rate observer, the perilous travels which he undertook like a brave chevalier; and his writings are equally interesting to naturalists and to poets. Schelling, Bader, Schubert, etc., have published works, in which the sciences are presented

scientific research which had always been present to his mind. The plan of his great American journey seems to have been suggested during the period of his early intimacy with Forster; and having freed himself from the cares of public duty, he set himself in earnest to the necessary preparations for that expedition. The first step was a series of scientific explorations in different parts of Europe, undertaken with a view to enlarging his experience and improving his powers of observation. He made several visits to Switzerland and the mountains of Silesia, and afterwards assumed the burden of an official visit to Prussian Poland. This yearning desire to see strange lands and to devote himself to scientific exploration, is well described by himself in the opening chapter of his Personal Narrative: "From my earliest youth, I felt an ardent desire to travel into distant regions, seldom visited by Europeans. This desire is characteristic of a period of our existence when life appears an unlimited horizon, and when we find an irresistible attraction in the impetuous agitation of the mind, and the image of positive danger. Though educated in a country which has no direct communication with either the East or the West Indies, living amid mountains remote from coasts, and celebrated for their numerous mines, I felt an increasing passion for the sea and distant expeditions. Objects with which we are acquainted only by the animated narratives of travellers have a peculiar charm; imagination wanders with delight over that which is vague and undefined; and the pleasures we are deprived of seem to possess a fascinating power, compared with which all we daily feel in the narrow circle of sedentary life appears insipid.'

"Serious preparations for the journey to America were not possible, in consequence of family causes, the death of his mother, and the disposition of the paternal estates, until the year 1797. In that year Humboldt supplied himself with ample means for his new enterprise by the sale of the large inheritance which had fallen to him, and set out with his brother for a preliminary journey to Italy. On reaching Vienna, however, further progress was found to be impracticable, in consequence of the war then raging between France and Austria, and Alexander passed the winter of 1797-8 in Salzburg. In the following spring, receiving intelligence of the contemplated expedition of Baudin, intended for the exploration of the Southern Hemisphere, he hastened to Paris, but was again fated to meet with disappointment. The expedition was abandoned, and Humboldt saw no immediate prospect of carrying his enterprise into effect. During his stay in Paris, on this occasion, however, fortune favored him in one respect. He became acquainted with Bonpland, his future companion to South America, who had been appointed to the corps of naturalists to accompany Baudin's expedition. A close friendship sprang up between Bonpland and Humboldt. They entered together on a career of preparatory study and

under a point of view that captivates both our reflection and our imagination; and, long previous to the existence of modern metaphysicians, Kepler and Haller knew the art of observing Nature, and at the same time of conjecturing her operations.

Humboldt united at the same time with the celebrated Gay-Lussac in a series of experiments on the atmosphere. In the fall of 1798, Humboldt, accompanied by Bonpland, went to Marseilles with the intention of embarking for Egypt, to join the scientific corps which accompanied the army of Napoleon. But another disappointment awaited him. The Swedish frigate in which he had been offered a passage, had been delayed by a storm, had put into a Portuguese port to repair damages, and could not sail until the following spring. After a delay of two months, the two friends, disliking the prospect of inaction in Marseilles, resolved to spend the winter in Spain, and proceeded to Madrid, taking astronomical and barometrical observations by the way.

"This journey to Madrid proved a hit. After three successive disappointments, Humboldt found himself in a position far better than any he had hoped for. The prime minister, Urquizo, a man of enlightened sagacity, lent a willing ear to the memorial presented by the disappointed traveller, supported the project, overcame obstacles, and obtained for Humboldt enlarged privileges for undertaking a voyage to the New World and the Phillipine Islands. 'Never,' says Humboldt, 'had so extensive a permission been granted to any traveller, and never had any foreigner been honored with more confidence on the part of the Spanish government.' Humboldt, accompanied by Bonpland, left Madrid in May, 1799, for Corunna, where the corvette Pizarro lay, ready to receive him. The vessel was bound to Havana and Mexico, but her captain received orders to touch at the Canaries, and allow the travellers time to ascend the Peak of Teneriffe. Humboldt was now thirty years of age. The delays and disappointments which he had been compelled to encounter, had not only better fitted him for the task he had undertaken, by affording him leisure to enlarge his stock of knowledge, but had furnished him, in Bonpland, an able assistant and a fast friend. Humboldt has touchingly recorded his sensations, as he found himself fairly in the way of realizing the hopes of years. The vessel touched at the Canaries, the travellers ascended the Peak, recorded their observations, narrowly escaped capture by British vessels, and departed for Havana. A malignant fever which broke out on shipboard, however, occasioned a change in the destination. The vessel bore away for Venezuela, and the travellers met a favorable reception in that province, where they arrived in July, 1799. They immediately began their explorations, the history of which is familiar. The exploration of the Orinoco, from which 30 many interesting discoveries resulted, was undertaken in November following. Some months were passed in general observations upon the sea-coast, but in February, 1800, Humboldt, still accompanied by Bonoland, struck into the interior, traversing vast plains under a heat so in<ense that the journey was made chiefly by night, and on the 4th of April.

