FKOM ACCESSION OF FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 329" 



failure in the ingenious embodiment of his conception. \ To 

 many of our readers this censure may seem unnecessarily severe, 

 in view of the sensation created throughout Germany by the 

 c Aspects of Nature ' and the first two volumes of ' Cosmos.' It 

 must be borne in mind that, in conformity with Humboldt's own 

 custom, we have brought his literary productions in comparison 

 with the grandest creations of the most distinguished writers of 

 Germany. It cannot be denied either that where he has set 

 himself to the task, he has succeeded by means of strenuous 

 exertions in producing striking effects of language ; though, for 

 the most part, as he himself admits, of a character that appeals 

 most forcibly to the c sentimentality and fantastic imagination 

 of youth.' l The pompous diction of the ' Aspects of Nature ' and 

 of ' Cosmos,' noticeable also in the early works of gchiller, 

 possesses a powerful charm for uncultivated natures and for 

 those whose tastes have not outgrown the immaturity of 

 youth. 



For a full justification of this opinion, we have but to appeal 

 to Humboldt's letters ; for in letters the character of an author 

 is revealed in its natural simplicity, of which we have an ex- 

 ample in those of the great classic writers Goethe and Lessing. 

 Humboldt's letters differ greatly in character. A great number 

 of them are written in the same lofty strain as his works, and, 

 composed no doubt under the impression that they would 

 eventually be published, were penned, not exactly before the 

 glass, but in an assumed mental posture. Others are exclusively 

 of a scientific character, and in composition may be classed with 

 his more important writings ; but in neither of these styles does 

 there exist a genuine type of a letter, exhibiting the free and 

 unrestrained expression of a one-sided conversation. Examples 

 of this description, however, are by no means wanting among 

 the notes and letters he was daily in the habit of writing, but 

 in most of them the style is far from being agreeable. The 

 virtuoso, so brilliant in conversation, was quite unable to com- 

 mit to paper the same easy flow of unconstrained converse : 

 perhaps the pen refused to obey his summons with sufficient 

 readiness, for it is well known that from the injury to his arm he 



1 ' Kosmos/ vol. i. Preface, p. ix. 



