The Invention of Nature
Page 51
49 AH answered king’s questions: AH to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, 9 November 1839, 29 September 1840, 5 October 1840, December 1840, 23 March 1841, 15 June 1842, May 1844, 1849, also notes 4, 5, 12, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, pp.145, 147, 174, 175, 182, 202, 231, 277, 405, 532, 533, 536.
50 ‘as much as I can’: AH to Gauß, 3 July 1842, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.85.
51 Prussia like William Parry: AH to Varnhagen, 6 September 1844; see also Varnhagen Diary, 18 March 1843 and 1 April 1844, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, pp.97, 106–7, 130.
52 AH worked at night: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 9 March 1844, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.256.
53 ‘liquor store’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 5 February 1849, ibid., p.349.
54 ‘I don’t go to bed’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838, ibid., p.204.
55 failed to send manuscript: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 15 March 1841, ibid., p.238.
56 ‘involved with people who’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 February 1838, ibid., p.204.
57 ‘his most scrupulous work’: Ibid.
58 AH went to observatory: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 18 September 1843, ibid., p.248; the observatory had been built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1835.
59 AH little time in England: AH to John Herschel, 1842, Théodoridès 1966, p.50.
60 Murchison organized gathering: Darwin 1958, p.107.
61 ‘losing the best shooting’: Roderick Murchison to Francis Egerton, 25 January 1842, Murchison 1875, vol.1, p.360.
62 Darwin nervous to see AH: Emma Darwin to Jessie de Sismondi, 8 February 1842, Litchfield 1915, vol.2, p.67.
63 ‘buried in the ice-covered’: AH Geography 2009, p.69; AH Geography 1807, p.15; see also pp.9, 91.
64 ‘cosmopolitan outfit’: Schlagintweit brothers recounting AH, May 1849, Beck 1959, p.262.
65 AH worked the room: Description based on Heinrich Laube’s account, Laube 1875, pp.330–33.
66 ‘some tremendous compliments’: Emma Darwin to Jessie de Sismondi, 8 February 1842, Litchfield 1915, vol.2, p.67.
67 ‘beyond all reason’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 10 February 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.140.
68 ‘But my anticipations’: Darwin 1958, p.107.
69 ‘widely different’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 10–11 November 1844, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.79.
70 ‘have two Floras’: Darwin, Note, 29 January 1842, CUL DAR 100.167.
71 life like ‘Clockwork’: Darwin to Robert FitzRoy, 1 October 1846, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.345.
72 Darwin often ill: Thomson 2009, pp.219–20.
73 pros and cons of marriage: Darwin’s Notes on Marriage, second note, July 1838, Darwin Correspondence, vol.2, pp.444–5.
74 ‘fixed’ species: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.23; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.23 (my translation: Humboldt’s ‘abgeschlossene Art’ became ‘isolated species’ in the English edition but it should be translated as ‘fixed’ – as opposed to ‘mutable’).
75 ‘intermediate steps’ and missing links: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.3, Notes, p.14, iii; see also vol.1, p.34; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.3, pp.14, 28, vol.1, p.33.
76 ‘cyclical change’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.22; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.22 (my translation: Humboldt’s ‘periodischen Wechsel’ became ‘transformations’ in the English edition but ‘cyclical change’ is a better translation). For transitions and constant renewal, see AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, pp.22, 34; AH Kosmos 1845–50 vol.1, pp.22, 33.
77 ‘pre-Darwinian Darwinist’: Emil Du Bois-Reymond’s speech at Berlin University, 3 August 1883, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.195; see also Wilhelm Bölsche to Ernst Haeckel, 4 July 1913, Haeckel Bölsche Letters 2002, p.253.
78 ‘supports in almost’ (footnote): Alfred Russel Wallace to Henry Walter Bates, 28 December 1845, Wallace Letters Online.
79 ‘about the river’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 10 February 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.140.
80 Hooker same hotel: Hooker 1918, vol.1, p.179.
81 ‘To my horror’: Joseph Hooker to Maria Sarah Hooker, 2 February 1845, ibid., p.180.
82 ‘Jupiter-like’: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 4 September 1848, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.8; for AH changing with age, see also A Visit to Humboldt by a correspondent of the Commercial Advertiser, 30 December 1849, AH Letters USA 2004, pp.539–40.
83 ‘capability for generalising’: Joseph Hooker to W.H. Harvey, 27 February 1845, Hooker 1918, vol.1, p.185.
84 ‘his mind was still’: Joseph Hooker to Darwin, late February 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.148.
