34 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



and confidence, that on his death his remains were interred 

 near the family vault of the Humboldts at Tegel. 



Thus passed the childhood and early youth of Alexander von 

 Humboldt. His lot was not that of many sons of genius, who 

 are called to spend their energies in a constant struggle against 

 poverty and adverse circumstances. His temptations were of 

 another order ; and it is due to his heaven-born nature, that 

 notwithstanding the high position of his family, his aristocratic 

 birth, and the manifold enticements to a life of luxury and 

 ease offered by the possession of wealth, he evinced from his 

 earliest years a thirst for knowledge and an aspiration towards 

 all that was good and beautiful, which impelled him amid 

 much bodily weakness to devote himself to study with unremit- 

 ting application. 



It will be desirable, before accompanying the brothers to the 

 University, to take in review the general condition of Berlin at 

 that time, since it forms, as it were, an historical background 

 to the brilliant career of these distinguished men. 



The august form of Frederick the Great was still the guiding 

 star at Berlin during the childhood and early youth of William 

 and Alexander von Humboldt. Alexander could lay claim to 

 belong, as he himself expressed it on the celebration of the 

 centenary of the great king's accession, 1 c to the past generation, 

 as one of those who, amid the earliest recollections of their 

 boyhood, could still recall the image of the great monarch.' 

 Although, since the days of Lessing and Mendelssohn, an en- 

 lightened tone of thought on religion, science, art, social life, 

 and to some extent also on politics, had begun to evince itself 

 at Berlin, though both Biester and Nikolai had since 1759 

 commenced in the ' Literaturbriefe ' a severe criticism against 

 the courtly French muse, yet this pulsation of a higher life was 

 so weak and intermittent, it was as yet so partial and spas- 

 modic, that it cannot be justly regarded as a general elevation 

 in taste. And as the number of ' new lights ' was small, so 

 were also the social home circles, in which alone they could 

 be appreciated. In every circle there were few among the 



1 Augsburg ' Allgemeine Zeitung ' of June 9, 1840, Supplement. 



