lptures and painting, and rich in all that art and
labor, memory and imagination, can contribute to its beauty."

These remarks occur in connection with Whewell's sketch of the
contributions to science made by Cuvier: "I may observe, that he is
allowed by all to have established on an indestructible basis many of
the most important generalizations which zooelogy now contains; and the
principal defect which his critics have pointed out has been that he did
not generalize still more widely and boldly. It appears, therefore, that
he cannot but be placed among the great discoverers in the studies which
he pursued; and this being the case, those who look with pleasure on the
tendency of the thoughts of the greatest men to an intelligence far
higher than their own, must be gratified to find that he was an example
of this tendency, and that the acknowledgment of a creative purpose, as
well as a creative power, not only entered into his belief, but made an
indispensable and prominent part of his philosophy."

"Beauty, richness, abundance," says Cuvier, "have been the ways of the
Creator, no less than simplicity. We conceive nature to be simply a
production of the Almighty, regulated by a wisdom the laws of which can
only be discovered by observation."

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT[7]

By LOUIS AGASSIZ

(1769-1859)

[Footnote 7: Written at the time of the death of Baron Von
Humboldt, and reprinted, by permission, from "Littell's Living
Age."]

[Illustration: Humboldt. [TN]]

Humboldt--Alexander Von Humboldt, as he always called himself, though he
was christened with the names of Frederick Heinrich Alexander--was born
in 1769, on September 14th, in that memorable year which gave to the
world those philosophers, warriors, and statesmen who have changed the
face of science and the condition of affairs in our century. It was in
that year that Cuvier also and Schiller were born; and among the
warriors and statesmen, Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and Canning
are children of 1769, and it is certainly a year of which we can say
that its children have revolutionized the world. Of the early life of
Humboldt I know nothing, and I find no records except that in his tenth
year he lost his father, who had been a major in the army during the
seven years' war, and afterward a chamberlain to the King of Prussia.
But his mother took excellent care of him, and watched over his early
education. The influen