In regard to No. 7, the Suppressed Passages, I was 

 governed entirely by my translator's preface. Had I known 

 that the longest, the one which alludes to Adam and Eve 

 and Paradise, only amounted to a page and twelve lines, 

 instead of two pages, I should certainly have stated the fact 

 with more arithmetical precision. The passage occurs in my 

 edition at pages 364-5 of vol. 1. Another passage, a mere 

 good-humoured banter, about our English Observatories not 

 being allowed to make observations on a Sunday, even of 

 extraordinary phenomena (vol. 1, page 171) amounts, no 

 doubt, but to a few lines ; and a third, we are told, only 

 extends to five lines. Col. Sabine says that no passage has 

 been omitted "for the reasons assigned." What the reasons 

 may be can hardly signify, the fact being admitted; it happens, 

 however, as will be seen by reference to the preface, that my 

 translator does not assign, but merely surmises a reason. 

 It is further said that the sense is complete without the pas- 

 sages in question. So it might be without many others ; but 

 this is not the matter in debate. How many books are 

 there, the whole mercantile value of which consists in the 

 suppressed passages, although sometimes of small import. 

 The English have no faith in books which thev find to be in 

 the least decree mutilated, and I am too much of a book- 

 collector not to provide for them in that spirit. 



But in all this sensitiveness about the precise extent of the 

 passages suppressed, it is entirely lost sight of that the whole 

 24 pages of Humboldt's Summary, if not in the ordinary 

 acceptation of the term, suppressed, have at least been omitted : 

 and, taking this fact into consideration, my translator may 

 fairly stand excused for the statement made in the preface. 



This, however, is not all. My attention being necessarily 

 directed to a closer examination of the book, I now find there 

 are omissions in the text, as well as suppressions. They may 

 be important or unimportant — accidental or designed — I care 

 not. There are omissions, and though what I have discovered 

 in hastily turning over the first volume may seem trifling, 

 the fact is undeniable. 



It will be sufficient to cite the following three, and in doing 

 so J. refer to the pages of my own edition : — 



At page 86 mention of the comet of 1811 is omitted. N 

 159 lines 9 and 10 are omitted. 



324 six lines are omitted, from the words " The nature of these 

 inflections," down to "longitude." 