The attraction of society is so great in France, that it allows nobody much time for labor. It is natural then not to place reliance upon those who attempt to unite many studies of different kinds. But, in a country where the whole life of a man

after enduring extraordinary hardships, entered the Orinoco. On the 10th of April the travellers began a canal exploration of that river, voyaged on the Rio Negro and the Cassiquiare, and finally reached the tributary streams of the Amazon. The extension of this voyage to the mouth of the Amazon was fortunately relinquished; else the travellers had fallen into the hands of the Brazilian officials, who had received orders from the jealous government to seize them and transport them to Lisbon. The little party started on its return on the 10th of May, and arrived at Angostura on the 16th of the following June. Thence they sailed for Havana, where they arrived in the middle of December. Tidings of the departure of Baudin's expedition from France reached Humboldt during his sojourn in Cuba, and he determined to sail for Carthagena, cross the Isthmus to the Pacific, and await the arrival of the expedition at Lima or Valparaiso. This journey gave occasion for the famous travels among the Andes. Reaching Carthagena on the 30th of March, 1801, Humboldt relinquished his purpose of proceeding across the Isthmus to Panama, and chose instead the route to Guayaquil, by way of Bogota and Quito. This change of direction gave him opportunity to trace the map of the Rio Magdalena. On the 22d of June, the ascent of Chimborazo was made. The next step was the exploration of the chain of the Andes, undertaken after the reception of further news from the unlucky expedition of Baudin, which, after all, altered its course, and did not touch at Chili or Peru. A visit to Mexico followed, and its results are recorded in Humboldt's volume on New Spain. In January, 1804, having completed the objects of their journey, Humboldt and Bonpland turned their faces homeward, making a brief trip of a few weeks through the United States, visiting Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, and sailing from this port for Bordeaux, where he arrived in August, 1804, after an absence of nearly five years. In the spring of 1805, he accompanied his sister-in-law to Rome, and spent part of the ensuing summer at Albano, with his brother Wilhelm. Their society was at that time still further enriched by the presence of Madame de Staël, Schlegel, and Sismondi. An anticipated eruption of Vesuvius led him to Naples, in company with Gay-Lussac, and he was fortunate in being able to witness the grand outbreak of the 12th of August. After completing his observations, he proceeded to Berlin, and did not return to Paris until 1807, when he established himself there permanently, to superintend the publication of his works.

"Humboldt's journey through Russia, Siberia, and Tartary, was his next great enterprise. It was begun in the year 1828. His companions were Ehrenberg and Rose. The results were, like those of his American journey, extremely valuable to the science of physical geography. At his suggestion a regular system of meteorological observations was establish÷d

may be given up to meditation, it is reasonable to encourage the multifariousness of knowledge; the student eventually. confines his attention to that pursuit which he prefers; but it is, perhaps, impossible to attain a thorough comprehension of one science, and not to touch upon all. Sir Humphry Davy, although the first chemist in England, studies literature with as much taste as success. Literature and science reflect alternate light upon each other; and the connection which exists between all the objects in nature, must also be maintained among the ideas of man.

Universality of knowledge necessarily leads to the desire of discovering the general laws of the order of nature. The Germans descend from theory to experience; while the French ascend from experience to theory. The French reproach the Germans with having no beauties but those of detail in their literature, and with not understanding the composition of a work. The Germans reproach the French with considering

in Russia by order of the emperor; and during the twelve years which elapsed between the publication of his Asiatic Fragments (1831), and his Central Asia (1843), Humboldt was in constant communication with Russia, and was regularly furnished with the results of the system of observation which he had instituted.

"In September, 1830, Humboldt was sent to Paris by Frederick William III, with a diplomatic mission to acknowledge Louis Phillippe and the new dynasty. He was sent a second time in 1831, and on his return visited Weimar, and spent a few hours with Goethe, whose death occurred six months afterwards. In the year 1835, he was called to mourn the loss of his brother William, who died on the 8th of April, and whose literary executor he became.

"Since 1842, Humboldt has resided chiefly in Berlin, devoting himself to science and carrying on an enormous correspondence, which continued nearly down to the day of his death, May 6, 1859. The frequent acknowìedgments of the labors of the young generation of scientific men, which have appeared from his pen, within the last four or five years, are a sufficient indication of his untiring zeal and well-preserved age. His elaborate work on physical science, entitled Kosmos, was interrupted in 1828, but resumed in 1842 on an enlarged scale, and occupied much of his time durmg his late years. Five volumes of this production have been published. His other principal works were his magnificent Collections on all subjects of science, published at great cost; the Personal Narrative, Views of Na ture, Views in the Cordilleras, New Spain, Journey to the Ural, an 1 Centra. Asia."-Ed.

only particular facts in the sciences, and with not referring them to a system; in this consists the principal difference between the learned men of the two countries.

In fact, if it were possible to discover the principles which govern the universe, this would be the point, indisputably, from which we ought to commence in studying all that is derived from those principles; but we are almost entirely ignorant of the collective character of every thing, excepting in what detail teaches us; and nature is for man but the scattered Sibyl's leaves, out of which, even to this day, no human being has been able to compose a book. Nevertheless, the learned men of Germany, who are philosophers at the same time, diffuse a surprising interest over the contemplation of the phenomena of this world: they do not examine nature fortuitously, according to the accidental course of what they experience; but they predict, by reflection, what observation is about to confirm.

Two great general opinions serve them for guides in studying the sciences: the one, that the universe is made after the model of the human soul; the other, that the analogy of every part of the universe with the whole is so close, that the same idea is constantly reflected from the whole in every part, and from every part in the whole.

That is a fine conception, which has a tendency to discover the resemblance between the laws of the human understanding and those of nature, and considers the physical world as the representation of the moral. If the same genius was capable of composing the Iliad and of carving like Phidias, the Jupiter of the sculptor would resemble the Jupiter of the poet. Why then should not the supreme Intelligence, which formed nature and the soul, have made one the emblem of the other? There is no vain play of fancy in those continual metaphors, which aid us in comparing our sentiments with external phenomena; sadness, with the clouded heaven; composure, with the silver moonlight; anger, with the stormy sea: it is the same thought of our Creator, transfused into two different languages, and capable of reciprocal interpretation. Almost

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