OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 133 



separate departments, and to indicate any 

 further progress ; whilst the collected material 

 belonging to science in general, might be re- 

 served for united consideration. 



Humboldt opened this scientific meeting with 

 a most important speech concerning the object 

 and the value of these annual gatherings ; 

 and his opinion, as usual, exercised a powerful 

 and animating influence upon the whole civi- 

 lized world. A few years afterwards both England 

 and Italy originated similar associations and 

 meetings, whose influence and importance is 

 every day more widely recognised. 



The career of Alexander von Humboldt, 

 though on the whole very prosperous, was 

 nevertheless, as has been already shown, inter- 

 mixed with disappointment, care, and anxiety. 

 To this was added, in the year 1829, a sad 

 bereavement. Madame von Humboldt, the wife 

 of his brother "Wilhelm, had been for some years 

 in a feeble condition of health. She had re- 

 ceived temporary relief from the waters of 

 Gastein, to which she again resorted in the 

 summer of 1828. She returned with her husband 

 in the middle of September to Tegel, and soon 

 afterwards the chronic disease assumed such 

 an alarming aspect, that, towards the close 

 of November, she was in a state of gradual 



