6 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



the banks of strict science into the fields of the 

 civilized world : he broke through the barrier 

 which separated science from actual life ; his 

 object was not only to labour for the advance- 

 ment of science, but more for the benefit of 

 humanity. From this point of view we must 

 consider the expression of an enthusiast who 

 somewhere exclaimed that Humboldt was re- 

 lated to, and identical with, a conqueror of 

 worlds; a reformer, a founder of a religion. 

 Few ever painted with so much fidelity the 

 remarkable scenes he had witnessed. This 

 faithful representation of nature is the rare and 

 the peculiar merit of Alexander von Humboldt. 

 No one could reproduce to me, who had him- 

 self seen and felt it, with more power the fiery 

 atmosphere of the South American valleys. 

 His habits of observation as a naturalist aided 

 in giving character to his descriptions of scenery. 

 In his voyage on the Upper Orinoco, he referred 

 again and again to the saddening impression 

 produced by those magnificent scenes, where 

 a savage vegetation seemed to have usurped 

 the whole earth, and man was nothing in com- 

 parison. In those reflections the man's heart 

 seemed rather to speak than the philosopher's 

 brain. This equinoctial journey may be con- 

 sidered a great personal achievement of Hum- 



