I believe from what I have seen Humboldts glorious descriptions are & will for ever be unparalleled: but even he with his dark blue skies & the rare union of poetry with science which he so strongly displays when writing on tropical scenery, with all this falls far short of the truth. The delight one experiences in such times bewilders the mind ... The mind is a chaos of delight, out of which a world of future & more quiet pleasure will arise. -- I am at present fit only to read Humboldt; he like another Sun illumines everything I behold.
- Charles R. Darwin,
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