500 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



the Mexican Republic, and of restoring the temporal power of the 

 Pope at Mentana, fell miserably at Sedan, to go and die in a short 

 time in a humble cottage at Chiselhurst. A third empire, which 

 might aim at the restoration of Prince Napoleon or his nephew, 

 would probably end in tlie St. Martin Canal. It would be the end 

 of the country." 



Tn the same year with the Great Napoleon (1769) another con- 

 queror was born — Frederic Henry Alexander Hamboldt ; whose 

 prowess, however, throughout a long life was displayed in peaceful 

 fields. With Humboldt's name is associated the idea of almost uni- 

 versal knowledge. His Costnos ; or Physical Descrijyiion of the Uni- 

 verse, is not the work of a closet philosopher ; but the record of actual 

 personal observation made during prolonged, studious excursions to 

 the wide-spread and diversely-situated regions treated of. He was the 

 inventor of the science of Comparative Geography, and the reviver 

 of the study of the Natural Sciences. I have Humboldt's autograph 

 in a copy of a work translated by Abel Pemusat from the Chinese, 

 containing an account of the travels of Chy-fa-hian in Tartary, 

 Afghanistan, and India, in the 4th century ; splendidly printed at 

 Paris in 1836, at the Imprimerie Poyal. At the end of Chy-fa-hian's 

 book are four finely-engraved maps, one of them a fac-simile Chinese 

 map of India : also copies of Chinese pictures showing the incarna- 

 tion and birth of Buddha. Low down on a fly-leaf at the begin- 

 ning of the volume appears the autograph on account of which I spe- 

 cially prize the book — in this wise — A. Y. Humboldt. This work 

 was mastered by Humboldt, it may be, when preparing for his jour- 

 ney to the Eastern Provinces of Russia and frontier of China ; and 

 the composition of his Central Asia : Researches on its Mountain 

 Chains, and Climatology. The personal appearance of Alexander 

 Von Humboldt is familiar to most persons from the fine busts of him 

 that are frequently to be seen. 



I have a volume from the library of another modern German of 

 great note — the Chevalier Bunsen. It is a folio : two volumes in one, 

 consisting of a collection of ancient Etruscan, Roman, and Greek in- 

 scriptions foimd at Perugia, and published at Perugia in 1833 by 

 Gio. Battista Yermiglioni. It is labelled on the back " Inscrizione 

 Perugine." Within is to be seen Bunsen's book-plate and arms, with 

 the motto, In spe et silentio, and beneath. Ex libris Christiani Caroli 

 Bunsen. Inserted is a half sheet of note-paper with some character- 

 istic memoranda in the Chevalier's handwriting, partly in Gerinan, 



