6*58 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 

 
 To 
 
 J£>~ . C7*sU9 J/,a^^y , 
 
 With the respects of the Author. \ 
 
 CARL RITTER; 
 
 e=> 
 
 TO THE 
 
 AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL 
 SOCIETY, 
 
 BY 
 
 ARNOLD GUYOT, 
 
 Professor of Physical Geography and G-eology, College 
 of New Jersey. 
 
 »»»» 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. ; 
 1860. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 G69.R61 G98 
 
 Carl Rltter : an address to the American 
 
 olln 
 
 3 1924 029 841 891 
 
CARL BITTER; 
 
 TO THE 
 
 AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL 
 SOCIETY, 
 
 BY 
 
 arnold/guyot, 
 
 Professor of Physical Geography and G-eology, College 
 of New Jersey. 
 
 (From the Journal of the Amer. Geograph. Society, Vol. II., No. L) 
 
 » »« » ■<»■ < » a < 
 
 Q 3 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 1860. 
 
3101 E I, 
 
 ;ur^vEhSUY 
 
 SxLSBRARV ' 
 
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Gtjyot on Carl Ritter. 25 
 
 IV.— Carl Bitter: An Address to the Society. Bv Professor 
 Arnold Henry G-uyot, ll.d., cor. mem. a.g.s.s. 
 
 Delivered February 16, 1860. 
 
 Gentlemen of the American Geographical Society: 
 
 Less than a year has elapsed since we assembled in this 
 place to express our sorrow at the death of Humboldt, and to 
 pay a just tribute of honor to his glorious memory, as to one 
 who, for half a century, stood before the world as the embodi- 
 ment and fit representative of all modern progress in the 
 knowledge of the Physical Globe ; and here we come to-day, 
 once more to mourn the loss of another great Master in our 
 beloved science, — I might say the other great Master in the 
 Science of the Globe, — Carl Ritter, the world-renowned 
 author of the classical "UrdJcunde," or the Science of the 
 Globe in its relations to nature and to the history of mankind. 
 
 Humboldt, who first entered the scene of life and of his 
 labors, first also left it on the 6th of May, 1859, at the 
 advanced age of 90 years ; and before another season was 
 over, on the 28th of September last, soon after the close of 
 his 80th year, Ritter followed him into a better world. 
 
 The two high-priests of the temple of Nature and of 
 History have thus received the last summons from on high. 
 When called, both were found still actively engaged in their 
 high functions. They have obeyed the call ; they are gone ; 
 but the temple that they have reared and beautified, and the 
 Mighty One to whom it is consecrated, subsist, and both will 
 last forever. 
 
 It is not in death alone that they are thus associated. 
 Sons of the same mother country, living to the last in the same 
 city, — in the city of Berlin, that great metropolis of German 
 science, — united by ties of affection and by feelings of a deep 
 mutual esteem and regard, they still live united in the mem- 
 ory of men. 
 
 For the last forty years the names of Humboldt and 
 Ritter, constantly associated, have been household words with 
 every one interested in Geographical studies. With them is 
 connected, in the minds of all, the idea of a gigantic progress 
 in the science of the globe, — a progress due not only to the 
 addition of new facts, but, as is especially the case with 
 Ritter's name, to a new dignity conferred upon that science 
 by a more philosophical method, by the elevated stand-point 
 from which it is viewed and treated, and by the living, harmo- 
 
26 G-uyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 nious connection that has been established between it and the 
 sister sciences. To these great minds also is traced, as to its 
 main source, that reform movement which has impressed its 
 stamp upon all the geographical literature of the day in Ger- 
 many, has penetrated into every school, and the mighty flood 
 of which, flowing over its primitive boundaries, has covered 
 Scandinavia, Switzerland, now reaches England, and, I am 
 happy to say, is making rapid progress in this country. 
 
 A conviction so universal, so deeply rooted in the pop- 
 ular consciousness, especially in that of the German nation^ 
 which reared them and received their immediate teachings, of 
 that people endowed with so keen a power of appreciation of 
 all kinds of scientific merit, can but correspond to a reality. 
 That great progress cannot be denied. It is evident to the 
 eye of every one who has had an opportunity of comparing 
 the condition of geographical knowledge at the present day 
 with that of half a century ago ; that is, before and after the 
 period of the activity and controlling influence of Humboldt 
 and of Eitter. But what seems less evident, less distinctly 
 established in the minds of many, is the character of the 
 peculiar element of progress contributed to geographical science 
 by each of these two great Reformers. 
 
 The brilliant services, so recently discussed before you, 
 rendered to the science of Terrestrial Physics by Humboldt 
 the geographer and geologist, by Humboldt the physicist and 
 meteorologist, by Humboldt the botanist and zoologist, by 
 Humboldt the scientific discoverer of the New World and the 
 experienced scientific traveller in Central Asia, by Humboldt 
 the author of the Cosmos, are present to the minds of all. 
 The physics of the Globe, that noble science, last born, but 
 not least, among her sister sciences, owes him, as I have said 
 elsewhere, its present shape and its best results. This remains 
 his chief, his most glorious title to the gratitude of the scien- 
 tific, and his labors mark the beginning of a new era, from 
 which the knowledge of our physical globe, as a grand harmo- 
 nious whole, will have to date its future steps in the career of 
 progress. 
 
 How warmly Bitter acknowledged the high merit and 
 admired the researches of Humboldt, how fully he appreci- 
 ated their value, and joyfully hailed every new result obtained 
 by his ingenuity, appears, among others, in a page of the 
 Introduction to his great book, the "Erclkunde," especially 
 devoted to Humboldt's labors, and in which he declares that 
 without such a foundation as that furnished by the works of 
 
GrUYOT on Carl Bitter. 27 
 
 Humboldt, his own work would have been impossible. But 
 that very declaration shows that the work that he himself con- 
 ceived and virtually performed, was still another than that 
 attempted by Humboldt. For him the full knowledge of the 
 physical globe, grand as it is in itself, is but a means, not an 
 end. Our planet is a living organization which comprises the 
 life of mankind. The central idea of the "Erdkunde," there- 
 fore, the inward principle upon which it rests, the principle of 
 order which binds together all its parts, is that of a vital union 
 of nature and of man into an organic unity. Its main task 
 is the study of the unceasing, ever-renewed, and varied mutual 
 action of these two factors. That idea must be clearly appre- 
 hended and well denned ; it must be seized in its fruitful 
 applications, in its rich consequences, before one can justly 
 appreciate its full value, and understand the profound revolu- 
 tion that it has effected. Such a true appreciation alone will 
 account for the vast influence that Eitter exerted upon his 
 age, and for the fact that all thinking Germany dates, from the 
 appearance of the "Erdhunde," the emancipation of Geogra- 
 phy as an independent science, in the high sense of the term, 
 possessed since of a principle of its own, and which takes its 
 rank side by side with its sister science, the Philosophy of 
 History. 
 
 You will agree with me, gentlemen, when I say that, great 
 and well deserved as is Bitter's reputation in this country, it 
 is — as all great reputations, indeed, but perhaps more so than 
 usual — one resting upon authority. It is, if I may be allowed 
 the expression, an imported one ; and this, indeed, is not sur- 
 prising; and we could scarcely speak otherwise of England, 
 and still more of France. Ritter's theoretical ideas and 
 methods are to be taken from a few academic memoirs, but 
 more especially from his great work itself. There we find 
 them realized in the rich, concrete forms of life. They never 
 have been reduced by him into a regular abstract system or 
 doctrine, a form altogether uncongenial to a mind which was 
 so thoroughly filled with the vivid images of nature. These 
 channels, together with his suggestive lectures to thousands of 
 students during the long period of his public teaching, were 
 sufficient to spread his spirit in Germany. But they are not 
 so for foreign countries. The original memoirs just mentioned, 
 though since published separately, are not of easy access. 
 The very bulk of his main work has prevented, thus far, a 
 translation of it into foreign languages, except, strange to say, 
 one into the Bussian, and a very partial one into the French, 
 
28 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 How many, in this busy world of America, will attempt the 
 careful reading of the nineteen volumes, the twenty thousand 
 pages of close text, which compose the portion of the " Erd- 
 hunde" now published ; and that, too, in that rich, beautiful, 
 but by no means easy tongue of Germany. These, I con- 
 fess, are real obstacles much to be regretted, but which 
 ought to be overcome, and ought not to be allowed to cut 
 us off from the abundant stores of knowledge accumulated by 
 that great scholar. 
 
 You have honored me, gentlemen, with a request to 
 address you upon this occasion on the life and the works of 
 Carl Eitter. I thank you for this privilege, for such I feel it 
 to be. I responded to the call, however, with no small degree 
 of diffidence. But aroused in my University days, by the 
 teachings of that venerable and much beloved friend, to the 
 study of his favorite science, which soon became mine ; guided 
 in further steps by his kind, affectionate, and ever-ready 
 advice ; cheered on at every stage of my scientific career by 
 his deep sympathy, and the spontaneous expression of an 
 unqualified approval — the last of which, traced a few days 
 before the cold hand of death took the pen from his hand, has 
 for me the solemn significance of his scientific will ; — loaded 
 with such favors on his part, I felt that no personal considera- 
 tion could justify me in declining the opportunity thus offered 
 publicly to express the feelings of deep gratitude, and almost 
 filial affection, which bind me to that great man, and at least 
 to attempt to do justice before you to his claim to the grati- 
 tude of cultivated mankind. The task, however, as the 
 nature of the subject may soon prove to you, is not an easy 
 one, and it is in all sincerity, and more for his memory than 
 for myself, that I must beg your indulgence for my willing, 
 but perhaps inadequate, efforts. 
 
 The life of Eitter offers no great or stirring events. It is 
 modest and serene, like himself. But it derives a peculiar 
 interest from the circumstances by which a watchful Provi- 
 dence afforded, contrary to human expectation, the means best 
 appropriate to a full development of the faculties with which 
 he was endowed, and from his readiness eagerly and faithfully 
 to improve every opportunity thus offered to him. 
 
 Carl Eitter was born on the 7th of August, 1779, in the 
 city of Quedlinburg, the birthplace of the great poet, Klop- 
 stock, in the mountainous region of the Harz, in Prussian 
 Saxony. He thus belongs, by the first twenty years of his 
 life, so decisive for the character of every man in after life, to 
 
Gtutot on Carl Bitter. 29 
 
 the end of the- eighteenth centiiry, that remarkable era which 
 can be called emphatically the mother of the present age. 
 
 There are, indeed, in the life of mankind, as in all that 
 lives, critical times, in which it seems as if the fountains of 
 life are stirred up to their very depths, and in which the forces 
 of life are aroused to bring forth new productions more abun- 
 dant and more beautiful. Such a stirring age was the end of 
 the eighteenth century. It severs itself from the traditions of 
 the past, which fetter instead of fostering human progress. It 
 returns to the depth of human consciousness, in order to place 
 itself on a basis at once more true and more solid. It turns 
 its eyes, with the most sanguine hopes, towards an unknown 
 future. A noble, sincere enthusiasm, ready for all sacrifices, 
 seizes upon every soul, and imparts to the whole movement 
 a dignity which its worst excess can mar, but not efface. It 
 is truly a time of youthful renovation of the elements of 
 human civilization, a creative age to which we may trace the 
 beginning of all the progress of which our age can boast. 
 
