288 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
tent of his acquirements. Without doubt, at all times during 
the present century there have been men much greater than 
Humboldt in each special department 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 prob- 
ably this extent of knowledge that led him to generalization 
rather than particular discovery ; to trace connections and re- 
lations, rather than to search for new and minute facts or par- 
ticular laws; to produce the “ Cosmos,” rather than discover 
the atomic theory or the cellular formation of organic struc- 
tures. Many other men have been masters of several special- 
ties; 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 ca- 
reer of our illustrious associate without one moment’s allusion 
to his amiable moral nature, his love of justice, and his supe- 
riority to all merely personal ends. So strong was his desire 
to give the influence of his high scientific 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 compelled a ery for relief that had hardly subsided when 
the news of his death reached us. 
Such is the faint outline of a man whose name is indelibly 
written with those who have been most eminent in this won- 
derful age of scientific activity. The Academy claims the 
privilege, in common with the learned societies with which he 
was associated throughout the civilized world, to express its 
sorrow for his death, and to offer its tribute of honor to his 
memory. 
