4 



302 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



the other the election to the Academy of Sciences of Berlin. 

 Humboldt gave the preference to Halle, on account of the ad- 

 vantages attached to the title of professor. 



' I will not complain, neither will I relax my exertions,' he 

 wrote to his young friend. He was distressed to see him work- 

 ing so hard as almost to endanger his health. In a letter dated 

 August 9 he says : ' Should you be too unwell to go out, my 

 dear Eisenstein, pray write to me at once, and I will come and 

 see you on Sunday between one and three o'clock. In your dis- 

 tressing circumstances even a trifling assistance may prove 

 acceptable. My means being, as you are aware, but limited, I 

 need not feel ashamed to offer you an insignificant gift as the 

 expression of my warm sympathy. Early next week I can give 

 you an order on Alexander Mendelssohn for a hundred thalers. 

 With your noble intellectual gifts and high character, it cannot 

 distress you that a friend is interested in your case, and is 

 pressing in his assistance.' Again was Humboldt doomed to 

 disappointment, both as regards Halle and Berlin ; and all that 

 could be obtained from Raumer was the temporary assistance 

 of a hundred thalers to pay the expenses of a visit to some baths. 

 Full of complaints, he again sought the help of Gauss and 

 Dirichlet. To the former he wrote : ' The appointment to a 

 professorship for which we have teen so diligently seeking is 

 still a thing in the future, owing to the icy coldness and igno- 

 rance of the present ministry in everything not connected with 

 theology in everything, that is to say, that has the misfortune 

 to dispel darkness.' And to Dirichlet he exclaims : ' This 

 poor Eisenstein is dying, and he is allowed to perish for lack 

 of bread with the most scandalous indifference. ... My re- 

 monstrances are ridiculed, and I am sent to Jericho ! ! . . . 

 These are strange times in which I am bidding good-bye to the 

 world ! ' 



In 1852 the last scene of this unfortunate tragedy was 

 enacted. In February, Humboldt wrote to Johannes Schulze, 

 and, while thanking him with some bitterness ' for the exten- 

 sion of a miserable provisionary assistance without a fixed posi- 

 tion' the pension had been raised to 400 thalers continued: 

 ' This highly-gifted mathematician, whose activity has ever 

 been on the increase, and whose fame has spread everywhere, 



