The Invention of Nature

Chapter 18: Humboldt’s Cosmos

1

‘The mad frenzy’: AH to Varnhagen, 27 October 1834, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.15.

2

‘book on Nature’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 October 1834, ibid., p.19.

3

‘sword in the’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.204.

4

‘opus of my life’: AH to Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, 14 July 1833, AH Bessel Letters 1994, p.82.

5

‘both heaven and’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 October 1834, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.18; ancient Greek: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.56; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, pp.61–2.

6

army of helpers: for example Hooker to AH, 4 December 1847 and Robert Brown to AH, 12 August 1834, AH, Gr. Kasten 12, Envelope ‘Geographie der Pflanzen’; list of Polynesian plants from Jules Dumont d’Urville: AH, gr. Kasten 13, no.27, Stabi Berlin NL AH; AH to Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, 20 December 1828 and 14 July 1833, AH Bessel Letters 1994, pp.50–54, 84; AH to P.G. Lejeune Dirichlet, after May 1851, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.93; AH to August Böckh, 14 May 1849, AH Böckh Letters 2011, p.189; Werner 2004, p.159.

7

Chinese and dairy products: Kark Gützlaff to AH, n.d., AH, kl.Kasten 3b, no.112; for palm species in Nepal, Robert Brown to AH, 12 August 1834, AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.103, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

8

‘to pursue one’: AH to Karl Zell, 21 May 1836, Schwarz 2000, no page numbers.

9

‘This time you won’t’: Herman Abich about Humboldt, 1853, Beck 1959, p.346; for novelist in Algiers, see Laube 1875, p.334.

10

‘the material grows’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838; see also 18 September 1843, AH Cotta Letters 2009, pp.204, 249.

11

‘a kind of impossible’: AH to Gauß, 23 March 1847, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.98.

12

box with geology material: AH, Gr. Kasten 11, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

13

chaotic finances, exact research: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 April 1852, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.482; AH to Alexander Mendelssohn, 24 December 1853, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, p.253.

14

‘very important’: AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.96, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

15

‘important, to follow up’: AH, gr. Kasten 8, envelope including no.6–11a, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

16

dried piece of moss: AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.124, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

17

plants from Himalaya: AH, gr. Kasten 12, no.112, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

18

‘Luftmeer’: AH, gr. Kasten 12, envelope including no.32–47 Stabi Berlin NL AH.

19

material on antiquity: AH, gr Kasten 8, no.124–168, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

20

tables of temperatures: AH, kl. Kasten 3b, no.121, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

21

Hebrew poetry: AH, kl. Kasten 3b, no.125, Stabi Berlin NL AH.

22

‘loose ends’: Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg, Frankfurt, May 1832, Beck 1959, p.128.

23

‘had become frozen’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 10 November 1846, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.85.

24

mere ‘picture gallery’: AH to WH, 14 July 1829, AH Letters Russia 2009, p.146.

25

‘royal court’: Adolf Bernhard Marx about Humboldt, Beck 1969, p.253.

26

‘all turned to him’: Ibid.

27

listened to every syllable: Sir Charles Hallé, 1840s, Hallé 1896, p.100.

28

not able to interject word: Ludwig Börne, 12 October 1830, Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.82.

29

‘certain Prussian savant’: Honoré Balzac,

Administrative Adventures of a Wonderful Idea

, 1834, Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.89.

30

‘It was a duet’: Sir Charles Hallé, 1840s, Hallé 1896, p.100.

31

AH at university: Robert Avé-Lallemant, 1833; Ernst Kossak about AH, December 1834, Beck 1959, pp.134, 141; Emil du Bois-Reymond, 3 August 1883, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.201; Franz Lieber, 14 September 1869, AH Letters USA 2004, p.581.

32

‘Alexander is skipping’: Biermann and Schwarz 1999a, p.188.

33

‘little, illiterate, and’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 April 1837, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.27.

34

Wilhelm’s last years and death: Geier 2010, p.298ff.

35

‘I never had believed’: AH to Varnhagen, 5 April 1835, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.21.

36

‘half of myself’: AH to Jean Antoine Letronne, 18 April 1835, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.183.

37

‘Pity me; I am’: AH to Gide, 10 April 1835, ibid.

38

‘Everything is bleak’: AH to Bunsen, 24 May 1836, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, pp.35–6.

39

AH to Paris for research: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 25 December 1844, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.269; AH to Bunsen, 3 October 1847, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.103 and AH to Caroline von Wolzogen, 12 June 1835, Biermann 1987, p.206.

40

‘concentrated sunshine’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 2 March 1836, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.52.

41

AH’s rounds in Paris: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.206.

42

‘dancing carnivalesque’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 2 March 1836, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.52.

43

‘mobile resources’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 22 June 1833, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.180.

44

‘yesterday Pfaueninsel’: Engelmann 1969, p.11.

45

AH felt like a planet: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 11 January 1835, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.186.

46

AH’s life at court: AH to P.G. Lejeune Dirichlet, 28 February 1844, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.67.