 In every direction a host of noble pioneers strike new paths 
 in the old, desolate fields, as well as in the new, untrodden 
 ones, with the hopeful daring and vigor of youth, unaware of 
 coming dangers, unmindful of difficulties. The French and 
 American Kevolutions in social science, Kant in philosophy, 
 Schiller and G-oethe in literature, Lavoisier in chemistry, Volta, 
 Oerstedt in physics, Herschell in astronomy, Werner and Von 
 Buch in geology, Humboldt in terrestrial physics, De Jussieu 
 and De Candolle in botany, Cuvier in zoology, Ritter, at last, 
 in geography, all begin, in each of these grand departments of 
 human culture, a new era, the era in which we live ; and it is 
 on the foundation laid down by these glorious sons of the great 
 movement of the eighteenth century, that we rear the splen- 
 did edifice which is the glory of the nineteenth. 
 
 The birth of Eitter, in such a time and such an atmos- 
 phere, can fitly be termed, in view of his future calling, a 
 providential event. 
 
 Bitter's father was a physician, much esteemed for his 
 skill and the noble qualities .of his mind and heart. He died 
 young, and Bitter's mother, a highly educated woman, 
 remained a widow with five children, without any means to 
 educate them. But help soon came, as providential help al- 
 ways does, from the quarter from which it could least be 
 expected. The Prince of Bernburg took charge of the eldest 
 son, ten years old. A distinguished, enthusiastic educator. 
 Salzman, previously unacquainted with the family, requested 
 
30 GrUTOT on Carl Bitter. 
 
 the mother to intrust to him her young Carl, then five years 
 old ; and Carl became the first pupil of the just opened and 
 since celebrated school at Schnepfenthal, near Gotha, in Sax- 
 ony, which still glories in having reared that great scholar. 
 Under the enlightened guidance and loving care of Salzman 
 and his associate, the noble-hearted G-utsmuths, the former 
 family instructor of Dr. Bitter's children, and a system of 
 education, the object of which was to develop and invigorate 
 the body as well as the mind and heart, the child grew to a 
 happy, amiable, pure-minded young man. In that lovely 
 valley, which Eitter always considered as his true home, at the 
 foot of the Thuringian forest, far from the artificial life of 
 cities, but surrounded by a charming and most varied scenery, 
 he formed, at an early age, that intimate acquaintance with 
 nature, and imbibed that love for the beauties of God's cre- 
 ation, which breathes in all his works. At the age of sev- 
 enteen, when the question of his immediate future began to be- 
 come an earnest one, Providence again provided for him. A rich 
 merchant from Frankfort-on-the-Main, Mr. Hollweg, a partner 
 in the large firm of Bethman, visited the school, and became 
 so much interested in the young Bitter that he offered to send 
 him for two years to the University, on condition that he 
 would, after that time, take charge, in his own house, of the 
 instruction of his children. The offer was accepted, and Bitter 
 became, in November, 1796, a student at the University of Halle. 
 
 In 1798, he entered upon his duties in Mr. Hollweg's house 
 in Frankfort, and with his characteristic, upright earnestness 
 devoted to the work before him his best energies. The most 
 signal success crowned his efforts, and the strong ties of mu- 
 tual affection which were formed between him and his pupils 
 and lasted to the day of his death, a just and sweet reward for 
 his devotion, honor both the pupils and the instructor. Of the 
 two sons of Mr. Hollweg the elder died in his youth ; the 
 other, a worthy pupil of such a teacher, is now the Minister of 
 Public Instruction and Worship in Prussia, the noble-minded 
 Von Bethman-Hollweg, the representative, in this high and 
 influential position, of the liberal and enlightened tendencies 
 of our age. In the education of a third pupil, the son of the 
 celebrated S. Th. Soemmering, he met with equal success. 
 
 The situation of Bitter in Frankfort, and his connec- 
 tion with that wealthy and highly cultivated family, had a 
 great influence on his life and his general development. 
 Opportunities for improvement, rarely enjoyed to an equal 
 degree by one placed in his early circumstances, opportiv 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 31 
 
 nities eagerly embraced by his ready and conscientious mind, 
 were now offered to him. The qualities of his mind and 
 heart had soon won for him in the family the position 
 of an esteemed and affectionate friend. As such, and as an 
 inmate of the house, he came in contact with the most re- 
 fined society, and many of the most distinguished men of the 
 age, who repaired to the house of Hollweg as to a common 
 centre. Here was begun his acquaintance with such men as 
 Humboldt, as the great geologist, Leopold von Buch, with the 
 suggestive, truly philosophical S. Th. Soemmering, to whom 
 he modestly refers, in the Introduction to the " Erdkunde," the 
 merit of having especially called his attention to the laws of 
 the geographical relationship of all animated nature. In 
 Frankfort, also, he formed an intimate friendship with Ebel. 
 the genial author of "The Structure of the Earth in the 
 Alps" and other works on Switzerland, from whom he re- 
 ceived a fresh impulse to the study of the Globe. Mean- 
 while, urged on by his duties towards his pupils, he embraced 
 in his activity the most varied studies. History and the an- 
 cient languages received from him a particular attention. He 
 read with his friends, the eminent philologists, Matthiae and 
 G-rotefend, the prominent authors of Greece and Rome. He 
 thus diligently accumulated from all quarters, the treasures of 
 that vast erudition without which his future work would have 
 been impossible. 
 
 His predilection for Geography, however, becomes already 
 apparent by the publication, in 1806, of six charts of Europe, 
 followed afterwards, in 181 1, by a Geography of Europe in two 
 volumes. In these works the author of the " Erdkunde " is 
 predicted, hut not yet fully manifested. One element is to be 
 added to his previous preparation, and this is a more direct 
 acquaintance with the grand typical forms of nature and with 
 the marvellous products of human culture. Eitter must see 
 Switzerland and Italy — contemplate the wonders of nature and 
 history in their very sanctuaries. That precious gift also was 
 in store for him. From the year 1807, he repeatedly visited, 
 with his pupils, Switzerland and Italy. The last journey, ' 
 which commenced in 1811, extended over several years, and 
 allowed him a sojourn of over a year in Geneva, and a pro- 
 longed stay at Rome and in Italy, which he visited to its 
 southern extremity. 
 
 What a rich source of instruction these travels have been 
 for a mind so eager to drink from the very fountains of knowl- 
 edge, and so well prepared and matured by assiduous study 
 
32 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 and labor, may be easily conceived. Switzerland and the 
 gigantic fabric of the Alps, which he visited again and again 
 until a few years before his death, furnished to his plastic 
 and vivid imagination the most accomplished type of moun- 
 tain scenery, with which to compare all the other grand sys- 
 tems of our Globe. The careful study of Italy and Eome, 
 that classical soil of history and of art, clothed with the truth- 
 fulness of life his conceptions of the past ages, and gave 
 him a deep intuition of the adaptedness of the beautiful cli- 
 mate, of the admirable nature, and the remarkable structure of 
 the peninsular lands which surround the Mediterranean Sea 
 for developing the brilliant flower of the civilization of the an- 
 cient world. Without these rich intuitions derived directly 
 from Nature, says Bitter himself in the Introduction to his 
 " Erdkunde," his work would not have been undertaken, as 
 without Humboldt's labors, it could not have been performed. 
 This remark clearly tells the high value that he attached to 
 these personal experiences. 
 
 In every country that he visited he formed an intimate 
 acquaintance with the leading minds of the time. During his 
 protracted stay in Geneva, that scientific metropolis of Switzer- 
 land, he enjoyed familiar intercourse with the most eminent 
 men of that school. De Saussure, the model scientific travel- 
 ler and physicist of European fame, had just died, but A. 
 Pictet, De Candolle, and many others remained. The inti- 
 mate and fruitful friendship which soon united him to the first, 
 no doubt contributed, together with the natural beauties of 
 that privileged country, to cause Kitter to look upon his so- 
 journ in Geneva as a bright spot in his life. 
 
 But of all men with whom Bitter met at this period of his 
 life, none seems to have made a deeper, a more lasting impres- 
 sion upon him than Pestalozzi, the far-famed reformer of pop- 
 ular education. Bitter went to visit him for a few hours in 
 1807, in Yverdun, at that time the place of his residence and 
 remained there for months. Pestalozzi's sympathetic nature 
 found in Bitter's soul a full response. Bitter's letters to him 
 copies of some of which happen to be in my possession, are full 
 of expressions of gratitude and of the tender regard of a son for 
 a respected and beloved father, and of admiration for the fun- 
 damental idea on which rests his method of teaching. His 
 life-size portrait stood in Bitter's library. To him and to 
 Gutsmuths, his fatherly teachers, as he calls them, and not to 
 some high patron, he inscribes the first volume of his General 
 Geography, as a token of his reverence and heartfelt gratitude. 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 33 
 
 la Kome he met with that triad of pure-minded artists, 
 Thorwaldsen, Overbeck, and Cornelius, whose genius raised 
 German art so high, and whose friendly intercourse gave him 
 an enlarged view of art and a deeper insight into its nature. 
 By the careful study of the topography of that most remarka- 
 ble of all historical spots and its monuments, Bitter gathered 
 copious materials for one of his most popular courses of lec- 
 tures at the University of Berlin. 
 
 The period of preparation is now over for Bitter. Eighteen 
 years have elapsed since the close of his first education in 
 Schnepfenthal ; eighteen years of assiduous labor in nearly all 
 the domains of human knowledge, and of large experience in 
 the world of nature and of man. He returns home, loaded 
 with these new treasures, with matured views, and a clear per- 
 ception of the grand idea, which he so gradually evolved from 
 the depth of his rich nature, and which is to establish the sci- 
 ence of the globe on a new foundation and breathe into it a 
 new spirit. 
 
 But it is not enough for that great architect to have con- 
 ceived and matured the plan, to have collected the materials 
 for the edifice ; he must rear it, realize his conception, and 
 give it the tangible form of life. He soon sets himself at work 
 and devotes all his energies to the performance of that arduous 
 task that he now feels to be the work of his life. In the year 
 1814, he went to Gcettingen with his two pupils now ripe tor 
 University studies. During two years he devoted his new leis- 
 ure to a faithful use of that vast University library of Gcettingen, 
 then, perhaps, the richest among the rich ones which are gath- 
 ered in so great numbers in Germany, on that classical soil of 
 learning. Like Humboldt, a few years later, Bitter, then, could 
 have been seen, a man of ripe years and known already by 
 his vast acquirements, modestly sitting among the crowd of 
 young students, listening to courses of lectures delivered at the 
 University on topics most varied. Here also, as elsewhere, he 
 soon gained the esteem of those who represented the intellec- 
 tual progress of the day in that old centre of learning ; and 
 he enjoyed the benefit of private intercourse with most men 
 of literary and scientific eminence at that time attached to the 
 University. Among the last, particular mention must be 
 made of the celebrated geologist Hausmann, with whom he 
 remained united to the end of his days by the bonds of an in- 
 timate friendship, and who himself died a few weeks since, in 
 December, 1859, but a few months after the departure of his 
 old friend. 
 
34 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 In 1816, Bitter went to Berlin, where he remained one 
 year, busily engaged in finishing and putting to press the first 
 edition of his General Geography, the first volume of which was 
 published in that city by Beimer, in 1817, under the title of 
 Die Erdkunde im Verhaltniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte 
 des Menschen, oder Attgemeine Vergleichende Geographic, als 
 sichere Grundelage des Studium und JJnterriclits in physical- 
 ischen und historischen Wissenschaften ; "The Science of 
 the Earth in its relation to Nature and to the History of 
 Man, or General Comparative Geography as a safe foun- 
 dation for studying and teaching Physical and Historical 
 Sciences." In the spring of 1817, he returned to Gcettingen, 
 where he terminated the second volume of the work, which ap- 
 peared in 1818. 
 
