OF BAKOX HUMBOLDT. 23 



the absolute from the accidental, the certain 

 from the hypothesis ; the apparent lawless 

 he brought under known laws ; united the 

 isolated bodies of the earth into absolute and 

 natural groups. He thus became the founder 

 of a new science, " the comparative descrip- 

 tion of the earth," whose importance for the 

 life and progress of nations becomes every year 

 more evident. 



All the territories of physical geography 

 opened themselves to his mind ; he perceives 

 the laws, according to which the organic crea- 

 tures are distributed upon the surface of the 

 earth, with regard to the various gradations 

 of heat, the soil and the air ; and in observing 

 attentively the composition of the air, in 

 different parts, and various heights above the 

 level of the sea ; in the bowels of the earth, 

 and on the openings of volcanoes, he con- 

 vinced himself that the distribution of heat in 

 the atmosphere ; in its horizontal and perpen- 

 dicular position in space ; and also in relation 

 to the seasons, and the locality upon the 

 surface of the earth ; the temperature of the 

 oceans, and the solid earth, furnishes the most 

 important ground for a distribution of crea- 

 tures, in accordance with fixed laws. Principal 

 Forbes, in his learned dissertation " upon the 



