[In the following essay, Goldsmith discusses the resulting intellectual effects of Humboldt's decision to resign from government service via an examination of Humboldt's letters to his wife.]

“Unbegreiflich ist mir noch der Gang, den ich nehmen mußte, um so anders zu werden …”¹

Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1791 prepared to resign his position in the Berlin Kammergericht and, rejecting the career and mode of life for which he had been educated, set out in pursuit of an ideal he vaguely felt but could not really define. This ideal, seen as the goal of all human existence, received its first full expression in 1792 after Humboldt had enjoyed the beneficent isolation he had sought.

“Der wahre Zweck des Menschen—nicht der, welchen die wechselnde Neigung, sondern welchen die ewig unveränderliche Vernunft ihm vorschreibt—ist die höchste und proportionirlichste Bildung seiner Kräfte zu einem Ganzen,”² he writes in Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen. It is mainly from this work that Humboldt's attitude toward the state and his conception of the importance of freedom for the individual are known. The Ideen reflects the evolution of Humboldt's thought, the ideas and to an extent the emotions that went into his decision to leave the state in 1791. Yet in many respects the work was an attempt to rationalize and justify his decision. Certainly the spontaneity and emotion that characterized his letters before the resignation are not to be found in this exposition of the theory of “Bildung.”

Humboldt's resignation itself and the years that preceded it are points of controversy among those who have written on the subject. To Kaehler, the political realist, Humboldt's decision to leave the state, and, in fact, his entire psychological make-up reflected the inherent impotence of the “Romantic type.” “Des Mangels an Fülle und Kraft sich bewußt,” wrote Kaehler, “schafft er sich eine Form, um des Lebens Herr zu werden.”³ This view would have it that Humboldt raised his weakness to the level of a universally valid principle, that he systematized his limitations and clothed his failings in the trappings of virtue. For Kaehler, however, the pursuit of an ideal such as that sought by Humboldt was not a valid course; Humboldt's Faustian belief that he could find a key to the nature of human existence was a “Rauschtraum des Intellekts,”⁴ a restless wandering through the “geistige West.” The world of the state, of politics and of reality, this was Humboldt's rightful position; this was where he would have remained had he not been too weak and too “unfähig.”

However, Kaehler's position rests on the assumption that Humboldt's decision and life represented a retreat from the true arena of human creativity and activity, an “ästhetische Flucht ins Ferne und Vergangene. …”⁵ The question is, of course, one of values, of whether his intellectual pursuits, however much they might have been motivated by the personality traits that Kaehler attacks, have a value and validity in themselves, whether they are not the true realm of creativity for Humboldt in a positive sense rather than a refuge into which he fled, or whether Humboldt's entire conception of man and human development was a false construction, a rationalization to justify his withdrawal.

To Meinecke the image of Humboldt constructed by Kaehler, his student, represented the needless destruction of an idol. Here Humboldt's rejection of a career in the state service was not viewed as a sign of weakness or a negative step. The idea and ideal that motivated the decision—the goal of individual self-development defined in the Ideen—this for Meinecke and Eduard Spranger was of basic and enduring importance. To them, in Humboldt's life and in his works was expressed an individualism and sensitivity characteristic of the reaction to the Aufklärung in Germany, and particularly to the Berlin Aufklärung. For Meinecke and Spranger it was the idea that assumed a position of basic importance in history. While Kaehler could assert that “es gilt auch hier der Satz Carlyles, daß der Mensch in seiner ganzen Art erkannt wird nicht nach Wünschen und Entwürfen, Gedanken und Ideen, sondern nach seiner Tat und Leistung,”⁶ Meinecke and Spranger looked primarily to thoughts and ideas to know the man and to understand the act.

