The Invention of Nature

To Wilhelm’s mind, Alexander ‘had stopped being German’. Most of his books were even written and published first in French. Wilhelm tried many times to lure his brother home. When he had been sent to Vienna for his diplomatic posting, Wilhelm had suggested Alexander as his successor as Minister of Education in Berlin. But Alexander’s answer was clear: he had no intention of being buried in Berlin while Wilhelm was having a great time in Vienna. After all, he joked, Wilhelm himself seemed to prefer being abroad.

Not only were Wilhelm and his fellow Prussians dubious about Humboldt’s chosen home – Napoleon himself was concerned. Napoleon had expressed his displeasure already by belittling Humboldt during their first meeting just after his return from South America. ‘You are interested in botany?’ Napoleon had sneered. ‘I know, my wife is also occupied with it.’ Napoleon disliked Humboldt, a friend said later, because his ‘opinion cannot be bent’. Initially Humboldt had tried to placate Napoleon with copies of his books, but he was ignored. Napoleon, Humboldt said, ‘hates me’.

For most other savants it was a good time to be in France because Napoleon was a great supporter of the sciences. With reason as the reigning intellectual force of the age, science had moved to the nexus of politics. Knowledge was power and never before had the sciences been so close to the centre of government. Many scientists had held ministerial and political posts since the French Revolution, including Humboldt’s colleagues from the Académie des Sciences, such as naturalist Georges Cuvier and mathematicians Gaspard Monge and Pierre-Simon Laplace.

For a man who loved the sciences almost as much as his military exploits, Napoleon was extremely unhelpful towards Humboldt. One reason may have been jealousy because Humboldt’s multi-volume Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent was in direct competition with Napoleon’s own pride and joy: the Description de l’Égypte. Almost 200 scientists had accompanied Napoleon’s troops to Egypt in 1798 in order to collect all the available knowledge there. Description de l’Égypte was the scientific result of the invasion and, like Humboldt’s publications, it was an ambitious project, eventually consisting of twenty-three volumes with some 1,000 plates. Humboldt, though, with neither the might of an army, nor the seemingly bottomless coffers of an empire behind him, was achieving more – his Voyage would have more volumes and plates. Napoleon did read Humboldt’s work, however, and reputedly even just before the Battle of Waterloo.

Publically, though, Humboldt never received any support from Napoleon, who remained suspicious. Napoleon accused Humboldt of being a spy, instructing the secret police to open his letters, bribing Humboldt’s valet for information and on more than one occasion even had his rooms searched. When Humboldt mentioned a possible expedition to Asia shortly after his arrival from Berlin, Napoleon instructed a colleague from the Académie to write an undercover report about the ambitious Prussian scientist. Then, in 1810, Napoleon ordered Humboldt to leave the country within twenty-four hours. For no obvious reason, and just because he could, Napoleon informed Humboldt that he was not allowed to stay any longer. It was only after the chemist Jean Antoine Chaptal (then the treasurer of the Senate) intervened, that Humboldt was allowed to stay in Paris. It was an honour to France to have the famous Humboldt living in Paris, Chaptal told Napoleon. If Humboldt were to be deported, the country would lose its greatest scientist.

Despite Napoleon’s distrust, Paris adored Humboldt. Scientists and thinkers were impressed by his publications and lectures, fellow writers adored his adventurous stories, while the fashionable world of Parisian society was delighted by his charm and wit. Humboldt dashed from one meeting to another and from one dinner to the next. By now his fame had spread so fast that when he breakfasted in the Café Procope, near the Odéon, he would find himself surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. Cab-drivers didn’t need an address, just the information ‘chez Monsieur de Humboldt’ to know where to take visitors. Humboldt was, an American visitor remarked, the ‘idol of Paris society’, attending five different salons every evening, giving a half-hour performance at each, talking quickly and then disappearing again. He was everywhere, a Prussian diplomat commented, and, as the president of Harvard University noted during a visit to Paris, ‘at home on every subject’. Humboldt was ‘drunken with his love for the sciences’, one acquaintance remarked.