OF BAEON HUMBOLDT. 59 



in literature and science. It appears that Gothe, 

 in the month of May, 1778, having accompa- 

 nied his friend, the Duke of Saxe- Weimar, to a 

 great military review in Berlin, walked, one 

 morning, by way of Schonhausen to Tegel, re- 

 mained there to dinner, and returned by way 

 of Charlottenburg to Potsdam. On that occa- 

 sion he met two lively boys, ten and eight years 

 of age, and could certainly not anticipate the 

 subsequent intimate relation between himself 

 and both brothers, especially the elder. 



Their education fell in a period when, as 

 already said, important changes were intro- 

 duced into the system of education in Prussia. 

 The method of Eousseau found a cordial ac- 

 ceptance by the ablest men of the day. Campe 

 before mentioned, who subsequently with 

 Klopstock enjoyed a high reputation as a 

 linguist became the first private tutor of the 

 brothers Humboldt. He soon relinquished, 

 however, his appointment, and accepted the 

 rectorship of the principal educational institute 

 of Dessau, which was offered to him in conse- 

 quence of his signal success as a teacher. 

 He established afterwards a celebrated private 

 seminary at Hamburg. In search of another 

 tutor, Major von Humboldt appointed a young 

 man only twenty years of age, and without 



