304 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



Finance, and to Dirichlet he announced that ' hitherto things 

 have gone on in their natural course, but now at length the 

 king must be induced to interfere. Alexander Mendelssohn has, 

 in the frankest and most obliging manner, offered me a hundred 

 thalers, should the journey be carried out. Do not mention 

 this to Eisenstein ; he would only expend the money here in 

 an unnecessary manner, and three weeks ago, before I left home, 

 I paid him a similar sum out of my own means.' In the mean- 

 time he received a consolatory letter from Johannes Schulze, 

 and was able to acknowledge his kindness, on September 1, in 

 the following delighted strain : < How can I find words, my 

 dear friend, to express to you my renewed thanks ? I have just 

 received from the Minister of Finance an autograph letter, 

 couched in the most friendly terms, dated September 7, in- 

 forming me that on the 27th, therefore before receiving my 

 letter, he had given his sanction to a grant of 500 thalers to 

 Dr. Eisenstein. As soon as I am sufficiently recovered I hope 

 to wait upon the minister, to express in person my heartiest 

 thanks. If only the young man can be saved ! ' 



The sad tragedy was inevitable ; in less than six weeks 

 Eisenstein was no more. To the bereaved father Humboldt 

 wrote on October 1 1 : ' I have no words to express the sorrow 

 I am experiencing. Both you and your dear wife are aware 

 how sincerely I was attached to your highly-gifted son, who 

 has been for years both to yourselves and to me an equal object 

 of care. ... I have written this evening to Herr von 

 Bodelschwingh, the Minister of Finance, requesting that the sum 

 destined for the living may be devoted to the exigences of the 

 dead, and that the 500 thalers may be paid over to you to meet 

 the expenses of the funeral, the outlay involved by his election, 

 and the debts which had been set on one side in arranging for 

 the cost of the journey. ... In furnishing your son with so 

 excellent an education, in your limited circumstances, you 

 have accomplished no mean service to your generation.' But 

 new difficulties were awaiting Humboldt. In writing shortly 

 afterwards to Bockh he says : ' So at last I have buried 

 1 Eisenstein, to whom, in spite of the humiliations to which for 

 Ifive years I have subjected myself, the title of Professor was 

 pever accorded, to whom the pension granted by the king in 1&46 





