GtUyot on Carl Bitter. 45 



faithful friend ; in the circle of his family most tender-hearted 

 and affectionate. Himself childless, he was a father to many 

 of the children of his immediate relatives, and others less near 

 to him. He never knew any feeling of egotism. His modesty 

 was as sincere as unaffected. He was always ready to ascribe 

 his own progress to the influence and suggestions of other 

 master-minds from whom he was conscious of having received 

 new impulses ; as if a rich soil was not as necessary as the 

 seed itself to the luxuriant growth of a noble plant into perfect 

 beauty and richness of fruits. To give a public expression of 

 his gratitude to such men as Pestalozzi, Soemmering, Ebel, 

 Humboldt, was for him a delight. 



With regard to the last, of whom he had become a rival in 

 glory, no other feelings ever found room in his heart than 

 those of affectionate reverence and of deep gratitude for the 

 services rendered to science, by one whom he used to call 

 " our great master." A more heartfelt and discriminating ac- 

 knowledgment of the merits of Humboldt cannot be found than 

 Eitter' s address to him, in behalf of the Academy of Sciences 

 of Berlin,* when that distinguished body, on the 4th of Au- 

 gust, 1844, celebrated, by a congratulating deputation, and a 

 banquet on the next day, the anniversary of the safe return, 

 forty years before, of the great traveller from his memorable 

 journey in tropical America. The answer of Humboldt is not 

 less characteristic of his own modesty and feelings ; and well 

 may we rejoice at so noble an example and take heed to a lesson 

 from so high a source. For this was not a simple exchange of 

 politeness for the occasion. The life of both assures us that it 

 was the expression of true feelings. Humboldt's death had no 

 more sincere mourner than Eitter. Indeed, his last strength 

 was used in writing numerous letters, four of which were di- 

 rected to America, to urge, in warm terms, upon the sympathy 

 of all cultivated nations, and especially of those in the Western 

 Hemisphere, the claims of the " Humboldt- Stiftung " of that 

 Institution, the object of which, now well known to you, is 

 to perpetuate in a manner congenial to Humboldt's spirit, 

 the memory of his name. Eitter hailed with equal delight 

 every new advance arising out of the mighty impulse which 

 started from him, and which seemed, in some manner, to go one 

 step beyond his own results. He only rejoiced that his own 

 labors had been instrumental in preparing it, thus proving that 



See Zeitschrift fur Allgemeine Erdkunde, New Folge, vi. 318. Mai, 1859. 



