intercourse of this people with the world; and lastly, the natural propensity of the Arab to enjoy an uninterrupted intercourse and intimate acquaintance with nature and her powers, all these facts exercised an important and beneficial influence upon the progress of science. The Arabs cultivated, above all, physics and chemistry; and in the latter branch of science they created a new epoch.

The age of the oceanian discoveries — the fifteenth century-directed all intellectual activity to one common end. The Middle Ages and their scientific acquisitions came to a close; a new period was inaugurated. The western hemisphere of the globe was opened; the first ineffectual attempt to discover America in the eleventh century became through Columbus a new field of civilization. Humboldt dwells with peculiar interest on this event and its consequences, because he became, in contrast to Columbus, the geographical discoverer, the scientific explorer of America. (Compare Humboldt's critical investigation relative to the historical development of geographical science of the new continent, and of nautical astronomy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.)

Humboldt was engaged even down to our own days with astronomic-mathematical geography,

which science, perhaps, made in no period more important progress. He opened new avenues in this branch of science, in consequence of his scientific discovery of America. He likewise accelerated its progress, in animating and encouraging other able men to investigate this special department. It is, indeed, impossible to estimate the influence Baron Humboldt wielded, in advancing, not only directly but indirectly, the cause of science. His own researches in this department made him more intimately acquainted with the geography of America, and with the history of nautical astronomy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The fifteenth century, in consequence of the discovery of a new world, became, so to speak, the multiplier of the works of creation; and brought within the scope of the old world a great multitude of new objects, which necessarily caused peu à peu a change in the condition and the ideas of Europe. This period had for Baron Humboldt a special interest; for, with the discovery of America, mankind had made a most important step in the advancement of intellectual and material progress; new roads of intercourse and a more comprehensive view into a new nature were thereby opened. Perhaps no one was better qualified to estimate

and trace the history of these grand and courageous explorations than Alexander von Humboldt. Had he not, also, set out first from the shores of Spain into the great ocean? Had he not visited the same parts where Columbus first set foot upon the new continent ?

The discovery of the western hemisphere opened likewise new fields for astronomy. The conquests of Columbus in geography were contemporaneous with the discoveries of Copernicus in astronomy. The use of improved telescopes expanded the circle of human penetration into immensity." Kepler discovered the mathematical laws by which the planets are balanced in space, which had been anticipated by Copernicus; and lastly, the great science of gravitation, discovered by Newton, changed physical astronomy into a mechanism of the heavens.

* "Our range of vision has been in this way immeasurably enlarged by the telescope and microscope: ingenious acoustic instruments enable us to appreciate, to study, and record, sounds which could never be mastered by our unassisted ears: variations of temperature, electricity, are now made sensible to observation by delicate contrivances, long before our unassisted senses could take any note of such changes." —Prof. H. Hennesey's Essay, Science and Civilization.

We cannot accompany Humboldt in his description of the history of astronomy, from the time of Galileo to Kepler, and the mathematical epoch, from the time of Newton to Leibnitz, because he was here less individually active, and only represents the results of his predecessors, in the exact manner, order, and place. He was, however, intimately connected with all discoveries of his contemporaries; for in every scientific conquest he was either an individual pioneer, or else he assisted and encouraged the attempts of others. Hence his valuable co-operation in furtherance of geography and astronomy, in cosmical science in general, is conspicuously manifested in the important departments of heat, light, magnetism, and all the more active and important forces of the universe, whose more intimate recognition is the intellectual triumph of our days.

To those who have profoundly studied the history of science, and are therefore familiar with the general progress of human events, and the particular achievements of Alexander von Humboldt in all its branches, I ought to offer some apology for many of the foregoing general accounts of Humboldt's position as a man of science in the world of knowledge, before I

proceed to give a short sketch of his personal history, his position as a man in the world of men.

The noble family of the Humboldts came originally from the interior of Pomerania, where they possessed landed estates. The father of Alexander von Humboldt was major in a dragoon regiment, and, during the Seven Years' war, the adjutant of the Duke of Brunswick, who frequently sent him with verbal reports to Frederick the Great. He was lord of the manors of Hadersleben and Ringewalde, and rented subsequently the Castle Tegel, situated between Berlin and Spandau.

This little castle had been originally a huntingbox of the great Elector of Brandenburg; and even in the time of Frederick the Great a royal preserve was kept in the neighbourhood. Major von Humboldt selected this place for his abode after he had retired from public life, and had made considerable alterations and improvements for that purpose; but, alas! death called him early away. Lady Humboldt, his wife, was the widow of a Baron von Holwede, and a niece of the Princess Blücher. The issue of this marriage