PREFACE. 



I HAVE with great diffidence ventured upon 

 the following biographical sketch, based 

 upon Professor Klenke's " Denkmal." My 

 sole apology is that my humble effort to popu- 

 larize the memory of Humboldt . has received 

 encouragement from many men renowned in 

 science some of them personal friends of that 

 illustrious man. I indulge the hope, however, 

 that the interesting nature of the subject will 

 go far to atone for my inadequate treatment of 

 it. The reader will no doubt meet with many 

 defects of style inseparable from efforts to think 

 in one language and express those thoughts in 

 another; and I therefore bespeak his indul- 

 gence for my attempt to write in a tongue I 

 never learned from my mother's lips. 



To treat a great theme greatly, requires 

 something of cognate greatness. To this I do 

 not pretend. 



F. A. S. 