The problem is not to condemn Humboldt's ideas—and the actions that followed as a consequence of these ideas—by condemning the personality which was inextricably involved in the formation of those ideas. Undoubtedly many of Kaehler's psychological analyses are correct, but these are important only insofar as they help to explain Humboldt's thought and action. Humboldt's ideas and life stand for themselves as representative of intellectual currents of primary importance in this period; and in this particular instance a direct influence on political developments can be seen, for the concept of man Humboldt developed between 1791 and 1809 was one of the foundations on which his activity in the Prussian Reform era rested. The problem, it would seem, is to examine a statement such as that of Spranger who contended that Humboldt's decision to resign his position in 1791 represented his “erstes entschiedenes, persönliches Bekenntnis zur Humanitätsidee,”⁷ to examine, follow and understand his intellectual development, personality and the evolution of his idea of man and what part his conception of this idea played in his decision to leave the state.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Humboldt's early years is the sense of emptiness and searching that dominated him, driving him to emotional and intellectual extremes before he was able to weigh what he had experienced and formulate a view of the meaning of his own existence which would at least enable him to proceed with some sense of direction. Humboldt's father died in 1779, leaving the twelve-year old son fully under the influence of his mother, who supervised the activities of her son far too closely to suit Humboldt. In 1790 he wrote that his mother was “sehr gut, sehr freundlich, voll von Achtung und Liebe zu mir, aber auch durch alles andere noch ebenso drückend als sonst.”⁸

The death of his father and the absence of anyone he could respect and look to for guidance led Humboldt to withdraw more and more into himself, until his pre-occupation with himself and introspection became obsessive, not diminishing in the following years but rather widening until it embraced ultimately the idea of humanity itself, for this preoccupation with oneself, Humboldt concluded, was the only way to influence all men. But in this early period Humboldt felt his withdrawal was negative, an escape from an unhappy situation, and while his wish was to find someone with whom he could form a close relationship, his withdrawal was characterized by an outward coldness, sarcasm and indifference which he could not control and which he regretted. Because he tried to conceal his emotions and unhappiness, to control himself rigidly, Humboldt said, the accusations of a lack of feeling were in a sense correct, despite the depth of the emotion he experienced.⁹

Under the strict control of his mother Humboldt's education was placed in the hands of a series of capable tutors—notably Campe and Kunth—who introduced him and his brother Alexander, two years younger, to those subjects deemed fitting and necessary for a future servant of the state, for there was no doubt that Humboldt, like his father, would follow this path. For a man of his social position the goal was either this or the army. His studies—French, Latin, German, logic and history—were approached with mixed feelings. Here was an escape from an inhospitable existence, yet here was no real outlet for his emotions; it was a further limitation, a narrowing of his world and, as he approached his studies, an escape into but a narrower and darker room:

Ich hatte so eine traurige frühe Jugend. Die Menschen quälten mich; ich hatte keinen, der mir etwas war, oder wenn ich mir auch einmal einen so idealisierte—so konnt ich nicht mit ihm umgehen. Das gab mir so eine eigentliche Liebe zu den Büchern, und in das trockenste Studieren mischte sich so eine Empfindung, so eine Anhänglichkeit, die aus Bitterkeit gegen die Menschen entsprang und oft nicht ohne Tränen war. Das empfand ich beim Griechischen am meisten, weil man immer schalt, daß ich zu viel Zeit darauf verwendete, und ich wirklich viel darum litt.¹⁰

Thus the early interest in the Greeks was heightened when this interest became a point of conflict. To classical studies, which in the eyes of his mother and his teachers could have little practical value, he devoted his time and energy at the expense of that which was “useful.” From this, however, there would emerge the desire to model himself after the Greek heroes who occupied his fancy. He saw a world and a conception of man wholly different from that of his own time. The ideal of man—of the individual—which became the guiding principle of Humboldt's life may clearly be traced, if not exclusively, in great part to this interest in the Greeks. “Ich las damals viel griechische Geschichte. Die Bilder der Vorzeit standen groß vor mir da, und ich sehnte mich, jenen Männern nachzuringen.”¹¹

Before the two brothers began their studies at Frankfurt a.O., Kunth took them to Berlin and introduced them to the leading proponents of the philosophy of the Aufklärung. From Klein and Dohm they heard lectures in law and “national economy,” but from Humboldt's remarks on the education in philosophy he received from Engel one can see that the dry rationalism of the enlightenment could not in itself satisfy him:

