The Invention of Nature

by Andrea Wulf

  3 ‘One soon grows tired’: Goethe, Faust I, Outside the Town Wall, Act 1, Scene 5, line 1102ff (trans. Luke 2008, p.35).

  4 ‘cruelty of the Europeans’: AH New Spain 1811, vol.1, p.98.

  5 ‘unequal struggle’: Ibid., pp.104, 123.

  6 AH in London 1814: WH to CH, 5 June 1814; 14 June 1814; 18 June 1814, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.4, pp.345, 351ff., 354–5; AH to Helen Maria Williams, 22 June 1814, Koninklijk Huisarchief, The Hague (copy at Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungstelle, Berlin).

  7 AH in London 1817: WH to CH, 22 October 1817, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.6, p.22.

  8 WH didn’t like London: WH to CH, 14 June 1814 and 18 October 1817, ibid., vol.4, p.350; vol.6, p.20.

  9 ‘great with so little’: Richard Rush, 31 December 1817, Rush 1833, p.55.

  10 WH disliked AH’s friendships: WH to CH, 1 November 1817, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.6, p.30.

  11 WH and AH never alone: WH to CH, 3 December 1817, ibid., p.64.

  12 ‘flow of words’: WH to CH, 30 November 1815, ibid., vol.5, p.135.

  13 WH let AH talk: WH to CH, 12 November 1817, ibid., vol.6, p.46.

  14 visitors to Elgin Marbles: Hughes-Hallet 2001, p.136.

  15 ‘no one has robbed’: WH to CH, 11 June 1814, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.4, p.348.

  16 bustle of commerce: Richard Rush, 7 January 1818, Rush 1833, p.81; Carl Philip Moritz, June 1782, Moritz 1965, p.33.

  17 ‘accumulation of things’: Richard Rush, 7 January 1818, Rush 1833, p.77.

  18 AH to Banks, observatory, Herschel: AH to Robert Brown, November 1817, BL; AH to Karl Sigismund Kunth, 11 November 1817, Universitätsbibliothek Gießen; AH to Madame Arago, November 1817, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, MS 2115, f.213–14 (copies at Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungstelle, Berlin).

  19 ‘Wonders of the World’: Holmes 2008, p.190.

  20 ‘the germination’: William Herschel’s Catalogue of a Second Thousand Nebulae (1789), Holmes 2008, p.192.

  21 ‘great garden of the’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.74; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.87.

  22 AH and Royal Society: AH was made Foreign Member of the RS on 6 April 1815; see also RS Journal Book, vol.xli, 1811–15, p.520; by the end of his life AH held memberships in eighteen British scientific societies.

  23 ‘for the improvement of’: Jardine 1999, p.83.

  24 ‘All scholars are’: AH to Madame Arago, November 1817, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, MS 2115, f.213–14 (copy at Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungstelle, Berlin).

  25 ‘one of the most beautiful’: AH to Karl Sigismund Kunth, 11 November 1817, Universitätsbibliothek Gießen (copy at Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungstelle, Berlin).

  26 AH at RS Dining Club: 6 November 1817, List of Attendees, RS Dining Club, vol.20 (no page numbers).

  27 ‘I have dined at’: AH to Achilles Valenciennes, 4 May 1827, Théodoridès 1966, p.46.

  28 rising numbers of dinner guests: 6 November 1817, List of Attendees, RS Dining Club, vol.20, no page numbers.

  29 Arago asleep: AH to Madame Arago, November 1817, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, MS 2115, f.213–14 (copy at Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungstelle, Berlin).

  30 It was ‘detestable’: Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.198.

  31 ‘powerful men’: AH to Karl Sigismund Kunth, 11 November 1817, Universitätsbibliothek Gießen (copy at Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungstelle, Berlin).

  32 ‘unworthy political jealousy’: Edinburgh Review, vol.103, January 1856, p.57.

  33 ‘almost know by heart’: Darwin to D.T. Gardner, August 1874, published in New York Times, 15 September 1874.

  34 ‘painterly description’: AH to Helen Maria Williams, 1810, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.11.

