OFFICIAL EMPLOYMENT. 153 



The illness of Frau von Humboldt summoned both her sons 

 to Berlin in the middle of February, 1796. Alexander von 

 Humboldt passed there six weeks in a state of great mental 

 depression, as we may gather from his journal of this date, where 

 an entry occurs that on March 26, his will was deposited in the 

 Municipal Court of Justice. 1 'The condition of my poor 

 mother is beyond measure distressing,' he writes to Freiesleben ; 

 ' she suffers fearfully from a cancer in the breast, and her case 

 is not only hopeless, but beyond the reach of any alleviation. 

 I do not think it possible she can survive till the autumn, and 

 I shall therefore remain at Bayreuth through the summer.' 



On his return to Bayreuth, which he reached on April 16, he 

 was laid aside for several weeks with a severe attack of in- 

 fluenza and nettle-rash ; scarcely had his recovery permitted 

 him to resume his labours on the subterranean gases, respira- 

 tors, and experiments in galvanism (for the results of which he 

 received from Decker, a publisher in Berlin, the sum of three 

 gold Fredericks per sheet 2 ), when his appointment in July on a 

 diplomatic commission connected with the war which had re- 

 cently broken out, caused a long interruption to his scientific 

 undertakings. 



The unexpected invasion of the Duchy of Wurtemberg by the 

 French under Moreau, and the flight of the Duke, caused some 

 alarm in Prussia from the fear that the territory of the Prince 

 of Hohenlohe, where Mirabeau, brother of the distinguished 

 statesman, had raised an emigrant legion in 1791, might in 



1 This notification is to be found in vol. v. of the 'Tagebiicher.' 



2 The l Versuche iiber die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser ' was pub- 

 lished by Rottmann, son-in-law of Decker, who was at that time the 

 proprietor of the business carried on by Rottmann. It may be interesting 

 to give here some particulars of the sums paid to authors at this period. 

 Gellert received thirty florins for his Fables, and Lessing absolutely nothing 

 for his ' Minna von Barnhelm.' Goethe and Merck shared in common the 

 cost of printing ' Gb'tz von Berlichingen,' and had not even paid for the 

 paper at a time when Goethe's name had attained celebrity; Mylius of 

 Berlin offered twenty thalers for ' Stella/ and Goethe received a tea and 

 coffee service of Berlin china from Himburg for permission to reprint in 

 Berlin an edition of his works in four vols. Schiller, too, was "obliged to 

 pay fifty florins for the publication of the ' Robbers,' since no publisher 

 would undertake the work, and he had to start it at his own cost. (Dr. 

 Aug. Potthast, Geschichte der Familie von Decker und ihrer Koniyl. Geli* 

 Oler-Hofbuchdruckerei, p. 293, note 222.) 



