The Invention of Nature

Chapter 20: The Greatest Man Since the Deluge

1

articles read in coffee houses: Varnhagen Diary, 3 March 1848, Varnhagen 1862, vol.4, p.259.

2

‘only had to get rid’: Varnhagen, 5 April 1841, Beck 1959, p.177.

3

‘does just what he’: Varnhagen, 18 March 1843, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.97.

4

‘earthly matters’: Varnhagen, 1 April 1844, ibid., p.106; see also AH to Gauß, 14 June 1844, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.87; AH to Bunsen, 16 December 1846, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.90.

5

not ruled by popular will: King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, speech to Vereinigte Landtag, 11 April 1847, Mommsen 2000, p.82ff.; for AH reporting the king’s speech, AH to Bunsen, 26 April 1847, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.96.

6

revolution in Berlin: Varnhagen Diary, 18 March 1848, ibid., p.276ff.

7

‘Oh Lord, oh Lord’: Varnhagen Diary, 19 March 1848, ibid., p.313.

8

slow reforms: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 4 September 1848, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.13; AH to Bunsen, 22 September 1848, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.113.

9

revolution Berlin: Varnhagen Diary, 19 March 1848, Varnhagen 1862, vol.4, pp.315–31.

10

king wearing black, red, gold: Varnhagen Diary, 21 March 1848, ibid., p.334.

11

AH balcony with king: Varnhagen Diary, 21 March 1848, ibid., p.336; for AH at funeral procession, see Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.341 and AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.23.

12

‘differences in political’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 20 September 1847, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.318.

13

‘ultraliberal’: Friedrich Schleiermacher, 5 September 1832, Beck 1959, p.129; Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.102; Wilhelm of Prussia to his sister Charlotte, 10 February 1831, Leitner 2008, p.227.

14

‘He is well aware’: Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 8 July 1823, Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.128.

15

‘hard pork chops’: AH to Hedemann, 17 August 1857, Biermann and Schwarz 2001b, no page numbers.

16

‘a spineless pale one’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 June 1842, Assing 1860, p.66.

17

‘courage to have his’: Max Ring, 1841 or 1853, Beck 1959, p.183.

18

‘always the same, always’: Krätz 1999b, p.33; see also AH to Friedrich Althaus, 23 December 1849, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.29.

19

‘a revolutionary and’: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 5 August 1852, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.96; see also AH to Varnhagen, 26 December 1845, Beck 1959, p.215.

20

AH frustrated about politics: AH to Varnhagen, 29 May 1848, Beck 1959, p.238.

21

‘organism and the

unity

’: AH to Maximillian II, 3 November 1848, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.403.

22

prospects gloomy: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 September 1848, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.337.

23

‘dirt and clay’: King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to Joseph von Radowitz, 23 December 1848, Lautemann and Schlenke 1980, p.221ff.

24

‘a dog collar’: King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to King Ernst August von Hanover, April 1849, Jessen 1968, p.310ff.

25

AH disappointed about politics: AH to Johann Georg Cotta, 7 April 1849 and 21 April 1849, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.367; Leitner 2008, p.232; AH to Friedrich Althaus, 23 December 1849, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.28; AH to Gauß, 22 February 1851, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.100; AH to Bunsen, 27 March 1852, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.146.

26

‘pest of slavery’: AH to Oscar Lieber, 1849, AH Letters USA 2004, p.265.

27

‘the old Spanish Conquista’: AH to Johann Flügel, 19 June 1850; for AH and Mexican war, see John Lloyd Stephens, 2 July 1847 and AH to Robert Walsh, 8 December 1847, ibid., pp.252, 268, 529–30.

28

‘worn-out hope’: AH to Arago, 9 November 1849, quoted in AH Geography 2009, p.xi.

29

‘endless oscillations’: AH to Heinrich Berghaus, August 1848, AH Spiker Letters 2007, p.25.

30

excitement for revolutions wearing off: Friedrich Daniel Bassermann about AH, 14 November 1848, Beck 1969, p.264.

31

‘cosmical phaenomena’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.3, p.i; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.3, p.3.

32

‘master of the materials’: AH to Bunsen, 27 March 1852, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.146.

33

‘those half dead are’: AH to du Bois-Reymond, 21 March 1852, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.124; see also AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 3 February 1853, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.497.

34

‘goblin on his’: AH to to Johann Georg von Cotta, 4 September 1852, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.484.

35

‘Micro-Cosmos’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 September and 2 November 1848; and Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 21 February 1849, ibid., pp.338, 345, 355.

36

‘it remains for the third’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.3, p.8; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.3, p.9; see also Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.391.

