ArrENDix. 371 



intention, offered to lead an expedition into Siberia and 

 Central Asia, and his proposals were accepted without a 

 moment's hesitation. He was thus enabled to compare 

 the steppes of the Obi with the pampas of Brazil and the 

 plateaux of the Altai with the llanos of the Cordilleras. 



From this period Baron von Humboldt undertook no 

 other great expeditions, devoting the whole of his energy 

 to more proximate objects. As the friend rather than 

 the subject of the kings who have succeeded one another 

 on the throne of Prussia, he has always made his high 

 position and influence serviceable in the cause of science. 

 He has enriched his country with numerous scientific 

 establishments and institutions, and it is to him that we 

 owe the foundation of a vast association whose centre is 

 at Goettingen, and which has for its object the study of 

 terrestrial magnetism, by the aid of observations regu- 

 larly conducted in all parts of the world. 



The works of Baron von Humboldt are at once exten- 

 sive and varied ; there are few sciences on which he has 

 not written, and he has never treated of any subject 

 without leaving upon it the impress of his great genius. 

 Having, moreover, made general physics the focus in 

 which he centered all these varied branches of learning, 

 he has gained for himself one of the most distinguished 

 places in this difficult and great department of human 

 knowledge. As a traveller and a physicist, Baron von 

 Humboldt must rank with the great masters and founders 

 of modern science. Everyone is aware that he has 

 thrown the rich treasures of his intellectual life into 

 a work entitled Cosmos, which, originally written in 

 German, has been translated into several European 

 tongues. 



B B 2 



