OFFICIAL EMPLOYMENT. 123 



indeed of anyone but Willdenow, since I am still engrossed 

 with, botany. He is the first to make me rightly appreciate 

 the value of my " Flora Fribergensis." He thinks it all new, 

 and exceedingly remarkable, and strongly urges me to prepare 

 a more complete edition.' 



About six weeks later, he writes to the same friend on May, 

 19 : ; I keep well and work a great deal at night. As yet my 

 official post has given me but little to do. My course is still 

 undecided ; it is certain, however, that I do not remain here I 

 shall probably first go to Thuringia, and then to Westphalia. 

 For with practical mining I will have to do.' 



He thus again writes to his friend on June 4, 1792 : c ln 

 five or six days I am to leave for Linum, where the extensive 

 peat-cutting works are, then to Zehdenick, to see the smelting 

 furnaces, and afterwards to Kheinsberg, where I have received 

 a commission to inspect the porcelain manufactory. Suitable 

 occupations for a miner ! ! There will, however, soon be an 

 improvement. I am delighted at the prospect, which I must 

 communicate to you in half-a-dozen lines, of going to Bayreuth 

 and the Fichtelgebirge, in about three weeks. I have been 

 honoured by a commission to investigate the geological structure 

 and mineralogical constitution of the two Margraviates. Eight 

 weeks only have been granted me at first, that I may merely 

 travel through the country and furnish a general report to the 

 minister. What I shall do then, whether I shall remain there 

 altogether (and become Overseer of Mines ! !) or go to Silesia, is 

 quite uncertain at present. I am quite delighted at the thought 

 of seeing a new mountain range, and so many different kinds of 

 mines, and to be once more in your neighbourhood. It will be 

 impossible for me to pass through Freiberg, for I am obliged to 

 go by way of Erfurt and Saalfeld. My route is rigidly prescribed 

 me irreparabile fatum ! ' * 



1 Humboldt's official commission included a visit of inspection to the Royal 

 Porcelain manufactory, where he greatly interested himself in the erection 

 of the first steam-engine, or ' fire-engine/ as it was then termed. He often 

 Teferred to this ' pre-ogygian ' activity. So lately as October 12, 1857, he 

 wrote to the proprietor of the extensive porcelain factory at Herend, near 

 Veszprim, in Hungary : * I recall with pleasure that when I was twenty- 

 two years of age I was appointed with Klaproth, the celebrated chemist, 

 on some technical business connected with the Royal Porcelain Manufactory 



