o xh 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW ON HUMBOLDT. 357 



the first volume of his u Yoyage to the Equinoctial 

 Regions." 



" We have been rather tardy," his honour commences, 

 " in directing our attention to the labours of this cele- 

 brated traveller; and we hardly know what excuse to 

 offer for such apparent neglect towards so highly gifted 

 a person. It is some consolation however to be able to 

 state that our readers will lose but little from the delay; 

 for, if we may be permitted to form a judgment from the 

 two volumes now before us, and from two others under 

 the title of • Researches,' which we shall notice hereafter, 

 the most material parts of all his former publications, 

 have been, or will be, worked up anew, and in a less 

 bulky form, in which some of them originally appeared. 



" It is not the fault of M. de Humboldt, though it may 

 be his misfortune, that he has fallen into the hands of inju- 

 dicious friends, who speak of his pretensions in a tone of 

 exaggerated panegyric that must pain a modest man, and 

 shame a wise one : to term M. de Humboldt ' the first of 

 travellers ' is little ; he is represented as one in whom may 

 be found the rare union of all that Plato, Thales, and 

 Pythagoras taught among the ancients — all that Montes- 

 quieu, Buffon, D'Alembert have written among the 

 moderns. Astronomer, physiologist, antiquary, philolo- 

 gist, he superadds, it is said, to all these characters a 

 profundity of wisdom in political economy, and an en- 

 larged comprehension in the science of statistics, that 

 would do honour to the first statesman of any age or 

 country. Language like this has had its usual effects. 

 It has made the subject of it impatient of just rebuke; 

 and M. de Humboldt is disposed to be angry with us, 

 because in our review of the Missionary Travels, (No. 



