BFR OM Roe aM Re CTE We ne Lor eee 
Alexander von Humboldt. 3 
needy students,” The very historical truth was then and is 
now that the two best scientific private libraries in Europe be- 
longed to Cuvier and Humboldt, the one lining the splendid 
salons in which the baron held those historie reunions; the 
other described in this catalogue which contains all the books 
Humboldt ever wrote, many of them thumbed, worn and an- 
notated. 
Humboldt was a fortunate child of nature. A lucky star 
aff; 
Humboldt, in many respects the most gifted of them all, out- 
I. Bes 
With his life ended, and became historic, the first 
abe of modern science. The times that developed the 
rench Revolution ripened Humboldt, and made conspicuous 
others, many of them his friends and fellow laborers, among 
* Transits of Venus are as rare as they are important. They occur in couples, in 
June and December, about eight years apart, and then not again for several gener- 
ations. Kepler was aware of the phenomenon and as early as 1604 announced 
that one would take place in 1761, but young Horrocks of Liverpool with better 
tables, tional data, calculated that there would be a transit on the 4th of 
Vi K 
godsend to c ry. young folks 
nol other will occur be 6th - Bes 1882, but we 
again till nearly five quarters of a century later, on the 7th une, 2004; to be 
followed eight years after, on the 5th day of June, 2012; to be repeated in Dec., 
2117,andsoon, i ee 
tables, and addi 
Dec., 1639. He let a friend into his secret, and they two on the day nam for 
we 
