436 COSMOS. 



seamen individualise the picture, and excite the imagination 

 so much the more powerfully. 



If from what has already been said, it be undeniably true 

 that in modern books of travel the action is thrown in the 

 background, being in most cases only a means of linking 

 together successive observations of nature and of manners, 

 yet this partial disadvantage is fully compensated for by the 

 increased value of the facts observed, the greater expansion of 

 natural views, and the laudable endeavour to employ the 

 peculiar characteristics of different languages, in rendering 

 natural Descriptions clear and distinct. We are indebted to 

 modern cultivation for a constantly advancing enlargement of 

 our field of view, an increasing accumulation of ideas and 

 feelings, and the powerful influence of their mutual reaction. 

 Without leaving the land of our birth, we not only learn to 

 know how the earth's surface is fashioned in the remotest 

 zones, and by what animal and vegetable forms it is occu- 

 pied, but we may even hope to have delineations presented to 

 us, which shall vividly reflect in some degree, at least, the 

 impressions conveyed by the aspect of external nature to the 

 inhabitants of those distant regions. To satisfy this demand, 

 to comply with a requirement that may be termed a species 

 of intellectual enjoyment wholly unknown to antiquity, is an 

 object for which modern times are striving, and it is an object 

 which will be crowned with success, since it is the common 

 work of all civilised nations, and because the greater perfec- 

 tion of the means of communication by sea and land, renders 

 the whole earth more accessible, and facilitates the comparison 

 of the most widely separated parts. 



I have here attempted to indicate the direction in which 

 the power possessed by the observer of representing what he 

 has seen, the animating influence of the descriptive element, 

 and the multiplication and enlargement of views opened to us 

 on the vast theatre of natural forces, may all serve as means 

 of encouraging the scientific study of nature, and enlarging 

 its domain. The writer who in our German literature, ac- 

 cording to my opinion, has most vigorously and successfully 

 opened this path, is my celebrated teacher and friend, George 

 Forster. Through him began a new era of scientific voyages, 

 the aim of which was to arrive at a knowledge of the compa- 

 rative history and geography of different countries. Gifted 



