Humboldt

(Fried rich He in rich Alexander von), illustrious German naturalist and traveller, b. Berlin, 14 Sept. 1769. He studied under Heyne and Blumenbach, travelled in Holland, France and England with George Forster, the naturalist, and became director-general of mines. In 1799 he set out to explore South America and Mexico, and in 1804 returned with a rich collection of animals, plants and minerals. Humboldt became a resident of Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of Lalande, Delambre, Arago, and all the living distinguished French scientists. After numerous important contributions to scientific knowledge, at the age of seventy-four he composed his celebrated Cosmos , the first volume of which appeared in ’45 and the fourth in ’58. To Varnhagen von Ense he wrote in 1841: “Bruno Bauer has found me pre-adam a tic ally converted. Many years ago I wrote, ‘ Toutes les réligions positives offrent trois parties distinctes; un traité de mœurs part out le même et très pur, un rève géologique, et un my the ou petit roman hist or i que; le dernier élément obtient le plus d’importance. ’” Later on he says that Strau disposes of “the Christian myths.” Humboldt was an unwearied student of science, paying no attention to religion, and opposed his brother in regard to his e ay On the Province of the Historian , because he considered it to acknowledge the belief in the divine government of the world, which seemed to him as complete a delusion as the hypothesis of a principle of life. He died in Berlin, 6 May, 1859, in his ninetieth year.