COLLEGE LIFE. 91 



remain at Hamburg till next spring, and then return to Berlin. 

 You will forgive my not having sent you my book, (" Mine- 

 ralogical Observations on some Basalts, &c."), when I tell you 

 that I have not yet seen it myself. My physical health is 

 not so good as it was in the winter : you may easily imagine 

 how distressing this is to me just now, when it is impossible to 

 avoid fatigue. The journey has certainly done me good, but 

 the change has not benefited me as much as I expected. As 

 my stay in France and on the Ehine is uncertain, do not write 

 till you hear from me again. But I beseech you, dearest 

 Wegener, by all the affection which you know I bear you, 

 never to forget our brotherly love and friendship. You are 

 infinitely more to me than I can ever be to you. I have 

 now seen the most celebrated places in Germany, Holland, and 

 England but, believe me, I have in seeing them never been 

 so happy as while sitting in Steinbart's arm-chair. 



'ALEXANDER.' 



The fragment of journal alluded to above, inscribed c Journey 

 of 1790---England,' gives abundant evidence of the astonish- 

 ing range of information possessed by the young traveller. It 

 contains observations upon mineralogy, botany, agriculture, 

 trade,' technicalities, and the history of civilisation, together 

 with remarks of such various character that an abstract of them 

 can only find a suitable place in the Appendix. 



The events transpiring at that time in France induced the 

 travellers to take the return journey through Paris, where 

 everything was still giving promise of great success. The uni- 

 versal enthusiasm for all that was pure and noble animating all 

 classes of the people in the preparations for the great national 

 festival, to be held in the Champ de Mars, was a gratifying 

 spectacle to all friends of humanity and lovers of freedom. The 

 sojourn of the travellers, however, was not prolonged beyond a 

 few days, and by July 11, Forster and Humboldt had again 

 reached Mayence. 



Humboldt always referred to this journey as a time of 

 peculiar enjoyment. There can in truth be no greater happi- 

 ness to a pupil in the school of knowledge than the oppor- 

 tunity of listening to the conceptions of the grand creative 



