Humboldt's Essai Geognostique, MS 



unable to extract one quotation by which we might conTey an 

 idea of that talk. Our readers must really oblige us by under- 

 taking a task to which we find ourselves unequal. It is a truth, 

 and to us a sad one, that we really have read the book twice 

 through, so that we cannot be accused of breach of duty ; and it is 

 not less true and sad, that it was less intelligible the second time 

 than the first. Passages, facts, particulars of all kinds, we might 

 criticise beyond endurance, but for what end ? If, in our general 

 remarks, our readers should esteem us severe, we will say, read, 

 understand, explain ; and we may say too, as Johnson said to 

 Garrick, " If I have told the truth, Davy, why dost thou snub 

 me?" 



But there are more last words, and they will require a few last 

 words from us. 



We have already alluded to an air of pretension which pervades 

 our author's writings ; and, among other matters, to his algebra, 

 forming one, but by no means all, of the modes in which it is dis- 

 played. We mean it for all Avhom it may suit, and not for him 

 alone, when we say that this use of symbols and equations when 

 the proposition can be given in common language, is either a piece 

 of miserable affectation, or else, what is vulgarly called priggism, 

 a quality for which we possess no genteeler term. He who makes 

 use of X and y when he might say fifty and a hundred, or square 

 and round, because he happens to have arrived as far as biquadratic 

 equations, wishes to show the world that he knows what algebra 

 is, and would fain be thought a mathematician. The mathema- 

 tician who, similarly, abuses algebraic language, is either a prig, 

 or else has been so long versant in the conjuration of differences, 

 that he has lost the power of thinking, and the use of his own 

 language. In the last case alone, he is pardonable. The purpose 

 of algebra, of symbols, is abbreviation ; it is that we may acquire 

 the power of condensing a long proposition into a small space, so 

 that we may see all its relations at a glance. It is short hand, 

 and no more. If the proposition is not of a nature to require 

 this, from its shortness, or other causes, algebraic symbols 

 serve no purpose but to make a plain thing obscure, and to con- 

 vey an air of mystery. He who thus uses them, instead of 

 proving his knowledge of algebra, betrays his ignorance, as well 

 as his affectation ; he shews, perhaps, that he knows what sub- 

 stitution is, or what is a simple equation ; but he shews, too, 

 that he is a mere mechanic in this art. 



Now M. Humboldt, as might be expected, has invented a pasi- 

 graphy, *' a pasigrafia geognostica," since he must also tell us 

 that he has published in Spanish and in Mexico, or has " elevated 

 himself to general ideas" on geognosy by means of a, ^, 7, ^. 

 ■♦* Cette methode," also, '' est double : elle est ou figurative (gra- 

 phique, imitative), repr^sentant les couches superpos^es par des 



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