FKOM ACCESSION OF FKEDEKICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 319 



anxiety to secure the right appreciation of his undertaking, 

 he was not content merely with the elucidations contained in 

 the book itself, but, as the various portions of the work ap- 

 peared, would write explanatory letters to his friends, full of 

 valuable comments upon the subject. 



f^My chief object,' he writes to Varnhagen on April 28, 

 184 1, 1 'is to take a survey of the extent of our knowledge 

 in this year of 1841.' This was principally effected in the 

 ' Survey of Nature ' in the first volume, where all phenomena 

 are condensed into well-arranged groups, so as to present the 

 reader with a comprehensive glance, a bird's-eye view, as it 

 were, of the facts that science has revealed/. In a letter to 

 Bockh of December 25, 1845, Humboldt expressly gives it as 

 the whole secret of his work, that (the individual results in 

 various branches of scientific investigation are suppressed in 

 the ' Survey of Nature,' and reserved for the succeeding 

 volumes : ' Were these facts to be interwoven into the " Survey 

 of Nature," that portion of the work would lose all impression 

 of unity, and would cease to have the effect of a rapid and 

 animating glance.^ The plan thus contemplated of ' hovering 

 over the field of knowledge ' 2 to use his own oft-repeated 

 expression was only partially accomplished ; for an uninter- 

 rupted series of generalisations would have lessened the vivid- 

 ness of the picture by destroying all individuality. The in- 

 troduction of a few well-chosen facts was necessary to prevent 

 the unity of the whole degenerating into uniformity, and to 

 lend force to the generalisations which tend naturally to tame- 

 ness and insipidity. These views were once expressed by 

 Humboldt in writing to Encke upon the ' Survey of Nature ' : 

 'Details have purposely been interwoven with generalisations, 

 in order to excite the interest and lay a firm foundation for 

 the position of the observer.' In other words to revert to a 

 former simile the bird's-eye view should not be taken at such 

 a height that everything seems reduced to a monotonous grey- 

 green surface, but prominent objects, like hills and towers, 

 should stand out in their individuality, so as to produce the 

 impression that the moving panorama is based upon solid 



1 ' Briefe an Varnhagen,' No. 54. 

 3 Ibid. No. 10. 



