The Invention of Nature

And though theories of shifting tectonic plates would only be confirmed in the mid-twentieth century, Humboldt had already discussed in 1807 in the Essay on the Geography of Plants that the continents of Africa and South America had once been connected. Later he wrote that the reason for this continental shift was ‘a subterranean force’. Goethe as a firm Neptunist was appalled. Everybody was listening to these mad theories, he complained, much like ‘savages to the sermons of missionaries’. It was ‘absurd’ to believe, he said, that the Himalaya and the Andes – huge mountain ranges that stood ‘rigid and proud’ – could ever have been suddenly lifted out of the belly of the earth. He would need to rewire his entire ‘cerebral system’, Goethe joked, if he were ever to agree with Humboldt on this subject. But despite these scientific disagreements, Goethe and Humboldt remained good friends. Maybe he was just getting old, Goethe wrote to Wilhelm von Humboldt, because ‘I appear to myself more and more historical’.

Humboldt enjoyed seeing Goethe again, but he was even happier to spend time with Wilhelm. The two brothers had had their differences in the past, but Wilhelm was his only family. ‘I know where my happiness lies,’ Alexander wrote, ‘it is close to you!’ Wilhelm had retired from public service and had moved with his family to Tegel, just outside Berlin. For the first time since their youth, the brothers lived close and saw each other regularly. It was in Berlin and Tegel that they were finally able to ‘work together scientifically’.

Wilhelm’s passion was the study of languages. As a boy he had lost himself in Greek and Roman mythology. Throughout his career, Wilhelm had used every diplomatic posting to learn more languages, and Alexander had also supplied him with notes on indigenous Latin American vocabulary – including copies of Inca and pre-Inca manuscripts. Just after Alexander’s return from his expedition, Wilhelm had spoken of the ‘mysterious and wonderful inner connection of all languages’. For decades Wilhelm had keenly felt his lack of time to investigate the subject, but now he had the leisure to do so. Within six months of his retirement, he had given a lecture at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin about comparative language studies.

Much as Alexander looked at nature as an interconnected whole, so Wilhelm too was examining language as a living organism. Language, like nature, Wilhelm believed, had to be placed in the wider context of landscape, culture and people. Where Alexander searched for plant groups across continents, Wilhelm investigated language groups and common roots across nations. Not only was he learning Sanskrit, but he also studied Chinese and Japanese as well as Polynesian and Malayan languages. For Wilhelm this was the raw data he needed for his theories, just like Alexander’s botanical specimens and meteorological measurements.

Though the brothers worked in different disciplines, their premises and approaches were similar. Often, they even used the same terminology. Where Alexander had searched for the formative drive in nature, Wilhelm now wrote that ‘language was the formative organ of thoughts’. Just as nature was so much more than the accumulation of plants, rocks and animals, so language was more than just words, grammar and sounds. According to Wilhelm’s radical new theory, different languages reflected different views of the world. Language was not just a tool to express thoughts but it shaped thoughts – through its grammar, vocabulary, tenses and so on. It was not a mechanical construct of individual elements but an organism, a web that wove together action, thought and speaking. Wilhelm wanted to bring everything together, he said, into an ‘image of an organic whole’, just like Alexander’s Naturgemälde. Both brothers were working on a global level.

For Alexander this meant that he still had to fulfil his travel dreams. Since his voyage to Latin America, almost three decades previously, he had repeatedly failed to organize other expeditions that might have allowed him to finalize his studies. Humboldt felt that if he truly wanted to present a view of nature as a global force, he needed to see more. The idea of nature as a web of life that had crystallized during his Latin American expedition required additional data from across the world. He, more than others, needed to examine as many continents as possible. The study of climate patterns, vegetation zones and geological formations required this comparative data.