COLLEGE LIFE. 99 



his natural taste for scientific investigation by going out on 

 the Elbe in stormy weather, in order to observe and measure the 

 motion of the waves. 



Even in advanced old age he cherished the brightest recol- 

 lections of the time he spent in Hamburg, especially of the 

 intercourse he enjoyed with the circle of friends assembling at 

 the house of Sieveking. This wealthy merchant was one of the 

 most distinguished men of the place ; he had filled some of the 

 highest offices in the renate, and stood in an important relation- 

 ship with various political and learned men of note ; his wife, 

 a woman of great excellence and superior education, was a 

 granddaughter of Eeimarus, celebrated in his day as the au- 

 thor of a work entitled ' Wolfenbiittler Fragmente,' edited 

 by Lessing ; her father was well known for his writings upon 

 lightning conductors, the instinct of animals, and various 

 branches of natural science. The most distinguished society 

 resorted to her house. It was there that Humboldt met with 

 Claudius Voss, the Stolbergs from the neighbouring province 

 of Holstein, and Voght, whose acquaintance must have afforded 

 him peculiar pleasure from being owner of the gardens at Flott- 

 beck, noted for the extensive collection of rare plants. 



Humboldt kept up an active correspondence with Forster 

 for a considerable time. On September 26, 1790, Forster 

 writes to Jacobi : c The Humboldts are both prospering, but 

 in widely different ways. The elder is Counsellor of Legation, 

 and Assessor to the Supreme Court of Judicature at Berlin, 

 in which capacity he is serving his probation. When his time 

 has expired he will receive an appointment at Halberstadt, and 

 will then probably marry. His younger brother is with Biisch 

 in Hamburg, gaining a practical acquaintance with commercial 

 office routine ; he goes about a great deal among the various 

 eminent men of Hamburg, and has visited Christian Stolberg, 

 of whose praises he is quite full ; he makers expeditions too from 

 time to time to gather mosses, which flower during the winter, 

 and writes amusing letters full of lively wit, good nature, and 

 delicacy of feeling.' 



These letters were afterwards returned to Humboldt by 

 Forster s executors between the years 1830 and 1840, and were 

 by him destroyed. 



H 2 



