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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Far From Thinking At The Time That Those
Pages Thus Hurriedly Written Would Form The Basis Of An Extensive
Work
To be offered to the public, it appeared to me, that my
journal, though it might furnish certain data useful
To science,
would present very few of those incidents, the recital of which
constitutes the principal charm of an itinerary.
The difficulties I have experienced since my return, in the
composition of a considerable number of treatises, for the purpose
of making known certain classes of phenomena, insensibly overcame
my repugnance to write the narrative of my journey. 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.
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