The true character of Humboldt. Oration, delivered at the German Humboldt festival, in Boston

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£ 'AiwirrOl-

RUE CHARACTEE OF HUMBOLDT.

C- JJiu,-(rCrl/-

Vteieoted

FRIJE CHARACTER OF HUMBOLDT.

ORATION,

|i:i,i\ KitKi) .vv riiK <;i-:kman m .mkoldt kksti-

\AL, IN liOSroN.

KARL HEINXKN.

inti.isnKn iiv

ADDHKSS:

H, I.lKltKH. I..»■K-B<I^ an, IVDilN.lM.LIS, 1n]

Price, aO Cents

N,

©

THE

TEUE CHAEACTEE OF HUMBOLDT.

ORATION,

DELIVERED AT THE GERMAN HUMBOLDT FESTI-
VAL, IN BOSTON,

BT

KAKL HEINZEN.

PUBLISHED BY
The Association fob the Propagation of Rai>ical Principles.

ADDRESS:
H. LiEBEB, Lock-Box 93, Indianapolis, iNiyiANA.

1869.

Price, 30 Cents.

23 March 1906

^ Truth is its own object, but it is of value only for humanity's sake."

HUMBOLDT.

One name only is pronuonced to-day — as we may well say —
in all parts of the globe. It is the name of a German, who was
at home throughout the world, and whom the whole world recog-
nized as its own. Who and what was the mighty man, who, even
after his death, can command to such an extent the minds and
hearts of mankind more than any wearers of crowns has ever done ?
He was no king, and yet a ruler ; he was no warrior, and yet a
conqueror ; he was not the founder of a religious creed, and yet a
"saviour" ; he was not the leader of a revolution, and yet a lib-
erator. He was destitute of all those means, accessories, quali-
ties and distinctions, which are, as a rule, best fitted and most
necessary to awe the masses, to stir up the imagination, to rivet
the attention, and call forth demonstrations of sympathy. And yet
behold this general homage, this spontaneous and gladsome join-
ing of all civilized mankind in one common festival ! Let us
rejoice at the progress, which such a manifestation points out to
us. Had it been possible for a Humboldt to arise in earlier cen-
turies, it would at all events have been an impossibility for these
earlier centuries to raise themselves to that high ground, which
permits the acknowledgement of mere intellectual grandeur, with-
out the accessories of romance or power, such as our times are
manifesting in this Humboldt-Festival. This is the general sig-
nificance of the day, uttered consciously, or unconsciously, by all
participants : it is the distinction of the thinking, investigating,
knowing, grasping intellect, which before all other distinction^ or
positions, tends to raise one man above the common level in the
eyes of hip fellow-men. And if I omit, in connection with this
intellect, to point at once to the corresponding sentiment, I do so

— 2 —

merely because sentiment is a self-evident, simple effluence of the
intellect, because volition is the consequence of thinking. To
enlighten the mind, to enlarge the knowledge is equivalent to
ennobling the sentiment and expanding the heart. Humboldf , the
enemy of every species of slavery, he who declared all peoples
equally entitled to liberty, embraced with his sentiment the whole
of humanity, because with his intellect he embraced the whole of
the world.

Four weeks ago pains were taken to remind us of the one-hun-
dredth birthday of another man, who, in times not long by, kept
the world busy more than any one else had ever done. The
nations lay in the dust before him, and their rulers bowed their
knees to him. All that the world could offer to him of might and
of means was united in his hands. He created states, as he
destroyed them, and gave away countries, as he robbed them —
at his pleasure. No will dared to brave him, no intellect was
capable of casting a shadow upon him, who was admired and glo-
rified beyond all, whose fame extended to the poles. All that the
world is capable of in admiration and in rendering homage, was
tendered to him, and if, like Alexander, he had desired to be
honored as a God, he would not have been wanting in devotees.
And what has become of this mighty and glorified being ? The
recollection that he crept forth from his mother's womb one hun-
dred years ago would only have occurred to some solitary invalid,
who owed to him his crippled limbs, had not a successor, living
upon his artificially inflated memory, forced his name, as a false
emblem, upon an enslaved nation under the glare of bayonets.
The world's conqueror. Napoleon, forgotten or antiquated, and
the world's conqueror, Humboldt, honored and living in our mem-
ories ; the sword condemned and the pen exalted — this fact
points to a step forward, which we cannot value high enough or
mark intelligibly enough. Indeed we still see the old world, even
to-day, bristling with arms — but it is only a last forcible attempt
by which the representatives of fading splendors are endeavoring
to save themselves from the progressing spirit of humanity. These

