OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 65 



lie would likewise find Heyne, the successful pro- 

 fessor of antiquity, and Eichhorn, the historian. 

 At Gottingen, Alexander von Huniboldt received 

 likewise a new and lasting impulse through 

 his acquaintance with George Forster, who 

 had, as previously stated, accompanied, for the 

 purpose of scientific researches, the celebrated 

 Captain Cook on his second voyage round 

 the world. Another two years' residence in 

 Gottingen brought their academical career to 

 a close. Alexander had pursued, during this 

 time, with unceasing diligence, his physical, 

 archaeological, and philological studies, under 

 the personal influence of celebrated men. They 

 were now sufficiently prepared for active life, and 

 their future career had been positively determined. 

 The outbreak of the French revolution about 

 this time, made necessarily a more powerful 

 impression upon the elder brother, Wilhelm, 

 who had prepared himself for public life, 

 than upon Alexander, who engaged in the 

 more peaceful study of Nature, and her unerring 

 and unchanging laws. He paid at this mo- 

 mentous epoch almost exclusive attention to 

 physical science, to the extension of our geo- 

 graphical knowledge ; and, encouraged and 

 animated by his friend Forster, he meditated 

 upon future Transatlantic explorations. 



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