47

‘my best Alexandros’: Friedrich Wilhelm IV to AH, 1 December 1840, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.181.

48

AH as ‘dictionary’: Friedrich Daniel Bassermann about AH, 14 November 1848, Beck 1969, p.265.

49

AH answered king’s questions: AH to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, 9 November 1839, 29 September 1840, 5 October 1840, December 1840, 23 March 1841, 15 June 1842, May 1844, 1849, also notes 4, 5, 12, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, pp.145, 147, 174, 175, 182, 202, 231, 277, 405, 532, 533, 536.

50

‘as much as I can’: AH to Gauß, 3 July 1842, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.85.

51

Prussia like William Parry: AH to Varnhagen, 6 September 1844; see also Varnhagen Diary, 18 March 1843 and 1 April 1844, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, pp.97, 106–7, 130.

52

AH worked at night: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 9 March 1844, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.256.

53

‘liquor store’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 5 February 1849, ibid., p.349.

54

‘I don’t go to bed’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838, ibid., p.204.

55

failed to send manuscript: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 15 March 1841, ibid., p.238.

56

‘involved with people who’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838, ibid., p.204.

57

‘his most scrupulous work’: Ibid.

58

AH went to observatory: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 18 September 1843, ibid., p.248; the observatory had been built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1835.

59

AH little time in England: AH to John Herschel, 1842, Théodoridès 1966, p.50.

60

Murchison organized gathering: Darwin 1958, p.107.

61

‘losing the best shooting’: Roderick Murchison to Francis Egerton, 25 January 1842, Murchison 1875, vol.1, p.360.

62

Darwin nervous to see AH: Emma Darwin to Jessie de Sismondi, 8 February 1842, Litchfield 1915, vol.2, p.67.

63

‘buried in the ice-covered’: AH Geography 2009, p.69; AH Geography 1807, p.15; see also pp.9, 91.

64

‘cosmopolitan outfit’: Schlagintweit brothers recounting AH, May 1849, Beck 1959, p.262.

65

AH worked the room: Description based on Heinrich Laube’s account, Laube 1875, pp.330–33.

66

‘some tremendous compliments’: Emma Darwin to Jessie de Sismondi, 8 February 1842, Litchfield 1915, vol.2, p.67.

67

‘beyond all reason’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 10 February 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.140.

68

‘But my anticipations’: Darwin 1958, p.107.

69

‘

widely

different’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 10–11 November 1844, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.79.

70

‘have two Floras’: Darwin, Note, 29 January 1842, CUL DAR 100.167.

71

life like ‘Clockwork’: Darwin to Robert FitzRoy, 1 October 1846, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.345.

72

Darwin often ill: Thomson 2009, pp.219–20.

73

pros and cons of marriage: Darwin’s Notes on Marriage, second note, July 1838, Darwin Correspondence, vol.2, pp.444–5.

74

‘fixed’ species: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.23; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.23 (my translation: Humboldt’s ‘abgeschlossene Art’ became ‘isolated species’ in the English edition but it should be translated as ‘fixed’ – as opposed to ‘mutable’).

75

‘intermediate steps’ and missing links: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.3, Notes, p.14, iii; see also vol.1, p.34; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.3, pp.14, 28, vol.1, p.33.

76

‘cyclical change’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.22; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.22 (my translation: Humboldt’s ‘periodischen Wechsel’ became ‘transformations’ in the English edition but ‘cyclical change’ is a better translation). For transitions and constant renewal, see AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, pp.22, 34; AH Kosmos 1845–50 vol.1, pp.22, 33.

77

‘pre-Darwinian Darwinist’: Emil Du Bois-Reymond’s speech at Berlin University, 3 August 1883, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.195; see also Wilhelm Bölsche to Ernst Haeckel, 4 July 1913, Haeckel Bölsche Letters 2002, p.253.

78

‘supports in almost’ (footnote): Alfred Russel Wallace to Henry Walter Bates, 28 December 1845, Wallace Letters Online.

79

‘about the river’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 10 February 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.140.

80

Hooker same hotel: Hooker 1918, vol.1, p.179.

81

‘To my horror’: Joseph Hooker to Maria Sarah Hooker, 2 February 1845, ibid., p.180.

82

‘Jupiter-like’: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 4 September 1848, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.8; for AH changing with age, see also A Visit to Humboldt by a correspondent of the

Commercial Advertiser

, 30 December 1849, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.539–40.

83

‘capability for generalising’: Joseph Hooker to W.H. Harvey, 27 February 1845, Hooker 1918, vol.1, p.185.

84

‘his mind was still’: Joseph Hooker to Darwin, late February 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.148.

85

‘I do not suppose’: Ibid.

86

‘had given Kosmos up’: Joseph Hooker to Darwin, late February 1845, ibid., p.149.

87

Cosmos

in Germany: Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.390; Biermann und Schwarz 1999b, p.205; Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 14 June 1845, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.283.