 These two volumes comprised only the continents of Africa 
 and Asia, three Books out of twelve, which were to complete 
 the whole work. But they revealed Bitter to the world, and 
 were sufficient to place him in the high scientific position that 
 he has since so successfully sustained, and so usefully occupied. 
 In a masterly Introduction, he unfolds the views which he has 
 so gradually matured, and which are to regenerate geography 
 and to elevate it to the rank of the science of the Globe con- 
 sidered as a living organism. In the work itself, he practical- 
 ly illustrates the method, at once comparative and natural, or 
 objective, as he terms it, which is commended by the lofty 
 stand-point at which he places himself, and from which em- 
 bracing the totality of his subject, he tries to master all its 
 details, to grasp their beautiful arrangement, and to reproduce 
 it in a truthful picture before the eyes of the reader. 
 
 But I beg your permission to leave for a moment all 
 further considerations of that work, the merit and scientific in- 
 fluence of which I shall have soon to discuss, and to say a few 
 more words on Bitter's life and activity subsequent to that 
 important step in his career. 
 
 Bitter's merit was soon appreciated. The year which fol- 
 lowed the publication of the second volume of the "Erdkunde " 
 he received a call as Professor of History in the Gymnasium at 
 Frankfort, which he accepted. In the autumn of the same 
 year he was married, at the age of forty, to the accomplished 
 woman who, for so many years, was the faithful and much 
 beloved companion of his life. 
 
 In 1820, another call, the most honorable that he could 
 receive, brought him to Berlin as Professor of Geography both 
 at the Boyal Military School and at the University, where that 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 35 
 
 chair, the first, it is believed-, devoted to that Bpecial branch of 
 knowledge in any German University, was created for him ; a 
 public acknowledgment both of Bitter's merit and of the 
 scientific character that had been imparted to Geography by 
 his labors. This appointment was due to the enlightened and 
 far-seeing Minister of Public Instruction, William von Hum- 
 boldt, the highly gifted brother of Alexander, and to his suc- 
 cessor, Von Altenstein, and reflects no little credit on the wis- 
 dom of these distinguished men, to the liberal and discrimi- 
 nating patronage of whom the cause of learning in Prussia is 
 otherwise so much indebted. 
 
 Bitter has now found the appropriate scene of action and 
 of further progress ; the field prepared for him by Providence, 
 as he often gratefully acknowledged, for doing the work to 
 which he felt called. Here, in the largest of the Universities 
 of Germany, surrounded by a crowd of young men eager for 
 knowledge and ready for every new light, for every new ad- 
 vance, he met with a most welcome opportunity for an appli- 
 cation on a grand scale of the plenteous stores of learning and 
 of scientific experience which he had been so long accumulat- 
 ing. To impart to minds thus prepared the new truths that 
 he possessed, was to him not only a duty, but a delight. 
 Moreover, living in the midst of an intellectual atmosphere in 
 which reigned a most intense life, one of the first and blessed 
 fruits of returning peace after the long disturbed condition of 
 Europe ; a member by his very position, and by his universal- 
 ly acknowledged merit, of that circle of highly cultivated men, 
 the 4lite of intellectual Germany, gathered in Berlin, his rich 
 powers expanded to their natural limits, and the fruits of that 
 long and laborious period of preparation which had preceded, 
 came to full maturity. We may say that after the first ten 
 years of his residence in Berlin, in the midst of such favorable 
 circumstances, Bitter's mind had grown to its full stature, and 
 his scientific views had taken that definite form which they 
 preserved to the end of his life. These constituted, indeed, 
 the noble share of light allotted to him. Nearly thirty years 
 more were found too short to execute the grand conception 
 that was before him as the goal to be attained. 
 
 Bitter entered upon his new duties with his usual ardoi 
 and -cheerfulness. He was bent at the same time with no less 
 earnestness on the continuance of his publications. In the 
 same year, 1820, he had published a volume under the title, 
 Vorhatte Europaeisoher Voelkergeschichten vor Herodotus am 
 Kaukasus und an den Gestaden des Pontus, or Vestibule to 
 
36 G-uyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 the history of European nations before Herodotus, around the 
 Caucasus and on the shores of the Black Sea" — a subject 
 which had grown under his pen when writing the second vol- 
 ume of his General Geography on Western Asia. The first 
 edition of the Erdkunde being exhausted, the following year, 
 1821, was devoted to the preparation of a second, much en- 
 larged edition, the first volume of which, containing Africa only, 
 appeared in January, 1822, thus beginning the new series of 
 volumes which compose the work we now possess. That first 
 fruit of his literary activity in Berlin, as he calls it himself, 
 was followed by a long interval of full ten years, during which 
 he issued only two papers read before the Academy of Sciences, 
 a very graphic and interesting description of India in the 
 Berlin Almanac for 1824, and several smaller contributions. 
 
 But that period was none the less one of intense activity 
 for him and of paramount usefulness for the rising generation. 
 The claims upon his talents as an academic teacher, became 
 more and more numerous. In addition to his previous duties 
 he took charge, from 1822, of the chair of history at the military 
 school, left vacant by the death of his friend Woltmann. In 
 1825, he was intrusted with the direction of the studies of 
 the corps of cadets. He was honored with a call to instruct 
 in history Prince Albert of Prussia, a duty which he performed 
 during several years. The Crown-Prince of Prussia, now Fred- 
 erick William IV., whose taste for historical studies and bril- 
 liant attainments in that department of knowledge are well 
 known, held Bitter in particular esteem, and the modest 
 scholar was not unfrequently invited, during the winter 
 months, to deliver discourses on subjects connected with 
 Geography and history, before a select and private circle as- 
 sembled in the royal palace. These marks of' high favor and 
 of trust, and the growing popularity of Ritter's lectures at the 
 University, cheered him on in the work of diffusing, by oral 
 teaching and by personal influence, the new views and methods 
 in geographical science which he believed to be more conso- 
 nant with nature itself, and helped, no doubt, the reform 
 movement which originated with him and now began to spread 
 itself. His lectures in the halls of the University were soon 
 regarded as such as all students interested in true humanitary 
 culture should hear. While a large number of officers of 
 the Prussian army were trained by him every year, or studied 
 under his immediate direction and influence, hundreds of stu- 
 dents left the University, carrying with them into all parts 
 of Germany and into all stations of life, the remembrances 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 37 
 
 of his suggestive instructions, and the conviction that a new 
 and better era had begun for the science of the Globe. Thus 
 was prepared that renovation of Geography in the University 
 and in the school which was demanded by the progress of the 
 natural and historical sciences, but which awaited the genius of 
 Hitter to assume its shape, and his guidance and spirit to 
 produce its full effect, as it now has throughout Germany. 
 
 As one who had the privilege of listening, during a period 
 of five years (from 1830 to 1835), to nearly all his courses of 
 lectures, I may be allowed to add my humble testimony to 
 that of so many of his hearers who remember his teachings 
 with delight. Bitter, indeed, as an academic teacher, during 
 his long University career of thirty-seven years, achieved a suc- 
 cess rarely equalled. Few can boast of a more constant pop- 
 ularity. He came to Berlin almost unknown to the students, 
 as was indeed the science itself that he was called upon to 
 expound. A few sessions sufficed to increase the number of 
 his hearers so as to fill the largest halls in the University. Not 
 by any effort of striking eloquence of words or manner, did he 
 secure a willing ear from his pupils, but by offering to their eyes 
 a thorough, substantial, and yet pleasant picture of the vivid 
 images and ideas which filled his own mind. His eloquence was 
 not an impetuous mountain-torrent, with its brilliant cascades, 
 its misty clouds, and tinted rainbows ; it was a majestic stream 
 gently rolling its mighty but peaceful waters, now amidst the 
 green forest yet untouched by the hand of man, now among 
 the rich fields, the flowery lawns, and populous cities born on 
 its banks ; never destroying, ever fertilizing all that it touches. 
 Thus was Eitter's manner dignified, but always unassuming, 
 simple, and natural, The tone of his full and harmonious 
 voice breathed with kindness, and exerted, (I maybe permittted 
 to give at least my personal impression), a peculiar attraction. 
 His words were always instructive and suggestive. The 
 hearer could not help being impressed with the fulness and 
 thoroughness of knowledge, the perfect mastery and love of his 
 subject evinced by the lecturer, while at the same time he 
 was charmed by the happy selection of the facts presented, 
 which left before his mind, in clear outlines, the most essential 
 traits of the subject. The drawings that he traced on the 
 blackboard with the graceful ease of a skilful and practised 
 hand, rendered his descriptions still more effective. 
 
 Another cause of his success is to be sought in the noble 
 impulses of his moral nature. Eitter loved and pursued the 
 truth for itself, but he loved man too. He was unwilling to 
 
38 GrUTOT on Carl Bitter. 
 
 keep for himself the gift that lie had received. He loved to 
 teach ; he was happy in imparting to others the results of his 
 discoveries ; his hearers felt it. Having been trained to be- 
 come a teacher, his attention was constantly directed theoreti- 
 cally and practically towards finding the best method of train- 
 ing the young up to that high standard of knowledge which 
 was before his mind. This explains the vast influence that he 
 exerted, not only on science in general, but on the school 
 system, and on the method of teaching his favorite science. 
 
 Of the regular courses of lectures that he used to deliver in 
 the University, that on general comparative Geography (Allge- 
 meine Erdkunde) gathered usually the greatest number of 
 hearers. Those on Asia and on Europe, the historical con- 
 tinents par excellence, were not less interesting. But the 
 most popular of all were the free courses (publicums), which he 
 used to deliver twice a week, ordinarily in the winter session, on 
 one or another of the most classical among the historical regions 
 of our globe, Greece, Rome, and Palestine. Theologians, philol- 
 ogists, lawyers, men of intelligence of all classes, flocked there 
 with the same eagerness, to hear from the lips of such a man 
 the authentic and life-like description of these hallowed spots, 
 these geographical centres of human activity, a description of 
 which, in the mouth of Ritter, became a most graphic and in- 
 structive commentary on those historical events which have 
 left the deepest mark in the annals of mankind. 
 
 The foundation of the Geographical Society of Berlin, in 
 1828, by Ritter, together with some friends of a kindred spirit, 
 is another fruit of that period of his activity. Humboldt had 
 just returned to Berlin, and delivered his celebrated course of 
 sixty-one lectures on the Cosmos, which had swelled higher 
 still the tide of popular taste in favor of the science of nature 
 and Physical Geography in particular. This society soon be- 
 came a welcome centre, not only for new geographical informa- 
 tion, but also for communications on all kindred sciences, as 
 well as for a social intercourse of the most pleasant kind among 
 scientific men. Ritter was the soul of it, and much of that 
 social kindness and of those liberal and enlarged views for 
 which that society is distinguished may, doubtless, be attributed, 
 in a great measure, to his influence. Admirably seconded by 
 such men as Prof. W. Dove, the eminent physicist and mete- 
 orologist, and others, he abundantly contributed to the last to 
 preserve its high scientific character by numerous communi- 
 cations drawn from his own studies, from his journeys in vari- 
 ous parts of Europe, anr l from much new inform ation spn+ 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 39 
 
 to Mm from all parts of the globe. It is well known to all in 
 this audience that one of the two best geographical journals of 
 Germany, the " Zeitschrift fur Allgemeine Erdkunde," is 
 published under the auspices of the Geographical Society of 
 Berlin. 
 
