EAELY HOME. 17 



Should further evidence be needed to disprove the assertion 

 that Campe exercised a decided influence over the intellectual 

 development of the two Humboldts, surely the exclamation 

 uttered by Greorge Forster l upon receiving a visit from William 

 von Humboldt and Campe, on their return from Paris in 1789, 

 will be deemed conclusive: '(rood heavens! Is it not astonish- 

 ing that there are any men left in Germany, when their tutors 

 are all like Campe ! ' 



Alexander von Humboldt's first tutor was Johann Heinrich 

 Sigismund Koblanck a fact which has hitherto escaped the 

 notice of biographers ; he died as first preacher of the Louisen- 

 Idrche in Berlin. In his manuscript curriculum vitce, still 

 preserved by his grandson, Dr. Koblanck, Privy Councillor of 

 the Board of Health, there occurs the following passage: 

 4 Within a month of quitting the University of Halle, in 1773, 

 Koblanck became a resident in the household of Major von 

 Humboldt, as successor to Campe, the noted pedagogue, in the 

 capacity of governor and tutor to the young Baron von Holl- 

 wede and the two sons of Herr von Humboldt, William and 

 Alexander, who have since earned for themselves so high a re- 

 putation, the one by his attainments in literature, the other by 

 his travels in every quarter of the globe. In the year 1775, he 

 was appointed military chaplain to the Von Arnim Eoyal Regi- 

 ment of Infantry, and was ordained at Potsdam on October 20, 

 in the same year.' 



According to family tradition, Alexander von Humboldt 



Summering from Hamburg, January 28, 1791 ; < whether he carries it out 

 or not is quite uncertain. Conceive, my dear friend, the motives that he 

 specifies j not that he may enchant the intelligent youth of that country by 

 the introduction of his children's books, his Robinsoniads, &c. ; not that he 

 may disseminate among the savages his new proof of the immortality of the 

 soul j not that he may regulate dancing in Philadelphia according to the 

 laws of chastity nay, but that he may enter upon a close study of the 

 constitution of the United States, so as to be able in the course of a year 

 (for Europe must even be deprived of him for that length of time) to publish 

 the result of his observations to the Old World, in order that truth and 

 freedom may be extended to all- mankind. Can you fancy anything 

 more truly absurd ? I am daily expecting to hear from Campe, inviting 

 me to accompany him.' 



1 George Forster's ' Sammtliche Schriften,' vol. viii. p. 89. See also K. 

 von Raumer, ' Geschichte der Padagogik,' vol. ii. p. 308 j Schlosser, ' Ge- 

 schichte des 19. Jahrhunderts/ vol. iii. Part ii. p. 163. 



YOL. I. C 



