FROM ACCESSION OF FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 301 



Eisenstein should address a courteous letter to the ministers, to 

 which he would append some remarks in explanation of the 

 charges brought against him, and give some assurance that his 

 occupations were all of as ' unpolitical ' a character as could be 

 expected from the theory of numbers. By this manoeuvre, and 

 by the judicious circulation of an opinion recently expressed 

 by Gauss that the ' talents of Eisenstein were of the highest 

 order,' Humboldt was at length enabled to preserve the little 

 that had been gained. It was no exaggeration when he wrote 

 to Johannes Schulze : ' In such cases I am ready to take any 

 step, however humiliating.' 



The death of Jacobi in the spring of 1851 was the occasion 

 of renewed efforts on the part of Humboldt for ' his poor 

 friend Eisenstein.' ' The effect of a long and somewhat sad 

 experience,' he wrote on February 20, to Johannes Schulze, 

 ' has been to lead me to undertake alone any service imposed 

 by science, and if failure awaits me, to renew my efforts with 

 undiminished ardour. Amid the deep grief occasioned me by 

 the loss of Jacobi .... my thoughts have been turned to 

 Eisenstein, who, with his mother ' Humboldt persistently 

 ignored the fact that his father was still living and capable of 

 earning a livelihood ' has in consequence of the withdrawal of 

 the 200 thalers, but 300 thalers for his support, and is obliged to 

 undertake instruction of the most elementary character.' He 

 then proceeds to reiterate the flattering expressions made use of 

 by Gauss in reference to his friend, adding, that of Gauss it 

 might indeed be said with truth ' that he was slow to praise.' 

 Eisenstein is to be classed with ' those productive geniuses 

 like the Bernouilli in a town where minds of this order are 

 more and more rare. I implore your aid, and confidently rely 

 upon you. I am aware that Jacobi's salary was not drawn 

 from the University' it was derived from the funds of Konigs- 

 berg ' but I cling to the hope that some regard will be paid to 

 the mathematical glory to which Berlin has laid claim for the 

 past century.' While engaged in tedious negotiations with the 

 new ministers, Eaumer, who manifested a spirit of unfriendliness, 

 and Bodelschwingh, who was wholly ignorant of science, he 

 was cheered in the summer of 1851 by a prospect of two openings 

 for his friend one a professorship extraordinary at Halle, and 