85 ‘I do not suppose’: Ibid.
86 ‘had given Kosmos up’: Joseph Hooker to Darwin, late February 1845, ibid., p.149.
87 Cosmos in Germany: Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.390; Biermann und Schwarz 1999b, p.205; Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 14 June 1845, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.283.
88 ‘non-German Cosmos children’: AH to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, 16 September 1847, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.366; for translations see Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.382ff.
89 ‘unite in a quivering’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.182; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.200.
90 ‘kill the creative force’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21 (my translation: ‘das Gefühl erkälten, die schaffende Bildkraft der Phantasie ertödten’; the 1845 English edition translates this as ‘to chill the feelings, and to diminish the nobler enjoyment attendant on the contemplation of nature’).
91 ‘never-ending activity’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21 (my translation: ‘in dem ewigen Treiben und Wirken der lebendigen Kräfte’; the English edition translates this as ‘in the midst of universal fluctuation of forces’).
92 ‘living whole’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.5; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.5 (my translation: ‘ein lebendiges Ganzes’; the English edition translates this as ‘one fair harmonious whole’ but it should be either ‘living whole’ or ‘animated whole’).
93 ‘net-like intricate fabric’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.34; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.33 (my translation; this crucial sentence, ‘Eine allgemeine Verkettung nicht in einfacher linearer Richtung, sondern in netzartig verschlungenem Gewebe’, is not in the English edition).
94 ‘wide range of creation’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.34; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.32.
95 ‘perpetual interrelationship’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.279; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.304 (my translation: ‘perpetuierlichen Zusammenwirken’; the English edition translates this as ‘double influence’).
96 ‘animated by one breath’: AH to Caroline von Wolzogen, 14 May 1806, Goethe AH WH Letters 1876, p.407.
97 AH not religious: WH to CH, 23 May 1817, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.5, p.315; for criticism of the missionaries, see AH Diary 1982, p.329ff.; and of the Prussian Church, see Werner 2000, p.34.
98 ‘wonderful web of organic life’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21 (my translation: ‘in dem wundervollen Gewebe des Organismus’; the English edition translates this as ‘the seemingly inextricable network of organic life’).
99 ‘a pact with the devil’ (footnote): Werner 2000, p.34.
100 ‘Were the republic’: North British Review, 1845, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.290.
101 ‘epoch making’: Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 3 December 1847; see also 5 February 1846, ibid., pp.292, 329. ’
102 Metternich on Cosmos: Klemens von Metternich to AH, 21 June 1845, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.138.
103 AH ‘dazzling’: Berlioz 1878, p.126.
104 ‘read, re-read, pondered’: Berlioz 1854, p.1.
105 Prince Albert requested copy: Prince Albert to AH, 7 February 1847, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.181; Darwin to Hooker, 11 and 12 July 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.217.
106 ‘severely damage’: AH to Bunsen, 18 July 184
5, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, pp.76–7.
107 His ‘poor Cosmos’: Ibid.
108 ‘Are you really sure’: Darwin to Hooker, 3 September 1845, Darwin Correspondence, vol.3, p.249.
109 ‘wretched English’: Darwin to Hooker, 18 September 1845; Darwin to Hooker, 8 October 1845, ibid., pp.255, 257.
110 ‘vigour & information’: Darwin to Charles Lyell, 8 October 1845, ibid., p.259.
111 others were ‘admirable’: Darwin to Hooker, 28 October 1845, ibid., p.261.
112 Darwin bought new translation: Darwin to Hooker, 2 October 1846, ibid., p.346.
113 ‘very wroth at the’: Hooker to Darwin, 25 March 1854, ibid., vol.5, p.184; see also AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 20 March 1848, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.292.
114 AH wanted honesty: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 28 November 1847, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.327.
115 ‘real battles’: Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 3 December 1847, ibid., p.329.
116 ‘poetic descriptions of’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.3; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.3.
117 ‘produces on the feelings’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.3; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.3.
118 ‘new organs’: AH to Caroline von Wolzogen, 14 May 1806, Goethe AH WH Letters 1876, p.407. ’
119 eye as organ of Weltanschauung: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.73; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.86.
120 ‘delight the senses’: AH to Varnhagen, 28 April 1841, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.70.
121 ‘sheer madness’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 March 1849, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.359.
122 40,000 copies: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 7 April 1849, ibid., p.368.
123 AH’s income from translations (footnote): AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 13 April 1849, ibid., p.371.
