OF BAEON HUMBOLDT. 43 



and thereby to honour Humboldt and science.* 

 We may well apply the words of a modern poet 

 to the great savant : 



" I am become a name ; 

 For always roaming with a hungry heart, 

 Much have I seen and known ; cities of men 

 And manners, climates, councils, governments, 

 Myself not least, but honour'd of them all ! " 



Through Alexander von Humboldt a whole 

 world is opened to the view of the educated 

 classes. One may see him upon the summits of 

 the Cordillera and the Altai, and penetrate into 

 all open fields of nature ; into the depths of 

 the seas, the immense space of the heavens ; 

 a seer and a prophet. In the marvellous 

 results of his great activity, he appears a 

 scientific sun, whose rays illuminate the whole 

 earth, giving everywhere light and encourage- 

 ment to scientific researches. In following the 

 great explorer to another field of intellectual 



* The discoveries of Oerstedt with reference to electro- 

 magnetism, and the results of the observations of Arago 

 and Faraday, intimately connected with this subject, 

 materially aided the investigations of Baron Humboldt. 

 Oerstedt discovered that electricity in the vicinity of a 

 body which acts as a conductor of electricity, produces 

 magnetism ; whilst Faraday remarks that, on the contrary, 

 liberated magnetism would also occasion electric flows. 



