EESIDENCE AT BERLIN TO THE EEVOLUTION OF JULY. 77 



radiance upon any of the hitherto unilluminated paths of 

 science, but he rejoiced only in the character of an interested 

 spectator ; to him pre-eminently belonged the task of skilfully 

 arranging into an imposing panorama the comprehensive 

 views of nature which, from his high stand-point, he almost 

 exclusively enjoyed. After an attentive survey of his multi- 

 farious labours, it is obvious that Humboldt's most valuable 

 scientific achievements were accomplished during his early 

 years, and that at a later period his productive activity was 

 superseded by a no less remarkable perceptive apprehension of 

 Nature in all her phenomena. He became increasingly the ideal 

 representative of scientific progress, even in the details of close 

 investigation, while at an earlier period he had often been a 

 leader in the path of inquiry. 



In this fact lies the significance of the latter portion of 

 life. It is precisely as the representative of the scientific 

 knowledge of the age that he was so highly valued by his 

 contemporaries; the honours profusely showered upon the 

 author of ' Cosmos ' may after all be regarded merely as the 

 homage offered by the men of the nineteenth century, proud 

 of the grand achievements of modern science, to their own 

 comprehensive genius impersonated in a manner not granted to 

 every age, in a living representative gifted with a mind alike 

 distinguished for power of arrangement and universality of 

 comprehension. If it be true that 6 man wanders among the 

 departed in the same form in which he leaves this earth,' then at 

 the name of Humboldt the image of the author of ' Cosmos ' 

 would rise before the mind as that of a venerable man, with head 

 inclined and deeply furrowed brow, bearing upon his shoul- 

 ders, after the manner of Atlas, the burden of the Universe a 

 strange creation, the full significance of which he only could 

 estimate, since he alone had proved it by experience. 1 



If on this account the closing period of the life of Alexander 

 von Humboldt presents a subject equally worthy of our con- 

 templation with that of his youth or manhood, it will at once 

 be evident that the mode of treatment must assume a very 



1 A well-known drawing by Kaulbach, though unfortunately somewhat 

 of a caricature, brings out in an ingenious manner this resemblance in the 

 venerable Humboldt to Atlas, the supporter of the Universe. 



