The Invention of Nature (64 page)

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 1845, 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.