xii IN rBODl I I [ON, 



"Ko mo my friend Heine, the artist, he Bent hi. 4 



own copy (the original edition) of his " Vu $ d 8 Cordil- 

 tires," containing some of his marginal notes. On Learning 

 that the same gentleman had been obliged to go to Ame- 

 rica through his connexion with th<' events of 184s, lie pre- 

 vailed upon the king of Prussia to grant him the Order of 

 the Red Eagle — through which recognition the official ban 

 w:is removed. This is but one instance of the many acts 



■ 



of kindness on his part, with which I have become ac- 

 quainted. 



His mind was so admirably balanced — his development 



was so various, and yet so complete in every department of 

 science, that his true greatness is not so apparent as in the 

 case of those who have risen to eminence by devoting them- 

 selves to some special study. Perfect symmetry never 

 produces the effect of vast n ess. It is only by studying tin- 

 details that we comprehend the character of the whole. 

 Humboldt, however, may be termed the father of Physical 



Geography, and the suggester, if not the discoverer, of that 



system of the distribution of plants and animals which opens 

 to our view another held of that Divine Order, manifested 

 in the visible world. lie strove to grasp those Becrets, 

 which, perhaps, no single mind will ever be able to compre- 

 hend — the aggregate of the laws which underlie the myste- 

 ries of Creation, Growth, and Decay; and though he fell 

 short of the sublime aim, he Ma- at least able to say, like 

 Kepler, when he discovered the mathematical harmonies of 

 the solar system ; " Oh, Almighty God, I think Thy 

 thoughts alter Thee!" 



