HUMBOLDT THE AUTHOR. 327 



The popularity of the folio "Picturesque Atlas" in- 

 duced Humboldt to issue a less expensive edition in 

 12mo. The title of the folio " Picturesque Atlas" was 

 dropped, and its sub-title, "Views of the Cordilleras, and 

 Monuments of the Native People of America," substi- 

 tuted instead. It soon became a favourite book. 



If the reader were to imagine Humboldt at this time, 

 he would doubtless picture him as a man absorbed in 

 his pursuits, and inattentive to everything else ; his 

 mind pre-occupied, his memory burdened, his days and 

 nights devoted to thought. He would picture him in 

 his study, with quires of white paper before him, a pen 

 in his hand, and the floor strewn with pages of blotted 

 manuscript. Or, in the alcoves of some great library, 

 taking down ponderous folios or quartos to settle some 

 knotty point. This, we believe, is the usual beau ideal 

 of a scholar, and in many cases it happens to be the true 

 one. For Humboldt it will not answer*. It is true that 

 he read deeply in the public libraries of Paris, and wrote 

 unweariedly in his private study, turning quires and 

 reams of paper into manuscript. The manuscript was 

 not blotted, however, for his handwriting was singularly 

 clean, neat, and lady-like in its delicacy ; nor was his 

 memory burdened, or his mind pre-occupied. He pos- 

 sessed himself too thoroughly to be oppressed by his 

 work ; his nature was large enough to rise above it, gigan- 

 tic as it was. He would as soon have gone into society 

 with ink on his fingers, as to have betrayed himself as a 

 scholar by any of the cheap signs of scholarship. With 

 the scholar's love of solitude, he had a woman's love of 

 society. He loved it, not because it flattered his vanity, 

 for he had no vanity ; but because his nature was emi- 



