10 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



house in Jagerstrasse, No. 22, where Alexander was born ; 

 through her first husband. Captain von Hollwede, she came into 

 possession of the estate at Eingenwalde ; through her was trans- 

 mitted to her second husband, Major von Humboldt, the 

 residence at Tegel which had been held by Von Hollwede on 

 an inheritable lease ; lastly, the property at Falkenberg was 

 purchased by her in 1791 from Lieut.-Colonel von Lochow. 



The issue of the marriage of Major von Humboldt with the 

 widow of Von Hollwede was a daughter, who died in infancy, 

 and two sons. 



Frederick William Christian Charles Ferdinand, born at 

 Potsdam, on June 22, 1767. 



Frederick William Henry Alexander, born at 22, Jager- 

 strasse, Berlin, on September 14, 1769. 



The year marked by the birth of Alexander 1769 was 

 .also that in which the following illustrious men first saw 

 the light: Napoleon, Cuvier, Chateaubriand, Canning, and 

 Wellington. At the time of his birth, the great King of 

 Prussia was at the height of his victorious career, the genius 

 of Lessing had begun to illuminate the intellectual world of 

 Grermany, the philosophic mind of Kant was establishing the 

 laws of pure reason, while in Groethe, as a youth of twenty years, 

 already raged the storm and passion of the classic literature of 

 Germany. These were the brilliant stars of his horoscope. 



At his baptism, which took place on October 19, 1769, when 

 Sack, the court chaplain officiated, several distinguished per- 

 sons were named as sponsors, including the following royal 

 personages : ] the Prince of Prussia, afterwards King Frederick 

 William II., Prince Henry of Prussia, the Hereditary Prince 

 of Brunswick, and Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick. 



Born with the advantages connected with a high social 

 position, Alexander von Humboldt was a noble in the most 

 elevated and extensive sense of the word, ennobled more by his 

 qualities of mind and heart than by the pedigree of his 

 ancestors. 



It is a remarkable circumstance that the mother of the c scien- 

 tific discoverer of America,' the Columbus of the nineteenth 



1 ' Baptismal Eegister of the Cathedral at Berlin/ vol. yii. p. 252. 