— 3 —

old splendors and powers are crumbling inwardly ; the intellectual
development has discarded them as a factor, and a demonstration
like the Humboldt^Festival makes it patent to all despots, that, in
the estimation of the world now-a-day, there are higher values in
existence than those which are conferred by power and the halo
of fictitious grandeur. May the time soon come, when the cal-
endar of the Universal Republic shall mark no other holidays but
those dedicated to the memory of the intellectual liberators and
ornaments of humanity !

The fact that the Liberator, whose memory we celebrate to-
day, is a German, may be a source of special gratification to us,
although, or rather because, he has become at the same time a cit-
izen of the World. The Germans are an emigrating nation,
beyond all others, and their tongue resounds throughout all climes.
Not only want and tyranny drive us forth, over, the boundaries
of our old home — but these are assisted by an inward impulse
"after the expansion of our existence," and it was this impulse
also, which accompanied the spirit of Humboldt over land and
seas. Thus he became the pioneer not only of science but also of
the German nationality, for which he prepared new abodes in the
remotest regions, and wherever fate may drive us to — nowhere
shall we be unknown as the countrymen of Humboldt. But above
all other countries, it was this continent which the great thinker
united to Germany by an intellectual tie. Humboldt has justly
been called the second discoverer of America. He was the sci-
entific Columbus of the Western hemisphere. What now, if the
German intellect in America should aim at becoming the second
discoverer of Humboldt for the inhabitants of this country ? It is
pleasant to see and worthy of all credit, that in many places,
Germans and Americans are celebrating this festival conjointly,
ignoring all national prejudices and eschewing all narrowness of
mind in the presence of the universal spirit of science and of cos-
mopolitan humanity. And yet certain concessions are necessary
to enable the consummation of such a union, which, from our
point of view, we cannot make. The Germans of Boston had

4 —

been invited to join their American fellow-citizens, who had
already made the preparations for a Humboldt-Festival, and who
have, but a few hours ago, paid their tribute of respect to the man
we celebrate, upon this very spot. But we Germans could not
consent to forego the honor of a separate festival, since such a fes-
tival alone will give us an opportunity to do full justice to the
intellect and to the tendencies of the great man. We wish to see
Humboldt before us in his true and full character, not only him,
before whom even his adversaries will lift their hats. His univer-
sal knowledge ; his untiring research ; the great services rendered
by him to science ; the enlargement of the field of vision, for which
all contemporaries are indebted to his grasping intellect and his
penetrating perception ; his noble character ; his humane disposi-
tion — all these are sure of recognition and elucidation, wherever
and by whomsoever his memory may be celebrated. Less certain
however — and at some of these festivities openly ignored — will
be the recognition and establishment of those liberal premises,
from which Humboldt started in the exposition of his researches
in the domain of natural philosophy, or of that grand final result,
to which he was led by them. The enlargement of science is but
one phase of the merit due to him ; the other phase has to deal
with those consequences which proceed from his scientific point of
view, those consequences which determine the position assigned
to man in nature, as well as the intellectual and moral world in
which he moves. No one denies that Humboldt has taught us to
know and to survey nature, as far as the means at the command of
his times would allow ; but full justice will be meted out to him by
those only, who will show that he saved the honor, as we might say,
and the independence of nature, by divesting her of all extra-
mundane and supernatural influences and accessories, and by
repelling from her side all the distorting conceptions of metaphys-
ics and beliefs.

