322 HUMBOLDT'S COSMOS : 



he is entitled and best able to record that progress of human 

 discovery which, from the maria clausa of ancient history, 

 has carried men forwards over the oceans and continents of 

 the total globe ; has given to the then remote and barbarous 

 Britain the present power of sending forth hundreds of ships 

 annually to the gold-bearing lands which form our antipodes ; 

 and has created, by aid of the great natural agents around us, 

 new faculties of motion and speed, transcending the most 

 romantic fairy-tale of former generations. 



In the early and doubtful part of this narrative we find 

 some conclusions stated with greater assurance than seems 

 justified by the evidence we possess. We might adduce as a 

 single case the interpretation given to the expedition of the 

 Argonauts ; ' the basis of which, apart from its mythical garb, 

 is considered to be 'the fulfilment of a national desire to 

 open the inhospitable Euxine.' Frequently, too, we are struck 

 with the affectation of using obscure terms when more simple 

 ones are at hand ; and a fondness for new forms of phraseology 

 without any obvious requirement. But we are bound to accept 

 the individuality of Humboldt's style as it occurs through- 

 out all his writings ; one more picturesque and imagina- 

 tive than is common in works of science, and abounding in 

 original phrases fitted to express new collocations of facts 

 or ideas. He has enough of the German temperament to 

 take delight in these innovations, to which he is in truth 

 fairly entitled by the many new relations he has himself 

 pointed out in every part of nature. And we would repeat 

 again that there is very high merit in this part of the work ; 

 which marks out, more clearly and compressedly than had 

 been done before, the ages and races chiefly concerned in 

 the progress of discovery, the events which have especially 

 contributed to it, and the individuals whose ardour and in- 

 telligence have made them foremost in this great career. It 

 is fit that these things should be historically recorded. 



