COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1

COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical
Description of the Universe, Vol. 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook, COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description
of the Universe, Vol. 1, by Alexander von Humboldt, Translated by E.C. Otte
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Title: COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1
Author: Alexander von Humboldt
Release Date: January 3, 2005 [eBook #14565]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COSMOS: A SKETCH OF
THE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE, VOL. 1***
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. 1 by Alexander
von Humboldt
Translated by E C Otte
from the 1858 Harper & Brothers edition of Cosmos, volume 1
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p i COSMOS
VOLUME I
[p ii is blank]
[p iii - not copied; pertains to reprint series]
p iv [portrait]
p v
COSMOS
A SKETCH OR A PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE
BY ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY E. C. OTTE
Naturae vero rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus momentis fides caret, si quis modo
partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo. -- Plin., 'Hist. Nat.', lib. vii, c. 1.
VOLUME I
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NICOLAAS A. RUPKE

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS Baltimore and London
[page vi and Introduction to the 1997 edition not copied]
p 1 COSMOS
VOLUME I
[p 2 is blank]
p 3 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. -----------------------
I CAN not more appropriately introduce the Cosmos than by presenting a brief sketch of
the life of its illustrious author.* While the name of Alexander von Humboldt is familiar
to every one, few, perhaps, are aware of the peculiar circumstances of his scientific career
and of the extent of his labors in almost every department of physical knowledge. He was
born on the 14th of September, 1769, and is, therefore, now in his 80th year. After going
through the ordinary course of education at Gottingen, and having made a rapid tour
through Holland, England, and France, he became a pupil of Werner at the mining school
of Freyburg, and in his 21st year published an "Essay on the Basalts of the Rhine."
Though he soon became officially connected with the mining corps, he was enabled to
continue his excursions in foreign countries, for, during the six or seven years succeeding
the publication 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, among which botany and the then recent discovery of
galvanism may be especially noticed. Botany, indeed, we know from his own authority,
occupied him almost exclusively for some years; but even at this time he was practicing
the use of those astronomical and physical instruments which he afterward turned to so
singularly excellent an account.
[footnote] *For the following remarks I am mainly indebted to the articles on the Cosmos
in the two leading Quarterly Reviews.
The political disturbances of the civilized world at the close p 4 of the last century
prevented our author from carrying out various plans of foreign travel which he had
contemplated, and detained him an unwilling prisoner in Europe. In the year 1799 he
went to Spain, with the hope of entering Africa from Cadiz, but the unexpected patronage
which he received at the court of Madrid led to a great alteration in his plans, and decided
him to proceed directly to the Spanish possessions in America, "and there gratify the
longings for foreign adventure, and the scenery of the tropics, which had haunted him
from boyhood, but had all along been turned in the diametrically opposite direction of
Asia." After encountering various risks of capture, he succeeded in reaching America,
and from 1799 to 1804 prosecuted there extensive researches in the physical geography
of the New World, which has indelibly stamped his name in the undying records of
science.
Excepting an excursion to Naples with Gay-Lussac and Von Buch in 1805 (the year after
his return from America), the succeeding twenty years of his life were spent in Paris, and
were almost exclusively employed in editing the results of his American journey. In order
to bring these results before the world in a manner worthy of their importance, he
commenced a series of gigantic publications in almost every branch of science on which
he had instituted observations. In 1817, after twelve years of