Meine erste bessere Bildung bekam ich durch Engel. Er ist ein sehr feiner und lichtvoller Kopf, vielleicht nicht sehr tief, aber so schnell auffassend und darstellend, wie ich es nie wieder gefunden habe, versteht sich nur in intellektuellen Dingen. Bei dem hört ich Philosophie nur mit wenigen andern und unterrichtete dann wieder meinen Bruder in seiner Gegenwart. … Der Unterricht war ganz Wolfisch, fast immer bloß logisch, und ich hatte in der Logik und in der Wahl erster scholastischer Spitzfindigkeiten eine solche Stärke, daß noch jetzt, da ich seitdem dies Zeug nicht mehr angesehen habe, ich kaum einen Menschen kenne der mehr als ich davon weiß. Denn man treibt das jetzt gar nicht mehr. Trotz der Richtung, die nun das meinem Kopf hätte geben müssen, fand ich immer Wege, meine Empfindung zu beschäftigen und beides zu vereinen.¹²

“Despite the direction” his studies were taking, the “scholastic” sophistry, Humboldt began to stress emotion and feeling and unite them with the one-sided and abstract mode of thought to which he had constantly been exposed. But before he could achieve this synthesis, he was led willingly into an atmosphere of feeling and emotion as unbalanced and overly emphasized as his conception of the education and environment he sought to escape. Until his twenty-first year, he later wrote to Körner, he had learned nothing in his “dry and cold” studies, languages excepted, that he did not have to forget completely: “Bis dahin habe ich mir nie ein ästhetisches Urteil erlaubt …”¹³

Through Kunth Humboldt gained admittance to the house of Marcus Herz, gathering point for the highest levels of intellectual society in Berlin. Two groups were clearly discernible: those who gathered around Moses Mendelssohn and Biester, including Engel and Dohm, and the younger group led by Henriette Herz, Rahel Levin and Dorothea Veit. It was not long before the older group lost its hold on Humboldt and he succumbed fully to the feminine and romantic environment. Humboldt's pre-occupation with “feminine nature,” which can be seen in his attempts to characterize Greek art and civilization and his anthropological studies, Über den Geschlechtsunterschied und dessen Einfluss auf die organische Natur (1794) and Über die männliche und weibliche Form (1795), can be traced from this period.

The group, called the “Tugendbund,” fancied itself a secret society, with a secret oath, pledges of loyalty and devotion to the principles of virtue, beauty of soul and unshakable unity, faith and confidence in each other. A close friend later wrote that:

Wilhelm Humboldt's genußreichste Zeit [war] doch wohl am Ende die, wo er den Jüdinnen in Berlin nach Belieben Verstand gab und nahm. Es war seine Jugendzeit. Die beiden Brüder haben eigentlich nie die wahre Jugend in sich gehabt, aber sie ist doch bei ihnen vorübergezogen und hat sie eine kurze Zeit beschienen.¹⁴

It was through this group that Humboldt met Caroline von Dacheröden, his future wife, whose influence on his thought and life must not be underestimated. In her company and in the presence of the circle of friends into which she brought him, Humboldt abandoned and rejected his past. The idea of strict devotion to useful activity, of ordering the world about the one-sided principles of pure reason became a dream of the past:

Alle Ideen der Schönheit waren mir so fremd, ich fühlte nur eine unverletzliche Pflicht und in ihrer Erfüllung den süßen Lohn. Umgang mit Weibern hat mir doch zuerst eine größere Fülle und einen zarteren Sinn gegeben. Er hat jenes Streben nach dem Großen und Höchsten nicht erschöpft, vielmehr ewig in mir genährt, aber er hat ihm eine wahrere Richtung gegeben, hat die Einseitigkeit hinweggenommen und den sanfteren, menschlicheren Eindrücken mehr Eingang verschafft. Der Traum, so weit und groß zu wirken, verschwand. In süßeren, liebähnlichen Gefühlen dämmerte mir zuerst eine Ahndung auf, der schönere und größere Wirkungskreis werde von dem stillen Glück eines Wesens begrenzt. Mein müdes, ewig sonst herumschweifendes Auge gewann einen Ruhepunkt, ich strebte, Glück zu geben, und ich genoß gern, was ich so gern andern gewährte.¹⁵

Emotionalism and sensitivity now occupied a central position in his life, and aesthetic sensibility became the measuring rod by which he judged those he met. With this new outlook, there was little to interest him at Frankfurt, where he studied jurisprudence for only one semester, gladly returning to Berlin for Christmas, 1787. During 1788 and 1789 he was at Göttingen, ostensibly to continue his legal studies, but here he came under the influence of C. G. Heyne, one of the foremost classical scholars of the period, and his daughter and son-in-law, Therese and Georg Forster. Under the guidance of Heyne, Humboldt's interest in classical literature deepened, and his studies now reflected a more scholarly approach. Although formally a student of jurisprudence, Humboldt now devoted almost all of his time to the Greeks and the works of Kant.

