OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 233 



records of science, we cannot hesitate to place the expedition as 

 amongst the most important and successful ever executed by man. 



On his return to Europe, in 1805, Humboldt was employed several 

 years in reducing his immense collection of materials to form for publi- 

 cation. From that time to his death, a period of almost half a cen- 

 tury, he resided (except for a short time, in which he made his journey 

 to Northern Asia) in Europe, mostly in France and Germany. The 

 last twelve or fifteen years of this great man were principally employed 

 in the production of his Cosmos, ' — the ci'owning labor of his long life, 

 the harvest of his mature wisdom, — a work that could not have 

 been produced by any other man, simply because no other msm pos- 

 sessed the treasures, or a key to the treasures, of the various knowl- 

 edge contained in it. 



From his return to Europe to his death, he possessed, indisputably, 

 the fii'st place amongst philosophers, for the vast extent of his acquire- 

 ments. Without doubt, at all times during the present century there 

 have been men much greater than Humboldt in each special depart- 

 ment of science, but no one to compare with him in the number of 

 subjects in which he had but few superiors, — no one who could, like 

 him, bring all the sciences into one field of view, and compare them as 

 one whole, through their relations and dependences. It was probably 

 this extent of knowledge that led him to generalization rather than 

 particular discovery ; to trace connections and relations, rather than to 

 search for new and minute facts or particular laws ; to produce the 

 Cosmos, rather than discover the atomic theory or the cellular forma- 

 tion of organic structures. Many other men have been masters of 

 several specialties. Humboldt alone brought the whole range of the 

 physical and natural sciences into one specialty. 



We cannot close this brief notice of the character and career of our 

 illustrious associate without one moment's allusion to his amiable moral 

 nature, his love of justice, and his superiority to all merely personal 

 ends. So strong was his desire to give the influence of his high scien- 

 tific position to the cause of civilization and the progress of knowledge, 

 by assisting all applicants for his opinion and advice upon scientific 

 subjects, that he permitted a correspondence to be extorted from him 

 which in his last days became a load too great to be borne, and com- 

 pelled a cry for relief that had hardly subsided when the news of his 

 death reached us. 



VOL. IV. 30 



