350 



DISAPPOINTMENTS. 



CHAPTER 

 XXVIII. 



Longings. 



UTjaccom- 

 pUslied plans. 



Pnblislied 

 works. 



Great 

 designs. 



Obstacles. 



The insatial)]e longings of Humboldt for access to new 

 and sufficiently ample fields of research have already 

 been referred to. Disappointed in his earlier ]>lan for tra- 

 velling through Egypt and the East, he visited Spain, in 

 the hope of being able to pass from thence to Africa, when 

 he obtained permission to explore the far more extended 

 field of research in Central America, the fruits of which 

 are narrated in the previous chapters. After comment- 

 ing on the valuable results which science has reaped 

 fi'om the labours and researches of Humboldt in South 

 America, Dr. Alison remarks : — " The remainder of 

 Humboldt's life has been chiefly devoted to the various 

 and important publications, in which he has embodied 

 the fruit of his vast and extensive researches in the New 

 World. In many of these he has been assisted by M. 

 Aime Bonpland, who, his companion in literary labour 

 as in the danger and fatigues of travelling, has, with the 

 generosity of a really great mind, been content to dimin- 

 ish, perhaps destroy, his prospect of individual celebrity, 

 by associating himself with the labours of his illustrious 

 fiiend. Pursued even in mature years by the desire of 

 fame, the thirst for still greater achievements, which be- 

 longs to minds of the heroic cast, whether in war or 

 science, he conceived, at a subsequent period, the design 

 of visiting the upper piovinces of India and the Himalaya 

 range. After having ascended higher than man had yet 

 done on the elevated ridges of the New World, he was 

 consumed with a thirst to surmount the still more lofty 

 summits of the Old, wliich have remained in solitary and 

 unapproachable grandeur since the waves of the Deluge 

 first receded from their sides. But the East India Com- 

 pany, within whose dominions, or at least beneath whose 

 influence, the highest ridges of the Himalaya are sita- 

 ated, gave no countenance to the design, and even, it is 

 said, refused liberty to the immortal naturalist to visit 

 their extensive territories." 



How far the proceedings ascribed to the merchant 

 rulers of British India affected the plans of the great 



