368 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



ness. M. Elie de Beaumont has made an excellent model 

 of the volcano, which is based upon his own observations, 

 and he has faithfully represented all the various aspects 

 of the mountain in plates which accompany the work, 

 from which we have made numerous extracts. 



NOTE H. 



Few names are more celebrated in modern science than 

 that of Humboldt a name which has been rendered 

 illustrious by two brothers, who appear together to have 

 compassed the entire range of human knowledge. Not- 

 withstanding the diversity of their labours, there is a 

 striking analogy between the tendencies of these two 

 minds. The elder, Wilhelm von Humboldt, directed his 

 attention to literature, more especially in its scientific 

 bearings, whilst the younger, Alexander von Humboldt, 

 devoted his attention more exclusively to the natural 

 sciences, although both took broad and general views of 

 the subjects which they investigated, regarding the special 

 departments of the various branches of knowledge which 

 they cultivated simply as means of arriving at more 

 general points of view. As the sons of a German father 

 and of a mother who was partially of French descent, the 

 brothers seem to have appropriated to themselves all the 

 best features of the genius of both nations, while they 

 wrote with equal facility in both languages. Their la- 

 bours may very probably have been of equal importance, 

 but the name of Alexander von Humboldt is at once more 

 popular and more distinguished, partly in consequence 

 of his labours having harmonised with the tendencies of 

 our age, and partly in consequence of the important 

 results which he attained by the bold and novel direction 

 which he gave to his researches. 



Wilhelm von Humboldt was born at Potsdam in 1767, 



