322 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



did not prove ill-founded ;\the second volume has enjoyed a wider 

 and more enduring popularity than the first if we except the 

 masterly introduction but the explanation of this is only 

 partly to be found in its adaptability to every c grade of mental 

 culture.' For, setting aside the later volumes, it undoubtedly 

 possesses this essential advantage over the ' Survey of Nature,' 

 that from the historical nature of the subject it remains un- 

 affected by the march of scientific discovery ; and 4 while the 

 bird's-eye view of human knowledge in 1841 ' cannot fail to 

 lose in interest as the boundaries of our knowledge widen, and 

 much that was held to be true then has since been proved to 

 be erroneous, the c History of the Eise and Progress of Science/ 

 compiled in 1847, grounded as it is upon the most extensive 

 critical investigations, will remain for all time of undiminished 

 value.] It possesses, together with the chapter on the ' Effect 

 produced upon the imagination by the Physical Universe,' the 

 further advantage of being written in a style in which the 

 subject and the treatment are in pleasing harmony. No one 

 will be disposed to censure Humboldt for endeavouring to 

 secure, even in descriptions of phenomena, ' vigour of style, 

 beauty of diction, and grace of composition ; ' this was almost 

 a necessary consequence of the effort to attain unity and com- 

 prehensiveness of view. But when he defines the charm of corn- 

 position to consist in the ' conversion of technical terms into 

 the graphic and suggestive expressions of well-chosen language,' l 

 the fear is naturally suggested lest in so doing, clearness and 

 precision should be sacrificed, for the sake of which the terms 

 employed in science were originally devised. The evil effects of 

 this principle are in fact discernible in the ' Survey of Nature,' 

 in which the selection of graphic expressions has not always 

 been fortunate, so that one is occasionally reminded of Hum- 

 boldt's frank confession to Bockh : ' I am endeavouring to 

 introduce into " Cosmos," on which I am at present engaged, 

 many graces of style and poetic allusions.' This tendency is 

 not very obvious in the chapter on the 'Poetical Description 

 of Nature,' as when poetry is the subject, poetic modes of ex- 

 pression are admissible ; nor does it offend in the ' History of 



1 ; Briefe an Varnhagen/ No. 54. 



