6 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



while he was appointed to the office of Clerk in the town of 

 Syndico in Crossen, which he retained for two years, and was 

 afterwards promoted to the rank of Bailiff. He was pious and 

 charitable, and listened to sermons with peculiar devotion, 

 writing them down most indefatigably in a neat little book, 

 and on his return home not consenting to dine until he had 

 carefully transcribed them, so that on his death there were 

 found five neatly-stitched separate volumes, in which the 

 sermons for rive years had been written out with surprising 

 industry. He always accounted it a pleasure to do a service to 

 any servant of the Church of God, and he bequeathed a hand- 

 some legacy to three churches for the purposes of restoration, 

 and for reinstating the bells of which they had been plundered 

 during the war : he was gentle, obliging, and modest, and pos- 

 sessed a true Grerman heart, often labouring hard, and travelling 

 night and day, in the service of his retainers, to secure them 

 against oppression and injustice ; yet his unenlightened neigh- 

 bours frequently attempted his life, and by their persecution, 

 to escape which he had often to flee during the night, were 

 ultimately the cause of his death at the age of forty-five years.' 

 His gravestone is still to be seen in the church of Virchow, 

 in the circle of Drammburg, and bears an inscription in Latin, 

 on either side of which stands in Grerman the text of the funeral 

 sermon, with the remark appended : c Preached from and ex- 

 pounded by Pastor Christian Grriitzmachern, on the 30th of 

 January, 1650.' 



Of his son, Conrad Humboldt, the following notice occurs in 

 a note in Konig's manuscript 'Collect, geneal.' vol. xxxix.: 

 6 Cyriacus Griinther von Eehebergk, Captain of Neuhoff, urges 

 the appointment of his step-son Humbold to the office formerly 

 held by his father ', since he has travelled in foreign lands, has 

 studied at universities, has twice served on a mission to Moscow 

 with Schultetz (?), Counsellor of Legation, has contracted a 

 marriage with the daughter of Herr Beeorks (?), Electoral Kesi- 

 dent of this neighbourhood, and, on the advice of President 

 von Schweder, has completed his qualifications by a visit to 

 France during the year 1676.' A second entry runs as follows : 

 ' 1682, 11 March. Appointment of Conrad v. Humbolt as Coun- 

 sellor ; ' to which is appended the remark, c The original draft 



