WEIMAR AND JENA. 199 



Humboldt, in fact, was quite aware himself that he was not 

 free from vanity. He begins his letter to Schiller with the 

 expression that his ' vanity was highly flattered.' He repeatedly 

 acknowledges his ' vanity as an author ' to Von Schuckmann, 

 afterwards minister, his coadjutor in Franconia, and in a letter 

 dated Jena, May 14, 1797, he speaks of his industry in a 

 manner interesting to notice from its accordance with Schiller's 

 criticism written about the same time. 



' You know,' he writes to this friend, ' my busy idleness, this 

 perpetual activity which leads me to begin so much without 

 bringing anything to a conclusion. I have never been so 

 pressed with work, so industrious, so variously occupied, as I 

 am here. ... I am really quite busy with acquiring informa- 

 tion, and with arranging what I have already acquired. I must 

 work with immense assiduity in order to carry out the scheme 

 that I have planned for myself ; therefore do not be surprised, 

 if you are always hearing of my commencing some new work. 

 The fact is I cannot exist without making experiments, but 

 this is not the sole object of my labours.' 



There is also abundant evidence that Humboldt, when occa- 

 sion served, ' could assert his own value.' To Fourcroy's censure, 

 already alluded to, he replied : ' My early youth was devoted 

 to the study of botany and geology. I have always been 

 occupied with the direct contemplation of nature. Everyone 

 about me knows that I am unceasingly occupied with che- 

 mical experiments. I have lately been experimenting on 

 mephitic exhalations, in which my health has been subjected to 

 some risk. Surely this is not the mode of life of a man whose 

 only object is to increase the number of brilliant hypotheses.' 



He always took pleasure, however, in giving an account of 

 his labours, for, as he wrote to Wattenbach (see p. 114), c to blow 

 one's own trumpet is part of an author's trade.' But in all such 

 expressions there lies the most graceful irony. <Nos poma 

 natamus ! ' was often his concluding word when informing 

 friends of the importance of his labours. He called the 

 prospectus of his American travels a ' carte de restaurateur,' 

 and jokingly remarked to Pictet: ; I think, therefore, the char- 

 latanry of literature will thus be combined with utility.' l Even 



1 < Le Globe/ voL vii. p. 162. 