 While so usefully engaged Eitter did not lose sight of the 
 work which it was the object of his life to perform. Thanks 
 to the ever renewed freshness of his mind and to his excellent 
 health, he had thus far found time for continuing his studies ; 
 but he now longs for greater leisure, which may permit him to 
 resume the interrupted publication of his General Geography. 
 By the influence of the Crown-Prince, who fully understood the 
 high importance for science of a speedy termination of that 
 classical work, he was enabled in 1831, with the consent of 
 the Ministry of Public Instruction, to lay aside all business and 
 duties not immediately connected with his studies. The result 
 was not long in manifesting itself. In 1832, the second vol- 
 ume of his " Erdkunde," the first of Asia, a volume of nearly 
 twelve hundred pages, was published, and inscribed by the au- 
 thor to the Crown-Prince, as a token of gratitude for the pre- 
 cious leisure granted to him. From that time until 1838, six 
 other volumes of equal size, or one volume a year, were issued, 
 and give evidence of the amazing industry of that great schol- 
 ar ; and in the twenty-one years following, that is, to the end of 
 his life, eleven volumes more, or one volume every other year, 
 tell of his ceaseless' activity, notwithstanding his advancing 
 age. The last, and nineteenth volume, which nearly termi- 
 nates Asia, was issued but a few weeks before his death. 
 
 During these long and assiduous labors the only interrup- 
 tions that he allowed himself, were the journeys that he used 
 to take nearly every year in the long autumn vacation. But 
 even then it was only changing the scene of his studies. Not- 
 withstanding the prodigious erudition evinced in his work, 
 which would seem to suppose a life entirely spent among books 
 in the stillness of the closet, Bitter never, at any period of his 
 long career, gave up that familiar intercourse with nature 
 from which he had derived, as from a pure source, his best and 
 deepest instructions. When came the hot summer days, shak- 
 ing off the dust of the libraries, he went to visit his old and 
 true friend again. Selecting one of the regions of his favorite 
 continent of Europe, as an object of new study, he would live 
 for months, now amidst the grandeurs of the Alps or of the 
 Pyrenees, now under the happy sky, among the monuments 
 and the people of Italy, or again amid the stern landscapes and 
 
40 G-UYOT on Carl Bitter. 
 
 hospitable inhabitants of Scandinavia. He returned with an 
 invigorated body, and with a mind refreshed and ready for 
 new labors. He thus visited successively the most interesting 
 countries of Europe. Central and Southern Germany, and the 
 system of the Alps were the objects of a repeated and thorough 
 examination, each time with a special object in view. Thus 
 also Switzerland, that he loved above all, and Northern Italy, 
 the Pyrenees, the South and the West of France, with the 
 central plateau of Auvergne and its extinct volcanoes, Bel- 
 gium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were, one 
 after the other, drawn into the yearly extending circle of his 
 excursions. A long journey in the south-east of Europe made 
 him acquainted with Hungary, the table-land of Transylvania, 
 as remarkable for the variety of its races and nations as for 
 the interest presented by its geographical structure ; with the 
 extensive plains of Wallachia and Bulgaria, Constantinople, 
 and at last with the classical soil of Greece, that he knew so 
 well how to describe. He never saw, however, Palestine, which 
 had been on his part the object of so minute a study ; and still 
 every spot of it had become so familiar to him, that when he 
 was lecturing on the Holy Land, his hearers could scarcely help 
 believing that he was giving them a narrative of his own travels. 
 It is said that when asked why he did not visit a country 
 which was for him one of so deep interest — " What new in- 
 formation," said he, smiling, " could I derive from a visit to 
 Palestine ? I know every corner of it." None, assuredly, had 
 more right to speak so than he who had seen so much of the 
 land of promise by the eyes of a host of skilful observers. But 
 I believe I am not mistaken when I regard that answer, if he 
 really gave it, as a word not of boast, but of self-consolation. 
 To know more than he did on Palestine, would have required 
 an amount of time and means which were not at his disposal. 
 But if the opportunities which we now have to see, in the course 
 of a short season, the land of the patriarchs, and the theatre of 
 the life and of the death of the Saviour of the world, had existed 
 in the days of his strength, I venture to say that Bitter would 
 have seen the Holy Land. He knew too well the paramount 
 value of personal observations, even of a rapid glance at such 
 a country, to esteem as of little account the privilege of storing 
 his mind with truthful, life-like pictures from nature, instead 
 of the unavoidably imperfect images traced by the slow pencil 
 of a laborious study of absent objects. 
 
 The importance of these travels for Bitter, was great in 
 every respect. Not to speak of the much needed relaxation 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 41 
 
 that they afforded to his mind, the accumulation of a larger 
 number of new observations on most of the countries of the 
 continent of Europe, towards which all his studies seemed to 
 gavitate as towards a natural centre, was in itself a great gain. 
 To these direct impressions from nature also, we may trace 
 the source of that freshness of- imagination and of style which 
 he kept through life, that truthfulness and vividness of de- 
 scription which betrays the man fully conversant with na- 
 ture. 
 
 But an advantage of a still more substantial character re- 
 sulted to Bitter, from that acquaintance with nature so faith- 
 fully kept up. Nowhere more than in Europe do we find 
 gathered within a small compass such a variety of natural 
 regions, each with well-defined characters of land and people. 
 They offer, indeed, to the observer specimens, as it were, on a 
 diminished scale, of the most characteristic physical regions 
 which compose the other continents. In the gigantic system 
 of the Alps and of the Pyrenees, with their snowy peaks, their 
 hardy and energetic races, we see the Caucasus and the Hima- 
 laya. In the fertile plains of Lombardy, that lovely garden of 
 Italy, with its streams, its delta, its lagunes, we study the 
 great plains of the Ganges, encompassed by the high wall of the 
 Himalaya and the moderate heights of Deccan, as the plains of 
 the Po by the Alps and the Apennines. Germany from the 
 foot of the Alps to the sandy plains of the Baltic, gives us a 
 perfect model of these lands of terraces, these forms of transi- 
 tion, as Bitter calls them, which gradually descend towards 
 the low lands, and traversed by secondary chains of mountains 
 form the grand steps through which the Alpine streams have 
 to find their way to the ocean. Towards the East the course 
 of the Danube, cutting through the high barriers which sepa- 
 rate that series of continental basins, the plains of Bavaria, 
 Austria, Hungaria, and pouring its waters into the open and 
 maritime plains of Valachia, forcibly reminds us of the great 
 Chinese streams descending by long steps through similar ob- 
 stacles to the rich plains which border the ocean. The mas- 
 siveness of the Scandinavian chain, with its broad and flat 
 tops, its scattered and isolated peaks, its chasm-like valleys, 
 is not without analogy with the most characteristic portion of 
 the Andes, while its deep fiords, with those of Scotland, scarcely 
 find elsewhere their equal, and remain the most remarkable 
 type of that phenomenon. 
 
 In the races and nations of Europe the variety is scarcely 
 less striking. On one side of the Alps we meet with the quiet 
 
42 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 but deep nature of the man of the North, exhibited by the 
 Scandinavian and the German ; on the other with the impul- 
 sive and passionate nature of the man of the South, so mani- 
 fest in the inhabitants of the Mediterranean shores. In the 
 West, the nations lead the chariot of human civilization ; in 
 the East, semi-barbarian races scarcely follow it with Asiatic 
 sluggishness, or are only forcibly drawn into the whirl of mod- 
 ern progress. 
 
 It cannot be admitted that a growing familiarity during 
 half a century with geographical and ethnographical types so 
 varied and so instructive, should not have exerted a deep in- 
 fluence on Hitter's mind and labors. Such a study, indeed, 
 could not help increasing the marvellous power that he pos- 
 sessed by nature, to construct from imperfect, often contradic- 
 tory documents, the grand traits of structure of the continents, 
 and to establish the true character of the natural regions of our 
 Globe that he could not visit. His innate tact in the selection 
 of the materials to be received, ripened thus into an almost 
 unfailing power of judging of the value of the various sources 
 of information which he had to use. Moreover, during these - 
 excursions he paid frequent visits to the great centres of civil- 
 ization — Paris, London, Vienna — in search of scientific docu- 
 ments, that he could not find elsewhere. He was received 
 everywhere with marks of the highest esteem, and thus found 
 welcome opportunities to form a personal acquaintance with 
 the men most eminent in the various departments of study 
 embraced in his own labors. 
 
 Eitter's reputation was soon established in Germany, though 
 the new element of culture that he has developed is essentially 
 cosmopolitan, and was demanded by the progress of our age, the 
 form in which it was presented by him, his mode of thought, as 
 well as his style, are so thoroughly German, that it is there that 
 he found an immediate and full response. There he was under- 
 stood and appreciated. German writers often speak of him as 
 " our Bitter," thus expressing feelings not only of an affectionate 
 reverence for him, but of a just national pride in him, and of a 
 full identification with the man whom they thus honor. Abroad, 
 the knowing ones acknowledged his value and gave him nu- 
 merous tokens of high esteem. His royal master, as well as a 
 number of other sovereigns, bestowed upon him the honor of 
 various orders of merit. From 1822, a member of the Acade- 
 my of Sciences of Berlin, he was successively elected a member 
 of most of the learned societies in Europe and in this country, 
 the long list of which he placed on the title-page of the 
 
Gutot on Carl Bitter. 43 
 
 " Erdkunde," not from a feeling of a vain boast, of which he 
 was utterly incapable, but of grateful acknowledgment of the 
 honor thus conferred upon him. 
 
 Thanks to a scientific position so eminent and so univer- 
 sally conceded, and to the lively interest which he took in all 
 progress, Bitter became more and more, like Humboldt, one 01 
 the most important centres for geographical and ethnographi- 
 cal science, and a ready helper and considerate adviser for 
 all those disposed to collect new information in all parts of the 
 world. 
 
 "When men who have wielded a vast influence for the good 
 of mankind appear before posterity, the world first inquires 
 about the work that they have achieved and the intellectual and 
 moral powers by which they have accomplished it. It judges 
 them as instruments, as parts of the great social organism, 
 and determines its estimates by the importance of the func- 
 tions performed by them. But human sympathy craves a more 
 personal acquaintance with these prominent representatives of 
 human nature. We want to know something of the deeper- 
 seated qualities of mind and heart, -which manifest their 
 moral nature in their personal intercourse with their fellow- 
 men, and reveal them as, on earth, citizens of a higher world. 
 I may, therefore, be pardoned if I yield to the temptation of 
 adding some words on the person and private character of Bit- 
 ter. The task, indeed, is an inviting one. For if in him we 
 admire the savant, we love and admire still more the man. 
 
 Bitter's personal appearance was full of serene dignity, one 
 might say of antique repose. His tall and erect stature, his 
 strong, broad-chested frame, his firm but quiet step, his well- 
 marked features, his high forehead and intelligent eyes, gave 
 him an imposing look, which, however, was tempered by a 
 benevolent smile, an unassuming and kind manner, and an 
 expression of goodness and candor which at once inspired con- 
 fidence. The portrait, by Kriiger, which is before your eyes, 
 gives a perfect likeness of Bitter when about fifty-four years 
 of age. He was then at the height of his popularity in the 
 University of Berlin. Complying with the request of hundreds 
 of his admiring students, ne consented to have his likeness 
 taken by the excellent artist just named, and the very success- 
 ful original drawing was presented to him by the one who now 
 addresses you, as a member of a committee of three, acting in 
 behalf of their fellow-students. 
 
