FROM REVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 217 



hasty conclusions based upon the silence of an author. 1 The 

 accuracy attained through the adroit treatment of doubtful 

 points in his researches upon the history of discovery, and the 

 firm line of argument carried through a crowd of suggestive 

 facts, the tedium of which is relieved by a judicious distribu- 

 tion between text and notes, may justly excite admiration. 

 His discernment and discriminating use of material is brilliantly 

 displayed in the descriptive portions of the latter section, 

 especially in the masterly sketch of the character of Columbus. 

 Humboldt points out this passage with just satisfaction to his 

 critical friend Varnhagen, 2 as one which had delighted his 

 Parisian audience ' as a burst of feeling welling up in the midst 

 of dreary deserts of technical erudition.' Nevertheless these 

 dreary deserts have a no less important function to perform in 

 the organism of the complete work. 



In attempting to estimate the strength of Humboldt's pre- 

 dilection for historical research we must not confine ourselves 

 to the 'Examen critique,' which Humboldt himself terms a 

 'History of the Geography of the Middle Ages,' or to the 

 historical portions of the ' Asie centrale,' the same bent of 

 mind is equally displayed in the works on America, the 

 ' History of the Rise and Progress of Science,' in the second 

 volume of c Cosmos,' and the numerous historical notes illus- 

 trating that work. His interest was most powerfully drawn 

 to the history of civilisation in reference to the study of Nature 

 and her subjugation to the wants of man. With his strong 

 love for science, it can be no subject for surprise that in 

 history his attention should have been mainly directed towards 

 tracing the progress of its development. Political history 

 possessed few charms for him, and, as we have seen, he had no 

 confidence in political ideas. The indifference with which he 

 regarded the apparently aimless changes in the outward policy 

 of nations may perhaps be ascribed to the impressions pro- 

 duced on his mind by the revolutionary age in which he had 

 lived ; this receives confirmation from the negative views of 

 state policy early expressed by William von Humboldt in his 

 essay upon ' The Limits of the Power of the State,' in which 



1 l Briefe an Varnhagen/ p. 58. 



2 Ibid. p. 57. 



