28 J^ Baron Humboldt's Vietv of the Scientific Researches. 



must be acquainted with the simultaneous progress of practi- 

 cal astronomy, geognosy, meteorology and natural history. 

 It is thus that the more or less flourishing cultivation of the 

 great domain of science ought to reflect itself in the traveller 

 who wishes to rise to the level of his age ; and that voyages 

 undertaken to extend the physical knowledge of the globe, 

 ought, at different periods, to present an individual character, — 

 the physiognomy of a given epoch, — and that they ought to be 

 the expression of the state of cultivation at which the sciences 

 have progressively arrived. 



In thus tracing the duties of those who have pursued the 

 same career with myself, and whose example has often roused 

 my ardour under difficulties, I have noticed the source of that 

 small success which your generous indulgence has deigned to 

 honour by public suffrage. 



Having happily terminated a distant voyage, undertaken at 

 the command of a great monarch, and having been assisted by 

 the talents of two philosophers whose labours Europe appre- 

 ciates, MM. Ehrenberg and Rose, I might confine myself at 

 present to lay before you the homage of my warmest gratitude, 

 — I might solicit from him, who, though yet young, has dared 

 to penetrate into ancient mysteries, (the memorable sources of 

 the religious and political civilization of Greece,) to lend me 

 his eloquence, that I might express more worthily the sentiments 

 with which I am impressed. But I know, Gentlemen, that 

 eloquence which is not in accordance with the sincerity of the 

 heart will not be sufficient in this assembly. You have been 

 entrusted in this vast empire with the great and noble mission 

 of giving a general impulse to the cultivation of the sciences 

 and literature, to encourage labours connected with the actual 

 state of human knowledge, and to stimulate and enlarge the 

 powers of the mind, in the field of the higher mathematics and 

 of terrestial physics, and in that of the history of nations illus- 

 trated by the monuments of different ages. Your views have 

 been directed to the career which is yet to be pursued ; and the 

 tribute of thanks which I now offer you, — the only one indeed 

 worthy of your institution, is the solemn obligation which I 

 take to continue faithful to the cultivation of science, even to 

 the last hour of a life already advanced, — to explore nature un- 



