208 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



restless, apologising for his apparent inattention by remarking, 

 in a kind and friendly tone : " You see, Humboldt, it is nearly 

 over with me." ' 



On the following day the near approach of death was manifest. 

 The prince died on his journey home at Graditz, near Torgau, 

 in the buildings connected with the establishment for rearing 

 horses, on June 14, 1828, in the seventy-first year of his age. 



Jena and Weimar were ever associated by Humboldt, during 

 the whole of his long life, with the most grateful and elevating 

 reminiscences. In 1836 he read before the scientific society of 

 Jena one of the early chapters of ' Cosmos,' ' On the Variety of 

 Enjoyment afforded by the Contemplation of Nature and the 

 Study of her Laws,' and c On two Ascents of Chiraborazo.' Even 

 in his eighty-ninth year he thus expresses himself : ' Jena, which 

 I visited at the height of her intellectual glory, for the purpose 

 of preparing myself by the study of practical anatomy for my 

 proposed expedition to America, and which under the rule of 

 beneficent princes continues to play an important part in the free 

 thought of Germany, has ever remained as a bright spot in my 

 memory amid the crowded recollections of a life extended beyond 

 the ordinary limits.' He regretted that, owing to the rapid in- 

 crease of bodily weakness, he was prevented from attending the 

 celebration, in 1858, of the Jubilee of the University c to which 

 he felt attracted by the most agreeable and soul-stirring re- 

 membrances and the most heartfelt feelings of gratitude.' 



The autograph letter of the Grand Duke Karl Alexander to 

 Humboldt 1 on August 7, 1857, inviting him to the ceremony 

 of laying the foundation stone of the monument to his grand- 

 father, Karl August, and the unveiling of the statues of Goethe, 

 Schiller, and Wieland, contains the following passage : c You 

 are so inseparably connected with all that is great and noble 

 in our country, so intimately associated with the period of 

 which these names speak so proudly, that I cannot think of 

 engaging in this festival without you? 



This will suffice to show the living ties that bound Alexander 

 von Humboldt to the circle of intellectual heroes by whom the 

 classic literature of Germany was founded. 



1 Among the papers left by Alexander von Humboldt. 



