288 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



tent of his acquirements. Without doubt, at all times during 

 the present century there have been men much greater than 

 Humboldt in each special department of science, but no one 

 to compare with him in the number of subjects in which he 

 had but few superiors, — no one who could, like him, bring all 

 the sciences into one field of view, and compare them as one 

 whole, through their relations and dependences. It was prob- 

 ably this extent of knowledge that led him to generalization 

 rather than particular discovery ; to trace connections and re- 

 lations, rather than to search for new and minute facts or par- 

 ticular laws ; to produce the " Cosmos," rather than discover 

 the atomic theory or the cellular formation of organic struc- 

 tures. Many other men have been masters of several special- 

 ties ; Humboldt alone brought the whole range of the physical 

 and natural sciences into one specialty. 



We cannot close this brief notice of the character and ca- 

 reer of our illustrious associate without one moment's allusion 

 to his amiable moral nature, his love of justice, and his supe- 

 riority to all merely personal ends. So strong was his desire 

 to give the influence of his high scientific position to the cause 

 of civilization and the progress of knowledge, by assisting all 

 applicants for his opinion and advice upon scientific subjects, 

 that he permitted a correspondence to be extorted from him 

 which in his last days became a load too great to be borne, 

 and compelled a cry for relief that had hardly subsided when 

 the news of his death reached us. 



Such is the faint outline of a man whose name is indelibly 

 written with those who have been most eminent in this won- 

 derful age of scientific activity. The Academy claims the 

 privilege, in common with the learned societies with which he 

 was associated throughout the civilized world, to express its 

 sorrow for his death, and to offer its tribute of honor to his 

 memory. 



