4 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



became customary to prefix the title of Baron to the name of 

 Humboldt. 



Whether it was intended by such fabulous tales to confer 

 additional lustre upon the Dioscurean brothers, William and 

 Alexander von Humboldt, or whether any actual honour was 

 thus conferred upon them, need not be discussed here. In 

 the meantime we shall offer no injustice to historic truth, nor 

 be guilty of any want of due reverence, if we wait for addi- 

 tional evidence before accepting myths of this kind, which, 

 without further proof, have been copied and recopied even to 

 the typographical errors. 



The earliest and best source of information concerning the 

 genealogy of the Humboldt family is Krone's c Allgemeines 

 teutsches Adelslexikon,' published in the year 1774, and the 

 details contained in this work have supplied material for the 

 various biographies hitherto published. It is to be regretted 

 that the ancient classic authorities for the history of the 

 Pomeranian nobles have not given even brief notices of the 

 family of Humboldt and the property attributed to them, 

 as the correctness of Krone's statements might thus have 

 been tested, and additional facts probably obtained. Grund- 

 ling, indeed, enumerates ' the Humboldts of Zemmenz ' among 

 the nobility in the circle of Neustettin, but accompanies the 

 statement with no further remark. Briiggemann, in quoting 

 from Grundling and some books of heraldry, includes the Hum- 

 boldts among the noble families of Pomerania, but mentions 

 them as no longer resident in that province. It is true that 

 Zamenz or Zemmenz is alluded to in his work, and is de- 

 scribed as an estate a small farm annexed to the manor of 

 Juchow, in the circle of Neustettin, but it is nowhere stated that 

 this property, an old feoff of Kleist's, was ever in the possession 

 of the Humboldts ; on the contrary, it is again referred to as 

 belonging, in 1744, to two brothers of the name of Kleist. The 

 estate at Zamenz has been described also by Klempin and 

 Kratz as appertaining with Juchow and Zeblin to Kleist's 

 freehold, without any allusion to the Humboldts in reference 

 to any portion of the property. 



Meanwhile, though the ancestral property and the early 

 ennoblement of the Humboldt family have not been satisfac- 



