PREFACE. XV 



valuable information in reply to my numerous inquiries. 

 Through the kindness of Herr von Weber, Director of the 

 Koyal Archives at Dresden, I was allowed to have access to the 

 State documents, and make abstracts from the various papers 

 having reference to Humboldt. By Professor Grneist of Berlin 

 I was offered the use of 295 letters to Bockh, which were 

 found among his papers. From Herr Of. Rose I received a 

 valuable addition to the Cancrin correspondence, consisting of 

 a number of unpublished letters and several important orders 

 in Council ; through the kindness of Professors Bellermann, 

 Curtius, Dove, and others, I have been granted a perusal of the 

 letters addressed to them by Humboldt. 



To all those who have thus kindly assisted in the compi- 

 lation of this biography I would here express my most grateful 

 thanks. 



The words of William von Humboldt, which have been 

 selected as the motto for the first volume : ' My only conception 

 of biography is that of historical truth,' have served as a 

 guiding principle throughout the work. 



In portraying the early life of Humboldt, in particular, the 

 Author has regarded it as a duty, not so much to controvert the 

 false and unfounded representations that have prevailed hitherto 

 regarding this period, but rather to support the statements of 

 a very different character, by the introduction of proofs never 

 before published. 



For the compilation of the second section, containing the 

 narrative of the expeditions to America and Asia, the principal 

 source of information has been the works published by Hum- 

 boldt himself, which, however, were never wholly completed. 

 These have therefore been supplemented by a careful investi- 

 gation of his manuscript journals, and of many published and 

 unpublished letters relating to that period. The expedition to 

 Asia, though separated by half a lifetime from the travels in 

 America, presented so much similarity in subject and mode of 

 treatment that it was deemed advisable to include them in the 

 same section. 