Through Georg and Therese Forster Humboldt was introduced to a new philosophical outlook that coincided with the emphasis he now placed on emotion and aesthetics. In October 1788 he visited the Forsters in Mainz. Humboldt's diary describes in detail the conversations with Forster, in which the dehumanization and mechanization of the individual in the thought of the “enlightenment” were denounced. Attacking Biester and Nicolai with particular vehemence, Forster stressed emotion and experience over abstract reason, as well as condemning the trend toward religious intolerance in Berlin.¹⁶ In Forster Humboldt found the intimate personal and intellectual bond that he later felt with Schiller and Goethe, a bond which was irreparably destroyed in 1792, when Humboldt and Forster parted over the latter's support of the French in Mainz.

It was, however, Therese Forster who made the greatest immediate impression on Humboldt. In their relationship existed the same rapport that he later had with Caroline, and it was with women in particular that Humboldt throughout his life felt more at ease and better able to make himself understood. Every person that he met was an object for study and observation to Humboldt; in Therese he saw “ein großes, herrliches Weib, ewig wird sie meinem Herzen sehr nah bleiben. Sie war lang mein Studium, und tief gelang es mir ihr ganzes Wesen aufzufassen.”¹⁷ But what primarily drew them to each other was the feeling that they had experienced the same unhappiness and could appreciate, as could no others, the peculiar sensitivity of their natures. When Therese described her past and her mode of life, Humboldt was hearing the echo of his own as yet unarticulated desire for a similar life:

Sie sagte mir, sie habe eine unglückliche Jugend wegen ihrer Familienverhältnisse durchlebt. … Sie könnte, sagte sie, ganz isoliert leben. Sie hätte sich einmal so gewöhnt, sie bedürfe keiner Stütze. … Gefühl hat sie unendlich viel. Es ist also nicht Kälte, nicht Unempfindlichkeit, daß sie isoliert leben zu können sagt, und daß sie es kann. Es ist weil ihr Geist und ihre Einbildungskraft ihr wenigstens in so fern hinreichen, daß sie ihr immer neue Gegenstände schaffen, daß sie machen, daß sie wenigstens nicht isoliert zu sein glaubt.¹⁸

Those qualities of mind and feeling that Humboldt sought to develop in himself drew him to Therese: “… die Neuheit und Kühnheit ihrer Ideenverbindungen, die Originalität, wär's auch nur im Ausdruck, die Fülle zuströmender Gedanken, die Tiefe der Empfindung, die unaufhaltbare Lebhaftigkeit und die innige Verwebung der Empfindung und des Räsonnements.”¹⁹ The inextricable union of feeling and thought—here was the basic idea about which Humboldt would construct his ideal of human development.

Through Georg Forster, Humboldt met F. H. Jacobi. After visiting Dohm, his former tutor, he continued his journey and early in November spent five days with Jacobi in Pempelfort. The gap that divided the Berlin philosophers and Jacobi was indicated in Humboldt's remark expressing his gratitude for the letter of introduction Forster had given him. With a trace of humor—rare in his writing—he noted that “ohne die Vermittelung eines Mainzers wäre er wohl schwerlich mit einem so eigentlichen Berliner, als ich bin, mit einem Freunde Engels, Herzens, Biesters und so vieler anderer Anti-Jacobiten so nahe zusammen getreten.” Although Humboldt admitted that much of what Jacobi said was beyond his comprehension, the experience made a deep impression on him. Always eager to be exposed to new ideas, he found Jacobi a rich source. One major topic of conversation was Kant, whose work was of enduring interest to Humboldt, and whom Jacobi opposed with a combination of religious concepts and “Gefühlsphilosophie.” Even if he could not agree with all of Jacobi's views, the sensitivity and enthusiasm of the man impressed him (there was also a second visit in 1789), and he was somewhat awed and overwhelmed by his experience.²⁰