The great dogma and truth which Humboldt lays down as
the philosopher and describer of nature is, in other words,
this : Nature, the world, the universe, or whatever else we may

— 5 —

call the sum total of all that which has beings is a material
unity, which has existed and evolved itself from eternity, in
and through itself, in accordance with eternal inward laws, and
which rejects everything in the shape of a separate spirit or
ruler. There are those who will be horrified by the discovery
that Humboldt, who never carried on an open war against
belief and religion, and who was even on the best terms with
the most prominent advocates of religious views, was an
atheist and a materialist. Their horror, if unfeigned, will only
prove that they did not understand the great man, or that they
did not meditate sufficiently upon that which he professed. As
far as we know, Humboldt has never, directly or openly,
avowed himself to be an atheist or a materialist ; he has been
content with showing himself as such in his writings. In defer-

ft

ence to the associations and surroundings amongst which he
had grown up, and amongst which he remained until his end,
he submitted to outward restraints which did not harmonize
with his convictions ; as semi-diplomat, an indulgent, humane
man of the world, he was even weak enough to make apparent
concessions to the belief of others, by the use of phrases which
could be misconstrued by means of a forced interpretation.
The maxim which he adhered to in social intercourse, and
which he himself has laid down in a letter to Varnhagen, was
this: "Truth is due to those only in life whom we esteem
highly." Varnhagen was one of those whom he esteemed, and
in a private letter, addressed to him as early as the year 1837,
he remarks that he had "sometimes discussed, if not quar-
relled," with his brother Wilhelm, whom in all other respects
he valued very highly, because Wilhelm had, in one of his
essays, arrived at the result "that God rules the world, and
history is nothing but the endeavor to trace these eternal,
mysterious decrees." " This result," says Humboldt, " is cer-
tainly analogous to the primeval feelings of mankind, as they
have found utterance in all languages. My brother's essay is
the commentary (developing, interpreting, praising) of this

— 6

undefined feeling. It is in this very same way that the physi-
ologist creates for himself so-called vital powers for the purpose
of explaining organic phenomena, since his knowledge of the
physical powers at work in that which we call unorganic
nature, does not suffice to explain this living play of organisms.
But does this prove the existence of vital powers?"

This is the manner in which Humboldt expresses himsfelf
confidentially, and only confidentially.

But in spite of all the restraints imposed by prudence, he '
has never upon any important occasion avowed himself a pro-
fessor of the views of a discarded faith, and whenever he
appears as the man of thought and of science, i.e., in his writ-
ings, he has invariably, although mildly and sometimes indi-
rectly, transmitted his true convictions to posterity in words
and in teachings which can not be misinterpreted.

Humboldt was favored and honored in all the "high" and
"highest" circles of society ; he was even the intimate friend
and counseler of an over-pious king. How great must have
been the temptation to him to follow the example of so many
other great learned men, and to deny his own views, or to
renounce them entirely! But he has not, like others, con-
sented to degrade natural science, by making her a hand-maiden
of theology; he has not even hidden his convictions from the
god-believing king, whom, in his thankfulness, he saved from
oblivion by dedicating to him his " Cosmos," that book in which
he does not even once use the word "God" as expressive of
his own belief, and it will be part of the task which we have
set to ourselves for this festival to condense these convictions,
as expressed in the book just mentioned, into as short a space
as possible. Is it conceivable and possible for a writer, who
undertakes a description of nature, believes in a god, and
dedicates his description to a king who shares his belief, not to
make use ot so opportune an occasion for the purpose of pictur-
ing the world as the work of a divine creator and ruler, and
to deduce from it his omnipotence and wisdom? But even if,

— Y —

for some reason or other, he should avoid this impossible task,
is it conceivable or possible that he should lay down a prin-
ciple and advocate views in unmistakable words which are the
direct contrary? No, it is not possible. Let him who would
gainsay this impossibility listen to Humboldt's own words, and
let him endeavor to give to them a theological meaning : —

•"The main impulse (in the search after knowledge) was
given to me," says Humboldt, in his preface to " his " Cosmos,"
" by the desire to comprehend the phenomena of all corporeal
things in their connection, and ncdw as a unity ^ moved and ani-
mated by irUemal laws" In the same way he speaks in another
place of the ''^existence of nature according to internal and eter-
nal lawsJ^

