Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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In Undertaking
This Task, I Have Been Guided By The Advice Of Many Estimable
Persons, Who Honour Me With Their Friendship.
I also perceived that
such a preference is given to this sort of composition, that
scientific men, after having
Presented in an isolated form the
account of their researches on the productions, the manners, and
the political state of the countries through which they have
passed, imagine that they have not fulfilled their engagements with
the public, till they have written their itinerary.
An historical narrative embraces two very distinct objects; the
greater or the less important events connected with the purpose of
the traveller, and the observations he has made during his journey.
The unity of composition also, which distinguishes good works from
those on an ill-constructed plan, can be strictly observed only
when the traveller describes what has passed under his own eye; and
when his principal attention has been fixed less on scientific
observations than on the manners of different people and the great
phenomena of nature. Now, the most faithful picture of manners is
that which best displays the relations of men towards each other.
The character of savage or civilized life is portrayed either in
the obstacles a traveller meets with, or in the sensations he
feels. It is the traveller himself whom we continually desire to
see in contact with the objects which surround him; and his
narration interests us the more, when a local tint is diffused over
the description of a country and its inhabitants. Such is the
source of the interest excited by the history of those early
navigators, who, impelled by intrepidity rather than by science,
struggled against the elements in their search for the discovery of
a new world. Such is the irresistible charm attached to the fate of
that enterprising traveller (Mungo Park.), who, full of enthusiasm
and energy, penetrated alone into the centre of Africa, to discover
amidst barbarous nations the traces of ancient civilization.
In proportion as travels have been undertaken by persons whose
views have been directed to researches into descriptive natural
history, geography, or political economy, itineraries have partly
lost that unity of composition, and that simplicity which
characterized those of former ages. It is now become scarcely
possible to connect so many different materials with the detail of
other events; and that part of a traveller's narrative which we may
call dramatic gives way to dissertations merely descriptive. The
numerous class of readers who prefer agreeable amusement to solid
instruction, have not gained by the exchange; and I am afraid that
the temptation will not be great to follow the course of travellers
who are incumbered with scientific instruments and collections.
To give greater variety to my work, I have often interrupted the
historical narrative by descriptions. I first represent phenomena
in the order in which they appeared; and I afterwards consider them
in the whole of their individual relations. This mode has been
successfully followed in the journey of M. de Saussure, whose most
valuable work has contributed more than any other to the
advancement of science.
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