 Bitter's peculiar turn of mind was more intuitive than 
 logical, more synthetical than analytical, more objective than 
 
44 GrUYOT on Carl Bitter. 
 
 subjective. His deeply receptive soul, always ready for new 
 impressions, was a pure mirror in which nature was reflected 
 not only in its details, but in its totality. When after having 
 worked out these impressions into a clear perception by a care- 
 ful study, he tries by speech or pen, to convey them to others, 
 it is still in that objective, concrete form which 'is before 
 his mind that Tie does it, without attempting to draw on the 
 picture the sharp and well-defined lines that a purely sub- 
 jective, logical method requires, but that nature itself has not 
 traced. While, therefore, his views and his method are en- 
 tirely original, we seek in vain in his works for a formal sys- 
 tem, an absolute idea rigorously carried out. His unflinching 
 loyalty to the truth as he sees it, not as he infers it to be, 
 seems to render such a systematization uncongenial to his 
 mind. He shrinks, indeed, from all cold, formal, and empty 
 definitions. Even his most characteristic conceptions, those 
 which constitute the spirit of his method, preserved much of 
 the nature of deep intuitions, the expression of which is 
 always highly suggestive, but often lacks that clear, logical 
 shape, which would make them easy to define, and would give 
 them immediate currency. With a mind essentially construct- 
 ive, he descends, nevertheless, with the most scrupulous care, 
 into the study of the details, and it is upon the wall-secured 
 base of facts alone, and with a sense of the true, sometimes 
 amounting almost to divination, that he builds up his broadest 
 generalizations. From what precedes it can already be in- 
 ferred that Ritter possessed, in a high degree, that noble facul- 
 ty so prominent in all great students of nature, in a Humboldt, 
 an Agassiz, that plastic imagination which gives us the power 
 to keep before the mind the true and vivid images of natural 
 objects, whether in their isolation, or by a synthetic view in 
 their natural associations, as in one great picture, and thus en- 
 ables us to perceive the relations which bind together the most 
 distant parts, more easdy and surely than a simple analytical 
 process could ever do. 
 
 Of those moral excellences which adorn man's inmost na- 
 ture, Ritter possessed also more than the usual share. His 
 perfect purity of mind, his amiability, his unwearied kindness, 
 won him the high esteem and the good will of all. His mild- 
 ness of temper, the peace of mind which pervaded his whole 
 nature, his loving disposition, spread around him an atmos- 
 phere of peaceful happiness, which exercised a sympathetic 
 influence on those who came in close contact with him, and 
 secured him their deep affection. He was a warm and most 
 
GtUyot on Carl Bitter. 45 
 
 faithful friend ; in the circle of his family most tender-hearted 
 and affectionate. Himself childless, he was a father to many 
 of the children of his immediate relatives, and others less near 
 to him. He never knew any feeling of egotism. His modesty 
 was as sincere as unaffected. He was always ready to ascribe 
 his own progress to the influence and suggestions of other 
 master-minds from whom he was conscious of having received 
 new impulses ; as if a rich soil was not as necessary as the 
 seed itself to the luxuriant growth of a noble plant into perfect 
 beauty and richness of fruits. To give a public expression of 
 his gratitude to such men as Pestalozzi, Soemmering, Ebel, 
 Humboldt, was for him a delight. 
 
 With regard to the last, of whom he had become a rival in 
 glory, no other feelings ever found room in his heart than 
 those of affectionate reverence and of deep gratitude for the 
 services rendered to science, by one whom he used to call 
 " our great master." A more heartfelt and discriminating ac- 
 knowledgment of the merits of Humboldt cannot be found than 
 Eitter' s address to him, in behalf of the Academy of Sciences 
 of Berlin,* when that distinguished body, on the 4th of Au- 
 gust, 1844, celebrated, by a congratulating deputation, and a 
 banquet on the next day, the anniversary of the safe return, 
 forty years before, of the great traveller from his memorable 
 journey in tropical America. The answer of Humboldt is not 
 less characteristic of his own modesty and feelings ; and well 
 may we rejoice at so noble an example and take heed to a lesson 
 from so high a source. For this was not a simple exchange of 
 politeness for the occasion. The life of both assures us that it 
 was the expression of true feelings. Humboldt's death had no 
 more sincere mourner than Eitter. Indeed, his last strength 
 was used in writing numerous letters, four of which were di- 
 rected to America, to urge, in warm terms, upon the sympathy 
 of all cultivated nations, and especially of those in the Western 
 Hemisphere, the claims of the " Humboldt- Stiftung " of that 
 Institution, the object of which, now well known to you, is 
 to perpetuate in a manner congenial to Humboldt's spirit, 
 the memory of his name. Eitter hailed with equal delight 
 every new advance arising out of the mighty impulse which 
 started from him, and which seemed, in some manner, to go one 
 step beyond his own results. He only rejoiced that his own 
 labors had been instrumental in preparing it, thus proving that 
 
 See Zeitschrift fur Allgemeine Erdkunde, New Folge, vi. 318. Mai, 1859. 
 
46 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 his most earnest desire was the promotion of knowledge and 
 not of his own name. 
 
 But if all these noble gifts bestowed upon him by nature, 
 were brought to the fulness of a harmonious and normal de- 
 velopment, it is only by drawing new sap from a still deeper 
 source of excellence, from a strong and living Christian faith. 
 Kitter never spoke much on this subject ; nor are there found 
 in his writings any formal, uncalled for, expressions of his 
 religious convictions. He was not the zealous, polemic, criti- 
 cal partisan of any particular intellectual formula of the 
 Christian faith ; but his life and his teachings breathed that 
 meek, trusting, and loving spirit by which we recognize the 
 true disciple of our great model. Here, as in his scientific 
 efforts, the living substance prevails over the dead form. In 
 that sphere also, we can follow the phases of a gradual, but 
 sure progress, which led him to the aim. Brought up by 
 Salzman under the rationalistic influences then prevailing in 
 Germany, but in an atmosphere of great moral purity, his lov- 
 ing heart and scrupulous conscience soon led him further. In 
 the second period of his life the feeling of his indebtedness to 
 a kind Providence grew every day stronger, and increased the 
 sense of his moral obligations towards his Heavenly Father. 
 In the third period, which begins with his first sojourn in Ber- 
 lin, his Christian convictions assumed a more definite shape. 
 His friendly intercourse with that modest and living Christian, 
 the Baron von Kotwitz, who was a blessing to so many in 
 Berlin during a whole generation, doubtless exercised a happy 
 influence upon him. Later in life we find in Kitter the sin- 
 cere, humble, and joyful Christian, grown to his full stature, 
 who reveals himself by that oneness of mind and heart, that 
 harmony of thought and action, which can flow only from a 
 perfect and willing obedience in love to his heavenly Master. 
 But let his own words bear testimony to his deep convictions. 
 
 When his students requested of him a motto to be placed 
 at the bottom of the portrait just alluded to, he gave them 
 that sentence that you read in the autograph which is before 
 you : " Our earth is a star among the stars ; and should not 
 we, who are on it, prepare ourselves by it for the contempla- 
 tion of the Universe and its Author ? " Truly, the expression 
 of the spirit of his instructions and of his " Brdkunde ! " 
 
 In the last letter that it was my privilege to receive 
 from him, Kitter, alluding, without the shadow of a murmur 
 however, to his advanced age, his declining strength, his ap- 
 proaching departure, speaks also of that work, the object of his 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 47 
 
 life, which he was obliged to leave unfinished, a mere fragment 
 of his whole conception ; " but," he adds, " we live according 
 to the higher calling which guides us, (and quoting Paul, 
 Eom. xiv. 8,) for whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and 
 whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; and whether we live, 
 therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." A touching testimony 
 to his Christian resignation ! 
 
 The following words from his private journal, found after 
 his death, are more explicit still, and so well reveal his whole 
 soul that I cannot forego the pleasure of making them known 
 to you. I quote them from the translation of the excellent 
 memorial by Dr. Kramer : "Although at present, while prepar- 
 ing for a journey to the western part of France and the Pyrenees, 
 I am healthy and well, life nevertheless lies in the hand of 
 God, whose mercy and grace have guided my fate so wonder- 
 fully and gloriously, that I cannot but sing to Him, the All- 
 good, praise, and glory with all my power, in all my thoughts 
 and actions. Should it not please Him to let me return to my 
 beloved family and to my calling, but should he assign me 
 another place in his heavenly kingdom, that I may obtain hap- 
 piness, a happiness which already here sometimes has moved me 
 to tears of joy, then I ask my friends not to grieve over my going 
 home, for all that the Lord does is done well. My eternal fate 
 my Saviour in his great mercy will decide. In deep acknowl- 
 edgment of my infirmities and sins, I am still full of trust 
 and confidence, since I know that my Kedeemer lives, who will 
 make his people partakers of the mercy of the Eternal and Just 
 one." A glorious utterance, indeed, of his Christian hopes ! 
 
 We believe in the word of Him, who said to the trusting 
 petitioners, " according to your faith be it unto you." Carl 
 Eitter has now entered the heavenly mansions, and is admitted 
 to the contemplation of the wonders of the universe and the 
 adoration of its Author, for which he was so well prepared. He 
 left this earth, the theatre of his long labors, in profound peace, 
 after a short illness, on the 28th of September, 1859. On the 
 1st of October his mortal remains were placed by the side of 
 those of his wife, who preceded him by nineteen years. His 
 immortal soul has gone to its long-desired home. 
 
 Such was the life of Carl Eitter. It flowed like a peaceful 
 and fertilizing stream through the long period of two genera- 
 tions. With the steadiness of a healthy growth, and that 
 harmonious use of all his powers of mind and heart, with 
 that honesty of purpose, without which true wisdom cannot 
 be attained, he pursued his lofty aspirations undisturbed by 
 
48 Gi-UYOT on Carl Bitter. 
 
 the storms of the revolutions and of the wars, in the midst 
 of which he spent the first half of his life. 
 
 The fruit of his lahors he left to us, as a rich heritage, 
 bestowed upon civilized mankind, and ready for all those who 
 wish to have a part in it. It remains for us to examine in 
 what it consists, and in doing it we shall soon perceive that the 
 more intimate acquaintance that we have made with Batter's 
 character, is not without value for the right appreciation of 
 his scientific lahors. 
 
 Eitter, indeed, declares himself, in the Introduction to the 
 " Erdkunde," that the fundamental idea which underlies all his 
 work, and furnishes him a new principle for arranging the well- 
 digested materials of the science of the globe, has its deep root 
 in the domain of faith. This idea, he adds, was derived from 
 an inward intuition which gradually grew out of his life in na- 
 ture and among men, and could not be, beforehand, sharply 
 defined and limited, but should shine, as it were, through the 
 work, and become fully manifested by the completion of the 
 edifice itself. That noble edifice is now before us. Unfinished 
 though it be, it reveals the whole plan, and allows us clearly to 
 perceive that fundamental idea on which it rests. It is a strong 
 faith that our globe, like the totality of creation, is a great 
 organism, the work of an all-wise Divine Intelligence, an ad- 
 mirable structure, all the parts of which are purposely shaped 
 and arranged, are mutually dependent, and by the will of the 
 Maker fulfil, like organs, specific functions which combine 
 themselves into a common life. 
 
