OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 47 



likewise the degree of tlieir relation, which 

 materially assisted and accelerated the study of 

 the various races of mankind. 



In all investigations of Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt, for the purpose of leading to more 

 general aspects, it was his favoured method to 

 select a given point, and to start from it in 

 an exact manner onward. This circumscribed 

 point, accessible to physical observations, he 

 found in the basin of the Mediterranean Sea, 

 which was surrounded by those peoples who 

 laid the foundation of the subsequent civiliza- 

 tion in the West. From this basin of the 

 Mediterranean Sea he followed the stream of 

 civilization, and found that the history of 

 natural philosophy proceeded in an exact line 

 of development, not emanating from one but 

 several primitive races ; for we discover in the 

 earliest periods, as it were several points of 

 light on the extreme horizon, from which the 

 rays of civilization emanated, Egypt, Babylon, 

 Nineveh, Cashmir, Iran, and China. Humboldt 

 observed on that occasion, " These central 

 points remind one of the greater of those 

 sparkling stars in the firmament, of the 

 everlasting suns in the immeasurable space 

 of the heavens, the power of whose rays we 

 may perhaps know, but not, with the excep- 



