RETROSPECT. 249 



enabled him when still a student to associate as an equal 

 with the most distinguished men in science or art, in politics 

 or social life. 



At the close of life, Humboldt has been likened to a fountain 

 giving forth streams of universal knowledge : he may still 

 more be said in the days of his early manhood to have resembled 

 a luminous centre, diffusing in every direction a flood of in- 

 tellectual light, and exciting everywhere a reciprocal activity. 

 It was impossible for him to pursue any new method of obser- 

 vation, or investigate any newly-discovered truth, without at 

 once calling upon his friends and fellow-labourers to accompany 

 him along the untrodden path. 



Highly as he was gifted with mental power, he was not less 

 endowed with moral excellence. He possessed a capacity for 

 friendship amounting even to enthusiasm, in the exercise of 

 which he shrank from no sacrifice, and drew around him the 

 noblest and the best of his time ; he was distinguished by no- 

 bility of mind, a genuine devotion to all that is good and true, 

 a willingness to acknowledge every service rendered to him, an 

 unalienable kindness of heart, universal affability, a courteous 

 manner, and a freedom from all unworthy motives. 



With a restless industry and an inexhaustible capacity for 

 work, Alexander von Humboldt united an ideal, an almost 

 poetic enthusiasm. Hence his motto : 



' Man must ever strive after all that is good and great ! ' 



'I7ERSIT 



