MEMOIR 



OP 



BAEON ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT 



The reputation of this illustrious philosopher and 

 traveller is at once brilliant and solid. It is now 

 upwards of half a century since he first appeared 

 as an author ; * and during the many years that have 

 since passed away, his life has been almost inces- 

 santly devoted to perilous enterprise and laborious 

 and successful investigation, insomuch that there is 

 not in the civilized world a man of science whose 

 character is held in higher veneration. 



Frederick Henry Alexander Yon Humboldt 

 was bom at Berlin on the 14th of September, 1769.t 



* " Observations on the Basalts of the Rhine," Brunswick, 

 1790, 8vo. 



+ It is remarkable that some of the most distinguished 

 men of the present age were bom in the year 1769 ; such 

 as Napoleon and Wellington, — Cuvier, Chateaubriand, and 

 Humboldt. B 