  35 ‘you partake in his’: Edinburgh Review, vol.25, June 1815, p.87.

  36 ‘indulges in all’: Quarterly Review, vol.15, July 1816, p.442; see also vol.14, January 1816, 368ff.

  37 ‘a warmth of feeling’: Quarterly Review, vol.18, October 1817, p.136.

  38 ‘the vast wilds of’: Shelley 1998, p.146. Frankenstein was also steeped in other ideas that Humboldt discussed in his books such as animal electricity and Blumenbach’s formative drive and vital forces.

  39 Humboldt, ‘the first of’: Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto IV, cxii.

  40 Southey visited AH: Robert Southey to Edith Southey, 17 May 1817, Southey 1965, vol.2, p.149.

  41 ‘a painters eye’: Robert Southey to Walter Savage Landor, 19 December 1821, ibid., p.230.

  42 ‘among travellers what’: Robert Southey to Walter Savage Landor, 19 December 1821, ibid., p.230.

  43 Wordsworth borrowed Personal Narrative: William Wordsworth to Robert Southey, March 1815, Wordsworth 1967–93, vol.2, p.216; for Wordsworth and geology, see Wyatt 1995.

  44 ‘They answer with a smile’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.473.

  45 ‘There would the Indian’: William Wordsworth, ‘The River Duddon’ (1820).

  46 Coleridge read AH: Wiegand 2002, p.107; Coleridge made references in his notebooks to Essay on the Geography of Plants and Personal Narrative, see Coleridge 1958–2002, vol.4, notes 4857, 4863, 4864, 5247; Notebook of S.T. Coleridge No. 21 ½, BL Add 47519 f57; Egerton MS 2800 ff.190.

  47 ‘brother of the great traveller’: Coleridge, Table Talk, 28 August 1833, Coleridge 1990, vol.2, p.259; AH had left Rome on 18 September 1805 and Coleridge arrived in December; Holmes 1998, pp.52–3.

  48 ‘walking poets’: Bate 1991, p.49.

  49 ‘a truly great man’: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lectures, Coleridge 2000, vol.2, p.536; for Coleridge, Schelling and Kant, see Harman, p.312ff.; Kipperman 1998, p.409ff.; Robinson 1869, vol.1, pp.305, 381, 388.

  50 ‘give once again’: Richards 2002, p.125.

  51 Coleridge and Faust: Coleridge never finished the translation of Faust for John Murray but published one in 1821 – albeit anonymously. Letters between Coleridge and John Murray, 23, 29 and 31 August 1814, Burwick and McKusick 2007, p.xvi; Robinson 1869, vol.1, p.395.

  52 ‘How it all lives’: Goethe’s Faust I, Scene 1, Night, lines 447–8 (trans. Luke 2008, p.17); for Coleridge and interconnectedness, see Levere 1990, p.297.

  53 ‘connective powers of’: Coleridge, ‘Science and System of Logic’, transcription of Coleridge’s lectures of 1822, Wiegand 2002, p.106; Coleridge 1958–2002, vol.4, notes 4857, 4863, 4864, 5247; Notebook of S.T. Coleridge No. 21 ½, BL Add 47519 f57; Egerton MS 2800 ff.190.

  54 ‘epoch of division’: Coleridge, ‘Essay on the Principle of Method’, 1818, Kipperman 1998, p.424; see also Levere 1981, p.62.

  55 ‘philosophy of mechanism’: Coleridge to Wordsworth, Cunningham and Jardine 1990, p.4.

  56 ‘fingering slave’: William Wordsworth, ‘A Poet’s Epitaph’ (1798).

  57 ‘screws or levers’: Goethe’s Faust I, Scene 1, Night, line 674 (trans. Luke 2008, p.23).

  58 ‘spirit of Nature’: Coleridge’s Lectures 1818–19, Coleridge 1949, p.493.

  59 ‘microscopic view’: William Wordsworth, ‘The Prelude’, Book XII.

  60 ‘Little–ists’: Coleridge in 1801, Levere 1981, p.61.

