LETTER FROM VON BUCH. 273 



not even know the contents of the journal, 

 but I suppose it contained papers of yours, 

 full of genius and ardor. I like your way of 

 looking at nature, and I think you render 

 great service to science by your observations. 

 A right spirit will readily lead you to see that 

 this is the true road to glory, far preferable to 

 the one which leads to vain analogies and 

 speculations, the time for which is long past. 

 I am grieved to hear that you are not well, 

 and that your eyes refuse their service. M. 

 de Ilumboldt tells me that you are seeking a 

 better climate here, in the month of February. 

 You may find it, perhaps, thanks to our stoves. 

 But as we shall still have plenty of ice in the 

 streets, your glacial opinions will not find a 

 market at that season. I should like to pre- 

 sent you with a memoir or monograph of 

 mine, just published, on Spirifer and Orthis, 

 but I will take good care to let no one pay 

 postage on a work which, by its nature, can 

 have but a very limited interest. ... I will 

 await your arrival to give you these descrip- 

 tions. I am expecting the numbers of your 

 Fossil Fishes, which have not yet come. Hum- 

 boldt often speaks of them to me. Ah ! how 

 much I prefer you in a field which is wholly 

 your own than in one where you break in 



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