1874.] 229 [Waterston. 



afternoon, and that during this time he called for more than 

 two hundred volumes in different languages, always desiring 

 to read each work as it originally came from the mind of the 

 author. Thus every work which Alexander von Humboldt 

 ever wrote passed under careful review; not only every vol- 

 ume, but every pamphlet, with the exception of one, which 

 could not be found in this country. 

 On the 4th of September he wrote me, 



" I have only yesterday finished gathering my materials, 

 and have not yet begun preparing my address." 



He adds — "My friends will never know what anxieties I 

 have to go through on this occasion." 



Six days after this I received the following f — 



"JSTahant, Sept. 10th, 1869. 

 " My Dear Sir : 



" I have succeeded this evening in bringing to a close my 

 draft of an address; not exactly as I would like to deliver it 

 but such as I may be compelled to read should the occur- 

 rences of the day unfit me for an extemporized discourse, 

 which I believe might be more effective." 



It would thus appear that even after the address was 

 written, he hoped to give, not what he had embodied in 

 manuscript, but the result of which that would be the basis, 

 in the form of an extemporized discourse, for which, as all 

 know from his constant habit of speaking without notes, he 

 possessed the very highest qualifications. 



However, to meet every contingency, he adds : — 



"As I go to-morrow to Cambridge, I will try to have my 

 illegible manuscript set in type, that I may myself be able to 

 read it. At the same time I shall see how my diagrams are 



