"حياة ومراسلات اللواء السير جون مالكوم، قائد فرسان وسام الطُهر، المبعوث السابق إلى بلاد فارس وحاكم بومباي؛ من رسائل ومذكرات غير منشورة. في مجلّدين. المجلد II." [‎٤‎٤‎٥] (٦٥٤/٤٦٢)

HUMBOLDT.
445
perfect new light upon the subject of the mines. America will,
according to him, gain more than we shall by our speculations in
that quarter; and the gain of America will be more from the in
tellect and spirit of enterprise that we carry amongst them, than from
our steam-engines. u The latter," he says, " are neither required,
nor can they be applied to the extent English speculators believe.
Ten of the mines have water in them. The ore is found in others
near the surface; and others are situated almost in inaccessible
parts, where good roads can neither be made nor kept in repair."
The most productive mines have been discovered within the
last sixty years, but Humboldt has no alarm at either the enter
prise or the skill of the speculators depreciating the metal, either
by new discoveries or the application of superior art in working
the mines of South America. It will take years to bring the pro
duction to what it was some thirty years ago; and if there was an
increase, according to him, it is difficult to believe that it would
ever be in a proportion to affect the currency. After all, like
other articles of demand, its production will no doubt be regu
lated by the market. The substitution of paper money, the
decrease of demand in the East Indies, where there is less made
up in ornament and buried than there was when that country was
more unsettled, have affected the market.
The great objects of Humboldt's present pursuits are the mean
temperature of different parts of the globe, and how that is
affected by elevation, table-lands, vicinity to sea, &c., &c. There
is no instance within my knowledge of a man ot real science
living so much in society as Humboldt, and to this he owes
much. His rank and reputation enable him to command the
best. He seeks and is sought by all minds of the first order.
His manners are pleasing, and he has some wit and constant
cheerfulness. He is as ready to mix in trifling as serious convci-
sation. The consequence is, none are genes with him; and he is
not only in the constant exercise of his faculties, but in that
collision with men of calibre which gives him an opportunity of
proving every idea as it rises in his mind, and saves him from
many of those dogmas to which insulated philosophers give birth,
and which, even when convinced of their errors, they cannot beai
to abandon.
The fault of Humboldt's early writings was that they were too
diffuse. There was, the critics thought, along with his facts, a