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CHAPTER I. 



PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION 

 TO AMERICA. 



Paris under the First Empire Humboldt in Paris Pecuniary Embarrass- 

 ment Bonpland's Lack of Industry New Coadjutors Comprehensive 

 Character of the Work The Publishers and the Cost of Publication. 



BEFORE attempting to follow Humboldt throughout his length- 

 ened sojourn in Paris, whither he was appointed to accompany 

 Prince William of Prussia on a diplomatic mission in 1808, let 

 us take a hasty survey of the condition of France and her 

 capital at that period. 



The Emperor Napoleon had brought the greater part of 

 Europe under his sway. Paris had become the metropolis of 

 the civilised world, and a Teuton was almost obliged to confess 

 with bitterness that Paris was at that time the capital of 

 Germany. A royal prince of the House of Prussia appeared at 

 the French court as the envoy extraordinary of his country, 

 while on Napoleon's divorce of Josephine, an Austrian arch- 

 duchess consented to become the bride of the conqueror in 

 the same Paris where her unfortunate aunt had been dragged 

 relentlessly from the throne to the scaffold. 



In seeking for an explanation of this state of things, we 

 shall at the outset be compelled to admit that when, amid 

 every imaginary splendour, the Empire rose over the ruins of 

 the Republic, Paris entered immediately upon a marvellous 

 phase of existence. With consummate tact, and not without 

 a certain amount of taste, Napoleon knew how to plunder 

 the nations whom he conquered, and how to select the spoil 

 which he destined for the embellishment of Paris. Libra- 

 ries and ancient monuments, picture galleries and statues, 



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