20 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



a friendly character : he often mentions them with praise, but 

 does not hesitate to censure, when he thinks blame is due. 



In one of his letters l (1818) he mentions that Scholl had 

 three volumes in hand, and that it needed some courage in a 

 publisher to venture upon the completion of a botanical work,, 

 the first two issues of which had cost 180,000 francs. The 

 expense of engraving and printing the copper-plate illustrations 

 was truly enormous : in a letter to Bockh, Humboldt remarks 

 that the cost of the engravings for the French work amounted 

 to 600,000 francs. In Ideler's translation of the 'Examen 

 critique ' it is stated that the completion of the publication of 

 Humboldt's great work on America was entirely due to the 

 generosity of the public ; the copper-plate illustrations, occu- 

 pying 1,300 folio leaves, cost in printing and paper alone 

 840,000 francs a fact which easily explains the high price of 

 these works, nearly double that of the ' Description de 1'Egypte,' 

 towards the publication of which the French Government ad- 

 vanced the sum of three million francs. 2 



It is therefore readily conceivable that Humboldt felt obliged 

 to contribute from his private resources towards the cost of 

 publication, if only indirectly by the payment of his coadjutors,, 

 and that in consequence of this outlay his fortune became 

 considerably impaired. In this way was soon expended not 

 merely his private income and pension, but also the sums he 

 received from Cotta for his literary productions particulars of 

 which occur in such entries in his journal as the following : 

 6 Received from Cotta 5,000 francs ; ' ' For German manuscripts 

 400 thalers, 600 thalers, 204 thalers ' (August 12, 1806), and 

 again : 6 1,419 francs paid by Gotta to Duttenhofer.' 



In consequence of a representation made in person by Hum- 

 boldt to Von Billow, Prussian Minister of Finance, who hap- 

 pened to be at that time visiting Paris, he received in 1815 

 an advance of 24,000 francs. Of the manner in which this- 

 royal loan was expended, he renders an account in an interesting 

 letter addressed to the minister Von Altenstein ; he made an 

 arrangement with the Government that the publishers were to. 

 be allowed to repay the money, by means of copies of the 



1 De la Roquette, vol. i. p. 210. 



* ' Kritische Untersudmngen ' (Berlin, 1852), p. 22. 