  61 ‘For was it meant’: William Wordsworth, ‘The Excursion’ (1814).

  62 ‘secret band’: Edinburgh Review, vol.36, October 1821, p.264.

  63 ‘found to reflect on’: Ibid., p.265

  64 AH to settle in London: WH to CH, 6 October 1818, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.6, p.334.

  Chapter 14: Going in Circles

  1 AH’s visits to London: In June 1814, November 1817 and September 1818; see also WH to CH, 22 and 25 September 1818, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.6, pp.320, 323; ‘Fashionable Arrivals’, Morning Post, 25 September 1818; Théodoridès 1966, pp.43–4.

  2 Prince Regent gave support: AH to Karl August von Hardenberg, 18 October 1818, Beck 1959–61, vol.2, p.47.

  3 ‘place in my way’: Ibid.

  4 AH to Aachen: WH to CH, 9 October 1818, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.6, p
.336.

  5 ‘consulted on the affairs’: Morning Chronicle, 28 September 1818.

  6 French secret police: Daudet 1912, p.329.

  7 Spanish minister to Aachen: The Times, 20 October 1818.

  8 Allies disinterested in Spanish colonies: Ibid.; see also Biermann and Schwarz 2001a, no page numbers.

  9 his ‘own affair’: The Times, 20 October 1818.

  10 ‘complete guarantee’: AH to Karl August von Hardenberg, 18 October 1818, Beck 1959–61, vol.2, p.47.

  11 king granted AH money: Friedrich Wilhelm III to AH, 19 October 1818, ibid., p.48; The Times, 31 October 1818.

  12 AH’s preparations for India: AH to Karl August von Hardenberg, 30 July 1819; AH to WH, 22 January 1820, Daudet 1912, pp.346, 355; Gustav Parthey, February 1821, Beck 1959–61, vol.2, p.51.

  13 Humboldt’s financial situation: Eichhorn 1959, pp.186, 205ff.

  14 compare plants on mountains: AH to Marc-Auguste Pictet, 11 July 1819, Beck 1959–61, vol.2, p.50.

  15 ‘my whole existence’: Bonpland to Olive Gallacheau, 6 July 1814, Bell 2010, p.239.

  16 Bonpland in Paris and London: Ibid., pp.22, 239; Schulz 1960, p.595.

  17 Zea asked Bonpland: Francisco Antonio Zea to Bonpland, 4 March 1815, Bell 2010, p.22.

  18 ‘new methods of practical’: Schneppen 2002, p.12.

  19 ‘The illustrious Franklin’: José Rafael Revenga to Francisco Antonio Zea, ‘Instrucciones a que de orden del excelentísimo señor presidente habrá de arreglar su conducta el E.S. Francisco Zea en la misión que se le ha conferido por el gobierno de Colombia para ante los del continente de Europa y de los Estados unidos de America,’ Bogotá, 24 December 1819, Archivo General de la Nación, Colombia, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Delegaciones - Transferencia 2, 242, 315r-320v. I would like to thank Ernesto Bassi for this reference.

  20 ‘impatiently waiting for you’: Manuel Palacio to Bonpland, 31 August 1815, Bell 2010, p.22.

  21 Bolívar, Bonpland and Argentina: Bolívar to Bonpland, 25 February 1815, Schulz 1960, pp.589, 595; Schneppen 2002, p.12; Bell 2010, p.25.

  22 Bonpland’s herbarium: William Baldwin, March 1818, Bell 2010, p.33.

  23 ‘old companion-in-fortune’: AH to Bonpland, 25 November 1821, AH Bonpland Letters 2004, p.79.

  24 Bonpland’s arrest: Schneppen 2002, p.12.

  25 ‘innocent whom I love’: Bolívar to José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, 22 October 1823, ibid., p.17.

  26 AH’s attempts to help Bonpland: Ibid., pp.18–21; AH to Bolívar, 21 March 1826, O’Leary 1879–88, vol.12, p.237.

  27 ‘maladie centrifuge’: AH to Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, 29 July 1803, Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.333.

