POETIC TEMPERAMENT OF HUMBOLDT. 433 



society, with language, economy, and exchange, insti- 

 tutions and architecture, which is to man almost like the 

 nidifying instinct to the bird. Humboldt's tendency in 

 this respect seems to me in its sphere not wholly dissi- 

 milar to the view which his friend Hitter takes of geo- 

 graphy in connexion with history." 



"Some fifteen years ago," continued Professor Lieber, 

 after speaking of a visit which he made to William Von 

 Humboldt at Tegel; "some fifteen years ago, Hum- 

 boldt presided over the annual meeting of Naturalists, 

 then held at Berlin. In his opening speech he chiefly 

 discoursed on the merits of Linnaeus. He knew of 

 Linnaeus as Herodotus knew of Salamis and Thermo- 

 pylae ; for the life of the great Swede overlapped by 

 some ten years that of Humboldt, and all he there said 

 of Linne seems to me to apply to himself with far 

 greater force and on an enlarged scale. In that speech, 

 too, I remember, he quoted his friend Schiller. Hum- 

 boldt was, in a marked manner, of a poetic tempera- 

 ment. I do not believe that, without it, he would have 

 been able to receive those living impressions of nature, 

 and to combine what was singly received, in those vivid 

 descriptions and in language so true and transparent, 

 that they surprise the visitor of the scenes to this day. 

 He had that constructive imagination — I do not speak 

 now of inventive fancy — without which no man can be 

 great in any branch, whether it belong to nature or to 

 history. 



" But yesterday an officer of our navy, whose profes- 

 sion has made him well acquainted with South America, 

 by sea and land, and with the Andes — one of the Monu- 

 ments of our Illustrious Man — told me that he knew of 



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