216 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



of his travels in America ; indeed, he himself describes his 

 historical researches as 'abstracts of various labours which 

 he had followed out in the leisure that he had been able to 

 devote to these favourite pursuits during the last thirty years ; ' 

 that is to say, since his return to Europe. These studies were 

 not followed with any persistency till after the year 1825, when 

 they received a fresh impulse through the publication of some 

 important Spanish documents, to which was added in the spring 

 of 1832 the stimulus of Humboldt's fortunate discovery of Juan 

 de la Cosa's map in the Walckenaer Library at Paris : this led 

 to the completion of the work in two sections 'On the Pre- 

 paratory Causes which led to the Discovery of the New World,' 

 and ' On some Facts relating to Columbus and Amerigo Ves- 

 pucci, with a Treatise on Geographical Discovery.' From the 

 value of this work it is to be regretted that two other treatises 

 on kindred subjects were never brought to completion ; the 

 one, ( On the Earliest Maps of the New Continent and the Name 

 of America,' appearing only in an abridged form appended to 

 Grhillany's 'History o the Navigator Martin Behaimb' (Nurem- 

 berg, 1853); and the other, on ' The Progress of Nautical Astro- 

 nomy and the Art of Map Delineation during the Fifteenth 

 and Sixteenth Centuries,' being given merely in outline in the 

 notes to ' Cosmos/ 



As far as the mode of treatment is concerned, the ' Examen 

 critique ' fully deserves its appellation. By this work Humboidt 

 raised himself to the rank of the first critical historian of 

 Germany : the three qualifications of an historian, as laid down 

 by Ranke in the instructions to his classes, namely, ' critical 

 power, accuracy, and discernment,' were vividly before his mind. 

 He spared no pains in the collection of authentic material; 

 the information he had gathered by his own extensive reading 

 was vastly increased by the happy power he possessed of in- 

 ducing even the most learned investigators of the day to com- 

 municate their stores of knowledge. Nor was he less anxious 

 to consult their judgment as to the importance of individual 

 passages ; but it would be doing him an injustice not to admit 

 that with most of these questions he was himself fully able to 

 grapple. In historical criticism he was guided by the axioms 

 now universally acknowledged, and felt the necessity of avoiding 



