which M. de Humboldt experienced; and which, from a deep sense of the favor that was granted him, and of the influence his conduct would have on the privileges of future travellers, he was extremely careful not to abuse.

Notwithstanding the various considerations which might have induced MM. de Humboldt and Bonpland to prolong their stay in Spain, they left Madrid about the middle of May, and reached Corunna, where they were to embark for the island of Cuba. The Pizarro, a Spanish sloop of war, in which they sailed, weighed anchor on the 5th of June, and directed her course to the north-west to avoid the English frigates that were cruising off that coast, and about 9 P. M. they saw the light of a fishing hut at Sisarga, which was the last object they beheld in Europe. The ardor with which M. de Humboldt had so long endeavoured to realize his desires of visiting distant regions, appears now to have melted into tenderness; and he describes the event with feelings which reflect honor on his character as a man, without detracting from his merit as a philosopher.

"The moment of leaving Europe for the first time is attended with a solemn feeling. Separated from the objects of our dearest affections, entering in some measure on a new state of existence, we are forced to turn back on the family of our thoughts, and we find them in a situation which they have never known before. p. 30. As we advanced, this feeble light mingled itself with the stars, which rose in the horizon; and our eyes remained involuntarily fixed on this object. Such impressions are not easily effaced from the memory of those who have undertaken long voyages at an age when the emotions of the heart are in full vigor. How many remembrances are awakened in the imagination by a luminous point, which in the midst of an obscure night, appearing at intervals above the swelling waves, points out the coast of our native home!” p. 41.

The Pizarro reached the island of Teneriffe on the 19th of June; and on the 25th she proceeded on her voyage to the island of Cuba. But a fever which raged on board before they reached that port determined our travellers to land at Cumana, in the government of Caraccas, where they arrived on the 16th of July 1799, forty-one days after their departure from Corunna. From Cumana, they passed to

"New Andalusia, and the missions of the Indians, Chaymas, the province of the Caraccas, the banks of the Apure and the Rio Negro, to the limits of Brazil, New Grenada, the Andes of Popayan, Porto, Quito, and Peru, the western part of the Amazons, Mexico, and the Isle of Cuba." Pref. P. x.

Those readers whom the title of these volumes may have led

to expect a circumstantial detail of personal adventures will be disappointed by the perusal; as we do not remember a work in which self is a more diminutive being, or the traveller more absorbed in the philosopher. The author's mind is so completely occupied by the phenomena and productions of nature, as to exclude all that morbid and sickly sentiment in which some writers delight so much to indulge, and on which many readers dwell with such interest. We consider him as describing his own feelings on the subject when he says, "Amidst the overwhelming majesty of nature, and the stupendous objects she presents at every step, the traveller is little disposed to record in his journal what relates only to himself, and the ordinary details of life." On his voyage we perceive him perpetually engaged with "whatever relates to the variation of the temperature of the air, and that of the sea, the hydrometrical state of the atmosphere, the blue color of the sky, the inclination and intensity of the magnetic focus; the saltness of the ocean, its animal, mineral, and vegetable productions; the nature and extent of its currents, with whatever else may be interesting to either the navigator or the philosopher." Nor does he satisfy himself with carefully examining nature in all her bearings, and faithfully recording his own observations, but he constantly compares them with those of former observers, and thus endeavours to draw general conclusions from the whole.

On land he is equally engaged in the philosophic contemplation of Nature, and the pursuit of objects at once adapted to enlarge our conceptions, and bring us more intimately acquainted with the secrets of her operations. He has thus, by raising our minds from particular facts to general results, thrown a more general interest than any of his predecessors, over objects, which previously occupied the attention only of a few scientific men. These comprehend views of " the climate, and its influence on organized beings, the aspect of the country, varied according to the nature of the soil and its vegetable covering, the direction of the mountains, and the rivers which separate the races of men, as well as the tribes of vegetables; and finally, those modifications, which the state of nations placed in different latitudes, and in circumstances more or less favorable to the display of their faculties, undergoes."

To such of our readers as conceive that a country is known, because it has been visited and described, we would recommend the general view which M. de Humboldt has taken of the Island of Teneriffe, the state of its atmosphere, the

geography of its plants, and the geology of its structure. This view occupies more than half the first volume of the Personal Narrative; and if any one, who has read all that preceding travellers have written on the subject, will peruse this account with attention, we dare venture to promise him an ample recompense for his trouble, in the increase of his knowledge and the gratification of perceiving that the learned author of this work has seen what others failed to discern, and that in this instance, as well as in many others, " he pursues alone the difficult path of scientific discovery."

The second volume of this Narrative commences with the voyage from Teneriffe to the coast of South America. Besides appropriate discussions on such occurrences as took place, and such productions as could be procured in the passage, this part of the work contains disquisitions on the temperature of the air, and that of the sea; the results are tabulated, and those which belong to the northern and southern hemispheres compared together. The hydrometrical state of the air, the azure color of the sky, and the color of the sea at its surface, with the dip of the magnetic needle and the intensity of the magnetic forces, are then discussed, and the results reduced into tables. These are succeeded by a journal of the voyage from Corunna to Cumana, containing the latitude and longitude of the vessel for each day, accompanied by the physical observations. The subject of the peak of Teneriffe is then resumed, and its geographical position, with the altitude of various points on its surface, determined. The exact position of the summit of this peak M. de Humboldt considers.

