104 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



the reading of the interesting analyses of " the waters of 

 Montmorency and St. Charles Rivers," and the two papers 

 of Mr. Dana upon the growth and the trends of the islands 

 of the South Sea, as well as upon the effects of the contrac 

 tion (wrinkling) of the crust of the earth, which have been 

 before treated of by Babbage and Elie de Beaumont. If I 

 have moral reasons to fear the immeasurable advancement 

 of your Confederation, the temptations to an abuse of 

 power dangerous to the preservation of the individuality of 

 the other peoples of America, I should not the less recog 

 nize the great advantages which physics and the positive 

 sciences, the world over, must draw from this very advance 

 ment, from that intelligence which penetrates everywhere 

 with those civilizing conquests, which facilitate movement, 

 and superimpose, not without violence, new layers of pop 

 ulation upon the native races which rapidly become extinct.* 

 However imposing the spectacle may be which is taking 

 place under our eyes, and which is preparing another far 

 more curious for the history of the intellectual development 

 of our species, I foresee the remote epoch when the high 

 degree of civilization and of institutions, free, stable, and 

 quiet (three elements which do not readily coalesce), will 

 penetrate into the tropical regions ; when, upon the high 

 plateaux, Mexico, Bogota, Quito, La Pax, Potosi, will re 

 semble New York, Boston, Philadelphia. 



Accept, I beg you, Sir, yourself and your excellent 

 son, the renewed expression of my high and affectionate 

 consideration. 



ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT. 

 BERLIN, August 5, 1851. 



Be pleased, if you have the opportunity, to present my 

 warm regards to Mr. Agassiz, as eminent for his vast and 



* In the margin opposite this sentence, Humboldt writes : " The pos 

 sible formation of a great State independent of sugar, slaves, cotton, 

 and the sweet legislation which accompanies the cultivation of these pro 

 ducts." 