Now, then, how can that which has its own internal and
eternal law, and which exists according to this law, have a law-
giver and manager, existing independently and outside of it ?
It must, on the contrary, be subject to an internal necessity,
according to which all phenomena be the natural consequences
of existing causes, and all that which entera into being must be
the consequence of that which is. Humboldt defines this law,
which at the same time self-evidently does away with all teleo-
logy, in the plainest and exactest terms when he says : " The
description and the history of the world stand upon the same
empirical ground; but the thoughtful treatment of both, a
judicious arrangement of the phenomena of nature and of his-
torical events, imbus its deeply with the belief in an old internal
necessity^ which rvles all the octionB of intellectual and material
powers in circles, which are eternally renewing themselves, and
which are only periodically expanding or contracting. They
lead {and this necessity is the essence of nature^ it is nature herself
in both the spheres of her existence^ the material and the intellectual)
to perspicuity and simplicity of views, to the finding of laws
which are the final aim of earnest research in empirical science"

Here, then, he does not only displace the ruling wisdom and
omnipotence of the faithful by the authority of necessity, but

— 8 —

■

he also declares that the discovery of the laws, accordmg to
which this necessity rules, is the final aim of earnest research
in empirical science. This empirical science, however, is to
him the only real and standard science upon which it devolves
to bring to the test all abstract thinking, and all philosophy.
All that which does not harmonize with it he declares, indi-
rectly, to be nothing but chimera. "The sum total of all
empirical knowledge," he says, " and a philosophy of nature,
developed in all its parts, cannot be antagonistic to each other,
if the philosophy of nature, according to its promise, is the
rational conception of all the real phenomena of the universe,"
i.e., if it does not lose itself in metaphysical and spiritualistiQ
phantasies.

But if now the objection should be raised here that he recog-
nizes an intellectual power in natm*e by distinguishing between
a material and an intellectual sphere of nature, — a distinction
which is evidently made for the sake of clearness alone, — he
repels this objection unequivocally in other passages, for
instance, when he says: "The intellectual is not antagonistic
to nature, but it is contained therein." It is also self-evident
that this "intellectual sphere" cannot be conceived of as sepa-
rable and independent, as, according to the passage previously
quoted, it is subject to the general necessity which is "the
essence of nature."

Again, as little as Humboldt recognizes a law-giving and
guiding power outside of and above nature, just as little does
he admit a creative power which is said to have existed before
nature. He even mocks at the faith in such a power by the
following remark : "According to an ancient Indian myth, an
elephant upholds the earth ; he, again, to save him from falling,
is supported by a gigantic tortoise. What the tortoise rests upon
is a question which the faithful bramin is not permitted to ask."
Translating this passage into Christian language, it reads thus :
" Whom your Creator is created by is a question which you do
not ask, or are not permitted to ask."

9 —

But Humboldt does not rest satisfied with insinuations and sug-
gestions. He speaks of 'Hhe created, as that is generally termed
which is or is becoming." He says explicitly : " We have neither
conception, nor experience of a creation proper, as an act, or of an
origin, as ' a commencement of being after not being.' " Another
passage runs thus : "In the poverty of our knowledge of a gene-
sis, and in the figurative language which is intended to hide this
poverty, we call the historical phenomena of changes in the organ-
isms new creations." The following quotation will also serve to
show the preceding passage in its proper color. " The dogmatic
views of past centuries continue to live only in the prejudice of
^e people and in certain professions, which, in the consciousness
of their weakness, are fond of veiling themselves in darkness."

Still more significant are those words which, with his own
hand, he wrote underneath his photograph, published in Berlin.
Here he opposes the view which the enthusiastic youth takes of
nature to that of the mature man. " The youth," says he " wand-
ers through nature searching, and in awful expectancy, as through
the sublime domain of God." Later, the man learns to survey the
knowledge he has gained, and to compare the results he has
reached. The next aim is then" (these are Humboldt's own
words) "<o discover the law in the whole of nature. Slowly,
although generally at a late hour, the long^nourished dreams of
symbolizing myths disappear before the scientific efforts to comprC"
hend naiure/' Is it possible that by these " dreams " and *• myths "
he could have understood anything else but those which he
ascribes to the expectant youth in contrast with a scientific com-
prehension of nature ?

