translator's preface. v 



the results obtained during their expedition are recorded by 

 our author in his Frag?nents Asiatiques, and in his Asie 

 Ce7itrale, and by Rose in his Reise nach dem Oural. If the 

 Asie Centrale had been his only work, constituting, as it 

 does, an epitome of all the knowledge acquired by himself and 

 by former travelers on the physical geography of Northern 

 and Central Asia, that work alone would have sufficed to 

 form a reputation of the highest order. 



I proceed to offer a few remarks on the work of which I 

 now present a new translation to the English pubHc, a work 

 intended by its author " to embrace a summary of physical 

 knowledge, as connected with a delineation of the material 

 universe." 



The idea of such a physical description of the universe had, 

 it appears, been present to his mind from a very early epoch. 

 It was a work which he felt he must accomplish, and he de- 

 voted almost a lifetime to the accumulation of materials for 

 it. For almost half a century it had occupied his thoughts ; 

 and at length, in the evening of life, he felt himself rich 

 enough in the accumulation of thought, travel, reading, and 

 experimental research, to reduce into form and reaUty the 

 undefined vision that has so long floated before him. The 

 w;ork, when completed, wiU form three volumes. The first 

 volume comprises a sketch of all that is at present Imown of 

 the physical phenomena of the universe ; the second compre- 

 hends two distinct parts, the first of which treats of the in- 

 citements to the study of nature, afforded in descriptive poet- 

 ry, landscape painting, and the cultivation of exotic plants ; 

 while the second and larger part enters into the consideration 

 of the different epochs in the progress of discovery and of the 

 corresponding stages of advance in human civilization. The 

 third volume, the publication of which, as M. Humboldt him- 

 self informs me in a letter addressed to my learned friend and 

 publisher, Mr. H. G. Bohn, " has been somewhat delayed, 

 owing to the present state of public affairs, will comprise the 

 special and scientific development of the s;reat Picture of Na- 