 But for Bitter, that organism of the globe comprises not 
 nature only, it includes man, and with man the moral and in- 
 tellectual life. If the idea of a great Kosmos, as applied to 
 the universe, or to our physical giobe, is not new, nay, is as 
 old as the primitive cosmogonies of the past ages, it is the 
 merit of Bitter to have made a special and most happy appli- 
 cation of it to the geographical studies. None before him 
 perceived so clearly the hidden, but strong, ties which mutu- 
 ally bind man and nature ; these close and fruitful relations be- 
 tween man and his dwelling-place, between a continent and its 
 inhabitants, between a country and the people which holds 
 it as its share, these influences which stamp the races and na- 
 tions each with a character of their own, never to be effaced 
 during the long period of their existence. In this common 
 life, however, man, the nobler element, is the ruling power. 
 If, in the period of his infancy, nature is for man a fostering 
 mother, in the days of his youth a loving sister, exercising on 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 49 
 
 him a shaping influence, in the time of his full growth and 
 manful activity, it becomes in his practised hands, and under 
 the guidance of his commanding mind, an instrumentality 
 for higher purposes and for the performance of that work of in- 
 tellectual and moral development to which mankind is called, 
 and which is the normal end of this earthly economy. Con- 
 sidered under this new aspect, every portion of our globe, 
 stamped by nature with a peculiar character, assumes a new 
 meaning and a new importance. As the body is made for the 
 soul, so is the physical globe made for mankind. In an or- 
 ganic body the disposition of the parts, the structure of the 
 organs, cannot be accounted for except by the functions which 
 they are destined to perform. So in the globe, the geographi- 
 cal forms, the size, the peculiarities of structure, of climate, the 
 natural associations of plants and animals which characterize 
 each of the continents, and of the well-defined physical re- 
 gions of our planet, have no intelligible meaning, no obvious 
 reason of existing in that particular shape, unless their final 
 object is revealed by their powerful influence in shaping the de- 
 velopment of the races and nations which live within their 
 bounds, and by the use that those nations made of them as in- 
 struments of their activity in the common life of mankind. 
 
 This organic idea, if you will allow me the expression, is 
 the new principle which is to substitute order for confusion, in 
 that overwhelming mass of geographical, physical, and ethno- 
 graphical details of which Geography then consisted. To the 
 necessity of such a principle Bitter, doubtless, alludes, when 
 selecting for the epigraph of the " Erdkunde," this word of. the 
 reformer of modern science, Lord Bacon, " Citius emergit 
 Veritas ex errore quam ex confusione." This organic idea 
 substitutes beautiful, intelligible symmetry, for unmeaning, 
 casual arrangement ; law for accident ; relations of cause and 
 effect for disconnectedness ; unity for isolation. It gives us a 
 criterion for judging of the value of each detail, and of the rel- 
 ative importance of each order of facts, which can only be 
 determined by their relation to the whole. Fully carried out, 
 it would give us a clear picture, and the true measure of the 
 powerful influence of that constant factor of nature in the 
 ever-changing life and relations of human societies through all 
 historical ages. Nay, when casting a glance at that vast 
 scene prepared by Providence for the moving drama of his- 
 tory, and seeing so many compartments, admirably arranged 
 and ready, it seems, for any emergency, in which as yet no 
 performance has taken place, are we not justified in believing 
 
50 Gttyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 that the great geographical arrangements of our planet are 
 foreshadowing the future destinies of mankind ? 
 
 One feels that to treat Geography from such a point of 
 view and in such a spirit, is to begin a new science. It is the 
 science of the living globe, it is physiological Geography. The 
 old walks will not do any more. With a firm and trusting step 
 we must boldly enter the new path which has been opened by 
 the hand of genius, for that path alone will lead us to the tem- 
 ple of knowledge. 
 
 This view was the normal synthesis required by the rapid 
 progress of physical, ethnological, and historical sciences, which, 
 since the beginning of this century, have shed so much light on 
 the deeper nature of the physical world and of human society. 
 It was that harmonic unity of elements, diverse and yet akin, 
 craved by every philosophic mind conversant with the results of 
 scientific inquiry. The philosophy of history, that science of 
 modern times, hails now, with joy, the birth of a still younger 
 sister, the Philosophy of Geography, the one a help to the oth- 
 er ; both forever as inseparable as man is from nature. 
 
 Ritter not only laid down the principle of a new science, 
 but he attempted to carry it out. He succeeded beyond 
 expectation, for the task that he thus assumed was great, and 
 seemed to exceed the strength of one individual man. It 
 implied a careful and critical re-examination, under a new 
 light, of the original sources of our geographical knowledge, 
 and of the historical data connected with it, and a new method 
 of investigation, of combination, and of exposition of the re- 
 sults. His predecessors in Geography could be of little avail 
 to him. If Eratosthenes, says he, wrote the first astronomical 
 Geography, Herodotus and Strabo the first geographical his- 
 tory and historical Geography, Bergmann the first geographi- 
 cal physics, Buesching the first geographical statistics ; these 
 works, excellent though they were for their special purpose, 
 could do little more than prepare materials for the one contem- 
 plated. Each of them lacks the principle of unity, which alone 
 can place the geographical element in its proper light, and give 
 to it its full value. 
 
 But among his distinguished contemporaries, none was to 
 him of so much help as Alexander von Humboldt, who summed 
 up in himself the progress of the age in the physical and natu- 
 ral sciences, as applied to the science of the globe. I have 
 said how gratefully Bitter acknowledged his indebtedness to 
 Humboldt's labors, which furnished him the indispensable 
 foundation for his own edifice. His investigations of the gen- 
 
GrUYOT on Carl Bitter. 51 
 
 eral laws of distribution of heat, represented by his system of 
 isothermal lines, of the distribution of plants, as depending 
 upon the two main elements of climate, heat and moisture, 
 of the marine currents as modifyers of climate in similar lati- 
 tudes, were of general application to all parts of the globe. 
 His admirable labors on the tropical regions of the Western 
 Hemisphere had revealed to the scientific world the true na- 
 ture of that massive structure of the_ Andes, and of the vast 
 table lands of Mexico, so gigantic in their proportions and still 
 so simple when compared with the system of the Himalaya, 
 the Alps, and thu complicated nature of the plateau of Iran. 
 He had shown the decided preponderance of these huge eleva- 
 tions in mass of large portions of the earth crust over the nar- 
 row chains of mountains in shaping the characteristic structure 
 of the continents. He had demonstrated the intimate connec- 
 tion of these grand plastic forms with the rapid changes in the 
 climate, the plants, and the animal life, which are observed at 
 every step, when ascending their slopes, and delineated, in 
 vivid outlines, the various zones of ever-changing vegetation, 
 through which the traveller gradually passes from the luxuri- 
 ant forests and stifling atmosphere of the plains of the Amazon 
 to the bare or snow-clad paramos of the Andes. Instead of 
 the unmeaning uniformity suggested before Humboldt, by a 
 glance at the map of tropical America, we now see rising be- 
 fore our minds a series of richly colored pictures, a series of 
 physical regions, of well-defined geographical types. We see 
 how they owe their existence and their special characters to 
 these fundamental traits of the structure of the continent, and 
 to the powerful influence which that structure exercises on the 
 climatic conditions, and through them, on animated nature 
 and man himself. Here the boundless Llanos of the Orinoco, 
 alternately a burnt, dusty, and lifeless desert and a sea of 
 verdure, teeming with temporary life : there the Selvas of the 
 Amazon with their endless, impenetrable forests, their luxuri- 
 ant solitudes, as yet xintamed by civilized man, too powerful 
 in their exuberance of nature life, for the few scattered sav- 
 ages, the only tenants of these rich wastes. At mid-height 
 in the Andes, the happy regions around Ibague, Popayan, 
 Loxa, with their everlasting spring, their murmuring biooks, 
 their shady forests, and evergreen foliage ; on the broad sum- 
 mit of the Andes, between a double row of the highest volca- 
 noes of our planet, the cool, but healthy valleys of old Peru, 
 with their invigorating air, their open and cultivated plains, 
 their extensive lakes, their ancient civilized people of the In- 
 
52 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 cas, who from this lofty abode, as from a high throne, exer- 
 cised a heneficent power on the surrounding slopes down to the 
 shores of the ocean. In delineating, with a master hand, all 
 these natural types so strongly marked with distinctive char- 
 acteristics, these sharp contrasts between sister countries of the 
 same landmass, and that variety of natural aspects, Humboldt 
 actually revealed for the first time the true nature of the con- 
 tinent. He did more, for he clearly traced the close connec- 
 tion and the mutual dependence of all those orders of natural 
 phenomena, and taught the true method by which such an 
 investigation should be conducted in every other portion of the 
 globe. 
 
 Such a knowledge, Ritter felt, was to be acquired of every 
 other continent, and above all, of the historical continents. 
 That alone could be a safe basis for the further study of the 
 influence of those distinct natural regions on man's character 
 and peculiar development, and on the special functions per- 
 formed in the civilization of mankind, by the nations which 
 occupied them during the periods of their growth and activity. 
 Applying to the study of Geography the objective and com-- 
 parative method to which the natural sciences owe their rapid 
 progress and a deeper understanding of the system of organized 
 beings, Ritter carried out a series of investigations which led 
 him to results which are acquired forever to geographical 
 science, and are, or soon will be, universally regarded as funda- 
 mental truths. I beg leave briefly to mention those which 
 have exercised the greatest influence on the recent progress of 
 Geography, and are more characteristic of his method. 
 
 Every one of the great landmasses raised above the ocean 
 is a geographical individual, which differs from all the others 
 by its size, by its form, horizontal and vertical, by the ar- 
 rangements of its parts or its internal structure, by its climate, 
 by the peculiar association of plants and animals which be- 
 longs to it, and by the character of the race of men which 
 occupies it. The continents are the primary organs in the 
 great organism of our planet. Their specific characteristics 
 have to be determined by a careful study of all their elements, 
 and a close comparison of their analogies and differences. 
 Their relative situation, the arrangements which bind them 
 into a connected whole, and their peculiar position with re- 
 gard to the great zones of climate, or their physical situation, 
 as we might call it. " Raumliche Anordnung und Weltstel- 
 lung," in Bitter's style, should not receive a less share of at- 
 tention ; for those general relations, combined with those 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 53 
 
 specific characters, are the fundamental causes which de- 
 termine their special functions in the life of nature and of 
 mankind. Eitter discussed each of these topics in a series of 
 five papers which were read before the Acadamy of Science of 
 Berlin, between 1826 and 1856, and which have since been 
 reprinted separately in a small volume, to which I have allud- 
 ed, together with the introduction to the " Erdkunde," under 
 the title of " Memoirs to serve as a foundation for a more scien- 
 tific treatment of Geography," " Abhandlungen zur Begrun- 
 dung eine melir wissenschaftliclien Behandlung der Erd- 
 kunde." 
 
 In treating of the configuration of the continents, Eitter 
 considers both their horizontal dimensions, or the size and the 
 contours, and their vertical dimensions, or the absolute and 
 relative elevations of their mass which constitute their relief. 
 To the study of this last element, which act so powerfully on 
 the climate, and through it on all animated nature, and which 
 has been nevertheless so long neglected, Eitter gives a decided 
 prominence. A continent is not the flat surface that maps 
 seem to indicate ; it is a solid body, the plastic forms of which 
 have to be carefully delineated. Eitter distinguishes the ex- 
 tensive low-lands, maritime and continental, from the massive 
 elevations of the table-lands or plateaux, and these again from 
 the linear elevations of the mountain chains. To the table- 
 lands, or elevated surfaces, he assigns, like Humboldt, the 
 most important part in these vast structures. He showed 
 that every continent has for its centre a large intumescence 
 which makes, as it were, its main trunk, and around which are 
 grouped as many secondary organs, its various physical re- 
 gions. From that high central mass, and from the mountain 
 chains which often mark its borders, the main streams of the 
 continent descend towards the low-lands and the ocean, 
 through a series of terraces or mountainous districts full of 
 fertile valleys, which connect, as transition forms, the central 
 highlands of the low, maritime plains of culture which sur- 
 round them. Still beyond, far projecting into the domain of 
 the ocean, rich peninsulas, as in Asia and Europe, form a third 
 circle, and with large islands, true fragments of the continent 
 scattered along its shores, surround the whole structure with 
 a series of most useful appendages, as with a garland of bril- 
 liant flowers. 
 
