44 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



CHAPTEE II. 

 COLLEGE LIFE. 



The University of Frankfort Studies in Finance and Philology The 

 Winter of 1788 at Berlin The University of Gottingen Short 

 Journeys ' Observations on some Basalts of the Rhine ' Journey -with 

 George Forster School of Commerce at Hamburg Application for 

 Official Employment School of Mines at Freiberg. 



ON the selfsame day, October 1, 1787, the two brothers, 

 William and Alexander von Humboldt, matriculated at the 

 Alma Viadrina, the University of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, at 

 that time under the rectorship of Johann Isaak Ludwig Causse, 

 Professor of Theology. In the college register the entry of 

 Alexander, who a fortnight before had completed his eighteenth 

 year, runs as follows : 



' Henricus Fridericus Alexander ab Humboldt, Berolinensis, 

 Cameralium Studiosus; pater meus jam mortuus est, mater 

 adhuc vivit ; domicilium BerolimV 



Although the youths were to be accompanied by Kunth, their 

 judicious and conscientious guardian, the University of Frank- 

 fort had been selected from the consideration, that they would 

 there be within reach of their mother's watchful care, and 

 that a comfortable home could be provided for them in the 

 house of Professor Lofner, their former tutor. The University, 

 however, though much frequented by the young nobles of 

 Pomerania and the Margraviate, was sadly deficient in auxilia- 

 ries for scientific instruction, there being no museum, no hall 

 of anatomy, no observatory nor botanic garden, and no well- 

 furnished library ; there was but one bookseller's shop, which 

 was very ill supplied, and a printing establishment exceedingly 

 inefficient. 