37

O’Leary visited AH: Daniel O’Leary, 1853, Beck 1969, p.265; AH to O’Leary, April 1853, MSS141, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá.

38

‘for the sake of seeing’: Bayard Taylor, 1856, Taylor 1860, p.455.

39

AH’s attitude to Americans (footnote): Ibid., p.445; Rossiter W. Raymond, A Visit to Humboldt, January 1859, AH Letters USA 2004, p.572.

40

‘usual benevolence’: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.201; see also AH to Dirichlet, 27 July 1852, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.104; Biermann and Schwarz 1999a, pp.189, 196.

41

young men like his children: AH to Dirichlet, 24 July 1845, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.67.

42

‘one of the most wonderful’: Carl Friedrich Gauß, Terra 1955, p.336.

43

AH and elections at Académie: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.202ff.

44

‘and learned a lot from’: Ibid., p.205.

45

instructions for Hooker: AH to Joseph Dalton Hooker, 30 September 1847, reprinted in

London Journal for Botany

, vol.6, 1847, pp.604–7; Hooker 1918, vol.1, p.218.

46

‘shamrock’: AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.72; see also AH to Bunsen, 20 February 1854, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.175; Finkelstein 2000, p.187ff.; AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, pp.72–3.

47

‘nothing in my life’: AH Central Asia 1844, vol.1, p.611.

48

AH’s instructions for artists: For Johann Moritz Rugendas, Eduard Hildebrandt and Ferdinand Bellermann, Werner 2013, pp.101ff., 121, 250ff.

49

long list of plants for artist: AH’s instructions to Johann Moritz Rugendas, 1830, in a letter to Karl Schinkel, ibid., p.102.

50

‘real landscapes’: Ibid.

51

‘business of deciphering’: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.201.

52

‘microscopic-hieroglyphic lines’: AH to Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 2 March 1836, AH Schumacher Letters 1979, p.52.

53

yearly 2,500–3,000 letters: AH to Edward Young, 3 June 1855, AH Letters USA 2004, p.347; AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 5 February 1849 and 2 May 1855, AH Cotta Letters 2009, pp.349, 558.

54

‘ludicrous correspondence’: AH to du Bois-Reymond, 18 January 1850, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.101; Bayard Taylor, 1856, Taylor 1860, p.471; Varnhagen Diary, 24 April 1858, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.311.

55

Bonpland in South America: Schneppen 2002, p.21ff.; Bonpland to AH, 7 June 1857, AH Bonpland Letters 2004, p.136.

56

AH sent his books: AH to Bonpland, 1843; Bonpland to AH, 25 December 1853 and 27 October 1854, ibid., pp.110, 114–15, 120.

57

‘We survive’: AH to Bonpland, 4 October 1853; see also AH to Bonpland, 1843, ibid., pp.108–10, 113.

58

‘secret feelings of one’s’: Bonpland to AH, 2 September 1855; see also Bonpland to AH, 2 October 1854, ibid., pp.131, 133.

59

AH Great Exhibition, Siam and Hong Kong: Friedrich Droege to William Henry Fox Talbot, 6 May 1853, BL Add MS 88942/2/27; Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.391.

60

‘Ask any schoolboy who’:

New Englander

, May 1860, quoted in Sachs 2006, p.96.

61

‘household word’: John B. Floyd, 1858, Terra 1955, p.355.

62

‘Humboldt Andes’: Francis Lieber to his family, 1 November 1829, Lieber 1882, p.87.

63

AH’s name in US: Oppitz 1969, pp.277–429; AH to Heinrich Spiker, 27 June 1855, AH Spiker Letters 2007, p.236; AH to Varnhagen, 13 January 1856, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.243.

64

‘I am full of fish’: Theodore S. Fay to R.C. Waterston, 26 August 1869, Beck 1959, p.194.

65

‘naval power’: AH to Ludwig von Jacobs, 21 October 1852, Werner 2004, p.219.

66

‘I need my head’: AH to Christian Daniel Rauch, Terra 1955, p.333.

67

female admirer to AH: AH to Hermann, Adolph and Robert Schlagintweit, Berlin, May 1849, Beck 1959, p.265.

68

‘ugly baroness Berzelius’: AH to Dirchlet, 7 December 1851, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.99.

69

‘half-petrified curiosity’: AH to Henriette Mendelssohn, 1850, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, p.193.

70

‘made space shrink’: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 4 September 1848, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.12; see also John Lloyd Stephens, 2 July 1847, AH Letters USA 2004, p.528.