 When compared under this aspect, the three continents of 
 the Old World, not to speak of the others, show striking dif- 
 ferences. Africa has one large and uniform plateau filling the 
 
54 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 Southern half of the continent, and descending on three sides 
 by terraces destitute of low-lands, to the shores of the ocean. 
 The Northern half, comparatively low and uniform, is a burn- 
 ing desert, separated from the main plateau by the fertile ter- 
 races and the plains of Soudan, and from the Mediterranean 
 Sea by the long and Isolated mountainous plateau of the Atlas, 
 and the small plateau of Barca. Simplicity and uniformity 
 of structure is thus the share of Africa. Asia, on the con- 
 trary, has two central plateaux, one in the East, the other in 
 the West, both with lofty mountain chains, broad terraces, 
 extensive low-lands, and projecting peninsulas ; it is a double 
 continent ; the land of huge forms, of extremes, and of the 
 most striking contrasts. In Europe another type still prevails. 
 The central table-land on which the Alpine system rests, 
 loses its primary importance in the presence of the gigantic 
 mass of the Alps and the mountain form, more broken, more 
 articulated, as it were, becomes typical of the continent. 
 
 The contrast between the various continents is not less 
 remarkable, when we compare the horizontal forms of contour 
 which are themselves but the consequences of the variety of 
 plastic forms just mentioned. Africa is a compact mass, shut up 
 in itself, almost inaccessible to the influences coming from the 
 ocean, deprived of these deep indentations, and projecting pen- 
 insulas, which abound in Asia and Europe. Even the corners of 
 the triangle which seems to be the fundamental shape of every 
 continent, are all rounded off, and the shape of Africa ap- 
 proaches that of an ellipse. The line of contact of land and 
 water is reduced, as it were, to a minimum ; and that uni- 
 formity of outlines betrays the simplicity of its internal con- 
 figuration. 
 
 Asia, on the contrary, is deeply indented, and its gulfs and 
 peninsulas present themselves on a scale commensurate with 
 the magnitude of that king among the continents. Innumer- 
 able continental islands, and among them the largest to be 
 found amid the oceans, surround it, and add to it an amount 
 of land almost equivalent to another small continent, while 
 Africa can only boast of Madagascar. 
 
 Europe again, that peninsular continent of the Old World, 
 is still more indented. Here the mixture of land and water is 
 carried to an extreme. The line of shores of that smallest of 
 these continents, surpass by one-half that of the large mass 
 of Africa. One-third of its whole surface is cut off in peninsu- 
 las. If Africa is a vast trunk without members, Europe is the 
 
Gttyot on Carl Bitter. 55 
 
 most articulated, and, in its smallness, the most perfectly or- 
 ganized of all the continents. 
 
 Eitter traces the vast influence of these individualized por- 
 tions of the landmasse^ which surround the main body of a conti- 
 nent, on civilization. Climates are diversified, the formation of 
 distinct nations favored, a greater variety of human faculties 
 called into action, mutual relations and reciprocal influences 
 increased, which, in the indented continents, unfold the hid- 
 den powers of man to a degree unknown in the continents less 
 favored in this respect. The coincidence between the unciv- 
 ilized state of the nations which possess Africa, and the im- 
 penetrability of that continent, between the brilliant develop- 
 ment of mankind in Asia, and above all in Europe, and the 
 variety and perfection of their geographical organization, is too 
 striking to be called a fortuitous one. It forces us to acknowl- 
 edge, in that remarkable peculiarity of structure, one of the 
 causes which have determined so great a difference of functions 
 in these three mainlands of the Eastern Hemisphere. 
 
 The views to which I thus briefly allude, are among those 
 which have acted most immediately on the reform of the geo- 
 graphical method used in the schools. The valuable works of 
 Eoon, Voelter, Kloeden, and a host of others in Germany, the 
 highly suggestive manuals of such genial writers as F. de 
 Bougemont in Switzerland, derive their special excellence 
 from the application of these principles to geographical teach- 
 ing. The whole system of school cartography had to be 
 changed, and accommodated to the new wants thus created. 
 As Berghaus'' Physical Atlas, the only original foundation for 
 all the others, which have appeared under different names, was 
 called forth by Humboldt's labors in Physical Geography, so 
 the crowd of the new German school atlases and wall maps, 
 which seek by the best possible method, still to, be found, to 
 make clear to the eye, by drawing, by colors, or otherwise, the 
 main features of the relief of the continents, were called into 
 existence by the wants suggested by Eitter's method. 
 
 The relative situation of the continents and their climatic 
 position, gives them a distinct historical character. For man- 
 kind Asia is the land of the rising sun, as also the cradle 
 of rising humanity. It is the Orient par excellence. Europe 
 is the land of the setting sun, the Occident, the land towards 
 which the brilliant orb advances. Africa is the burning South, 
 the Soudan of the earth, as Eitter calls it, the land of the mid- 
 day sun. In Asia the nations look backward towards a lu- 
 minous past. Traditions, carefully preserved, of glories gone 
 
56 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 by, keep their eyes turned towards that golden age from which 
 they derive their wisdom, leave them without the hope of ever 
 attaining a higher Messing, and thus stop their progress. In 
 Europe men look forward, their faces turned towards the ad- 
 vancing sun, following it in its march and longing to plunge 
 with it into the ocean of a mysterious future. Africa, the land 
 of the meridian sun, equally unmindful of the past and the fu- 
 ture, is sunk in an inactive, unmeaning present. These three 
 continents again are grouped into an Eastern Hemisphere, 
 which is to become the Orient for the new Occident, for the 
 New World of the Western Hemisphere, which, in its turn, 
 represents the land of future progress, contrasted with that of 
 the old traditions of the past. 
 
 By the historical element in Geography, Eitter means not 
 a certain amount of historical facts connected with a geographi- 
 cal spot, but the variety of functions performed by the same 
 geographical elements, or the same natural regions, in the dif- 
 ferent ages of civilization. These functions are necessarily 
 variable, since they depend upon the power of the cultivated 
 nations to make use of these elements furnished by nature, as 
 instruments for the particular work which these nations are 
 called upon to perform in history. At the beginning of civili- 
 zation, when the first, the most urgent want, was the possi- 
 bility of gathering together, within a moderate compass, a 
 large number of men 3 and thus to establish the social and polit- 
 ical relations, without which human progress is impossible, the 
 large plains of culture fertilized by the main streams of the 
 continents were of paramount, of almost exclusive importance. 
 The rich valleys of the Nile, of the Euphrates, of the Ganges, 
 of the Chinese streams, are the prominent geographical centres 
 for mankind. The broad ocean, the Mediterranean even, lie 
 then forgotten and without use. When the great historical 
 work in progress was the education of the mental faculties of 
 man by Greek civilization, how prominent was the value of 
 every geographical feature of that little peninsula of Greece, of 
 its mountains and valleys, of its indented shores, of its genial 
 climate, of its situation between the lands of the old oriental 
 civilization, and the Western peninsulas which awaited culture 
 from her. How different again when Eome began the great 
 social work of the Eoman empire, which was to gather under 
 one powerful sceptre, the scattered civilizations of antiquity. 
 The land of Greece sunk into insignificance, but the central 
 position of Italy, in the midst of the Mediterranean world, 
 thus far without value, made Eome the natural heart of that 
 
Gtuyot on Carl Bitter. 57 
 
 great organism. The Mediterranean, so neglected by old Egypt 
 and Assyria, became the common arena and the bond of union 
 of the extensive domains of Eome, and the high road of civil- 
 ized nations. The open ocean, then the dreaded insuperable 
 obstacle to a further extension of mankind, had no function 
 in the development of man. But now that by the progress of 
 astronomical science and the art of navigation, man has mas- 
 tered that redoubtable abyss, and knows how to oppose the wind 
 and waves by the power of steam, the ocean in its turn 
 has become the highway of commerce and intercourse between 
 the most advanced nations of the Earth. To its shores they 
 flock feeling, as by a secret instinct, that the power and wealth 
 of a nation, in this age of universal interchange of gifts, de- 
 pend upon the free access to that great door which opens for 
 it the richest lands of the inhabitable globe. Thus the rela- 
 tive value of every one of the geographical elements, is con- 
 stantly changing for man with the development of his own 
 powers and the progress of history. 
 
 It only remains for us to see how Bitter applied these vari- 
 ous principles in his " Erdkunde." After what has been said, a 
 brief review of the plan and the method pursued in it will suffice. 
 
 The intention of Eitter, as he informs us, was to treat of 
 the wJiole globe in twelve books. This numbes-was no arbi- 
 trary one. It is easy to perceive that the idea of a great 
 organism to be studied and described according to divisions 
 marked out by nature itself, and their actual relations, was con- 
 stantly before his mind. Each book was to contain one of the 
 primary geographical individuals, a continent, for instance. 
 The first book was devoted to Africa, the second to Eastern 
 Asia, which is almost a continent by itself, the third to Western 
 Asia. These are the only ones which be has written. What 
 the other books would have contained, we are not told. The 
 continent of Africa is the most uniform in its outlines, in its 
 structure, its natural features in every respect ; that of Europe 
 is the most varied, the most highly organized. The order 
 pursued, therefore, is from the simple to the more compli- 
 cated ; from the lower organism to the higher. 
 
 In describing a continent, Eitter, as I have remarked, 
 looks upon it as an individual structure, the controlling feat- 
 ure of which is a central plateau. Around that central 
 mass, as around a main trunk, are spread the lowlands, and 
 from its high margins descend stepwise, in every direction, 
 long terraces with their valleys and other streams towards 
 the low plains, or sometimes reach uninterrupted to the sea- 
 
58 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 shore. It is, therefore, in that order that he describes the 
 various parts of such a connected mass of land. Beginning 
 with the central highland, continuing by its terraces and 
 lowlands, he terminates by the peninsular appendages and 
 the islands which belong to it. A first bird's-eye view, traced 
 with master-hand, gives the general features, the plan of 
 structure, as it were, of the continent, and indicates the 
 arrangements and the relations of all its parts. Then en- 
 tering upon the detailed description, and proceeding from the 
 cold and less favored regions to the warmer and richer climes, 
 he characterizes every natural division, treats of its physical 
 condition, of its people, of its present and historical functions, 
 and usually terminates by a retrospective view, in which he 
 gives to the mind, enriched by the specific knowledge acquired, 
 a still more complete and precise view of the whole organism 
 and of its distinctive characteristics. 
 
 A rapid view of the application of this method of descrip 
 tion to the continents of Africa and Asia, may substantiate 
 this short statement, and serve as a key to the arrangement 
 of the matters contained in the " Erdkunde," which appears 
 to many rather intricated, perhaps because unusual. The first 
 book, Africa, contains four divisions, Abtheilungen : High 
 Africa, or the main table-land ; the transition forms to the 
 lowlands, with their terraces and their water-courses descend- 
 ing from the highland ; the isolated plateaux of the Atlas and 
 of Barca, and the lowland of North Africa, or the Sahara. 
 
