Toby on Humboldt's Cosmos

I had no idea about this person!


See The Project Gutenberg eBook of Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 "In the late evening of an active life I offer to the German public a work, whose undefined image has floated before my mind for almost half a century. I have frequently looked upon its completion as impracticable, but as often as I have been disposed to relinquish the undertaking, I have again — although perhaps imprudently — resumed the task. This work I now present to my contemporaries with a diffidence inspired by a just mistrust of my own powers, while I would willingly forget that writings long expected are usually received with less indulgence." 

See Alexander von Humboldt:


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