September 1869

Humboldt one of those wonders of the world like Aristotle, like Crichton, like Newton, ap- pearing now and then as if to show us the pos- sibilities of the genus Homo, the powers of the eye, the range of the faculties ; whose eyes are natural telescopes and microscopes and whose faculties are so symmetrically joined that they have perpetual presence of mind, and can read Nature by bringing instantly their insight and their momentary observation together; whilst men ordinarily are, as it were, astonished by the new object, and dor not on the instant bring their knowledge to bear on it. Other men have memory which they can ransack, but Hum- boldt's memory was wide awake to assist his observation. Our faculties are a committee that slowly, one at a time, give their attention and opinion, — but his, all united by electric chain, . . . You could not lose him. He was the man of the world, if ever there was one. You could not lose him ; you could not detain him ; you could not disappoint him. The tardy Spaniards were months in getting their expedition ready and it was a year that he waited ; but Spain or Africa or Asia were all harvest - fields to this armed eye, to this Lyncaeus who could see through the earth, and through the ocean, who knew how mountains were built, and seas drained. . . .