HUMBOLDT HUME. 



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XWrner, had already analyzed. In J8C3, they visited 

 tiie southern part of the kingdom. They directed 

 their researches to Hunhuetoca, and went thence 

 through Queretano, Salamanca, and the fruitful 

 plains of Yrapuato, to Guanaxuato, whose, mines 

 are far more considerable than those of Potosi. 

 They were here occupied, during the space of two 

 months, with measurements and geological investiga- 

 tions, examined the baths of Comagillos, whose tem- 

 perature is 11 Reaumur (about 25 Fahrenheit), 

 higher than that of those in the Philippine islands, 

 and then went through the valley of St Jago to 

 Valladolid, the capital of the former kingdom of 

 Mechoacan. Thence they descended, notwithstand- 

 ing the constant autumnal rains, into the plains of 

 Jorulo, on the coasts of the Pacific, where, in 1759, 

 a volcano of 1494 feet in height was raised, in a 

 single night, from the surface of the earth, in the 

 midst of more than 2000 small openings, which are 

 still smoking. They descended to the bottom of the 

 crater, the air of which was very strongly charged 

 with carbonic acid, which they analyzed. From the 

 pleasant and fruitful kingdom of Mechoacan, they 

 returned through the elevated plains of Tolucca 

 to Mexico. At Tolucca. they visited the wonderful 

 hand-tree, the cheirantfiostcemon of Cervantes, of 

 which, since the most ancient times, there has 

 existed but one specimen. At Mexico, they em- 

 ployed themselves in arranging their herbariums 

 and geological collections, in calculating the mea- 

 surements which they had made, and on the geolo- 

 gical atlas, for which Humboldt had taken sketches. 

 They left this city in January, 1804, in order to 

 explore the eastern declivities of the Cordilleras, 

 and made geometrical measurements of both the vol- 

 canoes of Puebla, Popocatapetl and Itzaccihuatl. 

 They then passed on through Perote to Xalapa. 

 Notwithstanding the deep snow which covered it, 

 Humboldt arrived at the summit of Cofre, which 

 exceeds in height the Peak of TenerifFe by 162 

 toises, and determined its situation by observations 

 made on the spot. ' He also took a trigonometrical 

 survey of the Peak of Orizana. 



After a pleasant tour in this country, our travellers 

 descended to the port of Vera Cruz, escaped the 

 black vomit, which then extensively prevailed, and 

 embarked on board a Spanish frigate for Havana, 

 where they again took possession of their collections, 

 which had been deposited there in 1800. They re- 

 mained here two months, when they set sail for Phi- 

 ladelphia, which they reached, after a passage of 

 thirty-two days. Here and at Washington, they 

 remained two months, and arrived in Europe August 

 1804. The rich collections which they brought with 

 them are unique in their kinds, and of inestimable 

 value : they contain, among other things, 6300 kinds 

 of plants. The account of their travels, and of their 

 important results, Humboldt published in the splendid 

 work which appeared at Paris, Hamburg, and London, 

 1810 et seq. , Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland (grand 

 folio), the first division of which is devoted to gene- 

 ral physics and to an account of their journey. 

 The first part of this account is contained in the 

 numbers already published, under the separate title 

 of f^ues des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples de 

 VAmerique, and is adorned with fifty or sixty engrav- 

 ings. The second division relates to zoology and 

 comparative anatomy ; the third contains a political 

 essay on New Spain ; the fourth is devoted to astro- 

 nomy ; the fifth to mineralogy and magnetism, and 

 the sixth to botany. The whole series, which con- 

 sists of twelve volumes, 4to, three volumes, folio, 

 with two collections of maps, and one of picturesque 

 engravings, is justly called, by a competent judge, 

 " a work of gigantic extent and richness, to which 



the modern literature cf Europe can hardly offer n 

 parallel." 



Humboldt, after his return, with Gay-Lnssjio in 

 Paris, rectified the theory of the situation of the 

 magnetic equator, and laid before the academy of 

 sciences, in 1817, Ins chart of the remarkable course 

 of the river Orinoco. In October, 1818, he visited 

 London, where it is said the allied powers requested 

 him to sketch a plan of the political situation of the 

 South American people. For the execution of his 

 plan to undertake a scientific journey to the East 

 Indies and Thibet, the king of Prussia, at Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, in November, 1818, granted him a yearly 

 pension of 12,000 dollars, and the use of the neces- 

 sary instruments. But this journey was abandoned. 

 Humboldt lived many years in Paris, devoted to the 

 sciences, till, in the winter of 1822, he was called to 

 Verona to accompany the king of Prussia on his 

 journey through Italy. His residence at Naples was 

 the cause of his inquiries into the formation of vol- 

 canoes, the result of which he gave to the public in 

 a small essay. In the latter part of 1826, he re^ 

 turned from Paris to Berlin. In 1829/he made a 

 journey to Northern Asia, as far as to the confines of 

 China, in which he was much assisted by the Russian 

 government, which wished to obtain, through him, 

 more accurate information respecting the character 

 and contents of the Ural mountains. After his re- 

 turn, he communicated several pieces of highly 

 interesting information connected with his journey. 

 He died in 1835. 



HUME, DAVID, an eminent historian and philoso- 

 pher, was born at Edinburgh, on the 22d April, 171 1. 

 His father was a descendant of the femily of the earl 

 of Home, but not opulent, and the subject of this 

 article being his youngest son, his fortune was very 

 small. Losing his father in his infancy, he was 

 brought up under the care of his mother, a woman 

 of singular merit, daughter to Sir David Falconer, a 

 judge of the court of session under the designation of 

 lord Newton. He was destined by his family for 

 the law ; but his passion for literature was so strong, 

 that he could not confine himself to professional 

 studies, and, as he observes in his memoirs, while his 

 family fancied him to be poring over Voet and Vin- 

 nius, he was occupied with Cicero and Virgil. In 

 1734, he visited Bristol, with recommendations to 

 some eminent merchants ; but he was as little dis- 

 posed to commerce as to law, and resolved to retire 

 to some provincial town of France, with the intention 

 of prosecuting his literary pursuits in privacy, and of 

 supplying, by economy, his pecuniary deficiencies. 

 He passed three years in France, in a manner very 

 accordant with his own inclinations. In 1737, he 

 went to London, and the next year published his 

 Treatise upon Human Nature, the entire neglect of 

 which work proved a severe mortification. In 1742, 

 le printed at Edinburgh his Essays, Moral, Political, 

 and Literary, which, owing to their more popular 

 form and elegance of style, were very favourably re- 

 vived. In 1745, he took up his residence with the 

 young marquis of Annandale, to whom he acted as a 

 sort of guardian an office which was rendered 

 necessary by that nobleman's health and state of 

 mind. He remained in this situation for a year, and 

 then stood candidate for the professorship of moral 

 philosophy at Edinburgh ; but, although strongly 

 supported, he was excluded by the negative of the 

 presbytery, in consequence of his known scepticism, 

 in 1746, he accompanied general Sinclair, as his 

 secretary, in an expedition designed against Canada, 

 jut which ended in an attack upon the French coast ; 

 and, in 1747, attended the same officer in a military 

 embassy to the courts of Vienna ami Turin. Having 

 been led to imagine that the lu-glt-ct of his Treatise 



