76 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



is afterwards corrected by Less. Such is the folly actually 

 demanded by that detestable English orthodoxy.' 



Humboldt then proceeds to give some particulars regarding; 

 his brother and himself: 



' I am living here in an atmosphere of philology. Were my 

 stay to be prolonged for a couple of years, I really believe, dis- 

 tasteful as it would be to me, I should end by devoting myself 

 to Greek literature. My brother has been making an excellent 

 use of his time. You cannot think how much general interest 

 he is beginning to excite. By his confidential correspondence 

 with Forster and Jacobi he has made quite a sensation both here 

 and on the Rhine, and it is probable some of his letters will be 

 published by Jacobi. I must confess that I am really beginning- 

 to wonder myself at my brother's extensive learning and high 

 culture. Heyne says that he has not for long dismissed from his. 

 tuition so gifted a philologist. If to this be added his exten- 

 sive knowledge of jurisprudence, history, and politics, his deep 

 insight into Kant's philosophy (which Eehberg told me quite 

 astonished him), and his acquaintance with English, French, 

 and Italian, it must be acknowledged that, ex professo, there 

 are few to equal him. 



4 Should you in course of time chance to meet with a small 

 philological pamphlet, shortly to be published at Grdttingen,. 

 and bearing on the title-page the words, " Edited with notes by 

 Heyne," you may conclude it to be a production of mine. It 

 is a dissertation upon the weaving-loom in use among the 

 Greeks and Eomans. The work is quite a prodigy of learning* 

 and its compilation has been therefore most distasteful to me. 

 I have discovered that the loom of the ancients was just the 

 high-warp loom introduced by the Saracens into France a fact 

 capable of abundant proof from the bronzes of Herculaneum,. 

 the Onomasticon of Pollux, the writings of Isidorus, the 

 Vatican MSS. of Virgil, the descriptions of Homer, &c. The 

 proof is somewhat elaborate, from the number of authorities to- 

 be consulted. Heyne is delighted with the work. It is now 

 easy from my interpretation to understand the meaning of the 

 terms used by the ancient writers, scapus, pecten, radius, 

 insubulum, &c.' . . . 



In a postscript to this letter Humboldt mentions having made 



