estion I will leave to my Marxian colleagues to determine.

As a mine-manager Humboldt was hardly a success. He knew the value of
ores, utilized various by-products that had formerly been thrown away,
made plans for the betterment of his workers, and once sent a protest to
the King against allowing women and children to be employed underground.

But the price per ton of his product was out of proportion to the
expenses. While other men mined the ore he wrote a book on "Subterranean
Vegetation." The details of business were not to his liking. His own
private financial affairs were now turned over to Knuth, his modest
fortune resolved into cash and invested in bonds that brought a low rate
of interest. Freedom was his passion--to come and go at will was his
desire. The thirst for travel was upon him--travel, not for adventure,
but for knowledge.

He resigned his office and tramped with knapsack on back across the
Alps. The habit of his mind was that of the naturalist-investigator.
Geology, botany and zoology were his properties by divine right.

These sciences really form one--geognosy, or the science of the
formation of the earth. The plants dissolve and disintegrate the rocks;
the animal feeds upon the plants; and animal life makes new forms of
vegetation possible. So the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms
evolve together, constantly tending toward a greater degree of
refinement and complexity.

The very highest form of animal life is man; and the highest type of
man is evolved where there is a proper balance between the animal and
the vegetable kingdoms.

Humboldt discovered very early in his career that the finest flowers
grow where there are the finest birds, and man separated from birds,
beasts and flowers could not possibly survive.

Just about this time, Humboldt, taking the cue from Goethe, said: "Man
is a product of soil and climate, and is brother to the rocks, trees and
animals. He is dependent on these, and all things seem to point to the
truth that he has evolved from them. The accounts of special creation
are interesting as archeology, but biology is distinctly the business of
modern scientists. The scientist tells what he knows, and the theologist
what he believes." And again we find Humboldt writing from Switzerland
in Seventeen Hundred Ninety-six, making observations that have been
recently unconsciously paraphrased by the United States Secretary of
Agriculture, who said in a printed report: "