COLLEGE LIFE. J01 



during my absence. Only think how constantly I have been 

 on the move for the last nine or ten months ! On my return 

 from France I stayed a month at Mayence, and thence made a 

 tour to Aschaffenburg among the Vogelsgebirge, and through 

 the district of the Ehone. 1 On my way here I visited Grottin- 

 gen and Hanover. I am now a pupil at the School of Com- 

 merce under Professor Biisch, and see nothing all day but 

 ledgers and account-books, so that I find it best to forget 

 my plants and stones. I had scarcely been a week in Ham- 

 burg when I met with some natural curiosities from the island 

 of Heligoland. I was immediately seized with the desire of 

 collecting some, so I put myself on board a vessel and in 

 eight days accomplished a stormy voyage of two hundred 

 miles. In future I must content myself with the sight of the 

 ships in the harbour, for the next time that I trust myself to the 

 mercies of the elements .... If I can carry out my wishes, 

 I shall visit England again in the course of a couple of years. 

 I should now find a residence there very agreeable. 



' I am surprised when I think how much I have seen since 

 I left Berlin, of the variety of experiences I have passed 

 through, and the number of interesting men with whom I have 

 made acquaintance. I am disposed to be contented here, but 

 I cannot say I feel very happy. I have made considerable 

 progress in general information, and I am beginning to be 

 somewhat more satisfied with my attainments. I worked very 

 hard at Ofottingen, but all I have learned makes me feel only 

 the more keenly how much remains still to know. My health 



1 Further particulars of this part of the journey are given in the following 

 passage from the letter to Sommermg of January 28, 1791, part of which 

 has been already quoted at p. 98 : * I left Aschaffenburg (which became 

 endeared to me by the intellectual conversation of Miiller and the unaffected 

 good humour of Gallizin) with the determination of unburdening myself to 

 you, of all that was in my heart, immediately on my arrival at Hamburg. 

 I fancied I had seen so much out of which to forecast a glowing future 

 for myself, and I believed I should enjoy it all the more intensely by 

 discussing it with a sympathising friend. An unfortunate tour which I 

 soon afterwards made among the Vogelsgebirge and through the district of 

 the Rhone, partly on foot and partly by carriage, in most unfavourable 

 weather, introduced an entire change in the current of my thoughts. The 

 minerals I had collected had to be arranged and several remarks appended, 

 and you know how imperative these small matters appear at my age !'.... 