71

AH and Panama Canal: AH to James Madison, 27 June 1804, JM SS Papers, vol.7, p.378; AH to Frederick Kelley, 27 January 1856 and ‘Baron Humboldt’s last opinion on the Passage of the Isthmus of Panama’, 2 September 1850, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.544–6; 372–3; AH Aspects 1849 vol.2, p.320ff.; AH Views 2014, p.292; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.390ff.

72

‘a piece of Sub-Atlantic’: Francis Lieber Diary, 7 April 1857, Lieber 1882, p.294.

73

Morse reported about cable: Samuel Morse to AH, 7 October 1856, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.406–7.

74

neighbours saw AH: Engelmann 1969, p.8; Bayard Taylor, 1856, Taylor 1860, p.470.

75

‘our Potsdam Chimborazo’: Heinrich Berghaus, 1850, Beck 1959, p.296.

76

‘I knew him more than’: Charles Lyell to his sister Caroline, 28 August 1856, Lyell 1881, vol.2, pp.224–5.

77

AH in old age: Bayard Taylor, 1856, Taylor 1860, p.458; AH to Friedrich Althaus, 5 August 1852, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.96; AH to Arago, 11 February 1850, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.310.

78

‘nothing flabby about’: ‘A Visit to Humboldt by a correspondent of the

Commercial Advertiser

’, 1 January 1850, AH Letters USA 2004, p.540.

79

‘meagre with age’: Ibid., p.539.

80

‘all the fire and spirit’: Ibid, p.540.

81

AH’s finances: Eichhorn 1959, pp.186–207; Biermann and Schwarz 2000, pp.9–12; AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 10 August 1848, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.334.

82

AH’s books too expensive for AH: AH to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, 22 March 1841, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.200.

83

AH study and AH appearance: Bayard Taylor, 1856, Taylor 1860, p.456ff.; ‘A Visit to Humboldt by journalist of

Commercial Advertiser

’, 1 January 1850 and Rossiter W. Raymond, A Visit to Humboldt, January 1859, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.539ff., 572ff.; Robert Avé-Lallement, 1856, Beck 1959, p.377; Varnhagen Diary, 22 November 1856, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.264; see also watercolours of Humboldt’s study and library by Eduard Hildebrandt, 1856.

84

‘magnificent’ leopard skin: Rossiter W. Raymond, A Visit to Humboldt, January 1859, AH Letters USA 2004, p.572.

85

‘Much sugar, much’: Biermann 1990, p.57.

86

then ‘imbecility’: Wilhelm Förster about a visit to AH, 1855, Beck 1969, p.267.

87

his ‘celebrity’: AH to George Ticknor, 9 May 1858, AH Letters USA 2004, p.444.

88

as ‘many clerics’: Varnhagen Diary, 22 November 1856, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.264; Theodore S. Fay to R.C. Waterston, 26 August 1869, Beck 1959, p.194.

89

slavery a ‘stain’: AH to Johann Flügel, 22 December 1849; see also 16 June 1850, 20 June 1854; and AH to Benjamin Silliman, 5 August 1851; Cornelius Felton, July 1853; AH to Johann Flügel, 22 December 1849, 16 June 1850, 20 June 1854, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.262, 268, 291, 333, 552.

90

AH and US Cuba book:

Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen

, 25 July 1856; see also Friedrich von Gerolt to AH, 25 August 1856, AH Letters USA 2004, p.388; Walls 2009, pp.201–9.

91

‘uninterrupted stream of’: Bayard Taylor, 1856, Taylor 1860, p.461.

92

‘unrelentingly persecuted by my’: AH to George Ticknor, 9 May 1858; for number of letters see AH to Agassiz, 1 September 1856, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.393, 444.

93

AH health: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 25 August and 25 September 1849, AH Cotta Letters 2009, pp.398, 416; AH to Bunsen, 12 December 1856, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.199.

94

AH getting weaker: AH to Agassiz, 1 September 1856, AH Letters USA 2004, p.393.

95

falling painting in Potsdam: Biermann and Schwarz 1997, p.80.

96

‘much unoccupied in my’: and AH’s stroke, AH to Varnhagen, 19 March 1857, Varnhagen Diary, 27 February 1857, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, pp.279, 281.

97

‘machinery’: Bayard Taylor, October 1857, Taylor 1860, p.467.

98

AH refused stick: Eduard Buschmann to Johann Georg von Cotta, 29 December 1857, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.601.

99

‘Special Results of Observation’: AH Kosmos 1858, vol.4; AH wrote the fourth volume in two parts – the first 244 pages had been printed in 1854 but the official publication of the complete volume was only in 1857, Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.391.