  28 ‘liberty of thought’: AH to WH, 17 October 1822, Biermann 1987, p.198.

  29 ‘greatly respected’: Ibid.

  30 AH wants to move to Latin America: AH to Bolívar, 21 March 1826, O’Leary 1879–88, vol.12, p.237; WH to CH, 2 September 1824, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.7, p.218.

  31 ‘Alexander always envisages’: WH to CH, 2 September 1824, ibid.

  32 British scientists in Paris: Davy dined with AH on 19 April 1817, AH Letters USA 2004, p.146; Charles Babbage and John Herschel in 1819, Babbage 1994, p.145.

  33 ‘derived pleasure from’: Charles Babbage, 1819, Babbage 1994, p.147.

  34 Humboldt talked faster: William Buckland to John Nicholl, 1820, Buckland 1894, p.37.

  35 Lyell met AH: Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 21 and 28 June 1823, Lyell 1881, vol.1, pp.122–4.

  36 ‘a famous lesson’: Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 28 August 1823, ibid., p.146.

  37 AH’s English skills: Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 3 July 1823, ibid., p.126.

  38 ‘Hoombowl’: Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 28 June 1823, ibid., p.124.

  39 new understanding of climate: Körber 1959, p.301.

  40 ‘vergleichende Klimatologie’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.312; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.340.

  41 Lyell connected climate and geology: Charles Lyell to Poulett Scrope, 14 June 1830, Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.270; see also Lyell 1830, vol.1, p.122.

  42 ‘read up’ on Humboldt: Charles Lyell to Gideon Mantell, 15 February 1830, Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.262.

  43 influences on heat distribution: Körber 1959, p.299ff.

  44 Lyell’s conclusions: Lyell 1830, vol.1, p.122; see also Wilson 1972, p.284ff.

  45 moment of ‘a beginning’: Charles Lyell to Poulett Scrope, 14 June 1830, Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.269

  46 ‘geological application’: Ibid, p.270.

  47 ‘he eats dry bread’: CH to WH, 14 April 1809, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.3, p.131; see also Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.201.

  48 AH at hub of spinning wheel: AH to Simón Bolívar, 29 July 1822, Minguet 1986, p.749; this was Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, Podach 1959, pp.208–9.

  49 AH and Jefferson: AH to Jefferson, 20 December 1811, TJ Papers RS, vol.4, p.352; this was José Corrêa da Serra; AH also introduced the Italian Carlo de Vidua to Jefferson in 1825, AH to Jefferson, 22 February 1825, Terra 1959, p.795 and AH Letters USA 2004, pp.122–3.

  50 ‘laid the foundation’: Justus von Liebig about AH, Terra 1955, p.265.

  51 ‘the request of a distinguished’: Gallatin 1836, p.1.

  52 ‘tendency to absolute’: Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 28 August 1823, Lyell 1881 vol.1, p.142.

  53 AH on freedom of press and religion: AH told this to George Bancroft, 1820, Terra 1955, p.266; AH to Charles Lyell in 1823, recounted by Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 8 July 1823, Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.128.

  54 ‘less disposed than ever’: AH to Auguste-Pyrame Decandolle, 1818, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.38; for science in Paris, see Päßler 2009, p.30 and Terra 1955, p.251.

  55 ‘pliant tools’: AH to Charles Lyell in 1823, recounted by Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 8 July 1823, Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.127.

  56 ‘They are scattered thick’: Ibid.

  57 AH’s appearance in 1822: Jean Baptiste Boussingault, 1822, Podach 1959, pp.208–9.

  58 ‘you must already have’: King Friedrich Wilhelm III to AH, autumn 1826, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.95.

  59 ‘poor as a church’: AH to WH, 17 December 1822, AH WH Letters 1880, p.112; for AH finances, see Eichorn 1959, p.206.

  60 ‘only thing in heaven’: Helen Maria Williams to Henry Crabb Robinson, 25 March 1818, Leask 2001, p.225.

  61 AH gave up freedom: AH to Carl Friedrich Gauß, 16 February 1827, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.30.

