106 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



wish to complete my education by securing an express com- 

 mission from your Excellency to labour in the various depart- 

 ments under your charge, arises not only from the decided 

 taste I possess for geological investigations, and the strong- 

 interest I feel in all the operations connected with mines and 

 salt works, but still more from the flattering hope of some time 

 being able to associate myself with you in the accomplishment 

 of those grand and beneficent plans, by which your Excellency 

 has for a long series of years not only succeeded in opening up 

 to the State new sources of national wealth, but has shown how 

 ivealth could be best employed, in accordance with the un- 

 alterable principles of philosophy and sound political economy. 



' My studies have hitherto been principally directed to finance 

 and the science of political economy, the pursuit of which has 

 been the main object of my residence at Frankfort-on-the-Oder 

 and at Grottingen, and of my travels through Germany, the 

 Netherlands, Holland, and England, as well as of my sojourn at 

 Hamburg. In order to complete my scientific education, and 

 acquire a practical acquaintance with mining and the machinery 

 employed in its various operations, I am anxious to spend six 

 months at the School of Mines at Freiberg. It would, how- 

 ever, be a great relief to my mind could I arrange something 

 definite about my future career in life before taking further 

 steps towards the accomplishment of this design ; I venture, 

 therefore, humbly to request of your Excellency to dispose of 

 me as you may see fit, to grant me access on my return to the 

 reports in your .department, and to permit me at once to hold 

 some appointment in the administration of the mines and 

 smelting works. 



6 1 remain, with the profoundest respect, 



c Your Excellency's most obedient servant, 



' A. YON HUMBOLDT.' 



In little more than a fortnight after this date, Alexander von 

 Humboldt received a reply on the thirty-first of the same month 

 couched in the following flattering terms: 'That his Excel- 

 lency, out of consideration of the attainments already possessed 

 by Herr von Humboldt, and on account of the additional know- 

 ledge he proposes to acquire during his stay at Freiberg, as 



