TO THE READER. 



In presenting the English public with a version, in the vernacular tongue, 

 of the world-renowned Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos, the Translator 

 begs to say, that he has striven to give a faithful transcript of the original, not 

 less in matter than in manner : he has not taken away from the work, he ha» 

 not added to it ; and he has farther done what in him lay to preserve the lofty 

 tone and imaginative style of the Author. 



The Introduction is composed in the manner of an oration or popular dis- 

 course, and scarcely admitted of so literal a transfusion into English as the 

 Translator will feel it his duty to secure in the body of the work. The sec- 

 ond section, on the Limitation and Scientific Treatment of Physical Cosmog- 

 raphy, is extremely abstruse, and cost the Translator no small pains to ren- 

 der it, he trusts intelligibly, into English. With the third section—- The Pic- 

 ture of Nature, &c. — the Author enters fairly on his task. 



For the use of several compound words, formed after the German origi- 

 nals, the Translator has to apologize to the classical English reader, and for 

 mistakes that may occur in the translation of technical or conventional scien- 

 tific terms, he must meantime crave the indulgence of the deeply versed in the 

 several disciplines where these occur. He can but refer to the singular dif- 

 ficulties of his task, and solicit indulgence. 



June 28/A, 1845. 