 The large divisions are subdivided into sections and again into 
 chapters (Abschnitte and Kapitel), which equally correspond 
 to so many physical regions, but of less extent and importance. 
 In the first division, which treats of the central highland, the 
 first section is devoted to the South margin, and its terraces 
 descending towards the Cape of Good Hope, with three chapters 
 describing the high table-land of the Orange River and its 
 race of men ; the middle terrace of the Karroos ; the lower ter- 
 race or the shore region. The second section comprises the 
 Eastern border of the highlands and its terraces down to the 
 shores of the Indian Ocean, with the two chapters treating of 
 the Kafir coast, and of the coast of Sofala and Mozambique. 
 In the third section we are led to the North margin of 
 High Africa, in which we find, in four chapters, the descrip- 
 tion of the high terrace of Kaffa and Narea, of the table-land 
 of Abyssinia in general, the plateau of Abyssinia proper, and 
 the terraces which descend from that Alpine land towards the 
 sea and the lowland of North Africa. The fourth section com- 
 
GrUYOT on Carl Bitter. 59 
 
 prises the Western margin of the continent with four chap- 
 ters, giving successively a review of the South-western coast 
 of Africa from Cape Negro to Cape Gonzales ; of the regions 
 on the Zaire Kiver, in Congo ; of the highland of the Ambos, 
 and of high Soudan on the North. A fifth and last section is 
 devoted to that almost isolated member of the continent, the 
 Western half, or prolongation of, the North Margin, contain- 
 ing, in two chapters, the description of the table-land of the 
 Ma'ndingos, the region of the sources of the Senegal, Gambia, 
 Niger, and the Kong mountains. 
 
 Having thus completed a first systematic review of the cen- 
 tral highland, Eitter, in a second division, takes up the transi- 
 tion forms from the highland to the lowland, that is the great 
 river systems and their neighboring regions, which are always 
 the connecting links, the great highways between the two for 
 the people and commerce. One section is devoted to the 
 Orange river, the characteristic stream of South Africa. 
 Another, in two chapters, to the terraces and streams of Mid- 
 dle Africa, the Senegal and Gambia, and the mysterious Niger 
 with East Soudan. The master stream, Nile, follows next, in 
 six chapters ; one for the region of its sources, and the upper 
 course, two for the middle course in Sennaar and Nubia, three 
 for the lower course, upper, middle, and lower Egypt, or the 
 Delta Lands. 
 
 Now the attention of the reader is directed in a third di- 
 vision, to the isolated highlands of the Atlas and of Barca, 
 which, detached from the main trunk of the continent, border 
 it along the Mediterranean Sea and the ocean. The Atlas 
 plateau with its mountain chains, its surrounding border 
 regions, along the sea-shore and towards the Sahara, with the 
 races which occupy it, and the small table-land of Barca, fill 
 each one of three chapters. 
 
 The fourth and last division, the low-land of Africa, com- 
 prises two sections, the Eastern and the Western half of the 
 great desert of Sahara and Sahel. In the first section, three 
 chapters describe first the Eastern shore of that land ocean, 
 and its entrances from Egypt ; then its Northern shores, and 
 a third treats of the Oases and of their influence on the de- 
 velopment of the neighboring nations of the desert. In the 
 second section the description of Western Sahara and Sahel, 
 and the tribes of the desert, occupies the last two chapters. 
 A retrospective view of the whole continent of Africa closes 
 the book. 
 
 The continent has thus been methodically divided into its 
 
60 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 grand natural districts ; each has been described, and the mu- 
 tual dependence and subordination of each of these physical 
 regions, their arrangement into a grand organic structure, as 
 it were, is constantly kept in view. , 
 
 Nor does even that organic division, if I may call it so, 
 stop with the larger geographical districts which correspond 
 to the chapter. In nearly each of them we find a series 
 of explanatory paragraphs, Erlauterungen, which make as 
 many minor groups, or treat of special subjects which belong 
 to regions described in the chapter. As an instance, we 
 find in the chapters treating of the Delta the following 
 Erlauterungen : on the two main arms of the Nile and the 
 history of their changes ; on the inundations of the Nile, its 
 freshets, its alluvial deposit, the foundation of cities on its 
 banks in ancient times ; the history of the formation of the 
 Delta of the Nile ; the valley of the Wandering, the Natron 
 Lakes ; and a retrospective view of the Nile stream and 
 its influence on history. Still more special discussions form 
 separate paragraphs under the name of " Kemarks," Anmer- 
 kungen. In all, the sources of information are carefully com- 
 pared, weighed, and referred to in numerous quotations. 
 
 The same method of description, at once so exhaustive and 
 so thorough, has been followed in the two books and eighteen 
 volumes devoted to Asia. But here the extent of that mass 
 of land, the variety of the physical structure, the high histori- 
 cal importance of almost every spot of that old parent conti- 
 nent, explain the necessity for the distinction of a much larger 
 number of natural regions. It would be useless to mention 
 here more than the grand divisions and the order in which 
 they are treated. 
 
 I have already said that Asia being, as it were, a double 
 continent with two central table-lands, forms two books. Af- 
 ter an admirable introduction which gives a general view of the 
 whole continent, Bitter begins with the central Highlands of 
 Eastern Asia. The East and North margin and the central re- 
 gions, the South borders, or the Himalaya system, are described 
 in as many sections. Next, the transition forms and the great 
 water-courses descending from the heights of the table-land, 
 are considered ; the Eastern group, or China and its mighty 
 streams ; the South-eastern, or Indo-Ohina ; the Southern, 
 or India proper, with the system of the Ganges, terminates 
 the second book. 
 
 The third book, or "Western Asia, is far more voluminous. 
 Evidently when reaching the true historical regions, the work 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 61 
 
 grew under the pen of its author much beyond his expecta- 
 tion. One division, nay, one section alone fills one or more 
 volumes. Western Asia, which begins with the seventh volume 
 of the whole work, scarcely terminates with the nineteenth. 
 The first division describes the lands which Bitter calls the 
 transition forms between Eastern and Western Asia. The 
 system of the Indus, with the Punjaub, Cashmere, and the 
 high valleys of the Himalaya, the Hindo-Khu, the high table- 
 land of Turkestan and the massive chain of the Bolor, down to 
 the low-lands of the Caspian Sea, fill the volume. The Iranian 
 World, or the central plateau of Western Asia, and the sur- 
 rounding countries connected with it, begins properly the 
 second half of the Asiatic continent and the second divi- 
 sion. A full introduction, giving a synopsis of the plateau 01 
 Iran under its physical, archEeological, and ethnological aspects, 
 precedes, and gives the general features which secure for the 
 Iranian world an individual character. The Eastern mass, or 
 Afghanistan, the North and South margin, along the low- 
 lands of Turan and the Persian Gulf ; the Western mass, 
 or Persia, and Aderbidschan, form as many large sections, and 
 occupy two volumes. In the third division the transition 
 forms, or the great water-courses are considered, the twin sys- 
 tem of the Euphrates and Tigris filling two volumes. The 
 fourth division begins the description of the isolated members 
 of Western Asia. The Peninsula of Arabia to the South, 
 occupies two volumes. The fifth division, in two sections, 
 covers the Peninsula of Sinai, Palestine, and Syria, the first 
 with one, the other with two volumes. The last division is 
 devoted to Asia Minor the natural end, toward the West, of 
 the plateau of Iran, and is treated in two volumes. 
 
 It is easy to see by the gradually greater extent given by 
 Bitter to the latter part of his work, that besides the reason 
 just assigned for it, namely, the increasing interest attached to 
 those regions which have been, from the highest antiquity, the 
 scene of history, the plan of the author underwent a slight modi- 
 fication. Bitter's habit of thoroughness and the abundance 
 of new materials accumulating every day, give this latter part 
 of the " Erdkunde" the form of a series of monographs, which 
 may be considered as standard works on each of the countries 
 thus described, and as embodying about the sum total of our 
 knowledge up to the date of their publication. Among the 
 most new, we may name the volume of Eastern Asia, contain- 
 ing a digested account of all the English and other labors on 
 India and the system of the Himalaya ; and again, the two 
 
62 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 
 
 volumes on Arabia, which are entirely unique of their kind. 
 The monographs of Sinai, Palestine, and Syria, belong, it will be 
 conceded on all hands, to the most thorough which exist. A 
 series of monographs of another nature, treating of the his- 
 tory, the geographical extension, and influence on civilization 
 of several plants of culture and of domesticated animals, such 
 as of cotton, coffee, of the camel, and others, are interspersed 
 among the volumes of the Erdkunde, and remain models of 
 the kind. In questions of that order Eitter seeks the laws, 
 and one of his academical memoirs is devoted to an essay on 
 the principles of a Geography of the natural productions useful 
 to man. 
 
 The picture that I have just attempted of Bitter's ideas, 
 method, and labors, sufficiently defines, if I err not, the part 
 performed in geographical science by that faithful and gifted 
 scholar, from that achieved by Humboldt Humboldt seeks 
 to determine the general laws of the physical world. Eitter 
 seizes them as applied, and in their concrete and actual connec- 
 tion in every given country and in the whole globe, and consid- 
 ers nature in its totality as an element in the development 
 of mankind, from which alone these natural forms and influ- 
 ences receive their true and final significance. 
 
 At the moment these faithful guides leave us to ourselves, 
 when their voice will utter no more words of wisdom, it may be 
 well for us to ask ourselves how far they led us in the high 
 road of science, and what is the task which is still before us. 
 Humboldt, with a surpassing richness of knowledge, attempted 
 to give us a connected picture of the totality of the physical 
 universe ; but admirable as is the Cosmos, after having read its 
 eloquent pages, we pause and involuntarily ask for the final 
 object of the Creator in building up that marvellous structure ; 
 we ask f6r a tie which connects it with Him, at least that por- 
 tion of the creation in which we dwell ; for a voice which rises 
 from it as a word of praise, and we find it not. Far from me 
 even the idea of casting a blame upon the great and good phi- 
 losopher ; I am fully aware that his plan was purposely lim- 
 ited to the material world which is his theme. I only wish to 
 remark that we cannot stop there. 
 
 It is, indeed, a universal law of all that exists, as I have else- 
 where said, not to have in itself either the reason or the en- 
 tire aim of its existence. Every order of facts, like every indi- 
 vidual being, forms but a portion of a greater organization, 
 the plan and the idea of which go infinitely beyond it, and in 
 which it is destined to play a part. The reason of its exist- 
 
Guyot on Carl Bitter. 63 
 
 ence, therefore, is not in itself, but out of it ; not below, but 
 above it. The explanation of the beautiful but often mys- 
 terious arrangements of the physical globe is to be found not 
 in it, but in the higher moral and intellectual sphere of man 
 for whom they were made, in order to be there the means of 
 accomplishing a more exalted end than their mere material 
 existence. The key which opens for us the mysteries of the 
 evolutions of history, is to be sought in that future perfect 
 economy which is its end, and towards which, under God's 
 guidance, human progress is advancing with a steady step. A 
 science of the globe which excludes the spirit-world represented 
 by man, is a beautiful body without a soul. Eitter, as I trust 
 I have abundantly shown, put a soul into that body. This 
 will make his memory live forever in the grateful remembrance 
 of all lovers of true science. 
 
 Let us, therefore, continue in the footsteps of these mas- 
 ters in science. Humboldt furnishes the means ; Eitter marks 
 the goal. Like Humboldt, let us study nature in a truth-loving 
 and devoted spirit, and, with combined forces, perfect that edi- 
 fice which he has already reared so high. Like Eitter, let us, 
 with scrupulous care and a pure mind, pursue in all parts of 
 our earthly domain the investigation of these wondrous harmo- 
 nies of nature and history, of which he has traced the great 
 outlines. With the lofty ideal which was before his mind, let 
 us try to realize his conception, which still needs a further 
 growth to unfold all its beauty ; and we shall have a right to 
 look with hope towards a future science and a future Cosmos, 
 which will be the full and adequate expression of the wisdom 
 and goodness displayed in God's plan of the material and 
 moral creation, which will satisfy all the legitimate craving of 
 the human mind for knowledge, and which by its very utter- 
 ance shall be, according to Eitter' s own words, man's song of 
 praise and of adoration to the divine Author of the universe.