56 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



that it is only occasionally tliat we are able to wander together, 

 hand in hand, through the vast temple of nature. Will you 

 believe that out of the 145,000 people in Berlin, there are 

 scarcely four, besides ourselves, who cultivate this branch of 

 physical science even as a secondary study, or as a recreation ? 

 And yet, in the ordinary exercise of their professional duties, 

 ought not physicians, and especially all political economists, 

 to be incited to follow such pursuits ? for the greater the 

 increase in population, the higher the consequent rise in 

 the price of provisions, and the heavier the burden which a 

 corrupt system of finance must impose upon the people, the 

 more important is it that fresh means of sustenance should 

 be sought out to meet the ever-increasing deficiency. How 

 many powers exist in nature of which no use is made, be- 

 cause they have hitherto been unrecognised, but which, could 

 they only be developed, might furnish food and employment 

 for thousands. Numbers of the very products which we bring 

 from the farthest quarters of the globe are trodden beneath the 

 foot in our own land ; in course of centuries some accide-nt 

 reveals them, when by another chance the discovery is either 

 lost, or, as much more rarely happens, is developed and widely 

 propagated. Botany is regarded by most people as a science 

 of very little use to any but members of the medical profession, 

 except as an amusement, or, possibly, as a means for the sub- 

 jective training of the mind a use which is obvious only to a 

 few, while to me it appears to be one of those studies from 

 which the greatest benefit may be anticipated to the whole 

 human race. What a mistake to suppose that the half-dozen 

 plants which we cultivate (I say the half-dozen in opposition 

 to the 20,000 different specimens covering the globe) contain 

 all the powers with which the vegetable kingdom has been 

 endowed by a beneficent providence for the satisfaction of our 

 wants. It seems to me that similar misconceptions pervade 

 the human mind in every department of thought : men think 

 they have reached the truth in every direction, and they 

 imagine that -there is nothing left for them to improve, and 

 nothing for them to discover. They shun investigation from 

 the belief that everything is already investigated. The same 

 spirit is apparent in religion, in politics, and in all subjects 



