It is now a considerable time since I received your valued and most
interesting work on Central Asia, which I should have long ago
acknowledged, but that I was unwilling, and indeed unable, in proper
terms to thank you for so flattering and pleasing a mark of your
attention, till I had made myself at least in some degree acquainted
with the contents. This, however, the continued pressure of occupations
which leave me little time and liberty for reading has not yet allowed
me to do otherwise than partially—and, in fact, it is a work of such
close research that I despair of ever being able fully to master all its
details. In consequence I have hitherto limited myself chiefly to the
climatological researches in the third volume, and especially to the
memoir on the causes of the flexures of the isothermal lines, which I
have read with the greatest interest and which appear to me to contain
by far the most complete and masterly coup-d’œil of that important
subject which I have ever met with. In reading this and other parts of
your work on this subject, and of the “Physique du globe” in all its
departments—that which strikes me with astonishment is the perfect
familiarity and freshness of recollection of every detail, which seems
to confer on you in some degree the attribute of ubiquity on the surface
of this our planet—so vividly present does the picture of its various
regions seem to be in your imagination, and so completely do you succeed
in making it so to that of your readers.
The account of the auriferous and platiniferous deposits in the Ural and
the zone in 56 lat. has also very much interested me, as well as the
curious facts respecting the distribution of the Grecian germs in those
regions. I could not forbear translating and sending to the “Athenæum”
(the best of our literary and scientific periodicals) the singular
account of the “monstre” of Taschkow Targanka—(citing of course your
work as the source of the history)—in vol. III. p. 597.
The idea of availing ourselves of the information contained in the works
of Chinese geographers, for the purpose of improving our geographical
knowledge of Central Asia, appears to me as happy as it is likely to
prove fertile; especially now that the literature of that singular
country is becoming more accessible daily by the importation of Chinese
books. What you have stated respecting the magnetic chariots and
hodometers of the Emperor Tching-wang—if you can entirely rely on your
authority—gives a far higher idea of the ancient civilization of China
than any other fact which has yet been produced.
In a word, I must congratulate you on the appearance of this work, as on
another great achievement; and if—as fame reports—it is only the
forerunner of another on the early discovery of America, it is only
another proof that your funds are inexhaustible! May you have many years
of health and strength granted you to pour them forth; and may each
succeeding contribution to our knowledge afford yourself as much delight
in its production as it is sure to do your readers in its perusal.
Miss Gibson writes word that you have more than once enquired of her
when my Cape observations will appear. No one can regret more than
myself the delay which has taken place, but it has been unavoidable, as
I have had every part of the reduction to execute myself, and the
construction of the various catalogues, charts, and minute details of
every kind consume a world of time, quite disproportioned to their
apparent extent. However, I have great hopes of being able to get a
considerable portion, in the course of the next year, into the printer’s
hands. Some of the nebulæ are already in course of engraving. Perhaps
the subject which has given me most trouble is that of the photometric
estimation of the magnitudes of Southern stars and their companions with
the Northern ones. A curious fact respecting one of them—7 Argus—has
been communicated to me from a correspondent in India (Mr. Mackay),
viz.: that it has again made a further, great, and sudden step forward
in the scale of magnitude (you may perhaps remember that in 1837–8, it
suddenly increased from 2.1 m to equal α Centauri). In March, 1843,
according to Mr. Mackay, it was equal to Canopus. “α Crucis,” he says,
“looked quite dim beside it.” When I first observed it at the Cape it
was very decidedly inferior to α Crucis.
Believe me, my dear Sir, ever yours, most truly,
J. F. W. HERSCHEL.
I must not forget to wish you a “merry Christmas and many happy returns
of the season” in English fashion.
83.
BALZAC TO HUMBOLDT.