3V6 LECTURES AT BERLIN. 



image," he wrote in 184-i, " has floated before my mind 

 for almost half a century." 



All the travels that he had undertaken, and all the 

 books that he had written, related to this great work. It 

 was not as a traveller that he had crossed the sea, and 

 explored unknown lands : nor yet as a man of science : 

 but as the traveller, the man of science. He aimed at no 

 common fame. Indeed, he aimed at none. It was to a 

 nobler object than " the bauble reputation" that he de- 

 voted his life ; it was a thirst for knowledge, a passion 

 for wisdom, not in one thing, or many things, but in all 

 things. To be a wise man was not enough ; he would be 

 the wisest of men. His wisdom was universal, like the 

 Universe to which it was directed, and which he under- 

 stood, if ever man did, or can understand it. 



On the 3rd of November, 1827, he commenced a series 

 of lectures on the Universe, at Berlin. The University 

 building in which they were delivered was crovvded. 

 The king and royal family were there ; the court was 

 there : the rich, the noble, the wise — in short all the 

 intellect of Berlin was there. A perfect master of his 

 theme, he was clear, eloquent, impassioned, inexhaustible, 

 and they were enchanted. He stood before them like 

 one inspired. It was a memorable time in Berlin, and 

 indeed throughout Prussia ; for the fame of these lectures 

 was soon noised all over the land. Scholars came from 

 great distances to hear him, and even common people, 

 the unlettered mass, who only knew of him through the 

 newspapers. Everybody was anxious to hear and see 

 Humboldt. 



The press was soon so great that he was forced to 

 repeat the earlier lectures, in a larger building. "Alex- 



