helping men to find the truth.

These sixty-one "popular" and free lectures make up that stupendous work
now known to us as "Humboldt's Cosmos."

* * * * *

Says Robert Ingersoll in his tribute to Alexander von Humboldt:

"His life was pure, his aims were lofty, his learning varied and
profound, and his achievements vast.

"We honor him because he has ennobled our race, because he has
contributed as much as any man, living or dead, to the real prosperity
of the world. We honor him because he has honored us--because he has
labored for others--because he was the most learned man of the most
learned nation of his time--because he left a legacy of glory to every
human being. For these reasons he is honored throughout the world.

"Millions are doing homage to his genius at this moment, and millions
are pronouncing his name with reverence and recounting what he
accomplished.

"We associate the name of Humboldt with oceans, continents, mountains,
volcanoes--with towering palms--the snow-lipped craters of the
Andes--the wide deserts--with primeval forests and European
capitals--with wilderness and universities--with savages and
savants--with the lonely rivers of unpeopled wastes--with peaks, pampas,
steppes, cliffs and crags--with the progress of the world--with every
science known to man and with every star glittering in the immensity of
space. Humboldt adopted none of the soul-shrinking creeds of his day; he
wasted none of his time in the inanities, stupidities and contradictions
of theological metaphysics; he did not endeavor to harmonize the
astronomy and geology of a barbarous people with the science of the
Nineteenth Century.

"Never, for one moment, did he abandon the sublime standard of truth: he
investigated, he studied, he thought, he separated the gold from the
dross in the crucible of his brain. He was never found on his knees
before the altar of superstition. He stood erect by the tranquil column
of Reason. He was an admirer, a lover, an adorer of Nature, and at the
age of ninety, bowed by the weight of nearly a century, covered with the
insignia of honor, loved by a nation, respected by a world, with kings
for his servants, he laid his weary head upon her bosom--upon the bosom
of the Universal Mother--and with her loving arms about him, sank into
that slumber which we call Death.

"History added another name to the starry scroll of the immortals.

"The world is his monum