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overflow. He asked me many questions, but did not always wait 

 for an answer, the question itself suggesting some reminiscence, 

 or some thought which he had evident pleasure in expressing. 

 I sat or walked, following his movements, an eager listener, and 

 speaking in alternate English and German, until the time 

 which he had granted to me had expired. Seifert at length 

 reappeared, and said to him, in a manner at once respectful and 

 familiar, " It is time," and I took my leave. 



6 "You have travelled much, and seen many ruins," said Hum- 

 boldt, as he gave me his hand again ; " now you have seen one 

 more." "Not a ruin," I could not help replying, "but a 

 pyramid." For I pressed the hand which had touched those of 

 Frederick the Great, of Forster, the companion of Capt. Cook, 

 of Klopstock and Schiller, of Pitt, Napoleon, Josephine, the 

 Marshals of the Empire, Jefferson, Hamilton, Wieland, Herder, 

 Goethe, Cuvier, Laplace, Gay-Lussac, Beethoven, Walter Scott 

 in short, of every great man whom Europe has produced for 

 three-quarters of a century. I looked into the eyes which had 

 not only seen this living history of the world pass by, scene 

 after scene, till the actors retired one by one, to return no 

 more, but had beheld the cataract of Atures, and the forests of 

 the Cassiquiare, Chimborazo, the Amazon, and Popocatepetl, the 

 Altaian Alps of Siberia, the Tartar steppes, and the Caspian 

 Sea. Such a splendid circle of experience well befitted a life 

 of such generous devotion to science. I have never seen so 

 sublime an example of old age crowned with imperishable 

 success, full of the ripest wisdom, cheered and sweetened by 

 the noblest attributes of the heart. A ruin, indeed ! No ; a 

 human temple, perfect as the Parthenon. 



6 As I was passing out through the cabinet of natural history, 

 Seifert's voice arrested me. " I beg your pardon, sir," said he, 

 " but do you know what this is ? " pointing to the antlers of a 

 Eocky Mountain elk. " Of course I do," said I, " I have helped 

 to eat many of them." He then pointed out the other speci- 

 mens, and took me into the library to show me some drawings 

 by his son-in-law, Mollhausen, who had accompanied Lieutenant 

 Whipple in his expedition to the Kocky Mountains. He also 

 showed me a very elaborate specimen of bead-work in a gilt 

 frame. " This," he said, " is the work of a Kirghiz princess, who 



