TOO MUCH CANVASS AND TOO LITTLE BALLAST. 359 



that he is well grounded in chemistry and mineralogy, 

 or in the principles and details of the several departments 

 of natural history, with the exception of botany, in which 

 he had an able assistant in M. Bonpland. 



" M. de Humboldt however," his honour concludes, 

 after giving a sketch of the traveller's journey as far as 

 it was contained in the volume before him, or rather the 

 volumes, for the first volume of the French edition was 

 expanded into two in the translation ; " M. de Humboldt 

 however," his honour concludes, "has one good quality 

 for a traveller; he is no egotist; he never offends by 

 thrusting forward his own exploits, his own adventures, 

 and his own ' hair-breadth escapes :' all the parade which 

 he displays is in adorning science, in whose cause he is 

 always eloquent ; perhaps he may too frequently throw 

 his cloak of wisdom over subjects that ages ago had 

 descended to the vulgar, and thoughtlessly expend his 

 powers on familiar objects that are generally understood. 

 In a word we are persuaded that he aims at too much 

 for any one man to accomplish ; or, to make use of a 

 nautical phrase, (we have been dealing in nautical mat- 

 ters) he spreads too much canvass, and carries too little 

 ballast." 



This curiosity of literature is a fair sample of scores 

 of others which might be selected from the Quarterly at 

 that time. Its proprietors paid their contributors libe- 

 rally, and certain prejudices respected, left them free to 

 slash as they pleased ; the harder the better, it made the 

 thing sell ! It is instructive to turn over its back volumes, 

 and see its treatment of many of the now famous names 

 of the century ; especially the poetical names. It tram- 

 pled on the divine genius of Shelley : called dear old 