  62 ‘the middle ground’: AH to Georg von Cotta, 28 March 1833, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.178.

  63 a ‘force of noblemen’: AH to Arago, 30 April 1827, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.23.

  64 AH in London: 3 May 1827, RS Journal Book, vol.XLV, p.73ff. and 3 May 1827, List of Attendees, RS Dining Club, vol.21, no page numbers; AH to Arago, 30 April 1827, AH Arago Letters 1907, pp.22–4.

  65 Mary Somerville (footnote): Patterson 1969, p.311; Patterson 1974, p.272.

  66 AH and Canning: AH to Arago, 30 April 1827, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.28; Canning became Prime Minister on 10 April and the dinner was on 23 April 1827.

  67 ‘my torments here’: AH to Achille Valenciennes, 4 May 1827, Théodoridès 1966, p.46.

  68 Thames tunnel: Buchanan 2002, p.22ff.; Pudney 1974, p.16ff.; Brunel 1870, p.24ff.

  69 ‘anxiety increasing daily’: Marc Brunel, Diary, 4 January, 21 March, 29 March 1827, Brunel 1870, pp.25–6.

  70 ‘clayey silt above’: Marc Brunel, Diary, 29 March 1827, ibid., p.26.

  71 AH at tunnel: AH to Arago, 30 April 1827, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.24ff.; Pudney 1974, pp.16–17; AH to William Buckland, 26 April 1827, American Philosophical Society (copy at Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungstelle, Berlin); Prince Pückler Muskau, 20 August 1827, Pückler Muskau 1833, p.177.

  72 looked like ‘Eskimos’: AH to Arago, 30 April 1827, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.25.

  73 ‘a privilege of Prussians’: Ibid.

 
74 tunnel fell in: Marc Brunel, Diary, 29 April and 18 May 1827, Brunel 1870, p.27; Buchanan 2002, p.25.

  75 ‘You care for nothing’: Robert Darwin to Charles Darwin, Darwin 1958, p.28.

  Chapter 15: Return to Berlin

  1 ‘tedious, restless life’: AH to Varnhagen, 13 December 1833, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.15.

  2 chamberlain honorary title: AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, pp.18–19.

  3 ‘court life robs’: AH, 1795, Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.212; for AH at Prussian court, see Bruhns, vol.2, pp.104–5.

  4 ‘swinging of a pendulum’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 22 June 1833, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.181.

  5 ‘endless display of uniforms’: A.B. Granville, October 1827, Granville 1829, vol.1, p.332.

  6 ‘above their humble’: Briggs 2000, p.195.

  7 school of chemistry and mathematics, observatory: Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.126; AH to Samuel Heinrich Spiker, 12 April 1829, AH Spiker Letters 2007, p.63; AH to Friedrich Wilhelm III, 9 October 1828, Hamel et al. 2003, pp.49–57.

  8 ‘sycophantic courtier’: Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy to Henriette von Pereira-Arnstein, 12 September 1827, AH Mendelssohn Letters 2011, p.20.

  9 ‘during an idle moment’: Karl Gutzkow on AH, after 1828, Beck 1969, p.252.

  10 ‘enviable talent for’: Carl Ritter to Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, winter 1827–8, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.107.

  11 AH saw Canning: AH to Arago, 30 April 1827, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.28; see also F. Cathcart to Bagot, 24 April 1827, Canning 1909, vol.2, pp.392–4.

  12 ‘We are on the brink’: George Canning, 3 June 1827, Memorandum by Mr Stapelton, Canning 1887, vol.2, p.321.

  13 ‘the volcano which’: Klemens von Metternich, Davies 1997, p.762.

  14 ‘a head that’s gone’: Biermann 2004, p.8

  15 ‘mummy’s sarcophagus’: Ibid.

  16 spirit of 1789: AH to Bonpland, 1843, AH Bonpland Letters 2004, p.110.

  17 pan-American congress: Lynch 2006, pp.213–15; Arana 2013, pp.353–5.

  18 ‘era of blunders’: Pedro Briceño Méndez to Bolívar, 26 July 1826, Arana 2013, p.374.