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Zitierempfehlung
Alexander von Humboldt: „The nestor of science“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1856-Insel_Cuba-12-neu> [abgerufen am 26.04.2024].
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| Titel | The nestor of science | ||||
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| Jahr | 1856 | ||||
| Ort | Glasgow | ||||
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Nachweis in: Scottish Guardian 12:1183 [= 25:2583] (5. August 1856), [o. S.].
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung, Kapitälchen. | ||||
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|Seitenumbruch|
Baron von Humboldt has caused the following article
to be inserted in the Spenersche Zeitung:—
“Under the title of Essai Politique sur l’Isle de Cuba, pub-
lished in Paris in 1826, I collected together all that the large
edition of my Voyage aux Régions Equinoxiales du Nouveau Con-
tinent contained the state of agriculture and slavery in the
Antilles. There appeared at the same time an English and a
Spanish translation of this work, the letter entitled Ensayo
Politico sobre la Isla de Cuba, neither of which emitted any of
the frank and open remarks which feelings of humanity had in-
spired. But there appears just now, strangely enough, translated
from the Spanish translation, and not from the French original,
and published by Derby and Jackson in New York, an octavo
volume of 400 pages under the title of The Island of Cuba, by
Alexander Humboldt; with notes and a preliminary essay by J.
S. Thrasher. The translator, who has lived a long time on that
beautiful island, has enriched my work by more recent data on
the subject of the numerical standing of the population, of the
cultivation of the soil, and the state of trade, and, generally
speaking, exhibited a charitable moderation in his discussion of
conflicting opinions. I owe it, however, to a moral feeling, that
is now as lively in me as it was in 1826, publicly to complain that
in a work which bears my name the entire seventh chapter of the
Spanish translation, with which my essai politique ended, has
been arbitrarily omitted. To this very portion of my work I
attach greater importance than to any astronomical observations,
experiments of magnetic intensity, or statistical statements.
‘J’ai examiné avec franchise (I here repeat the words which I
used thirty years ago) ce qui concerne l’organisation des sociétés
humaines dans les colonies, l’inégale répartition des droits et des
jouissances de la vie, les dangers menaçants que la sagesse des
législateurs et la modération des hommes libres peuvent éloigner,
quelleque soit la forme des Gouvernements. Il appertient au
voyageur qui a vu de près ce qui tourmente et degrade la nature
humaine, de faire parvenir les plaintes de l’infortune à ceux qui
ont le devoir de les soulager. J’ai rappelé dans cet exposé com-
bien l'ancienne législation Espagnolle de l’esclavage est moins in-
humaine et moins atroce que celle des Etats à esclaves dans
l’Amérique continentale au nord et au sud de l’équateur.’ A
steady advocate as I am for the most unfettered expression of
opinion in speech or in writing, I should never have thought of
complaining if I had been attacked on account of my statements;
but I do think I am entitled to demand that in the free States of
the Continent of America people should be allowed to read what
has been permitted to circulate from the first year of its appear-
ance in a Spanish translation.
“Alexander von Humboldt.
“Berlin, July, 1856.”