EARLY HOME. 27 



tions. I became passionately devoted to botany, and took 

 especial interest in the study of cryptogamia. The sight of 

 exotic plants, even when only as dried specimens in an herba- 

 rium, fired my imagination with the pleasure that would be 

 derived from the view of a tropical vegetation in southern 

 lands. Owing to his intimacy with Chevalier Thunberg, Herr 

 Willdenow was often in receipt of plants from Japan, and I 

 could never see them without indulging the hope that some 

 time or other I might visit foreign countries.' 



These last words furnish a glimpse of those early days when 

 the desire for foreign travel was first awakened in the youth's 

 heart. Humboldt always recalled with interest the rise of these 

 early tastes which exercised so powerful an influence upon his 

 later life. Thus he writes l : 



' From my earliest youth I had an intense desire to travel in v 

 those distant lands which have been but rarely visited by 

 Europeans. This impulse is characteristic of a certain period 

 in our existence, when life appears as a boundless horizon, 

 when nothing so completely captivates the fancy as the repre- 

 sentations of physical danger and the excitement of sensational 

 emotion. Although educated in a country which held no direct 

 communication with the colonial settlements of either the East 

 or West Indies, and afterwards called to reside at a distance 

 from the coast among mountains famous for their extensive 

 mines, I yet felt the passion for the sea and for long voyages 

 growing within me with ever-increasing strength.' 



And further : ' The study of maps and the perusal of books 

 of travel exercised a secret fascination over me which was 

 at times almost irresistible, and seemed to bring me in close 

 relationship with places and things in regions far remote. 

 The thought that I might possibly have to renounce all hope 

 of seeing the splendid constellations that shine in the southern 

 hemisphere invariably sent a pang to my heart.' 



In the ''Aspects of Nature' 2 he states : 'In the longing for a 

 sight of the Great Pacific from the high peaks of the Andes, 

 was mingled the interest with which, as a boy, I had listened to 



1 ' Reise in die Aequinoctialgegenden des neuen Continents/ vol. i. p. 47. 

 HaufTs edition, vol. i. pp. 2, 3. 



2 ' Ansichten der Natur,' 3rd ed. vol. ii. p. 303. 