Humboldt's antipathy to the fundamental ideas of the Aufklärung, as he defined them, was based to a great extent upon the means by which the elevation of man was to be achieved and what form this elevation was to take. He wanted to temper the idea of utility which characterized his conception of the Aufklärung with an aesthetic sensitivity which, while not having the direct material use hitherto emphasized, would ultimately have a far greater and deeper beneficial effect on the individual. The break with his past is clearly illustrated in his remarks about his journey through northern Germany and to Paris in 1789 with Campe, his former teacher:

Zwischen Campe und mir auf dieser ganzen Reise wenig Gespräch, noch weniger Interessantes. Ich kann mich nicht in die Art finden, wie er die Dinge ansieht. Seine und meine Gesichtspunkte liegen immer himmelweit auseinander. Ewig hat er vor Augen, und führt er im Munde das was nützlich ist, was die Menschen glücklicher macht, und wenn es nun darauf ankommt zu bestimmen was das ist, so ist diese Bestimmung immer so eingeschränkt. Für das Schöne, selbst für das Wahre, Tiefe, Feine, Scharfsinnige in intellektuellen, für das Grosse, in sich edle in moralischen Dingen scheint er äußerst wenig Gefühl zu haben, wenn nicht mit diesem zugleich eigen ein unmittelbarer Nutzen verbunden ist.²¹

For the evolution of the ideal that Humboldt constructed in place of that which he abandoned, it is necessary to trace the influence of Caroline and their relationship on his thought. With Caroline, Humboldt became increasingly aware of the possibility of leading a different kind of life than that for which he had been prepared; he had always lacked confidence in his ability to be productive in the accepted sense and had felt that his own personality was too weak, that he was too given to introspection and feeling to act decisively. Now, however, he began to feel that these “failings” were really the foundations of a different kind of existence, a life which in its inward emphasis could be of deeper and more lasting importance than one devoted to the attempt to influence directly the lives of others. As early as 1789 his lack of ambition, his willingness to limit the range of activity and undertaking was apparent. In his own opinion his personality was insecure and overly sensitive. At twenty-one he was already contemplating old age and the satisfaction of looking back upon a relatively passive life, whose real accomplishment was not intruding into or upsetting the existences of others. In a particularly depressed state at a time when he believed Caroline was to marry Carl von Laroche, Humboldt wrote with resignation to Caroline: “… immer habe ich mit entgegenstrebenden Kräften, Besorgnissen, Schwierigkeiten zu kämpfen gehabt, wie werden die Tage des Mannes sein? Ich werde glücklich sein, wenn ich Gutes wirken kann, denn ich werde dann zufrieden mit meiner Existenz sein. Aber mehr erwarte ich nicht.”²² And as he was confronted with the prospect of working in the “Kammergericht” in Berlin, his doubt and desire to withdraw increased:

Vielen etwas zu sein, mich vielen mitzuteilen, ist mir nicht möglich. Überhaupt wird es mir so schwer, etwas aus mir in andere übergehen zu lassen. … Ich habe so viel in mir gelebt, habe mir zum Teil so eine Ideenwelt geschaffen …²³

Ich lebe noch so ganz in einer Welt von Ideen, mein Gefühl hat mit der jugendlichen Glut noch jugendliche Unerfahrenheit. Darum trete ich oft so furchtsam in die Wirklichkeit um mich her, darum bin ich so reizbar gegen alles, was von außen auf mich wirkt, darum kamen, eh ich das Glück ahndete, das jetzt mir durch Dich wird, immer Perioden, wo ich sehnlich wünschte, immer entfernt gelebt zu haben von allen Menschen, nie herausgegangen zu sein aus mir.²⁴

Here, thus far, there was nothing positive in Humboldt's ideas. His concern was with escape, with limited activity and with an existence within himself. Yet in Göttingen, and with Caroline, the idea developed that his inability to lead one kind of existence was not the weakness that he feared, and he felt that there was another reality, a higher reality, in which the “good” that one could do far exceeded that which was expected of him. As he tried to explain to Caroline in December 1790, he began to feel that to attain this new goal “ich freier existieren muß und ungebunden.” He had felt that for this type of existence, too, he lacked the higher genius and “ausserordentliche Kraft” that was necessary and had resigned himself to working in the court and doing as well as he was able. “Ich wählte die sichrere Laufbahn und ging ohne Änderung fort.”

