XU INTRODUCTION. 



*' Kosmos." To my friend Heine, the artist, he sent his 

 own copy (the original edition) of his " Vues des Cordil 

 Ih'es,^^ containing some of his marginal notes. On learning 

 that the same gentleman had been obliged to go to Ame- 

 rica through his connexion with the events of 1848, he pre- 

 vailed upon the king of Prussia to grant him the Order of 

 the Red Eagle — through which recognition the official ban 

 was removed. This is but one instance of the many acts 

 of kindness on his part, with which I have become ac- 

 quainted. 



His mind was so admirably balanced — his development 

 was so various, and yet so complete in every dejDartment of 

 science, that his true greatness is not so apparent as in the 

 case of those who have risen to eminence by devoting them- 

 selves to some special study. Perfect symmetry never 

 produces the effect of vastness. It is only by studying the 

 details that we comprehend the character of the whole. 

 Humboldt, however, may be termed the father of Physical 

 Geography, and the suggester, if not the discoverer, of that 

 system of the distribution of plants and animals which opens 

 to our view another field of that Divine Order, manifested 

 in the visible world. He strove to grasp those secrets, 

 which, perhaps, no single mind will ever be able to compre- 

 hend — the aggregate of the laws which underlie the myste- 

 ries of Creation, Growth, and Decay ; and though he fell 

 short of the sublime aim, he was at least able to say, like 

 Kepler, when he discovered the mathematical harmonies of 

 the solar system ; " Oh, Almighty God, I think Thy 

 thoughts after Thee !" 



