OFFICIAL EMPLOYMENT. 143, 



At the solicitation of Hardenberg, who was most anxious to 

 retain his valuable services, Humboldt was appointed on May 

 1, 1795, to the office of Actual Counsellor of the Upper Court 

 of Mines, with the offer of retaining his salary, and with per- 

 mission to prosecute his various foreign travels as opportunity 

 occurred. But flattering and alluring as such proposals would 

 have been to most men, they yet possessed no charm for 

 Humboldt, and his resolution remained unalterable of leaving 

 the service of the State, in order that he might accomplish his 

 long-cherished plans of undertaking extensive foreign travel in 

 the furtherance of science. A letter about this time to Freies- 

 leben gives additional particulars of his plans : 



' I think that I now possess a more than ordinary acquaint- 

 ance with practical mining. Whether after travelling for five 

 or six years I shall again enter the public service, in either 

 Saxony, Austria, Eussia, or Spain, (you see I expect my fame as 

 a miner to have greatly increased by that time,) I cannot now 

 determine. 



6 At present, my plans are to spend from July (1795) till 

 October or November in Switzerland, to pass the winter 

 in Germany, and in the spring of 1796 to start for Sweden 

 and Norway. I wish particularly to go to Sweden for the 

 sake of visiting Lapland, botanices causa an expedition in 

 which there would be no danger. One of my heartfelt wishes, 

 my dear Karl, is to take you with me, not only to Switzer- 

 land but to Sweden. I shall relieve you from all expense 

 in either journey, as I have 1,000 thalers at my disposal ; 

 I depend absolutely upon you to accompany me. Your wishes 

 shall be to me as commands, and you shall not repent going. 

 .... In the tour through Switzerland, which is to include 

 Salzburg and the Tyrol, I wish to introduce an element 

 which will, I trust, not prove an insurmountable obstacle to 

 you. You must, if you please, consent to make one in a trio 

 with me and a friend of mine to whom you are a stranger. 

 I will try to give you an accurate description of him.' . . . 



The companion referred to was Lieutenant Eeinhard von 

 Haften, of Westphalia, an officer in the Gfrevenitz Infantry 

 Kegiment, at that time garrisoned at Bayreuth : he was a 