But with especial emphasb does he discard that creative and
ruling power, whidi is said to be above nature, in as far as he
vindicates to the natural sciences — I again quote his own words
fi:t)m "Cosmos" — "a higher standpoint, seen from which all
ihvngs and all powers reveal themselves as a natural unity ^ animated
from vnthin. Nature is not a dead aggregate" (in which case,
as I will interpolate here by explanation, she would be in need of

— 10 —

animation from without) — " she is, to use Schellingfe expression,
the holy, externally creating primeval power of the world, which
evolves and produces all things out of herself, ^^ Where then does
this only primeval power of nature, which produces everthing out
of itself, leave room and occupation for another primeval power?

For the purpose of making a completely clean sweep of mysti-
cism in the domain of natural sciences, Humboldt furthermore does
away with the so-called vital powers, which he had already con-
demned in the previously-quoted letter to Vamhagen and in
which he had formerly believed. He recants this belief, which
he had formerly laid down in the "Genius of Rhodus," distinctly
and at some length in his "Views of Nature" and moreover con-
firms this recantation by this following passage in his " Cosmos : "
"The myths of imponderable matters and of proper vital powers in
each organism complicate and cloud the views of nature."

Therefore no creator, no ruler, no teleology, no organic vital
powers in nature, and yet — a believer in a God ?

The passages, which have been quoted, and to which many
others might still be added, must perfectly convince all those who
are capable of judging, that Humboldt was, in the true sense of
the word, an atheist and a materialist. Well informed people in
Germany have long since been aware of this fact and indeed not
only from his writings but also from his life. Shortly after his
death, the "Ausland," a paper of conservative tendencies, but
well informed and of weight in scientific matters, which is pub-
lished by Cotta, praised him in an article, in which his toleration
was especially extolled and it was put down to his credit "that he
had not used the weapons of his knowledge in controversy, like
Galileo" for the purpose of forcing his belief upon others, but
that he "left the beliefs and opinions of others untouched."
"This toleration, which found its source in the most beautiAil
feeling of humanity" — continues the " Ausland" — "enabled him
to maintain his intimate intercourse with Frederic William IV.,
for it was no secret to this pious prince thai he had to deal with an
atheist^ or if this should sound too harsh, tuith a materialist,*'

— 11 —

If this assertion had not been true, would it not have been
looked upon by the pious court circles in Berlin, as a wicked
aspersion cast upon his pious majesty, a sort of lese majesty?
But the truth was well known in Berlin. All were silent, and no
one dared to provoke evidence by contradicting the assertion.

Let us finally glance at the point of view from which Humboldt-
judged the effluence of a belief in God — religion and its represen-
tatives. He wi'ote to Vamhagen in December, 1841: "Bruno
(meaning Bruno Bauer) has discovered a pre-adamite convert in
myself. I wrote many years ago : "All positive religions offer
three distinct parts : a moral essay, the same throughout and
very pure, a geological chimera, and a myth or a little historical
romance. This last element acquires the greatest importance.**
Returning the well known book of Strauss, he writes to Vamha-
gen in the year 1842 : "We can learn from this book the whole
religious history of the times in which we have lived, especially
the priestlike cunning, with which people accommodated them-
selves, after Schleiermacher's fashion, to all outward forms of
Christian myths, or to the peculiarities of others, ' partook of the
communion-cup,' allowed themselves to be buried with an
accompaniment of court-equipages (like Schleiermacher), while
a so-caUed philosophical interpretation forged for every myth."
In the same letter he indulges in pleasantries about his ftriend's
belief in immortality in the following manner: "I pardon him
(Strauss) for his apparently but small faith in tfie blue tfiings on
tfie otfier side of tfie grave, and perhaps I do so, because it is so
much more pleasant and agreeable to be surprised, when one's
expectations are not very highly wrought. For you, happy man,
it is no surprise."

Occasionally Humboldt, otherwise so tolerant, will turn upon
the religious sentinels of Zion, with a sharpness and unmerciful-
ness quite remarkable. One day General von Gerlach, the well
known pietist and favorite of Frederic William IV., endeavored
to comer him at the royal table, by asking the question : " Your
Excellency probably goes to church very often now-a-day?"

