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traveller whose researches have opened out the widest fields to the 
inquirers in every department of Natural History, we who have drunk 
at the fountains of knowledge poured forth by Humboldt, must in- 
deed rejoice in the day when our veteran associate appeared in our 
halls as the chosen friend of the Prussian monarch. Honour be to 
the King who has the wisdom and discernment to attach such a man 
to his person and his fortunes! Any effort of mine to do justice on 
this occasion to the eminent services which Baron A. von Humboldt 
has rendered to science, would be both presumptuous and misplaced ; 
but I must seize this opportunity to assure you, that if his valuable 
life should be prolonged for a short term, the public will be fur- 
nished with convincing proofs that his brilliant mind can yet 
confer on us the choicest gifts. Let others more competent to 
the task dwell on the high merits of his inquiries into the distribu- 
tion of terrestrial magnetism and various branches of physical sci- 
ence which have already appeared, or are nearly ready for the 
press, in a stupendous work embracing nearly all natural know- 
ledge; be it for us, however, to estimate the skill with which he 
has developed, and the power with which he has applied the laws 
of climatology and physical geography to explain many problems in 
the earth’s structure. 
Having myself been favoured with the perusal of some pages of 
a work on the distant parts of the Russian empire, which will very 
shortly be published, I venture (however incompetent to offer an 
adequate analysis of its merits) to assure you, that this work will 
shed fresh lustre on the head of its author and of his associates 
_Rose and Ehrenberg, in elucidating the metamorphism of rocks, the 
origin of gold veins, and the epoch of formation of the gold alluvia 
of Siberia ; whilst in expounding the great sources whence the civi- 
lized nations of antiquity derived their precious metals, Humboldt, 
the geographer, the geologist, the botanist, the man of universal 
science, will appear before you as an antiquary and etymologist, not 
inferior in erudition even to his late illustrious brother. 
In correcting the errors which had crept into our maps respecting 
the direction of the great mountain-chains of Central Asia, he places 
before us, and on the grandest scale, a striking coincidence between 
the state of mineralization of various parallel meridians, or N. and S. 
chains, and happily contrasts them with the different characters of 
those which have an east and west direction. 
These splendid generalizations, like others previously known to 
us, results arising from a long life of scientific research, are of so 
extended and diversified a character, that whilst we all applaud, few 
of us are capable of justly estimating their whole bearing upon the 
progress of science. 
Although his duties to his sovereign alone prevented our confer- 
ring upon this great chieftain in science an honour commensurate 
with his high deserts*, as Englishmen we may always reflect with 
* Allusion is here made to the proposed national British scientific festival 
in his honour, which Baron Humboldt was compelled to decline. 
