FROM REVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 211 



designate tlie death of the king. In addition to the revision of 

 the press, much care was bestowed on the preparation of an 

 elaborate ' Carte de 1'Asie centrale,' which as greatly exceeded 

 the ' Carte des Chaines de Montagues, etc.,' published in the 

 ' Fragments,' as did the ' Asie centrale ' the earlier and smaller 

 work. A reproduction of the ' Fragments ' was indeed so little 

 to be thought of, that Humboldt was fully justified in giving 

 a new title to the work in its enlarged and more complete 

 form ; though the title he selected scarcely expressed its full 

 significance, for in describing the mountain chains of Thian- 

 chan, Kuen-lun, and Bolor, Humboldt had exceeded the limits 

 of Central Asia. In comparing these works it is evident how 

 greatly Humboldt's views had become enlarged, during the 

 intervening ten years, by the mass of new facts collected facts 

 which he well knew how to arrange around new or old-esta- 

 blished centres of thought. In the ' Asie centrale ' he lias dis- 

 played, perhaps more than in any other book, that art which he 

 describes in the introduction as the characteristic of modern 

 science ' the art of collecting and arranging a mass of isolated 

 facts, and rising thence by a process of induction to general 

 ideas.' This is shown in the attempt to ascertain by calcula- 

 tion the mean elevation of entire continents ; but in order to 

 appreciate the vast range of facts subjected to this inductive 

 reasoning, it must be remembered that besides the description 

 of mountain ranges, with details of their geological structure, 

 Humboldt's researches in Asia comprised also magnetic and 

 astronomical observations, descriptions of climate, official re- 

 ports upon the mines of the Ural and the gold fields of Siberia, 

 and a variety of information concerning Chinese literature, 

 illustrated after the death of Klaproth by valuable notes from 

 the pen of Stanislas Julien. In this way there gradually grew 

 under Humboldt's hand another grand and comprehensive if 

 not highly finished ' picture of nature,' although he modestly 

 asserted that he had confined himself in the compilation of the 

 work 'to that which in the present state of our knowledge 

 was most new and authentic.' The fragmentary character of 

 his own observations led him eagerly to avail himself of the 

 results obtained by other explorers sent out by the Russian 

 Government; for this material he was indebted to Count 



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