156 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



him the whole is an open book; he surveys 

 nature in her entirety. In his considerations of 

 the great and the small, of majestic and awful 

 phenomena, the description of a mineral, a 

 plant, or a law relative to formation and 

 development, we have a uniform and correct 

 representation of nature. These impressions 

 are free both from morbid sentimentality and 

 subjective peculiarity. 



In the illustration of his American travels, 

 Alexander von Humboldt instituted a method 

 which, if not new, was, in this instance at any 

 rate, signally successful. He adopted in his 

 progressive descriptions, frequent points of rest, 

 designed to enable his readers to review the 

 preceding facts, and to prepare them for the 

 progressive development of events. 



Ordinary accounts of travels absorb a great 

 part in relating the personal adventures and 

 achievements of the chief actor. They are 

 not unfrequently one-sided, subjective, and 

 monotonous, which is nearly akin to the 

 tedious. 



Alexander von Humboldt never desired to 

 bring his own personality prominently forward ; 

 he, on the contrary, evinced a continual anxiety 

 to affix to the scientific achievements, which 

 were the more immediate results of his own 



