FROM REVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 213 



during the three days that I have spent uninterruptedly in the 

 perusal of your work while at Potsdam, Paretz, and here ! 

 You are acquainted with everything that has been for centuries 

 observed, all is arranged with your characteristic acuteness, 

 familiar materials assume a new and important aspect, and the 

 whole is reproduced with the most' admirable clearness. To 

 this is added the charm, of vivacity, and occasionally even of 

 much elegance of style. I take quite a pleasure in tormenting 

 you with my praise ; I have repeatedly lauded you before the 

 king and crown prince, and even before the ladies of the court, 

 with whom you are unacquainted, for I have \h& unfashionable 

 propensity of exulting in the merits of others-. I, have told the 

 king that it is the most important work that has appeared for 

 the last thirty years, &c.' * In another letter, he again alludes 

 to it as ' the most important work now being brought out in 

 Germany, and, from its colossal structure, is worthy of greater. 

 admiration than it is likely to receive from the inhabitants of 

 this frivolous city.' This admiration, which finds frequent ex- 

 pression throughout the whole of the ' Asie centrale,' was to 

 some extent a counterpart of the powerful influence which 

 Humboldt exerted upon Bitter by his descriptions of his 

 American journey, on their first interview at Frankfort-on-the- 

 Main, in 1807. ' You may easily perceive,' wrote the latter to 

 Grutsmuths 2 on that occasion, ' how completely lost I have 

 been to everything around me all these days 3 .and have had 

 neither time nor thought but for him by whom my interest and 

 attention have entirely been absorbed. Never have I received 

 so charming and perfect an image of any region of country as 

 that derived from Humboldt's description of the Cordilleras. 

 My sympathy with him was all the greater, from having eagerly 

 read all his works as fast as they came out.' 



The science of comparative geography, which has subse- 

 quently engaged the attention of various scientific investiga- 

 tors, was at this epoch followed only by two men of scientific 

 eminence, and it is remarkable that they should have studied 

 it from positions widely different. Bitter, in his somewhat 



1 Kramer's ' Karl Hitter,' vol. ii. p. 120. 



2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 167. 