Slowly, however, he realized that this higher existence was his true “Bestimmung.” He proceeded to attempt to define the manner in which man could achieve this, and the task of definition and achievement of a higher degree of “humanity” became the central idea which dominated his life thereafter. The feeling of anxiety in matters concerning others as well as his belief that he was unable to achieve anything significant in external activities had not lessened, but, attributing the new direction in his ideas to the period in Göttingen and his contact with Forster, Jacobi, Stieglitz and Caroline, he became convinced that “doch eigentlich nur das Wert habe, was der Mensch in sich ist.” All of his ideas about utility now changed, and he felt compelled to seek out the path which led “zum höchsten Ziele.” It was not that he believed himself incapable of functioning well in his work but rather that so much more could be done by developing himself. At first Humboldt had viewed this concept of withdrawal and self development as selfish, but,

… wie ich tiefer in die Wahrheit der Dinge drang, da fand ich doch … daß das Gute, auch was man schafft, einen andren Maßstab hat, und fest und unerschütterlich ward nun in mir die oft dunkel empfundene, aber selten klar ausgedachte Wahrheit, daß der Mensch immer insoviel Gutes schafft als er in sich gut wird. Was für die Masse des Guten in der Menschheit dadurch gewonnen ist, stand klar vor mir da, und wie die schöngestaltete Natur einen wohltätigeren Segen über die Menschen verbreitet, die sich in ihrem Anschauen verlieren, als die Fruchtbare über die, welche ihre Fülle geniessen, so kam mir der Mensch vor, der still und ewig strebend nach dem Grossen unter seinen Mitbrüdern einherwandelt, ungestört gedenkend des großen Ziels, und unbekümmert um die Gaben, die er ausspenden könnte, die aber vom Wege ihn abwendeten.²⁵

Here was the assertion that there was another standard by which a man was to be judged, that the “good” a man creates is not an outward, tangible quantity but rather a measure of to what extent he is “in himself good.” The real usefulness of the “Geschäftsleben” was sharply limited, as far as Humboldt was concerned—if any real “good” could be done at all in this way. He felt it was his destiny to seek the goal of acting upon others through his own development, and much of his energy in the following years was devoted to defining and trying to understand the process in which men approach the ideal of human development and how all that hindered this process could be identified and abandoned. He saw this study as his occupation in life, a task he had been uniquely equipped to carry out; he no longer felt that the pursual of this self-development was a selfish goal but rather that it was the one true way to achieve, on a higher level, the “good” which the Aufklärung sought in vain. In this wish to create “good,” however, in this desire to help men progress, he was fully a product of the Aufklärung.

Man, Humboldt felt, had been created by a “bildender Geist” according to an idea of perfection, an original form which one sensed in moments of solitude and introspection. To varying degrees all men are conscious of and mold their lives about this basic form: “Aber in den wahrhaft großen und schönen Wesen ist's anders, da ist die Form rein und unentstellt erhalten, da stellt sie sich in ihrer ursprünglichen Wahrheit in jeder Äusserung ein …” Only a few—for Humboldt only Schiller, Goethe and perhaps Caroline—retained this natural, original perfection. It was the degree to which an individual exhibited the purity of this “Urgestalt” that was the standard by which men were to be judged. This was what was human in man, and the goal of all human existence was the ordering of one's life about the ideal of this perfect original form.²⁶

It was fully in keeping with his conception of the perfection of form of the Greek gods and goddesses—an idea which he developed in more depth in the mid-1790's—that Humboldt saw the goal of human existence in this form. All men serve the single “goddess:” the elevation of humanity. At its simplest level this struggle is hindered by the constant concern of man to satisfy his physical requirements, but even here the goal is clear, and for Humboldt concern with the physical aspects of life was merely the effort to free the individual from the limits of his environment and allow him to concentrate on his spiritual development. Yet even on this higher level, free of concern for physical necessities, it was not merely the collection and enjoyment—the “Genuß” misunderstood and condemned by Kaehler—of ideas and experiences that leads to the advancement of humanity; it is the combination of these ideas and experiences with one's individuality, the evolution of personality, of humanity in a microcosm and the interaction of one's unique individuality with others and the evolution of something new and unique from this interaction, a greater individuality, more complete and perfect than any single individual could become alone:

So vieles, was in des Menschen Seele eingeht, bleibt ihm ewig so fremd, wird nicht sein; er besitzt, statt zu werden, und der Unterschied besteht nur darin, daß es moralische, intellektuelle Güter sind, die er besitzt. In ihrer wahren Gestalt erblickt die Gottheit nur der, welcher unmittelbar und mit Hingebung alles andern auf sich wirkt und auf andre.²⁷

Like so many of the ideas that stemmed from this period, this can be traced directly to Caroline's influence. “So zu wirken aber,” he wrote, “vermag man nur auf ein Geschöpf, so empfangen nur von einem.” When he spoke of both of them, he spoke as if they were one being: “Emporzusteigen in ungebundener Freiheit, uns zu sehen in allen Gestalten, zu werden, wozu unser Wesen uns führt, ist unser einziges Streben, die Erreichung unsrer einzigen Glückseligkeit.”²⁸ A gap in his ideas, which particularly in his later works stressed the development of all men, was the limitation presented by his condition about overcoming physical necessity. It was basically an aristocratic conception that:

Es gibt doch nichts Höheres und Schöneres als das rege, innere Leben der Seele, danach streben doch eigentlich alle besseren Wesen, und selbst die, welche niedrigere Sorgen drücken, fühlen, wenngleich unverstanden, denselben Drang. Allein den meisten wird es nur gegeben, mittelbar dazu zu wirken, nur uns und so wenigen, die das Schicksal gleich günstig zusammenfügte, ward es, unmittelbarer nur dafür zu streben und zu wirken.²⁹

At this point, however, it was the ideal of humanity and the problems of aesthetic sensitivity related to its achievement that were of primary interest to Humboldt.

The world constructed by man's intellect could never form the foundation from which the higher development of humanity could progress. This must come from the constant interaction and union of intellect and feeling by means of “die Empfindung der Schönheit.” Feeling for beauty and the idea of beauty combine to further the harmonic development of man. Again, however, it is only a few who fully absorb the impressions of their senses and progress from their experience to a higher conception of humanity. These few must reach a point at which they are receptive and sensitive, their imaginations active and creative, retaining the highest degree of clarity of ideas and feeling while not succumbing to the “Reiz der bewegten Nerven.” “Phantasie” must act in perfect harmony with “Geist” and never lose itself in “leeren Bildern.”

In diesem Zustande ist der Mensch auf der höchsten Stufe des Daseins, auf dieser faßt und schafft sein Geist mit der schnellsten, mächtigsten Kraft. Da eigentlich ist er zu jeder Kraftäusserung fähig, da sieht er jede in ihrem wahren Lichte, in ihrem nahen oder entfernten Einfluß auf die eigentliche Erhöhung des Wesens.³⁰

Here Humboldt's interest and emphasis on the elevation of man through the strengthening and refinement of his aesthetic sensibility was approaching the line of thought taken by Schiller in his works on aesthetics, and here also is one of the major points in Humboldt's thought which Kaehler misinterprets.

To Humboldt it was vital that man's capacity for reason be supplemented and balanced by the development of aesthetic feeling to prevent him from becoming too one-sided and to develop through this “Genuß” the “Mannigfaltigkeit” that he felt was vital for the achievement of the refinement of humanity implicit in his basic conception of man. This potential of human refinement he saw in Caroline, and in great part his ideal of man stemmed from his observation of her: “Es ist doch so wahr, meine Lina, dass ich das Ideal alles menschlichen Seins erst aus Dir schöpfte … dass in Dir ewig jede geistige Gestalt sich aus der Hülle der sinnlichen Schönheit entwickelt und jede ewig in sie nur zurückkehrt.”³¹ One could only appreciate and understand the original idea of humanity when his intellect had been influenced by feeling and the two combined to give him a true insight into human nature and the goal of humanity:

Daraus, aus der Art wie ich Dich sah, entwickelte ich mir, wie des Menschen Natur sein kann und sein muß. Ich drücke es einfach aus, wie es einfach ist. Könntest Du wie ich auch meinen früheren Ideen und Empfindungen nachgehn, Du würdest sehen, wie gerade seit der Epoche Deiner Bekanntschaft … alle diese Ideen in mich übergegangen sind. Der Mensch ist eigentlich in seiner wahren Würde, sieht die Wahrheit der Wesen um ihn her, empfindet sich in seinem eigentümlichen Sein und stellt die Schönheit wieder dar, die er in sich aufnahm, wenn das, was wir mehrenteils Stoff des Verstandes, des kalten Denkens nennen, in ihm in Empfindung übergeht.

