114 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



I was not very well able to write to you." The 

 result of this tour was a pamphlet, " Mineralogical 

 Observations on some Basalts of the Rhine." His 

 next works were two small treatises, " The Aqueous 

 Origin of Basalt," and "The Metallic Seams in 

 the Basalt at Unkel." And this youth of twenty- 

 one was self-taught both in mineralogy and geology ! 



The wonder was not so great, perhaps, that a 

 young man of his age should have written these 

 sketches, as that, being wealthy and of the best 

 social position, the temptations to ease and enjoy- 

 ment did not draw him away from such subjects. 

 Poverty may not be a delight, but the larger part 

 of the world's work has been done under its stimu- 

 lus. Wealth should be an incentive, because it 

 gives leisure for careful study, but this is not 

 always the case. 



At Gb'ttingen, Humboldt found a friend among 

 the eight hundred. At the house of Heyne he 

 made the acquaintance of George Foster, Heyne's 

 son-in-law, a man who exerted a remarkable and 

 lasting influence over him. Foster was thirty- 

 six; Humboldt, fifteen years his junior. He had 

 been around the world with Captain Cook in his 

 second voyage, and had published an able book 

 upon the subject. He was skilled in chemistry, 

 philosophy, literature, and politics, understood 

 Latin, Greek, French, English, Dutch, and Italian, 

 and was somewhat conversant with the Swedish, 

 Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Polish lan- 

 guages. 