"Of importance to the science of physics, on account of the application of the new barometrical formule to navigation, on account of the angles of altitude, which experienced seamen sometimes take, when they pass in sight of the Peak; and to geography, on account of the use which MM Borda and Varela have made of the same angles, in the construction of the chart of the Archipelago of the Canaries." Vol. ii. p. 176.

The altitude of this point he concludes to be 1909 toises, or 2160 yards; the latitude 28 16′ 53′′ north; and the longitude 18 59′ 54′′ west from. Paris. Why he should have placed this second dissertation on the peak, in the middle of the second volume, and after the journal of the voyage to South America, instead of connecting it with the other discussions on the same subject, we have been unable to discover. The space of 220 pages, which is occupied with disquisitions respecting the island of Teneriffe, may, perhaps, be considered as disproportionate to the whole; but the dissertation is ample and satisfactory.

In the next chapter, M. de Humboldt describes Cumana and its vicinity, with the banks of the Manzanares; and dwells upon the earthquakes and their disastrous consequences at this port and in its neighbourhood. The remainder of the volume treats of the peninsula of Araya, its Salt-works, and the ruins of the castle of San Giacomo; and thus the present portion of "Personal Narrative" terminates, leaving the author still at Cumana, the first point he touched on the Western Hemisphere.

We have already extended these observations to a length that precludes any further remarks, except merely to state that the style of these volumes is well suited to the subjects it describes, and that the translation appears to be executed with that spirt and freedom which might be augured from the earlier productions of the translator. We hope it will not be long before she affords us an opportunity of again meeting her in the remaining volumes of this work.

ART. IV. Phantasm of an University: with Prolegomena. By CHARLES KELSALL, Esq. Author of "A Letter from Athens," and of "A Translation of the two last pleadings of Cicero against Verres." London. White, 1814. fol. pp. 174. THIS work is not deficient in good sense; but its utility is chiefly confined to the first forty pages. The remainder consists of excursions to different quarters of the globe, supposed to be undertaken by a party of young men educated according to the writer's plan; and of the architectural detail of his imaginary university, illustrated with fourteen plates, which comprehend thirty-eight designs. We cannot extend our praise to that eccentricity of manner, which a lenient critic might regard as the ebullition of an ardent mind, dilated with its literary stores, and impatient to display or communicate them; though we are not insensible to that policy which enforces the weight of an opinion, by manifesting the acquirements of its author.

Mr. Kelsall has it in view, to expose some defects in our systems of public education. He would restrain the vagaries of imagination in early childhood; and observes, p. 5.

"If we suppose an utter absence of poetic genius in a boy, which I think is often the case, what can be imagined more absurd, than to tor ture his youthful mind with a compulsory effort, which but too often bewilders his understanding, and inclines him to the indulgence of chimerical ideas, producing in the end monstrous abortions of intellect, which never fail to provoke the finger of scorn and derision? That effervescence of fancy, whenever it appears at an early age, ought to be checked. By being smothered and condensed it will be ripened by the reason and

Judgment, and produce, in due season, a gorgeous display of intellectual fruit.'

We add a few other remarks

"If, in two celebrated schools, a frequent composition of English, French, and Latin themes be encouraged alternately; if, in the room of weekly Latin poems, there be substituted exercises in pure and fractional arithmetic, and the first six books of Euclid; if theses for compositions in Latin and English verse be given, which may be handled or not by the senior scholars, according as their dispositions incline them, rewarding the best with books or medals, and a public recital: if extemporaneous declamation be added, beginning from the junior, and continuing it to the senior classes; if a stricter attention to geography be adopted, together with frequent translations from Latin authors, especially Cicero: if less attention be paid to Jupiter and Leda, and more to Lælius and Cato major; the change, I am inclined to believe, would be productive of the happiest effects, both to individuals and the community at large; and the colleges above alluded to would, with the adoption of these changes, exhibit probably as perfect a system of school education as can reasonably be imagined." pp. 11, 12.

"The prime defect of the method of prosecuting studies in Universities in general, must be considered the little attention paid to the natural drift of the student's genius. Whatever specious reasons may be urged, it is incontrovertible that the human mind usually displays a bent and aptitude for a particular pursuit: which, though it may be concealed in early years, is, for the most part, developed in puberty. It is true that the tender mind has often been aptly enough compared to the pliant twig, which the hand of the gardener can oblige to grow in whatever direction he pleases. But why attach leaden weights to the slender branches of the young tree? Why not assist their growth in the natural direction? Why must the stone be heaved up the hill? Why must the timber be smoothed against the grain? In foreign, as well as English Universities, I have often seen young students toiling at the abstract sciences, when their natural inclination would lead them to tread the flowery paths of classic literature and others I have seen beating up against wind and tide with Homer and Virgil, when they would be carried down the stream by a steady breeze with Euclid and Newton. That University is surely established on the best basis, which adopts a system of education, whereby the stu dent's career in the science or art for which he shows genius or inclination is best facilitated: and if more attention were paid to this, both at Oxford and Cambridge, excellence in the different branches of human knowledge would be more common; and consequently important discoveries, and brilliant efforts of the understanding, would be more frequently made.

:

"Another disadvantage attending our defective University system, and which naturally springs from the preceding one stated, is, the temptation held out to the student of grasping too early at multifarious knowledge; the very bane of the intellectual faculties, and which a philosopher of the North has inveighed against in his ingenious Essays. This must frequently occur, whenever the student's genius does not square with the routine of education laid down: which, unless it presents to his view an equal encouragement for every branch of human knowledge, ought to be considered as defective.

"A third defect in our Universities, and which has infested them both more or less since the days of Bentley, must be considered the over-mi