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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To Comprehend The
Laws Observed In The Position Of These Rocks, To Determine The Age
Of Their Successive Formations, And
Their identity in the most
distant regions, the geologist should be previously acquainted with
the simple fossils which compose the
Mass of mountains, and of
which the names and character are the object of oryctognostical
knowledge. It is the same with that part of the natural history of
the globe which treats of the relations plants have to each other,
to the soil whence they spring, or to the air which they inhale and
modify. The progress of the geography of plants depends in a great
measure on that of descriptive botany; and it would be injurious to
the advancement of science, to attempt rising to general ideas,
whilst neglecting the knowledge of particular facts.
I have been guided by these considerations in the course of my
inquiries; they were always present to my mind during the period of
my preparatory studies. When I began to read the numerous
narratives of travels, which compose so interesting a part of
modern literature, I regretted that travellers, the most
enlightened in the insulated branches of natural history, were
seldom possessed of sufficient variety of knowledge to avail
themselves of every advantage arising from their position. It
appeared to me, that the importance of the results hitherto
obtained did not keep pace with the immense progress which, at the
end of the eighteenth century, had been made in several departments
of science, particularly geology, the history of the modifications
of the atmosphere, and the physiology of animals and plants.
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