236 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



knowledge of its structure, Blumenbach in a measure anticipated 

 Cuvier; though it is only by an exaggeration of what Blumenbach 

 did, that an unfair writer of later times has attempted to deprive Cuvier 

 of the glory of having accomplished this object upon the broadest pos- 

 sible basis. From Gottingen he visited the Rhine, for the purpose of 

 studying Geology, and in particular the basaltic formations of the 

 Seven Mountains. At Mayence he became acquainted with George 

 Forster, who proposed to accompany him on a journey to England. 

 You may imagine what an impression the conversation of that active, 

 impetuous, and powerful man made upon the youthful Humboldt. 

 They went to Belgium and Holland, and thence to England, where 

 Forster introduced him to Sir Joseph Banks. Thus the cempanions of 

 Captain Cook in his first and second voyages round the world, who 

 were already venerable in years and eminent asspromoters of physical 

 science, not yet established in the popular favor, were the early guides 

 of Humboldt in his aspii-ations for scientific distinction. Yet Hum- 

 boldt had a worldly career to accomplish. He was to be a statesman, 

 and this required that he should go to the Academy of Commerce at 

 Hamburg. He remained there _five months, but could endure it no 

 longer ; and he begged so hard, that his mother allowed him to go to 

 Freyberg and study Geology with Werner, with a view of obtaining a 

 situation in the Administration of Mines. See what combinations of 

 circumstances prepare him for his great career, as no other young man 

 ever was prepared. At Freyberg he received the private instruction 

 of "Werner, the founder of Modern Geology, and he had as his fellow- 

 student no less a man than Leopold von Buch, then a youth, to whom, 

 at a later period, Humboldt himself dedicated one of his works, in- 

 scribing it ' To the Greatest Geologist,' as he was till the day of his 

 recent death. From Freyberg he made frequent excursions into the 

 Hartz and Fichtelgeberg and surrounding regions, and these excur- 

 sions ended in the publication of a small work upon the Subterranean 

 Flora of Freyberg, {^Flora Suhterranea Frihergensis,) in which he 

 described especially those cryptogamous plants, or singular low and 

 imperfect formations, which occur in the deep mines. But here ends 

 his period of pupilage. In 1792 he was appointed an officer of the 

 mines {Oherhergmeister). He went to Baireuth as director of the 

 operations in those mines belonging to the Frankish Provinces of 

 Prussia. Yet he was always wandering in every direction, seeking for 

 information and new subjects of study. He visited Vienna, and there 



