98 Prof. Agassiz’s Eulogy on Humboldt. 
who already venerable in years and eminent as promoters of 
physical science not yet established in the popular favor, were 
the early guides of Humboldt in his aspirations for scientific dis- 
tinction. Yet Humboldt had a worldly career to accomplish. 
He was to be a statesman, and this required that he shou 
to the Academy of Commerce at Hamburg. He remained there 
five months, but he could endure it no longer, and he ed so 
hard that his mother allowed him to go to Freyberg and study 
Geology with Werner, with a view of obtaining a situation in 
the Administration of Mines. See what combinations of circum- 
had as his fellow student no less a man than Leopold von Buch, 
~~ a youth, to whom, at a later period, Humboldt himself 
himself familiar; went to Italy and Switzerland, where he be- 
came acquainted with the then celebrated Professors Jurine and 
gereizte Muskel und Nerven-faser, mit Vermuthungen iiber den 
tschen Process des Lebens, in Thieren und Pflanzen.” In these eX 
planations of the phenomena we have the sources of the first 
red from the title of the book published in 1797—“ Uber die 
eee 
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