42 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 



but deep nature of the man of the North, exhibited by the 

 Scandinavian and the German ; on the other with the impul- 

 sive and passionate nature of the man of the South, so mani- 

 fest in the inhabitants of the Mediterranean shores. In the 

 West, the nations lead the chariot of human civilization ; in 

 the East, semi-barbarian races scarcely follow it with Asiatic 

 sluggishness, or are only forcibly drawn into the whirl of mod- 

 ern progress. 



It cannot be admitted that a growing familiarity during 

 half a century with geographical and ethnographical types so 

 varied and so instructive, should not have exerted a deep in- 

 fluence on Hitter's mind and labors. Such a study, indeed, 

 could not help increasing the marvellous power that he pos- 

 sessed by nature, to construct from imperfect, often contradic- 

 tory documents, the grand traits of structure of the continents, 

 and to establish the true character of the natural regions of our 

 Globe that he could not visit. His innate tact in the selection 

 of the materials to be received, ripened thus into an almost 

 unfailing power of judging of the value of the various sources 

 of information which he had to use. Moreover, during these - 

 excursions he paid frequent visits to the great centres of civil- 

 ization — Paris, London, Vienna — in search of scientific docu- 

 ments, that he could not find elsewhere. He was received 

 everywhere with marks of the highest esteem, and thus found 

 welcome opportunities to form a personal acquaintance with 

 the men most eminent in the various departments of study 

 embraced in his own labors. 



Eitter's reputation was soon established in Germany, though 

 the new element of culture that he has developed is essentially 

 cosmopolitan, and was demanded by the progress of our age, the 

 form in which it was presented by him, his mode of thought, as 

 well as his style, are so thoroughly German, that it is there that 

 he found an immediate and full response. There he was under- 

 stood and appreciated. German writers often speak of him as 

 " our Bitter," thus expressing feelings not only of an affectionate 

 reverence for him, but of a just national pride in him, and of a 

 full identification with the man whom they thus honor. Abroad, 

 the knowing ones acknowledged his value and gave him nu- 

 merous tokens of high esteem. His royal master, as well as a 

 number of other sovereigns, bestowed upon him the honor of 

 various orders of merit. From 1822, a member of the Acade- 

 my of Sciences of Berlin, he was successively elected a member 

 of most of the learned societies in Europe and in this country, 

 the long list of which he placed on the title-page of the 



