GEORGE FOESTEK. 13 



collection of bones and skulls of liis own, and taking tc 

 medicine in Jena, obtained his degree in Gottingen in 

 1775. The next year he was appointed conservator of 

 the noble Museum of Natural History in the University, 

 which he enriched by numerous collections of great value. 

 He preceded Cuvier in many of his discoveries, institut- 

 ing, shortly before the Humboldts entered his classes, 

 the method of comparing different varieties of human 

 skeletons, and skeletons of animals. To the care of these 

 famous professors William and Alexander were com- 

 mitted by their old tutor and friend, Kunth, and they 

 remained under their teachings for two years. Strongly 

 attracted by Eichhorn and Heyne, William pursued his 

 favorite studies, philology and art, while Alexander 

 speculated on " the ground plan of man " in the lecture 

 room of Blumenbach. 



But the person who exercised the most influence over 

 him while at Gottingen, was the son-in-law of his 

 teacher, Heyne — George Forster. Nor is this at all 

 strange, for the experience of every day shows us that 

 the influence of man over man outweighs that of books 

 a thousand fold. There are times, indeed, when even a 

 bad man is more potent than many good books. Blu- 

 menbach, Heyne, Eichhorn, and the rest, excellent and 

 indispensable as they were, were books, so to speak, dead 

 books to the realistic Alexander, while Forster was a 

 man, a live man. He had seen what they had only 

 dreamed of The feats of Alexander's mythical friend, 

 Crusoe, were outdone by Forster. Not that Forster had 

 ever been shipwrecked on a solitary island ; but he had 

 done better — he had put a girdle round the earth. Some 

 sixteen years before, when a bov of eighteen, he had 



