358 KO IlIiSPECTOE OF PEKSONS. 



xxvi. p. 325) wc animadverted on liis quoting a fact 

 from a journal in which it did not exist, and whicrh he 

 now admits to be the case. We know nothing of that 

 unfriendly criticism^ of which he complains. M. de Hum- 

 boldt may rest assured that we deprecate alike all bias 

 of friendship or hostility towards the person of an author ; 

 but he may also rest assured that we shall use all possible 

 freedom with his works^ neither lavishly bestowing unde- 

 served praise, nor wantonly scattering malicious and 

 unjustifiable censure: we are disposed indeed to think 

 highly of M. de Humboldt's acquirements; we admire 

 his zeal and unwearied industry in collecting information, 

 and his liberality in distributing it, but at the same time 

 we have a duty to perform which will neither permit our 

 senses to be ravished, nor our judgement swayed 'by 

 the whistling of a name.' 



" It would be great injustice, and a violation of the 

 truth," his honour continues, cunningly blowing hot and 

 cold at the same time, " not to allow to M. de Humboldt 

 an extraordinary share of talent; his literary acquire- 

 ments appear indeed to be more various than generally 

 flxll to the lot of man. To intellectual powers of the 

 highest order, he adds an ardent and enthusiastic mind, 

 full of energy and activity in the pursuit of knowledge. 

 In the true spirit of enterprise and research we doubt if 

 he has any superior ; and it seems to be equally exerted 

 on all occasions ; the ardour of pursuit, the mental 

 energy, and the bodily activity are as much in earnest in 

 rummaging the shelves of a library, as in clambering up 

 the sides of a volcanic mountain. He is well read in all 

 the modern discoveries of astronomical, geological, and 

 physiological science, but his book affords no evidence 