124 ‘The wonderful Humboldt’: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal, 1845, Emerson 1960–92, vol.9, p.270; see also Ralph Waldo Emerson to John F. Heath, 4 August 1842, Emerson 1939, vol.3, p.77; Walls 2009, pp.251–6.
125 Eureka and Cosmos: Walls 2009, pp.256–60; Sachs 2006, pp.109–11; Clark and Lubrich 2012, pp.19–20.
126 ‘spiritual and material’: Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Eureka’, Poe 1848, p.8.
127 ‘the most sublime of’: Ibid., p.130.
128 Whitman’s ‘Kosmos’: Whitman 1860, pp.414–15; for Whitman and Cosmos, see AH Letters USA 2004, p.61; Walls 2009, pp.279–83; Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.20.
129 ‘Song of Myself’: The word ‘kosmos’ is the only one that didn’t change in the various versions of Whitman’s famous self-identification. It began as ‘Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos’ in the first edition and became ‘Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son’ in the last.
Chapter 19: Poetry, Science and Nature
1 ‘wished to live’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.118.
2 Thoreau’s cabin: Ibid., pp.52ff., 84.
3 ‘earth’s eye’ and ‘closes its eyelids’: Ibid., p.247, 375.
4 ‘slender eyelashes’: Ibid., p.247.
5 plants near the cabin: Ibid., pp.149–50.
6 rustled leaves and singing: Channing 1873, p.250.
7 naming places: Ibid., p.17.
8 ‘Facts collected by’: Thoreau, 16 June 1852, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.5, p.112.
9 Thoreau as a boy: John Weiss, Christian Examiner, 1865, Harding 1989, p.33.
10 ‘fine scholar with’: Alfred Munroe, ‘Concord Authors Considered’, Richard County Gazette, 15 August 1877, Harding 1989, p.49.
11 like a squirrel: Horace R. Homer, ibid., p.77.
12 Thoreau’s studies at Harvard: Richardson 1986, pp.12–13.
13 Emerson’s library: Sims 2014, p.90.
14 Thoreau’s tetanus symptoms: Thoreau to Isaiah Williams, 14 March 1842, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.66.
15 ‘a withered leaf’: Thoreau, 16 January 1843, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.1, p.447.
16 ‘build yourself a hut’: Ellery Channing to Thoreau, 5 March 1845, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.161.
17 death part of nature: Thoreau to Emerson, 11 March 1842, ibid., p.65.
18 ‘There can be no really’: Thoreau, 14 July 1845, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.159.
19 Concord at Thoreau’s time: Richardson 1986, pp.15–16; Sims 2014, pp.33, 47–50.
20 sound of axes: Richardson 1986, p.16.
21 railroad to Concord: Ibid., p.138.
22 ‘Simplify, simplify’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.119.
23 ‘a life of simplicity’: Thoreau, spring 1846, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.145.
24 Thoreau appearance: Channing 1873, p.25; Celia P.R. Fraser, Harding 1989, p.208.
25 ‘imitates porcupines’: Caroline Sturgis Tappan about Thoreau, American National Biography; see also Channing 1873, p.311.
26 Thoreau ‘pugnacious’: Channing 1873, p.312.
27 ‘courteous manners’: Nathaniel Hawthorne, September 1842, Harding 1989, p.154.
28 many thought Thoreau funny: E. Harlow Russell, Reminiscences of Thoreau, Concord Enterprise, 15 April 1893, Harding 1989, p.98.
29 ‘an intolerable bore’: Nathaniel Hawthorne to Richard Monckton Milnes, 18 November 1854, Hawthorne 1987, vol.17, p.279.
30 Thoreau being eccentric: see Pricilla Rice Edes, Harding 1989, p.181.
31 ‘refreshing like ice-water’: Amos Bronson Alcott Journal, 5 November 1851, Borst 1992, p.199.
32 ‘duel’ of mud–turtles: Edward Emerson, 1917, Harding 1989, p.136.
33 ‘seems to adopt him’: Nathaniel Hawthorne, September 1842, Harding 1989, p.155; for Thoreau and animals, Mary Hosmer Brown, Memories of Concord, 1926, Harding 1989, pp.150–51 and Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.170, 173.
34 ‘a little star-dust’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.287.
35 Thoreau at Walden: Ibid., pp.147, 303.
36 ‘self-appointed inspector’: Ibid., p.21.
37 ‘like a picture behind’: Ibid., p.327; playing the flute, p.232.
38 ‘a wood-nymph’: Alcott’s Journal, March 1847, Harbert Petrulionis 2012, pp.6–7.
