Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/354

HUMBOLDT. 308 HUMBOLDT KIVEB. tributiona to the science of geology (especially in tile departments of petrography, vulcanology, and teisiiioluf,'}). Huniliuldt's publislied cuncspondcncr with some of the most distiii^'iiislicil inrn of liis tiiiie. such as Goethe, Varnha;;eii. I'ictot, Bunscn, Oauss, and Raunicr, as well as with his brother Wilhelm, attests the almost unparalloU'd breadth of his intellcttual interests. The most complete and painstaking Life of Humlioldt is Itruhns's (Leipzig. 1872) : an Eng- lish trunshition exists, less the very full bibliog- rniiliy. Klcncko's shorter bii)i;rnpliy. also trans- lated into Knglish. is aoivirate but dull: and another is by R. H. Stoddard (New York, 18G0). with additions by Bayard Taylor, which is far more satisfactory. HUMBOLDT, Kaki. Wu.iikl.m. Baron von ( ITtiT Is.'t.") I . An eminent German scholar, au- thor, and statesman, elder brother of the preced- ing, born at Potsdam, i'russia. .lune 22, 17()7. He was educated at the universities of Krankfort- onthe-Odcr and (;<ittinf;cn, where he was es|)e- eially trained in jurisprudence, but also studied aesthetics, antiquities, and the Kantian phi- losophy, then newly propounded. After Conti- nental travel, he s|)enl some time in 17H0-00 at Erfurt and at Weimar, where he met JSchiller, then professor extraordinarius at .Jena, In 1700 he became referendary- in the Supreme Court of Judicature at Berlin, with the title of Prus- sian Councilor of l-<'gation, but in 1701 resigned his appointment, and in 1704-07 was at .lena, active in scientific and literary study, and one of the Schiller circle. His interesting correspond- ence with Schiller, extending from I7IV2 to ISO"), was published by him in 1830 with a "Vorcrin- ncrung" (2d ed., bv 'ollmer, I87(j; in the Cot- In'srhr liibliothrl:, ed. by .Muncker, 1H03). From 1801 to 180G he was Prussian Resident Minister at the Papal Court, and in 1800-08 Minister Plenipotentiary. .-Vt Rome he was a most liberal li.atron of artists. inclu<ling Ranch and Thorwald- sen. made [)hilosophical. lesthetic. philological and areli;i'oloi.'ical researches, and wrote the elegy A'om (18001, his most ambitiims poem. In 1800 he was appointed Privy Councilor of State, in charge of public worship and educa- tion. After a successful administration, which introduced many reforms, and organized and ob- tained endowment for the Berlin T'niversity (de- creed 1807, opened 18101, he resigned the post in ISIO, to accept that of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Vienna, with rank of Minister of State. In the political affairs of the time he took a prominent part. He was present at the Peace Congress of Prague in ISl.S. in 1814 was at the Congress of Chfltillon and signed, with Hardenberg, the first Paris Treaty, and in 1814-1.5 attended the Vienna Con- gress as Prussia's Second Plenipotentiary. Hum- boldt likewise took pint in the negotiations at- tending the conclusion of the second Paris Treaty, and was n member of the Territorial Cnmmission at Frankfort-ont lie-Main in 1 81 (i- 1 7. As a State Councilor he strongly disairreed with Chan- cellor Hnrdenberg on certain matters of tax re- form, and in eonseqnenee he was ordered to Lon- don as Ambassador. He returned in 1818 to at- tend the Congress of .ixla-Chapelle, and in 1819 was appointed to the Ministry of the Interior (then divided into two branches! with t'<e de- partment of comnmnal and municipal af- fairs. His liberal opinions soon involved him in dillieulties with the (ioverninent. He demanded a new Prussian eonstituti(m which should com- bine the autonomy of provinces and governmental districts with a Parliament chosen by direct election; and he attacked the Carlsbad decrees, which, among various provisions, established a censorship of the press and contained measures hostile to the universities and scliiw)ls. Uis- niisscd in 1810, he was not recalled to the ('ouncil of State until 18;i0. in the last years of his lifo Humboldt devoted much attention to art matters and to the organization of the Berlin Museum. He ilied April 8, |.s:i.-|, at 'i'egel. As a statesnuui ilhclm von Humboldt was en- lightened and industrious, but perhaps hardly con- structive. As a critical essayist he was of tran- sient inlluence. Of his poetical works, iM'sides the J'um above mentioned, only the translation of the Agiinumnon is now much read (1810, 2d ed, 1857; in the Unircrsalbibliothrk of Reelam), But as a i)hi!nl()(;ist he marks an epoch. It was he who first called the attention of scholars to the phe- nomenon of the Ba.sque langua^'e. particularly in the volume I'jiifiinfi drr I'nivmuchiiiKicn lifter die Vrbrnohncr Ili.t]>iit>icyis vrrmiltrht der bas- kisclien Sprache (1821). His chief publication, Vcber die Kairisprachc tiuf drr hiail Jdvii (.3 vols., 18.30-40), with its noted introduction, "Ueber die Verschiedenheit des menscliliehen Sprachbaues" (.separately printed 183:'), 3d ed, of Pott's revision, 1880), was the first on the sub- ject. Important dissertations read before the Berlin Academy include those on the compara- tive study of language, the province of the historian, and the origin of grammatical forms. Humboldt was in these and other writings the first to associate the science of comparative phi- lology with philosophy, history, and other col- lateral studies, and to give it a imiversal signifi- cance. His Idcrn ztt rinrni IVr.s'i/c/f, dir Orenzcn der Wirkaamkeit dcx fitaates zii bestimmen (edited by Cauer IS.'il. in Reclam's Unirersal- hihliolhik) . which Schiller vainly tried to get published, limits the authority of the State to the inferior t,isk of ]>roteeting the life and property of its citizens. "The collected works appeared at Berlin (7 vols.l in 1841-52. Consult also the study by Hayni (Berlin, 185(5) : Adier, Wilhelm I'oii llnmboldCs Linqvixtieal Htudiex ( Xew York, 1860) ; C.ebhardt, WiUielm ran Humboldt all StnnlRmnnii (Sluttgiirt, 2 vols.. 1800 00) ; and Kittel. Wilhihii roti lliimboldl/i ycschichtlUhc ^ycllOllS(■lllnnlll<| I Leipzig, 1901). HUMBOLDT KIVEK. The loncest river of Nevada. It rises in Elko County, in the northeast corner of the State, and flows 3.')0 miles in a gen- erally southwest direction, emptying into Hum- boldt Lake in Churchill County, 80 miles north- east of Carson City ( Map : Xevada, El), The livke has no outlet, the water sometimes evaporating faster than the river can supply it: at times of high water it formerly overflowed into Carson Sink, but this is now prevented bv a dam. The river is only a few yards wide, growing smaller by evaporation toward its mouth. Its water is saline, and it flows throuiih .nn arid and barren region covered with sa£re-brush. with the excep- tion of a few fertile alluvial plains and clumps of willows. The valley of the Humboldt is the only east and west pass throufrh the mountains of N'evnda. and it is followed throughout its course bv the Central Pacific Railroad.