THWAKTED PLANS. 213 



his intention to Schiller of ' never having a fixed residence, 

 but only residing at Jena in the intervals of travel.' By the 

 arrival of Haften at Jena the circle of intimate friends was 

 rendered complete. 



Of the unceasing occupation of Humboldt at this time, 

 ample details have been given in the foregoing pages. It was 

 during this period that the brothers were thrown in close 

 personal intercourse with Groethe, who joined the friendly circle 

 at Jena towards the end of February, and remained there till 

 the beginning of April, occupied in the completion of his epic 

 poem ' Hermann und Dorothea.' On his return home Goethe 

 was accompanied by William von Humboldt, who delivered 

 at Weimar ' an exhaustive criticism on the prosody ' of the new 

 poem, and availed himself of the opportunity afforded him by 

 this visit to select suitable works in preparation for his journey 

 to Italy. 



It was during this visit to Jena, on May 14, 1797, that 

 Alexander von Humboldt wrote the letter to Schuckmann from 

 which copious extracts have already been given ; the letter is of 

 extraordinary length ' a letter like a newspaper ' in which 

 he narrates his discoveries and discusses his plans for the 

 future. He then proceeds : ' After the 1 st of June I intend 

 to pass some weeks at Dresden, where I am anxious, under the 

 superintendence of Kohler, to acquire some proficiency in the 

 vise of my large sextant of fourteen inches ; thence I hope 

 to visit Freiberg, to gain some information from Werner 

 " about the origin of volcanoes." I expect to be in Venice 

 early in September, and shall probably pass the winter at 

 Naples.' . . . 



He writes further, that at Jena there is great intellectual j 

 languor among the professors, but much activity of mindY 

 among the students, with whom, therefore, he lived almost] 

 entirely. Though Loder was not possessed of much mental 

 power, he yet taught the principles of mechanics well. The 

 day previously a labouring man and his wife had been killed 

 by a flash of lightning. He had himself dissected the body 

 of the man, and learnt from this experiment what power- 

 ful conductors of electricity the bones are. The back of the 

 skull was perforated by the lightning as by shot, and in less 