— 12 —

Humboldt answered immediately: "You are very kind. You
desire to show the way to me, by which I can make my fortune."
Things were then in Berlin as they are now : the hypocritical
pietist makes his fortune, and the way through the church does
not lead to heaven alone, but to offices and to the ilesh-pots of
Egypt. As a matter of course it is different in this Republic !

Upon another occasion, Humboldt characterized the pious seek-
ers after fortune in this manner: — He possessed a living cha-
meleon, of which he said that it was the only animal, which could
at the same time look upward with one eye and downward with
the other. The "parsons" only were capable of imitating this
trick, since they "keep one eye looking towards heaven, while the
other is looking towards the good things and the advantages
of this earth."

We will be charitable enough upon this occasion not to form
our judgment according to the testimony of Humboldt, and if any
of the colleagues and fellows of those, whom, with unwonted
severity, he terms "parsons" (German, Pfaffm)^ participate in
the festivities of this day, we will presume that they are disposed
to become thoughtful in view of the example set by the great phi-
losopher of nature, and that they are willing to follow in his foot-
steps. They have so often assured us, that only half thinking and
half knowledge leads away from faith, but that the wfiole of these
leads back to it. Very well, then ! Let us hope that Humboldt,
the all-knowing and all-thinking, may induce them to reconsider
their assertion ! If any man was ever fit to serve as a test of this
assertion, it certainly was that man, at whose celebration they
have assisted to-day. Let them turn, like Humboldt, to the source
of all truth, to nature, if it is truth which they care for, and let
them put the weight of scientific facts and of rational conclusions
into the balance, against the weight of dogmatic precepts and of
the phantasies of belief. But, if even by this process, their pres-
ent convictions should not be altered, they will at least be forced
to answer the question, whether mere condemnation and persecu-
tion are the means of refuting the searching intellect and of

— 13 —

destroying tJbe results of the life-long study and thought of one of the
greatest minds of the human race. And, indeed, condemnation
and persecution, without examination and refutation, have so far
been the only weapons with which the liberating spirit has been
met in this free country, that spirit which found its impersonation
in Humboldt, and still finds it in thousands of those congenial to
him. Let us couple the homage, which we are offering to this
spirit to-day, with a protest against that light-shunning narrow-
mindedness, which closes the ear cowardly against its reasons, and
which believes that it must and can banish it by ignorant attacks
and by means of coercion. What would those say, who are celebrat-
ing Humboldt's name, without examining his thoughts, what would
they say to the discovery, that the consequences of their tenden-
cies and of their laws must of necessity remand this honored man
from the shining pedestal of fame upon which they have placed
him into the dark cells of their prison ? Boston Music Hall is but
a few steps away from the Boston Court-hall. It would be far
easier for a puritanical accuser, than for a German radical, to
represent the author of "Cosmos** as an atheist. If this state
intended to solemnize a truly noble Humboldt celebration, there
would be no nobler way of doing it than by abolishing the dis-
graceful law which would have threatened the veritable Hum-
boldt, and does now threaten all those who share his views with
an imprisonment of two years. It does not matter whether this
mediaeval law, to which nearly all educated Germans and, first of
all, the ornaments of modem science are amenable, it does not
matter whether it is executed or not — its simple existence is a
8h9,me for Massachusetts^ which stands at the head of the intel-
lectual development of this great Republic. What does intel-
lectual development mean without truth — the whole truth? But
the whole truth can subsist only where it is upheld by full liberty,
and fuU liberty only where it is upheld by the whole truth. There
is no dangerous truth in the world ; why then should it be neces-
sary to guard society against it ? It is quit^ conceivable that the
rulers "by the graqe of God*' should guard their protector by

— 14 —

penal laws ; but where the " grace " has been abolished,it is but
natural that he also should be left to his fate, from whom it is
said to emanate.

