FROM REVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 219 



ment of German literature. This subject was differently viewed 

 by the majority of scientific investigators. Leopold von Buch, 

 in writing to Humboldt, once remarked : c Even had Strabo 

 not described Etna as "bicornis," I should not have been 

 disposed to place much reliance upon his descriptions, for I 

 make no account of his statement that Vesuvius was flat- 

 topped, for it could not possibly have been so described, had 

 he seen it in its present form. ... I am afraid of relying 

 upon the opinions of the ancients, except in matters of fact, 

 for I always bear in mind that speech of Boileau's when the 

 French were contending for the superiority of the ancients 

 above the moderns : " M. de la Fontaine est si bete, qu'il croit 

 que les anciens ont plus d'esprit que lui." ' The anomaly often 

 apparent in Humboldt's views is strikingly evinced in the 

 criticism upon his brother, in which -he expresses great vene- 

 ration for the spirit of the -ancients ' the reflection of man 

 in the highest stage of development as revealed to us in the 

 history of past centuries.' 



Humboldt's keen sympathy with the classic ages, calling to 

 mind the enthusiasm of he Renaissance, was further stimulated 

 by the historic bent of the present century, in which the en- 

 thusiastic feelings of the first Kenaissance are replaced by a 

 love of critical research, and incited him in the ' Examen 

 critique ' to trace the development of science in the Cinque- 

 cento period back through the middle ages to classic times. 

 * I am anxious to prove,' he remarks, ' that the great discoveries 

 of the fifteenth century were but the realisation of earlier 

 presages.' He was willing to admit that ' he had been led 

 perhaps to too great .elaboration,' but he consoled himself with 

 the thought that if < the book were tedious, it was at all events 

 most conscientiously compiled.' 1 His passion for carrying 

 every branch of scientific inquiry to the farthest possible 

 limits could never have found gratification, had he trusted 

 merely to his own resources. In philology and history, the 

 attention he had bestowed in early life upon these subjects 

 enabled him to distinguish among his learned contemporaries 

 those best fitted to assist him by their advice or criticism ; in 



1 ' Briefwechsel mit Berghaus/ vol. ii. pp. 144, 199. De la Roquette, 

 vol. ii. p. 153. 



