4 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



Captain Cook in his second voyage round the 

 world. All his early recollections were mingled 

 with stories of travel, adventure, and discovery; 

 and, wandering among the pine-woods of his 

 father's estate, his imagination enlarged them 

 into vast continents, the arms of the lake ex- 

 panding into breadths of ocean, hiding some- 

 where in the distance unknown islands. And 

 long afterwards, when much of his labour had 

 been accomplished, and his sacred fame was all 

 secure, he observed that the impression aroused 

 within us in early childhood always took a 

 graver direction in after-years. The educational 

 method of Rousseau had already found entrance 

 and acceptance in Prussia, and had given rise 

 to more liberal plans for the education of youth; 

 and to those ideas Humboldt was indebted for 

 a course of training which developed his body 

 and mind in an equal degree, and allowed full 

 play to the gratification of all his natural tastes. 

 He was not the only child for which that crazy 

 philosopher received a father's blessing; but in 

 no other instance was his system so nobly jus- 

 tified as in Alexander von Humboldt. Noticing 

 that the boy exhibited a more than ordinary 

 interest in trees and plants, his teacher made 

 him acquainted with the rudiments of botany, 

 and explained to him the twenty- four classes of 



