Guyot on Carl Bitter. 33 



la Kome he met with that triad of pure-minded artists, 

 Thorwaldsen, Overbeck, and Cornelius, whose genius raised 

 German art so high, and whose friendly intercourse gave him 

 an enlarged view of art and a deeper insight into its nature. 

 By the careful study of the topography of that most remarka- 

 ble of all historical spots and its monuments, Bitter gathered 

 copious materials for one of his most popular courses of lec- 

 tures at the University of Berlin. 



The period of preparation is now over for Bitter. Eighteen 

 years have elapsed since the close of his first education in 

 Schnepfenthal ; eighteen years of assiduous labor in nearly all 

 the domains of human knowledge, and of large experience in 

 the world of nature and of man. He returns home, loaded 

 with these new treasures, with matured views, and a clear per- 

 ception of the grand idea, which he so gradually evolved from 

 the depth of his rich nature, and which is to establish the sci- 

 ence of the globe on a new foundation and breathe into it a 

 new spirit. 



But it is not enough for that great architect to have con- 

 ceived and matured the plan, to have collected the materials 

 for the edifice ; he must rear it, realize his conception, and 

 give it the tangible form of life. He soon sets himself at work 

 and devotes all his energies to the performance of that arduous 

 task that he now feels to be the work of his life. In the year 

 1814, he went to Gcettingen with his two pupils now ripe tor 

 University studies. During two years he devoted his new leis- 

 ure to a faithful use of that vast University library of Gcettingen, 

 then, perhaps, the richest among the rich ones which are gath- 

 ered in so great numbers in Germany, on that classical soil of 

 learning. Like Humboldt, a few years later, Bitter, then, could 

 have been seen, a man of ripe years and known already by 

 his vast acquirements, modestly sitting among the crowd of 

 young students, listening to courses of lectures delivered at the 

 University on topics most varied. Here also, as elsewhere, he 

 soon gained the esteem of those who represented the intellec- 

 tual progress of the day in that old centre of learning ; and 

 he enjoyed the benefit of private intercourse with most men 

 of literary and scientific eminence at that time attached to the 

 University. Among the last, particular mention must be 

 made of the celebrated geologist Hausmann, with whom he 

 remained united to the end of his days by the bonds of an in- 

 timate friendship, and who himself died a few weeks since, in 

 December, 1859, but a few months after the departure of his 

 old friend. 