What significance would this festival have, if all those who
participate in it to-day, were to honor in Humboldt, not only the
great man of learning and the great natural philosopher, but also
the enlightener and liberator of minds ? They would declare by
this fact that civilized mankind had at last discarded the tyran-
nizing superstition, which has, until now, filled nature with hor-
rors and the breasts of men with a fanatical religious hatred
towards each other ; that the human intellect is sovereign and
that there exists no other in the world to which it must defer ;
that nature, of which man is the free son, offers herself up to him
as the willing object of his investigations, and that she does not
oppose him as a menacing power, ever ready to humiliate him ;
that in her laws, which are in harmony with the laws of his
reason, he is bound to recognize the only guide for his actions,
and that in her immeasurable domain no aims can be hidden, to
which he must sacrifice his own, although there may still be many
enigmas, which require solution ; that the highest to which man
can aspire is not an ideal, or a condition outside the sphere of his
knowledge and his life, but that it is his ownself and his own per-
fection upon this earth, and that, finally, the general sway of the
untrammelled reason and of free humanity must be the last and
noblest aim of mankind.

Now then, if these are the consequences which grow out of the
philosophy of Humboldt, and which we must apply to the intel-
lectual and moral efforts of mankind — and they are recognized
by all his followers and fellow thinkers ; — if it is true that the
genuine and the noblest humanity is the fruit of that '^ atheism '*
and "materialism," which has been so often decried — what then
shall hinder mankind, not only to celebrate Humboldt, but also to
think and to reason like Humboldt, after it has, for so long a
period, made fruitless experiments with faith and with spiritual
humility? And if the Americans needed the Germans for the

15 —

purpose of discovering the true Humboldt, and if they are forced
to recognize in him, whom they hold so high, a true representa-
tive of German intellect — then indeed may this intellect, and the
language in which it expresses itself, expect to find, in the interest
of humanity, a more careful consideration and a higher valuation,
than it has so far found, in consequence of the general
almost exclusively material tendencies, and of a state of mind
which is devoted only to that which promises immediate pecuniary
profit. Let them consider what Humboldt himself says of the
spirit prevailing here. " In the United States," thus he writes to
Varnhagen in 1854, "there has indeed sprung up a good deal of
love for me, but everything there offers to me the sad sight that
liberty is only a mechanism in the element of utility, but little
ennobling there, or quickening the intellect and the affections,
which ought to be the object of political liberty. Consequently
apathy in regard to slavery." Well, slavery has since been abol-
ished by force of circumstances, not on account of its evil, but
because it had ceased to be " useful" and was in every way begin-
ning to be mischievous. But that there exists a species of intellect'
ual slavery, much more degrading and pernicious than bodily sla-
very, since it is the mother of all others, is a truth far more thorough-
ly understood by the countrymen of Humboldt, than by the majority
of their American fellow-citizens, which latter do not only look
upon every species of intellectual stupefaction with the same
apathy with which they used to look upon slavery, but who will
even willingly subsidize it, if for some momentary party or other
aim, it should appear "useful" to them. The "usefulness" of
intellectual slavery will revenge itself as bitterly in times to come
as the "usefulness" of bodily slavery has already revenged itself.

The motto chosen for my discourse was a sentence by Hum-
boldt regarding trtUh. I am of opinion that we cannot honor his
memory more fitly than by allowing that light which we have
kindled at his flame to send its rays freely in all directions, even
if his &9fa weaknesses should be lighted up thereby. As an
astronomer, Humboldt observed not only the sun's lustre but also

— 16 —

the spots upon its surface. Even the faults of great men are
instructive. The admiration of their excellences must not blind
us to their failings ; and the truth, which recognizes no authority,
must not be silenced even by an authority. If a feeling of regret
mingles with the homage which we are offering to the inteUect of
Humboldt, it is this — that we cannot offer the same homage to
the strength of his character. And it is so much the more our
duty to give expression to this regret as it concerns a weakness
to which so many great intellects have been exposed. We can-
not concede the privilege of denying their true tendencies, or of
keeping them secret, for the sake of outward restraints or advan-
tages, to those who are best enabled to benefit mankind by reason
of their endowments. The courts of princes have ever been the
centres of attraction for great intellects, who, in spite of the supe-
riority of their judgment, found an excuse for debasing themselves
to the level of subjects and of tools in the hands of powerful idols,
in the admiring submissiveness of the masses. The pretence that
by thus acting they gained the opportunity of influencing those in
power cannot serve as an excuse, for their princely patrons have
invariably used them as ornaments to their courts, and as a means
to attain their own ends. This is true above all of the poets.
Did princes ever look upon the muses in another light than in
that of intellectual mistresses ? The great poets willingly aban-
doned their muses. Goethe, the great poet and small minister,
who reverently bowed his luminous face before every knave whose
breast was decorated with an order, from the tyrant Napoleon
down to the tyrant Mettemich,— Groethe felt himself happy and
honored whenever an opportunity offered for prostituting his
genius by solemnizing some court festival. And the great Schiller,
who succeeded in obtaining a pension from a prince, disgraced
himself, in spite of his revolutionary tendencies, by extolling king-
craft: —

"Poets and kings shonlde'^ go hand m hand, .

