This eBook was prepared by Amy Zelmer
This material taken from pages i-ii, iv and v, and 3-12
COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1by Alexander von Humboldt
Translated by E C Otte
from the 1858 Harper & Brothers edition of Cosmos, volume 1—————————————————————————
p iCOSMOS
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[p iii - not copied; pertains to reprint series]
p iv [portrait]
p v
Naturae vero rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus momentis fides caret, siquis modo partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo. — Plin., 'Hist.Nat.', lib. vii, c. 1.
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Baltimore and London
[page vi and Introduction to the 1997 edition not copied]
p 1COSMOS
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p 3TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.———————————-
I CAN not more appropriately introduce the Cosmos than by presenting a briefsketch of the life of its illustrious author.* While the name of Alexandervon Humboldt is familiar to every one, few, perhaps, are aware of thepeculiar circumstances of his scientific career and of the extent of hislabors in almost every department of physical knowledge. He was born on the14th of September, 1769, and is, therefore, now in his 80th year. Aftergoing through the ordinary course of education at Gottingen, and having madea rapid tour through Holland, England, and France, he became a pupil ofWerner at the mining school of Freyburg, and in his 21st year published an"Essay on the Basalts of the Rhine." Though he soon became officiallyconnected with the mining corps, he was enabled to continue his excursionsin foreign countries, for, during the six or seven years succeeding thepublication of his first essay, he seems to have visited Austria,Switzerland, Italy, and France. His attention to mining did not, however,prevent him from devoting his attention to other scientific pursuits, amongwhich botany and the then recent discovery of galvanism may be especiallynoticed. Botany, indeed, we know from his own authority, occupied himalmost exclusively for some years; but even at this time he was practicingthe use of those astronomical and physical instruments which he afterwardturned to so singularly excellent an account.
[footnote] *For the following remarks I am mainly indebted to the articleson the Cosmos in the two leading Quarterly Reviews.
The political disturbances of the civilized world at the closep 4of the last century prevented our author from carrying out various plans offoreign travel which he had contemplated, and detained him an unwillingprisoner in Europe. In the year 1799 he went to Spain, with the hope ofentering Africa from Cadiz, but the unexpected patronage which he receivedat the court of Madrid led to a great alteration in his plans, and decidedhim to proceed directly to the Spanish possessions in America, "and theregratify the longings for foreign adventure, and the scenery of the tropics,which had haunted him from boyhood, but had all along been turned in thediametrically opposite direction of Asia." After encountering various