300 Baron Humboldt on Scientific Researches in Russia. 



bounds the Caspian Sea to the west, whilst it is surrounded to 

 the east with tertiary and secondary formations, which stretch 

 towards those countries of ancient celebrity, of which Europe 

 owes the knowledge to the important work of Baron de Mey- 

 endorf. 



In these general views, which I submit to your conside- 

 ration, Gentlemen, I have endeavoured to point out some of 

 the advantages which the physical history of the globe may 

 derive from the position and extent of this empire. I have ex- 

 plained the ideas which were deeply impressed upon me by a 

 sight of the regions which I have visited. It appeared to me 

 more suitable to render public honours to those, who, under 

 the auspices of government, have pursued the same career as 

 myself, and to draw attention to what remains to be done for 

 the progress of science . and the glory of your country, than to 

 speak of my own efforts, and to condense into a narrow space the 

 results of observations which require still to be compared with the 

 great mass of partial data which we have collected. I have 

 mentioned in this discourse the extent of the countries which 

 separate the line of no variation to the east of Lake Baikal, 

 from the basin of the Caspian ; — of the valleys of Cyrus and 

 the frozen summits of Ararat. At these names we involuntari- 

 ly revert to that recent struggle, in which the moderation of the 

 conqueror has increased the glory of his arms, which has open- 

 ed new roads to commerce, and completed the deliverance of 

 that Greece, which has long been the abandoned cradle of the 

 civilization of our ancestors. But it is not within these peace- 

 ful walls that I should celebrate the glory of arms. The august 

 monarch who has deigned to invite me into this country and to 

 smile upon my labours, appears to me as the genius of peace. 

 Encouraging, by his example, all that is true, great, and ge- 

 nerous ; he has been pleased, from the dawn of his reign, to 

 protect the study of the sciences which strengthen reason, and 

 of letters and the arts, which adorn the character of nations. 



