THWAKTED PLANS. 219 



Whether I go hence to Italy is still uncertain, partly because 

 there is now a prohibition against anyone leaving Vienna, 

 partly because Italy itself is in a state of commotion. The 

 winter, Haften's children all create some amount of anxiety. 

 It is most probable that my brother will not visit Eome either, 

 but will go direct to Paris. He intends to remain eighteen 

 months in France before visiting Italy. I shall most likely 

 pass the autumn and winter in Switzerland, either at Zurich or 

 Geneva, and proceed to Italy in April by way of the Tyrol. I 

 shall thus gain sufficient leisure to complete several of my new 

 undertakings, and I shall hope during the autumn and winter 

 (when I must, without fail, revisit the St. Grothard) to gain 

 valuable material for my book upon the atmosphere. 



6 Young Bothlingk has arrived here and is quite determined 

 now to go with me to the West Indies. We think of com- 

 mencing our journey by Spain, and thence to Teneriffe. He 

 has an income of 40,000 roubles.' 



To Professor Loder, 1 at Jena, Humboldt writes more in 

 detail : 4 1 spent a glorious time at Vienna. I passed several 

 weeks at Schonbrunn, and though tl^e claims of social life and 

 the friendship accorded me by Count Sauzau(?) (a sort of 



work again into his possession, Humboldt writes : ' I could scarcely recog- 

 nise my work. You have taken more trouble with it than the thing- is 

 worth, not only in arranging the old materials, but in adding new matter. 

 It will now be an easy task for me to make a book out of it, and I should 

 certainly dedicate it to you if your assistance in its preparation were not so 

 widely known, and if I had not determined to dedicate to you my " Geology," 

 a much more important work.' 



1 Loder had sent Humboldt a pecuniary acknowledgment for an article 

 ' On the Employment of Galvanism in Medical Practice,' which he had 

 contributed to the 'Journal fur Chirurgie, Geburtshiilfe und gerichtliche 

 Arzneikunde/ vol. i. pp. 441-71, and this was apparently the occasion of 

 Humboldt's letter. The letter begins : * You send me a pecuniary acknow- 

 ledgment for a few pages, to which you have accorded an honourable place 

 in your journal. Your liberality is equal to that of Herr Gotta when one 

 dances with one of his Hours j only your Hours can carry on the dance 

 much longer than his, for they frequently show signs of fatigue. Fifteen 

 thalers fifteen groschen for those few pages ! Well, this is the first money I 

 have ever received from a periodical; and you, my dear friend, have with 

 this unprecedented generosity raised for yourself an imperishable memorial 

 in my gratitude which enables me to esteem it a great pleasure to receive 

 this gift from you.' 