Since both upon ths heights of life they stand." ^

Would not both of our great poets be doubly great if their

— 17 —

principles had kept them aloof from the air of courts ; and if, in
obedience to the promptings of their nature they had maintained
their character as independent men ?

Men of science and of philosophy, however, have abased them-
selves no less than poets^ History even exhibits a whole line of
cot^rf-philosophers ; but, in spite of all "cunning of the idea,"
not one of them has succeeded in making a philosopher out of a
man "by the grace of God," all the way from Plato, who tried
the power of philosophy in Sicily, or from Aristotle, who tried
the same thing in Macedon, down to Hegel and ScheUing, who
demonstrated its adaptability in Berlin.

And what did Humboldt gain, he who, with the man of science
did not only unite the philosopher but also an admixture of the
poet ? What did he gain by honoring with his friendship a king
who showered distinctions upon him, with the view of making a
hame for himself? Did the favors, which his influence secured
to talents now and then, to poor pensioners, and partly to science,
counterbalance one cringing bow, by which the republican-
minded cosmopolitan subjected himself to the tyrannically-minded
king, the exact thinker to the confused romanticist, the humane
atheist to the odious pietist ? How proud a figure would not the
author of "Cosmos" be had he recognized the earthly divinities
no more than the heavenly ! And does it not strike you, as if
you saw a brand of infamy upon a noble face, when you find
recorded "in deepest devotion" upon the first page of that
celebrated book, the name of the man who driven into imbecility
by the three-fold exertions of the tyrant, the pietist, and the
drunkard, washed "his royal face" with maccaroni-soup, under
the eyes of "the vicar of God upon earth"? The intellectual
hero, who conquered for himself the key of the universe, should
have disdained to be distinguished by the key of the royal cham-
berlain. Not for the purpose of accusing him shall we couple
such reflections with our expressions of esteem, but we shall do
so as a warning, and with a feeling of sorrow. He has himself
felt, and has borne witness to, the sacrifices which his false posi-

— 18 —

tion imposed upon him. In his letters he laments " the sultry
evening air," which made his existence in the atmosphere of the
court uncomfortable towards the evening of his life. Yet, he who
will allow the sun of "grace" to shine upon him has, properly
speaking, no right to complain of the vapors it generates. The
Nemesis which does not lose its quickness of sight even in the
midst of these gloomy vapors has indeed prepared for him the
same fate which called forth his derision in the case of the parson
Schleirmacher, namely, "to be buried with an accompaniment
of court equipages."

" We owe the truth to those only whom we esteem highly."
If this principle is correct, then we certainly do owe the truth to
the man whose achievements have to-day called forth our re-
flections. And this debt we shall pay partly by combatting
his principle. We should confine the effect of truth to but very-
few opportunities if we uttered it only in the presence of those
whom we esteem highly ; and if we were forced to bid it be silent
just at those times, when to proclaim it would be most necessary.
To men less noble than Humboldt his principle would serve as a
welcome shield to cowardice and hypocrisy, and these have
already pretexts enough for playing their pernicious game. No,
let us not wait for an opportunity to tell the truth, until an
opportunity offers to be filled with regard. Confidence — if this
be the sense of Humboldt's remark — we do owe indeed to those
only who deserve it : but the truth we owe to the whole world !

ERRATA.

Page 1, line 6, for * wearers of crowns* read wearer of crowns.
Page 5, line I, for 'beings* read being.

Page 7, line 18, for 'phenomena be' read phenomena must be.
Page 10, line 2, for 'externally' read eternally,
l^ige 11, line 22, for ^interpretation forged' read interpreta-
tion was forged.

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