*26 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



and inscribed with his own hand : ' Alexander von Humboldt, 

 of myself in a looking-glass. Paris, 1814,' is one of the best 

 portraits of him existing. He also made an excellent por- 

 trait in pencil of Professor Kunth, his indefatigable assistant 

 in the preparation of his botanical works. 



In the arts of etching and engraving on copper he received 

 instruction from the celebrated Chodowiecki, and several im- 

 pressions from plates engraved by Humboldt are still pre- 

 served, to which we shall have occasion again to allude. 



Neither of the brothers had the smallest appreciation for 

 music : to William it was absolutely intolerable, while Alexander 

 regarded it as a ' calami te sociale.' l 



This is all that is certainly known concerning the tutors en- 

 gaged in the tuition of Alexander von Humboldt ; Willdenow, 

 though often included among them, was certainly not one of 

 the number, and it was only in later years that his influence 

 operated so powerfully in the development of Humboldt's 

 botanical tastes. Humboldt writes of his early education to 

 Pictet in the following terms in the year 1806 2 : 



' Until I reached the age of sixteen, I showed little inclina- 

 tion for scientific pursuits. I was of a restless disposition, and 

 wished to be a soldier. (!) This choice was displeasing to my 

 family, who were desirous that I should devote myself to the 

 study of finance, so that I had no opportunity of attending a 

 course of botany or chemistry ; I am self-taught in almost all 

 the sciences with which I am now so much occupied, and I 

 acquired them comparatively late in life. Of the science of 

 botany I never so much as heard till I formed the acquaintance 

 in 1788 of Herr Willdenow, a youth of my own age, who had 

 just been publishing a Flora of Berlin. His gentle and amiable 

 character stimulated the interest I felt in his pursuits. I never 

 received from him any lessons professedly, but I used to bring 

 him the specimens I collected, and he gave me their classifica- 



1 Anton Springer, 'Friedrich Christian Dahlmann' (Leipzig, 1870), 

 $. 237. 



2 < Lettres d'Alexandre de Humboldt a Marc-Auguste Pictet, 1705-1824,' 

 in ' Le Globe, Journal geogr. de la Soc. de Geogr. de Geneve ' (1868), vol. viii. 

 p. 180. See also Brockhaus' ' Conversations-Lexikon,' art. ' Alexander von 

 Humboldt.' 