88

‘non-German Cosmos children’: AH to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, 16 September 1847, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.366; for translations see Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.382ff.

89

‘unite in a quivering’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.182; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.200.

90

‘kill the creative force’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21 (my translation: ‘das Gefühl erkälten, die schaffende Bildkraft der Phantasie ertödten’; the 1845 English edition translates this as ‘to chill the feelings, and to diminish the nobler enjoyment attendant on the contemplation of nature’).

91

‘never-ending activity’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21 (my translation: ‘in dem ewigen Treiben und Wirken der lebendigen Kräfte’; the English edition translates this as ‘in the midst of universal fluctuation of forces’).

92

‘living whole’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.5; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.5 (my translation: ‘ein lebendiges Ganzes’; the English edition translates this as ‘one fair harmonious whole’ but it should be either ‘living whole’ or ‘animated whole’).

93

‘net-like intricate fabric’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.34; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.33 (my translation; this crucial sentence, ‘Eine allgemeine Verkettung nicht in einfacher linearer Richtung, sondern in netzartig verschlungenem Gewebe’, is not in the English edition).

94

‘wide range of creation’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.34; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.32.

95

‘perpetual interrelationship’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.279; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.304 (my translation: ‘perpetuierlichen Zusammenwirken’; the English edition translates this as ‘double influence’).

96

‘animated by one breath’: AH to Caroline von Wolzogen, 14 May 1806, Goethe AH WH Letters 1876, p.407.

97

AH not religious: WH to CH, 23 May 1817, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.5, p.315; for criticism of the missionaries, see AH Diary 1982, p.329ff.; and of the Prussian Church, see Werner 2000, p.34.

98

‘wonderful web of organic life’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21 (my translation: ‘in dem wundervollen Gewebe des Organismus’; the English edition translates this as ‘the seemingly inextricable network of organic life’).

99

‘a pact with the devil’ (footnote): Werner 2000, p.34.

100 ‘Were the republic’: North British Review, 1845, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.290.

101 ‘epoch making’: Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 3 December 1847; see also 5 February 1846, ibid., pp.292, 329. ’

102 Metternich on Cosmos: Klemens von Metternich to AH, 21 June 1845, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.138.

103 AH ‘dazzling’: Berlioz 1878, p.126.

104 ‘read, re-read, pondered’: Berlioz 1854, p.1.

105 Prince Albert requested copy: Prince Albert to AH, 7 February 1847, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.181; Darwin to Hooker, 11 and 12 July 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.217.

106 ‘severely damage’: AH to Bunsen, 18 July 1845, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, pp.76–7.

107 His ‘poor Cosmos’: Ibid.

108 ‘Are you really sure’: Darwin to Hooker, 3 September 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.249.

109 ‘wretched English’: Darwin to Hooker, 18 September 1845; Darwin to Hooker, 8 October 1845, ibid., pp.255, 257.

110 ‘vigour & information’: Darwin to Charles Lyell, 8 October 1845, ibid., p.259.

111 others were ‘admirable’: Darwin to Hooker, 28 October 1845, ibid., p.261.

112 Darwin bought new translation: Darwin to Hooker, 2 October 1846, ibid., p.346.

113 ‘very wroth at the’: Hooker to Darwin, 25 March 1854, ibid., vol.5, p.184; see also AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 20 March 1848, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.292.

114 AH wanted honesty: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 November 1847, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.327.

115 ‘real battles’: Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 3 December 1847, ibid., p.329.

116 ‘poetic descriptions of’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.3; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.3.

117 ‘produces on the feelings’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.3; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.3.

118 ‘new organs’: AH to Caroline von Wolzogen, 14 May 1806, Goethe AH WH Letters 1876, p.407. ’

119 eye as organ of Weltanschauung: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.73; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.86.

120 ‘delight the senses’: AH to Varnhagen, 28 April 1841, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.70.

121 ‘sheer madness’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 March 1849, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.359.

122 40,000 copies: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 7 April 1849, ibid., p.368.

123 AH’s income from translations (footnote): AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 13 April 1849, ibid., p.371.

124 ‘The wonderful Humboldt’: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal, 1845, Emerson 1960–92, vol.9, p.270; see also Ralph Waldo Emerson to John F. Heath, 4 August 1842, Emerson 1939, vol.3, p.77; Walls 2009, pp.251–6.

125 Eureka and Cosmos: Walls 2009, pp.256–60; Sachs 2006, pp.109–11; Clark and Lubrich 2012, pp.19–20.

126 ‘spiritual and material’: Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Eureka’, Poe 1848, p.8.

127 ‘the most sublime of’: Ibid., p.130.

128 Whitman’s ‘Kosmos’: Whitman 1860, pp.414–15; for Whitman and Cosmos, see AH Letters USA 2004, p.61; Walls 2009, pp.279–83; Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.20.

129 ‘Song of Myself’: The word ‘kosmos’ is the only one that didn’t change in the various versions of Whitman’s famous self-identification. It began as ‘Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos’ in the first edition and became ‘Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son’ in the last.