 January 1829, ibid., p.88.

67

Tsar invites AH to Russia: Cancrin to AH, 17 December 827, ibid., pp.78–9.