nd--the world had great need of him.

* * * * *

When Humboldt landed at Bordeaux in August, in Eighteen Hundred Four,
after his five-year journey, he immediately set out to visit his
brother, who was then German Ambassador at Rome. We can imagine that it
was a most joyous meeting.

Of it William said: "I could not recognize him for my tears--but beside
this he seemed to have grown in stature and was as brown as a Malay. Was
he really my brother? Ah, the hand was the hand of Esau, but when he
spoke, it was the same kind, gentle, loving voice--the voice of my
brother."

A few weeks at Rome and Alexander grew restless for work. He had made
great plans about publishing the record of his travels. This work was to
outstrip anything in bookmaking the world had ever seen, dealing with
similar subjects. The writing was done on shipboard, by campfires, and
in forest and jungle, but now it had all to be gone over and revised and
much of it translated into French, for the original notes were sometimes
in English and sometimes in German. Only in Paris could the work of
bookmaking be done that would fill Humboldt's ideals. In Paris were
printers, engravers, artists, binders--Paris was then the artistic
center of the world, as it is today.

The results of this first great scientific voyage of discovery were
written out in a work of seventeen volumes.

It was entitled, "The Travels of Humboldt and Bonpland in the Interior
of America." Humboldt wrote the book, but wanted his friend to have half
the credit. This superb set of books, containing many engravings, was
issued under Humboldt's supervision and almost entirely at his own
expense. It was divided into five general parts: Zoology and Comparative
Anatomy; Geography and the Distribution of Plants; Political Essays and
Description of Peoples and Institutions in the Kingdom of New Spain;
Astronomy and Magnetism; Equinoctial Vegetation. It took two years to
issue the first volume, but the others then came along more rapidly, yet
it was ten years before the last book of the set was published. The
total expense of issuing this set of books was more than a million
francs, or, to be exact, two hundred twenty-six thousand dollars.

The cost of a set of these books to subscribers was two thousand five
hundred fifty dollars, although there were a few sets containing
hand-colored plates and original drawings that were valued at twenty
thousand dollars. On