220 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



the compilation of c Cosmos ' we shall find that he adopted the 

 same plan with regard to the various branches of science. 

 In the ' Examen critique ' he relied mostly upon Letronne and 

 Bockh, with the latter of whom he was in frequent corres- 

 pondence concerning the meaning of important passages in the 

 classics, and the identifications of others, besides submitting to 

 his criticism all he wrote upon the subject of ancient history. 

 With regard, at least, to the commencement of the work, 

 Humboldt was scarcely guilty of an exaggeration when, sending 

 Bockh a copy, he remarked that to him mainly it owed its 

 existence. For the purpose of gaining a more comprehensive 

 view of the subject, he enrolled himself among Bockh's pupils 

 in order to attend his University lectures upon Grecian an- 

 tiquities, during the winter of 1833^4, followed by those 

 upon the history of Greek literature in the two succeeding 

 years attending meanwhile a course on chemistry by Mit- 

 scherlich. In this self-imposed task the man of sixty-five, 

 ranking himself among his juniors, displayed his wonted zeal 

 and energy. He regularly took his place, note-book in hand, 

 among the University students, towards whom he conducted 

 himself with courteous frankness. The unusual visitor soon 

 became the subject of a crowd of interesting anecdotes. When 

 his attendance was occasionally prevented by his duties at 

 court, he would write from Potsdam to express regret at not 

 being present at one of Bockh's ' magnificent lectures,' c always 

 an intellectual feast,' or he would intimate to the professor 

 that ' to-morrow I hope to have the pleasure of again listening 

 to your lectures, which are always philosophic, lively, and 

 intellectual.' When writing to Bockh on March 15, 1857, to 

 congratulate him upon attaining the jubilee of his degree 

 of Doctor, he refers to the pleasure with which he listened 

 to these lectures, in which ' your penetrating and reflective 

 mind gave a comprehensive sketch of the elevating 1 influ- 

 ence of Greece, and indeed of all antiquity. I still show 

 with a certain feeling of self-complacency the manuscript in 

 which, according to old-established custom, and in conformity 

 with my fellow-listeners, I took down the lectures, though I 

 confess to have never rewritten them from the somewhat 

 illegible pencil hieroglyphics in which they now stand.' 