39 returned to village regularly: John Shephard Keyes, Harding 1989, p.174; Channing 1873, p.18.
40 two thick notebooks: Shanley 1957, p.27.
41 ‘purely American’: Alcott’s Journal, March 1847, Harbert Petrulionis 2012, p.7; for bad reviews of A Week, Theodore Parker to Emerson, 11 June 1849 and Athenaeum, 27 October 1849, Borst 1992, pp.151, 159.
42 ‘over seven hundred’: Thoreau Correspondence 1958, October 1853, p.305.
43 ‘While my friend was’: Thoreau, after 11 September 1849, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3. p.26; see also Walls 1995, pp.116–17.
44 crush on Lydian: Walls 1995, p.116.
45 ‘only man of leisure’: Myerson 1979, p.43.
46 ‘insignificant here in town’: Emerson in 1849, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.485.
47 ‘than walking off every’: Maria Thoreau, 7 September 1849, Borst 1992, p.138.
48 ‘What are these pines’: Thoreau Journal, after 18 April 1846, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.242.
50 Thoreau measured precisely: Myerson 1979, p.41.
50 frozen bubbles: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.328ff.
51 ‘calling on some scholar’: Ibid., p.268, 352.
52 Thoreau and Transcendentalism: Walls 1995, p.61ff.
53 ‘cloud the sight’: Emerson 1971–2013, vol.1, 1971, p.39.
54 ‘spirit is matter reduced’: Ibid., vol.3, 1983, p.31.
55 ‘not come from experience’: Emerson, 1842, Richardson 1986, p.73.
56 ‘of knowing truth’: J.A. Saxon, ‘Prophecy, – Transcendentalism, – Progress’, The Dial, vol.2, 1841, p.90.
57 Thoreau reoriented his life: Dean 2007, p.82ff.; Walls 1995, pp.116–17; Thoreau to Harrison Gray Otis Blake, 20 November 1849, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.250; Thoreau, 8 October 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.133.
58 ‘Field Notes’: Thoreau, 21 March 1853, Thoreau Journal
1981–2002, vol.6, p.20.
59 ‘botany box’: Thoreau, 23 June 1852, ibid., vol.5, p.126; see also Channing 1873, p.247.
60 scientists today: Richard Primack, a professor of biology at Boston University, has collaborated with colleagues at Harvard to use Thoreau’s journals for studies in climate change. Utilizing Thoreau’s meticulous entries they have discovered that climate change has come to Walden Pond as many of the spring flowers now flower more than ten days earlier; see Andrea Wulf, ‘A Man for all Seasons’, New York Times, 19 April 2013.
61 ‘I omit the unusual’: Thoreau, 28 August 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.17.
62 ‘I feel ripe for’: Thoreau, 16 November 1850, ibid., vol.3, pp.144–5.
63 Thoreau reading AH: Sattelmeyer 1988, pp.206–7, 216; Walls 1995, pp.120–21; Walls 2009, pp.262–8; for Thoreau and AH’s books, 6 January 1851, meeting of the Standing Committee of the Concord Social Library, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s hand: ‘The Committee have added to the Library in the last year Humboldts Aspects of Nature’; Box 1, Folder 4, Concord Social Library Records (Vault A60, Unit B1), William Munroe Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library.
64 ‘a sort of elixir’: Thoreau, ‘Natural History of Massachusetts’, Thoreau Excursion and Poems 1906, p.105.
65 ‘His reading was done’: Channing 1873, p.40.
66 AH in Thoreau’s journals and publications: Thoreau’s Fact Book in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection in the Harvard College Library. The Facsimile of Thoreau’s Manuscript, ed. Kenneth Walter Cameron, Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1966, vol.3, 1987, pp.193, 589; Thoreau’s Literary Notebook in the Library of Congress, ed. Kenneth Walter Cameron, Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1964, p.362; Sattelmeyer 1988, pp.206–7, 216; AH mentioned in Thoreau’s published work: For example Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada, and The Maine Woods.
67 ‘Humboldt says’: Thoreau, 1 April 1850, 12 May 1850, 27 October 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, pp.52, 67–8 and vol.7, p.119.
68 ‘Where is my cyanometer’: Thoreau, 1 May 1853, ibid., vol.6, p.90.
69 Orinoco and Concord: Thoreau, 1 April 1850, ibid., vol.3, p.52.
70 Peterborough hills and Andes: Thoreau, 13 November 1851, ibid., vol.4, p.182.