ALEXANDER VON UUMBOLDT. 



The "eager impulse" was a sure indication of 

 something to be accomplished by and by. Success 

 does not come with half-hearted effort ; it comes 

 only through a force and persistence that will 

 allow no barriers between us and the goal. 



At Easter, 1791, Humboldt left Hamburg and 

 hastened to the famous School of Mines at Frei- 

 berg, to study under the celebrated Werner. Here, 

 as ever, he attached one ardent friend to himself, 

 Freiesleben, a student in geology. Here every 

 moment was occupied. He studied the works of 

 the French chemists ; Guyton de Moreau, Four- 

 croy, Lavoisier, and Berthollet. He was daily in 

 the mines, from six o'clock till twelve. He 

 crowded six lectures into each afternoon. He 

 made a study of the vegetation of that lower 

 world, from which the sunlight is ever excluded, 

 and the results were used later in his comprehen- 

 sive work, " Flora Subterranea Fribergensis." He 

 wrote articles for several scientific journals. A 

 busy life, indeed, for the young man of twenty- 

 two ! 



His friend Freiesleben says of Humboldt at this 

 time : 



"The salient points of his attractive character 

 lay in his imperturbable good-nature, his benevo- 

 lence and charity, his remarkable and unselfish 

 amiability, his susceptibility of friendship and 

 appreciation of nature; simplicity, candor, and 

 the absence of all pretension characterized his 

 whole being; he possessed conversational powers 



