PUBLICATION OF RESULTS OF EXPEDITION TO AMERICA. 5 



acquainted with all that was newest and most interesting in 

 science, every circle in the world's metropolis belonged by 

 right ; private circles and learned societies vied with each 

 other in their wish to claim him as their own ; even at the 

 Institute, of which he had long been a member, where litera- 

 ture and science found their noblest representatives, he was at 

 once accorded the position of a distinguished and illustrious 

 genius, and eventually regarded as a French conquest to be 

 retained if possible as a permanent and valued possession. 

 Imperial Paris did, in fact, offer to the German investigator 

 every necessary facility for the working out and publication of 

 the results of his transatlantic journey : men of science, of his 

 own standing, to assist him in the arrangement of his valuable 

 materials, artists' studios, and printing establishments, by 

 means of which the work could be brought out with suitable 

 magnificence, and finally, influential reviewers to bring the 

 value of the work before the attention of the scientific world. 

 Nor did the fall of Napoleon seriously disturb these conditions 

 so highly favourable to the completion of an undertaking of 

 this magnitude. 



It was not until the greater part of these results had been 

 given to the world the publication of the remainder being 

 necessarily delayed on account of the enormous sum of money 

 required that Humboldt, submitting to the expressed wish of 

 his sovereign and cheered by the apparent improvement that 

 opened to him in his prospects at Berlin, came to the reso- 

 lution of returning to Prussia and taking up his residence in 

 his native city. 



Could any one section of Humboldt's long life be regarded 

 as of more importance than another, his lengthened sojourn at 

 Paris may perhaps be viewed as the one of highest significance. 

 We can scarcely furnish our readers with a better introduction 

 to this phase of Humboldt's life than the following letter, 

 addressed by him, in March 1808, 1 to his friend Professor 

 Pictet, then visiting Paris : 



6 1 am quite grieved to have missed you. It seems as if 

 misfortune resembled the plague. Everybody avoids thia 



1 ' Le Globe, Journal g^ogr.' (1868), vol. vii. p. 190. 



