120 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



a conscientious official occupying a position on a provincial 

 board, whether administrative or judicial, could rise, after a 

 service of more than twenty years, to a salary of 600 thalers, 

 or could obtain after thirty or forty years spent in constant 

 exertion, in a dependent position, even a salary of 1,500 or 

 1,800 thalers. ' How many tradesmen and artisans do I not 

 know,' said he, 'who, as regards their position of affluence 

 and independence, would ridicule the offer of exchanging their 

 occupation for the most lucrative post in the ministerial coun- 

 cil ! ' Since the publication of Wollner's edicts, and since the 

 maladministration of such men as Gorne, Struensee, &c., the 

 whole system of official life had sunk into a state of unheard-of 

 corruption and depravity. In acknowledging with sadness such 

 a condition of things, Von Vincke, afterwards President, thus 

 expresses himself about that time (1 793), when still a youth: 

 'If I, with the requisite qualifications for serving my country, 

 could not obtain official employment without first becoming a 

 Rosicrucian, a visionary, an alchemist, a hypocrite, or an in- 

 triguer, I would rather be a merchant than be thus obliged 

 to submit to the unreasonableness of prejudice and self-interest.' 



When it is remembered that William von Humboldt volun- 

 tarily resigned his office in the service of the State after 

 practical experience during a year and a half of this deplorable 

 condition of official life, it may well be conceived that the 

 eagerness displayed by Alexander von Humboldt to devote 

 himself to public life must not be interpreted as a wish to enter 

 upon an ordinary official career. The service of the State was 

 from the first regarded by him merely as a stepping-stone to 

 the service of science. To this position of independence may 

 be ascribed his exceptional preferment over the highest of his 

 superiors, to this may be traced his fearless judgments of persons 

 and things, and his indifference, not to say ironical disregard, of 

 all public recognitions and preferments, as well as of the most 

 flattering proposals for continued employment, j/ 



The department of the public service in which Humboldt 

 entered formed an honourable and happy exception to the 

 corruption so rife in the administration of all other official 

 boards. Heinitz, the minister of this department, was one of 

 the most excellent men of his time. The principal traits of 



