16 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



unfavourable criticisms, written in no spirit of intelligent com- 

 prehension, from time to time made their appearance, though 

 such reviews, proceeding mostly from England, were invariably 

 traceable to men of no standing, or to disappointed and ill- 

 disposed people in trade. 



It must, perhaps, be admitted that Hurnboldt's American 

 works failed 'to secure from the public the reception they 

 deserved. In the first place, they were published at too high 

 a cost, and are still too expensive to allow of their purchase by 

 scientific men, and even in libraries of note are rarely found 

 in a complete form. To seek them all out is for most a labo- 

 rious undertaking. However valuable the works of an author 

 may be, if they be so costly that their price when complete is 

 to be reckoned by hundreds of pounds, but few among the 

 votaries of science can afford to be purchasers but few libra- 

 ries even can indulge in their possession. 1 It has been ad- 

 mitted, moreover, by competent judges that the plates, to 

 which is mainly due the enormous cost of the work, are un- 

 worthy of the artistic powers even of those days ; while every 

 experienced traveller acknowledges the unsatisfactory charac- 

 ter of many of the illustrations in the celebrated ' Vues des 

 Cordilleres.' 



Hurnboldt's remarkable industry while at Paris may be 

 inferred from the wide compass of his work on America, which 

 gradually extended so far beyond the original plan as to fill 

 twenty-nine volumes both folio and quarto, illustrated by 1,425 

 maps and plates, many of which are coloured. The work in 

 its complete form is entitled, ' Voyage aux Regions equi- 

 noxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait dans les annees 1799 a 



1 In the seventh volume of Humboldt's Journal stands the entry : * The 

 price of a bound copy of my works on America, complete, is 2,753 Prussian 

 thalers. It consists of twenty folio and ten quarto volumes. The price un- 

 bound is 9,574 francs = 2,553 Prussian thalers [about 400/.]. The botanical 

 part alone consists of 



Nova Genera, etc. . . 7 volumes, price 5,500 francs. 

 Plantes equin. etc. . 2 250 



Melastomes, etc. . 2 500 



Mimose'es, etc. . . 1 volume 4CO 



Graminees, etc. . .2 volumes 528 



14 = 7JJ78 ' 



EDITOR. 



