126 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



Diriclilet on April 9, 1828, in which he expresses the hope of 

 establishing a school of chemistry and mathematics at Berlin : 

 * A thousand insurmountable prejudices oppose the formation of 

 a veritable Ecole Polytechnique.' During the same year, in 

 writing to Bessel, he alludes to the influence he hoped to be 

 able to exert upon education. In his reply of December 25, 

 Bessel remarks : c If by this means you succeed in spreading a 

 knowledge of mathematics throughout Germany, you will have 

 achieved a great work.' Bessel had already accomplished 

 something to this end, so that mathematics were no longer 

 neglected in the schools of eastern Prussia. ' But the pre- 

 dominance given to the study of languages must cease if the 

 highest faculties of the mind are to be brought into active 

 exercise.' 



The extraordinary sensation created by the lectures at the 

 University incited Baron von Cotta, in December 1827, to turn 

 them to account as a publishing speculation. He was the 

 senior in the firm and the publisher of the ' Horen,' and was, as 

 described by Humboldt, 1 ' a strange mixture of generosity and 

 avarice, of restless energy, and a hopeless want of method in 

 matters of business.' He proposed to Humboldt c that the 

 lectures should be taken down by an experienced short-hand 

 writer, and revised by Humboldt after every lecture, when the 

 manuscript was to be forwarded to Stuttgart, to be at once 

 sent to press, and returned in sheets.' 2 Cotta offered Hum- 

 boldt 5,000 thalers, on the supposition that the work would 

 occupy forty-five sheets, yet notwithstanding the brilliant cha- 

 racter of this proposal, Humboldt would not allow himself to 

 be entangled in any hasty engagements. ' For,' as he remarks, 

 'of all human interests, none touched him so nearly as those 

 of science, by which a knowledge is acquired of the structure 

 of natural substances, and of the laws regulating the forces of 

 nature ; to these all other interests are subordinate, pre- 

 eminently those of a pecuniary nature.' 3 With a tact worthy 

 of imitation in the present day, when lectures are sent to press, 



1 To Schumacher, May 1, 1837. 



2 ' Briefwechsel A. von Humboldt's mit Berghaus,' vol. i. p. 117, &c. 



3 Letter to Berghaus of June 29, 1828. Ibid. p. 185. 



