20 ALEXANDEE VON HUMT30LDT. 



* 



was possessed of qualities which made him a diligent worker 

 and an excellent official ; and his views on the claims of in- 

 dustry and other branches of political economy were marked 

 by sense and clearness. He devoted himself with the most 

 indefatigable energy to the establishment of a free and en- 

 lightened legislation, to the elevation of the industrial classes, 

 and the furtherance of trade and commerce, and he deserves 

 especial credit for the unremitting industry with which he 

 laboured, not only towards the suppression of the corrupt prac- 

 tices of many of the trade corporations, but also towards the 

 introduction of a system of free trade, and the formation of the 

 Zollverein or tariff union throughout Germany. 1 



The chief service that Kunth rendered to his pupils in his 

 character of tutor consisted in the judicious efforts he con- 

 stantly displayed to procure the most valuable educational advan- 

 tages afforded by Berlin, such as private instruction, social 

 intercourse, and suitable companionship, in this way supplying 

 the advantages they missed from never having been at a public 

 school. These methods were peculiarly calculated to encourage 

 the development of the individual gifts and mental tastes which 

 so soon began to manifest themselves in the youths. 



No record has been preserved of the progressive order of their 

 studies ; but Alexander very early evinced a taste for natural 

 history. Flowers and plants, butterflies and beetles, shells and 

 stones, were his favourite playthings ; and the collecting, ar- 

 ranging, and labelling of these treasures was carried on with so 

 much zeal, that as a child he acquired, in jest, the name of 

 6 Little Apothecary.' 



The principal instruction they received in these early years 

 was derived from Ernst Gottfried Fischer, Professor in the 

 Gymnasium of the Grey Friars, whose mathematical school- 

 books continued to be in use long after his death. In his 

 manuscript journal, still preserved, he remarks : ' In addition 

 to my arduous official duties, I was obliged, for the sake of 

 increasing my income, to engage in some extraneous occupa- 

 tion, consisting principally in private tuition. Such labours, 

 undertaken as a means of livelihood, are not generally favour- 



1 Pertz, ' Lelben des Ministers Freiherra von Stein/ vol. vi. p. 789. 



