88 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



and arranging an infinite variety of impressions has arrived 

 at an idealised conception more in harmony with our nature. 

 Each mode possesses its own peculiar advantage, and we have 

 fully enjoyed both during this journey. Immediate contact 

 with animated nature produces undoubtedly the most powerful 

 impression upon the mind ; the object, whatever it may be, 

 that exists without the co-operation of man, that is, and was, 

 and ever will be independent of him, impresses itself deeply 

 upon the mind with a clear and sharply defined image, in 

 which no detail is omitted. The most diverse ideas, on the 

 contrary, though gathered from all quarters of the globe, from 

 the past, and may I add ? from the future also, become, 

 when received through the apprehension of another mind, at 

 once associated with the present, with which they weave them- 

 selves* into a drama that mocks reality.' 



Thus, in the consecrated precincts of the Cathedral, Forster 

 saw with prophetic eye the greatness in store for Humboldt, as 

 if willing to read therein the fulfilment in a far wider sense of 

 his own destiny. 



Two letters written by Humboldt during this journey to 

 Wegener have been preserved. The first, dated Castleton, High 

 Peak, Derbyshire, June 15, 1790, is as follows : 



' I must really ask your forgiveness for having allowed these 

 three or four months to slip by without sending you a line, 

 and for having even left the Continent without acquainting 

 you with my plans, my dearest, my best friend, to whom I am 

 indebted for the happiest hours of my life. But forgiveness is 

 easily obtained from one who is so uncomplaining, so rarely 

 vexed as yourself. Your last letter reached me when I was 

 laid up with a severe attack of influenza (febris Gottingensis\ 

 which seized me before I had well recovered from the measles, 

 and which left me for some time in a state of great nervous 

 prostration. I was in no condition to reply to your letter then, 

 delighted as I was to hear from you. ... I am much gratified, 

 my dear friend, to find that you are still so completely what 

 you used to be, so frank, so honest, so noble, so entirely unspoilt 

 that reason has enabled you to triumph over all the assaults of 

 dogmatic theology. Do not fear that I shall insult a position 

 which, though it may have been a torment to all mankind, has 



