40 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



mind of such discrimination, powers of observation so acute, 

 and for whose character I entertain so sincere a regard. I am 

 only awaiting the return of our young friend, M. Valenciennes, 

 to pay you a morning visit at Sceaux, that I may renew the 

 homage of my affectionate respect, and have the pleasure of 

 seeing you surrounded by that magnificent collection which 

 has exercised so important an influence upon the study of the 

 geological formations of our globe. 



' AL. DE HUMBOLDT/ 



We are left in uncertainty as to how far Humboldt's ac- 

 quaintance with Elie de Beaumont, born in 1798, had pro- 

 ceeded during his residence in Paris. In later years they 

 became very intimate friends. Humboldt had a peculiar 

 regard for this eminent man, and it was doubtless no mere 

 phrase of courtesy with which he once commenced a letter to 

 him from Berlin : * ' When I am at a loss for some information, 

 as often happens, I say to myself, Oh that I could only go and 

 ask my friend M. Elie de Beaumont ! ' Humboldt's corre- 

 spondence with him shows how earnestly he sought to keep up 

 his intellectual communion with his Parisian friend ; the letters, 

 while replete with subjects of importance, are animated through- 

 out by a vein of humour. When, in a letter to Beaumont, 

 Humboldt refers to the death of Blumenbach, his former tutor 

 at Grottingen, in the somewhat unfeeling words : 2 ' The death 

 of Herr Blumenbach, who, like many other men of science, has 

 had the misfortune to survive a literary reputation somewhat 

 too readily acquired,' it is but one of those harsh expressions 

 characteristic of the restless genius who was far from outliving 

 his own literary fame. 



Such were the men with whom Humboldt chiefly consorted 

 during his residence in Paris. The number of distinguished 

 names which we have here introduced is ample evidence of the 

 truth of the foregoing statement, that in the execution of his 

 great work Humboldt met with the encouragement and assist- 

 ance he required among the numerous scientific friends by 

 whom he was surrounded. 



1 De la Roquette, vol. ii. p. 353. . 

 8 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 177. 



