378 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



with a friend of my own age. His nose, mouth, and chin had 

 the heavy Teutonic character, whose genuine type always 

 expresses an honest simplicity and directness. 



' I was most surprised by the youthful character of his face. 

 I knew that he had been frequently indisposed during the 

 year, and had been told that he was beginning to show the 

 marks of his extreme age, but I should not have suspected 

 him of being over seventy-five. His wrinkles were few and 

 small, and his skin had a smoothness and delicacy rarely seen 

 in old men. His hair, although snow-white, was still abundant, 

 his step slow but firm, and his manner active almost to rest- 

 lessness. He slept but four hours out of the twenty-four, read 

 and replied to his daily rain of letters, and suffered no single 

 occurrence of the least interest in any part of the world to 

 escape his attention. I could not perceive that his memory, 

 the first mental faculty to show decay, was at all impaired. 

 He talked rapidly, with the greatest apparent ease, never 

 hesitating for a word, whether in English or German, and, in 

 fact, seemed to be unconscious which language he was using, 

 as he changed five or six times in the course of the conversation. 

 He did not remain in his chair more than ten minutes at a 

 time, frequently getting up and walking about the room, now 

 and then pointing to a picture or opening a book to illustrate 

 some remark. 



; He began by referring to my winter journey into Lapland. 

 "Why do you choose the winter ?" he asked ; "your experiences 

 will be vely interesting, it is true, but will you not suffer from 

 the severe cold ? " " That remains to be seen," I answered. 

 " I have tried all climates except the Arctic, without the least 

 injury. The last two years of my travels were spent in tro- 

 pical countries, and now I have the wish to have the strongest 

 possible contrast." " That is quite natural," he remarked, 

 "and I can understand how your object in travel must lead 

 you to seek such contrasts ; but you must possess a remarkably 

 healthy organisation." " You doubtless know, from your own 

 experience," I said, "that nothing preserves a man's vitality 

 like travel." " Very true," he answered, " if it does not kill at 

 the outset. For my part, I keep my health everywhere, like 

 yourself. During five years in South America and the West 