100 readership Cosmos: By 1850 the authorized translation of the first and second volumes of Cosmos were in the seventh and eighth editions, while the subsequent volumes never went beyond the first edition, Fiedler and Leitner 2000, pp.409–10.

101 AH and volume 5: AH Kosmos 1862, vol.5; Werner 2004, p.182ff.

102 Schlagintweit brothers to AH: Hermann and Robert Schlagintweit, Berlin, June 1857, Beck 1959, pp.267–8.

103 AH’s essay on Himalaya: This was his 1820 essay ‘Sur la inférieure des neiges perpétuelles dans les montagnes de l’Himalaya et les regions équatoriales’.

104 ‘unmercifully tormented’: AH to Julius Fröbel, 11 January 1858, AH Letters USA 2004, p.435.

105 almost 5,000 letters: Varnhagen, 18 February 1858, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.307.

106 ‘formal and business-like’: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 30 July 1856, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.137; AH to Edward Young, 3 June 1855, AH Letters USA 2004, p.347.

107 Washington’s birthday: Joseph Albert Wright to State Department, 7 May 1859, Hamel et al. 2003, p.249; Bayard Taylor, 1859, Taylor 1860, p.473.

108 ‘Labouring under extreme’: Humboldt’s announcement, 15 March 1859, Irving 1864, vol.4, p.256.

109 AH dispatched Cosmos: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 19 April 1859, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.41; Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.391.

110 AH health bulletin: Bayard Taylor, May 1859, Taylor 1860, pp.477–8.

111 ‘How glorious these’: AH to Hedemann and Gabriele von Bülow, 6 May 1859; Anna von Sydow, May 1859, Beck 1959, pp.424, 426; Bayard Taylor, May 1859, Taylor 1860, p.479.

112 news of AH’s death: For Europe and US see later endnotes; for the rest of the world, for example: Estrella de Panama, 15 June 1859; El Comercio, Lima, 28 June 1859; Graham Town Journal, South Africa, 23 July 1859.

113 ‘The great, good and’: Joseph Albert Wright to US State Department, 7 May 1859, Hamel et al. 2003, p.248.

114 ‘Berlin is plunged’: Morning Post, 9 May 1859.

115 Darwin manuscript Origin: Darwin to John Murray, 6 May 1859, Darwin Correspondence, vol.7, p.295.

116 ‘Alexander von Humboldt is dead’: The Times, 9 May 1859; see also Morning Post, 9 May 1859; Daily News, 9 May 1859; Standard, 9 May 1859.

117 Church, AH and Heart of Andes: Kelly 1989, p.48ff.; Avery 1993, pp.12ff., 17, 26, 33–6; Sachs 2006, p.99ff.; Baron 2005, p.11ff.

118 Church following AH: Baron 2005, p.11ff.; Avery 1993, pp.17, 26.

119 ‘artistic Humboldt of’: New York Times, 17 March 1863; this related to Church’s painting Cotopaxi.

120 ‘scenery which delighted’: Frederic Edwin Church to Bayard Taylor, 9 May 1859, Gould 1989, p.95.

121 AH funeral: Bierman and Schwarz 1999a, p.196; Bierman and Schwarz 1999b, p.471; Bayard Taylor, May 1859, Taylor 1860, p.479.

122 news reached US: North American and United States Gazette, Daily Cleveland Herald, Boston Daily Advertiser, Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, New York Times, all on 19 May 1859.

123 ‘lost a friend’: Church to Bayard Taylor, 13 June 1859, in Avery 1993, p.39.

124 ‘from the labors’: Louis Agassiz, Boston Daily Advertiser, 26 May 1859.

125 ‘most remarkable’: Daily Cleveland Herald, 19 May 1859; see also Boston Daily Advertiser, 19 May 1859; Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 19 May 1859; North American and United States Gazette, 19 May 1859.

126 ‘age of Humboldt’: Boston Daily Advertiser, 19 May 1859.

127 ‘greatest scientific traveller’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 6 August 1881, Darwin 1911, vol.2, p.403.

128 ‘April 3rd 1882 finished’: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, endpapers, CUL.

129 scattered the ‘seeds’: Du Bois, 3 August 1883, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.201.

130 AH’s ideas in art and literature: For Walt Whitman and AH, see Walls 2009, pp.279–83 and Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.20; for Verne and AH, see Schifko 2010; for others see Clark and Lubrich 2012, pp.4–5, 246, 264–5, 282–3.

131 ‘the greatest man since’: Friedrich Wilhelm IV quoted in Bayard Taylor 1860, p.xi.