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HUMBOLDT'S COSMOS SIDEREAL ASTKONOMY.* 



[QUAETERLY EBVIEW, No. 87.] 



SINCE we reviewed the first volume of this work in 1846, 

 Baron Von Humboldt, laden with years and well-earned 

 honours, has published two additional volumes. We feel it 

 incumbent upon us to bring the work, thus enlarged though 

 still incomplete, again before the notice of our readers. This 

 we do, as well from a regard to the high eminence of its 

 author, as because it jforms an exposition of the general state 

 of physical science, brought yet nearer to our own day by 

 a philosopher of large views and knowledge matured by a 

 long life of active observation; one equally capable of 

 generalising what has been already done, and of casting a 

 philosophic eye upon that c ocean of undiscovered truth,' 

 which still lies open before us. 



What we consider peculiar to Humboldt is the singular 

 extent and diversity of knowledge which he brings to every 

 subject of enquiry. We cannot name any traveller equally 

 gifted with this large comprehension, possessed and brought 

 into active exercise at the very outset of life. A striking ex- 

 ample of his copiousness of research occurs in the earliest 

 part of the personal narrative of his travels. Approaching 



* Cosmos. Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. Ey Alexander 

 Von Humboldt. Vols. ii. and iii. Translated under the superintendence of 

 Lieut-Colonel Edward Sabine, K.A., V.P. and Treas. K.S. London, 1850, 

 1851, 1852. 



