Humboldt now went to Paris, and occupied himself with Bonpland in the arrangement of their manuscripts and collections, a large part of which, however. had been lost by a shipwreck; at the .same time he pursued eontinnous experi ments in physical chemistry. Having visited his brother, then Prussian Ambassador at Rome. and returned to Berlin, lie accompanied Prince Wil helm of Prussia, in 1807, on a political mission to France, and obtained leave from the Govern ment of his OW11 country to remain thenceforth in Paris for the publication of the account of his travels. He enlisted the coOperation of Gay Lussae, envier, and ninny others of the most eminent French specialists of the day in the elaboration of his materials, and began in 1807 to publish the results in magnificent volumes (20 in folio and 10 in quarto, illustrated by 1425 copperplates). The title was Voyage our r(' pions ('quinoxiales du Nouveau Continent fait en 1799-IS0 j par Alexandre de Humboldt ct Jim(' lionpland. The first 14 were devoted to botany, and were actually prepared mainly by C. S. Kunth; vols. xv. and were an 'atlas pittoresque:' vols, xvii., xviii., xix., xxi., and xxii. were devoted to physical geography, geognosy, and astronomy; vol. xx. contained a 'geography of plants;' vols. xxiii. and xxiv. were zoillogieal; vols. xxv. and xxvi. were de voted to a sociological account of the countries of Spanish America; and vols. xxviii.. xxix.. and xxx. contained Humboldt's narrative of his jour ney, which was left unfinished. The original of this work contains the pnitftuuc sur le royaume de la Nourelle L'spagne, the Essai holltiquc sur l'ile de Cuba, and the rues Je.c Cordil lires. Among the minor works of the great mas ter, the ten der Vatur edition, 1808) had an ilatnediate and widespread wel come. It was translated into almost every European language, and issued in English in Both London and Philadelphia. The publication of the great Foyage continued at. irregular inter vals until 1827, and the •volumes or groups of volumes appeared under individual titles, by which they are more usually known. The bibli ography of Brulm:'s biography of Humboldt dis entangles the confusion of titles and editions which resulted, and to that the curious reader is referred. After Humboldt's death an octavo edition of his principal works was published in Paris (1864-66).
The favor of Frederick William 111. of Prussia, who had settled upon Humboldt a pension of 2500 tinders, and later of 5000, required him to make frequent journeys with that monarch, and at last he was summoned to reside at the Court. In 1827, then, lie took up his permanent i•sidence in Berlin, and with much discontent endeavored to carry on his investigations amid uncongenial surroundings. One of the best re sults of his work at this period was hit success in establishing fur the first time international co operation in furtherance of scientific observations. In 1827-28 he gave a series of remarkable lec tures on physiography at Berlin. which formed the ba.is of his subsequent Kosmos. In 1829, under the patronage of the Russian Government, and accompanied by Ehrenberg: and Gustav Rose, he made a rapid journey as far east as the Yenisei, one of the most striking results of which was the discovery of diamonds and other precious stones in the Ural Mountains, as Humboldt had predicted would be the case from his knowledge of their geology. Many geographieal positions
were astronomically determined, and erroneous views as to the physical geography of the north ern interior of Russia were corrected. The record of this journey was first written by Humboldt as Fragments dc gt'ologi• et de elimatologic asiatigue (1831), and afterwards enlarged into Ask et a rcelicrehes sur les chaines de montagnes et la elimatologie eompar('e ( 1813).
The subsequent years were spent in occasional diplomatic journeys and in the preparation of what he deemed the crowning monument of his in tellectual life, his Kosmos. an encyclopedic ac count and explanation of the physical universe. Four volumes were written and published in Ber lin, in 1815. 1847, 1850. and 1858. They were translated as fast as issued into many languages, and created a profound impression.
Ile kept health and vitality, and continued at. work until the winter of 1858.59, when his strength declined. Ile died May 6. 1859, and was buried with royal honors at Tegel. After his death new editions of many of his works were issued. and several collections of his letters ap peared.
Humboldt's influence upon seientifi• thought has been vast and far-reaching. him," says Agassiz. "ends a great period in the history of science; a period to which Cnvier. Laplace, Arago, Gay-Lussac, Pe Candolle. and Robert Brown belonged." His grasp of the universe as a whole Was no less remarkable than his faculty of observing and explaining single phenomena. His scenic descriptions are strikingly picturesque. Ilan Itoldt has to nearly every branch of seience, either by direct investigation or by the accumulation of valuable material. Ile may be regarded as the founder of the modern science of physical geography. and lie placed meteorology upon a firm basis. We ran only allude to his observations on the cultivation of the soil in iliTOre111 climates, and its effect upon civiliza tion; his study of the languages, the architecture. and the customs of the ancient peoples of South and Central America ; his discovery of the de crease in intensity of the earth's magnetic force from the poles to the equator; his fruitful labors in chemistry with (Inv-IAn:sae: his experiments concerning the respiration of fishes; and his eon tributions to the science of geology (especially in the departments of petrography, vulcanology, and beisinology).
1 I timboldt 's published correspondence with sonic of the most distinguished men of his time. such as Goethe. Varnhagen, Piety!, Bunsen. Gauss, and Haunter, as well as with his brother Wilhelm, attests the almost unparalleled breadth of his intellectual interests.
The most complete and painstaking Life of Humboldt is Bruin's's (Leipzig, 1872) ; an Eng lish translation exists, less the very full bibliog raphy. shorter biography, also trans lated into English, is aceurate but dull; and another is by R. II. Stoddard (New York, 1800), with additions by Bayard Taylor, which is far more sal isfaetorv.