98 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



that I am accomplishing the purpose I have in view. I am 

 learning a good deal here from the School of Commerce as well 

 as from personal intercourse with Busch. Everything in the way 

 of mercantile knowledge was new to me, and I like the study 

 because I think it will be useful. I attend but few regular 

 lectures, therefore I work all the more industriously by myself. 

 Ebeling's extensive library is of great value to me; I find there 

 works on philology and history, and books of travel, while 

 Busch furnishes me with various authorities on mathematics 

 and physics, and Eeimarus with a very complete collection of 

 works on natural science. If to the unlimited use of these 

 means you further add the undisturbed use of a small room in 

 a secluded garden, with no interruption save the bell that rings 

 for dinner and supper, you will be compelled to admit, my 

 dear friend, that it is no less practicable to study at Hamburg 

 than at Grottingen. My leisure hours are occupied with geo- 

 logy and botany, both of which I am studying from books ! ! 

 In addition, I have begun to learn Danish and Swedish, be- 

 cause I have a convenient opportunity for so doing. A life of 

 this kind may be supportable for seven or eight months, but 

 after that I shall begin to sigh for a more extended sphere of 

 action. As for society, which here means meeting at meal- 

 times, I am very well off. I visit in all circles, with citizens 

 as well as nobles, for the people here, after the praiseworthy 

 fashion of the Indian system of caste, have separated them- 

 selves into distinct classes. As card-playing is universal, I never 

 go into society before supper a time when the pleasures of the 

 table are certainly very conspicuous. Much as the pride of birth 

 may be complained of on the Ehine, I am convinced that it 

 is far surpassed by the hauteur of the purse-proud circles here, 

 such as the Bentincks not the Schimmelmanns. The common 

 sense of our western neighbours will triumph in this century, 

 while Germany will yet for long look on with astonishment, try, 

 prepare and still postpone the decisive moment.' 



In conformity with the practice he commenced at Grottingen, 

 Humboldt read Pliny's work upon the art of painting with some 

 of his fellow-students, and by this means excited in Hamburg 

 an unwonted interest in the study of philology. As a charac- 

 teristic trait, we may notice the zeal with which he prosecuted 



