354 ALEXANDEE VON HUMBOLDT. 



Borgia collection ; but as I am accompanied by my friend M. 

 Gay-Lussac, I have been obliged to avoid the Austrian do- 

 minions. The sciences are no longer a Palladium in these 

 frightful Mahratta wars in which Europe is now perpetually 

 engaged. We found, however, some compensation in a' visit 

 to my old friend Volta at Como. But the pass of St. Gothard I 

 With what storms of rain, snow, and hail were we greeted by 

 the Alps ! On the road from Lugano to Lucerne we really 

 encountered a good deal of annoyance, and we hear that in 

 the beginning of October the whole of Swabia lay deep in 

 snow. Yet this is called, apparently in jest, the temperate 

 zone ! We go hence to Heidelberg and Cassel ; and as I do 

 not intend to stay long at Gottingen, supposing the Russians 

 allow us to go there at all, I hope soon to find myself at 

 Berlin, where I shall devote myself exclusively to my American 

 works. The second part of the " Planta? ^Equinoctiales " has- 

 appeared.' . . . 



On November 4 they reached Gottingen, where they spent 

 some days among their friends, both professors and former 

 fellow-students ; and on November 1 6 they arrived at Berlin. 



During his stay in Paris, Humboldt had received the most 

 gratifying proofs of the lively interest which his friends at Ber- 

 lin had taken in his return to Europe, and of the high appre- 

 ciation they entertained of his valuable services to science^ 

 From all quarters came letters of greeting and congratulation, 

 numbering sometimes as many as forty in a week, to only a 

 few of which had he been able to reply. On the proposition 

 of the Royal Academy of Sciences, he had been nominated an 

 honorary member, by a royal order in council bearing date Au- 

 gust 4, 1800 1 an honour he was not likely to appreciate too 

 highly (see p. 212). He was distinguished with especial marks 

 of favour by the king. 'The king showers favours upon me,' he 

 writes to Pictet; 2 'his attentions are almost oppressive, for 

 they take up too much of my time. He has granted me a 



1 Humboldt was introduced to the Academy as an ordinary member upon 

 his arrival at Berlin. By a royal order in council of November 19, 1805, 

 he was, ' as Member of the Academy of Sciences/ awardedfa pension out of 

 the funds of the Institution. Humboldt's letter to the Academy, conveying 

 his thanks for his election, is dated ' Paris, September 4, 1804,' and was 

 written on receiving the notification through Kunth. 



2 < Le Globe/ &c. p. 179. 