And here the definition of the limits of “Genuß” is made, the concept which was central to Humboldt's thought and activity for the following twenty years and which Kaehler fully failed to consider in his study:

Aber hier ist er zwischen schmalen, leicht täuschenden Grenzen. Auf der einen Seite das helle Sein der trocknen, kalten Vernunft, auf der andern—das Herabsinken von der Sinnlichkeit zum mehr körperlichen Genuss. Das freiste Bewusstsein in der höchsten, glühendsten Empfindung ist des Menschen höchstes Ziel.³²

Kaehler attempted to attribute Humboldt's desire for experience—for “Genuß”—to weakness, to a dilettante's drive for the collection of varied and superficial knowledge of a subject. And to Kaehler Humboldt was a dilettante in life. But Humboldt wanted to penetrate beyond the merely superficial. It was the basic idea of life he sought to discover through an understanding of human feeling at the highest level. Humboldt viewed his task as the attainment of the most exact knowledge of human nature that was possible, a knowledge that could guide man to a freer and more perfect existence. Certainly what Kaehler called a “Sammeltrieb,” an “ästhetische Flucht ins Ferne und Vergangene,” was not the negative approach he wished to condemn.³³ Kaehler's view was that Humboldt falsified the real world by seeing all aspects of life in aesthetic terms. He criticized Humboldt for writing in his diaries not of what he saw but of the “Ideen der Erhabenheit und des Grandiosen, welche sie in ihm wachrufen.”³⁴ Yet the attempt to penetrate the outward form of everything he encountered and to define the essence, the idea, of what he saw, was Humboldt's basic occupation in life, and Kaehler's analysis can really have meaning only if one is willing to accept his presupposition that the task Humboldt set for himself was wholly negative and that as a “seeker of an absolute ideal” he had to remain forever unsatisfied and was in fact fleeing from reality. In his own mind it was a positive goal that he and Caroline were pursuing: “Nicht zu geniessen des Lebens leichte, heitre Freude bloß verbanden wir uns … [but rather for] … höhere und schönere Zwecke … Zu werden, was Menschen zu werden vermöchten, strebten wir …”³⁵

Humboldt's decision to resign from the state service must be viewed at two levels. There is, of course, the element of a simple rejection of one not too satisfying mode of life for another which promised to supply the personal happiness that had always been lacking in his life. On the other hand, the life of solitude and leisure offered the chance to develop himself and his ideas, for both of them to seek the higher form of human existence which he believed was within the reach of two individuals as sensitive as he considered Caroline and himself to be.

Caroline was not unreceptive to the idea of withdrawal, and she had indicated this even before she and Humboldt were engaged. Early in 1789, when it was generally accepted that she would marry Carl von Laroche, a member of the “Tugendbund,” and at a time when she felt that Humboldt's interest was in Therese Forster, she wrote, “Ich lebe nie glücklicher, als wenn ich so allein bin, nie bin ich einsamer als unter Menschen.”³⁶ Through her letters one can follow the same views that Humboldt was developing during this period, that the experiences one encountered had value only in so far as they contributed to the development of oneself:

… denn darin allein besteht doch das wahre Leben unseres Geistes, unsern Wirkungskreis und unsere Genußfähigkeit zu vermehren und zu erweitern. Nur darin, aber freilich in einem größeren und verfeinerten Grade, als ich mir ihn jetzt vielleicht denken kann, setze ich die Hoffnung der höheren Seligkeit einer künftigen Existenz. Mit dieser Ansicht gibt es, glaube ich, keine Situation im Leben, aus deren Anwendung man nicht Nutzen zur inneren Ausbildung des Geistes ziehen könnte.³⁷

After their engagement, however, Caroline was reluctant to have her “Parteilichkeit für eine freie Existenz” influence Humboldt's views on whether or not to continue in the state service, and it was only after his visit to her home during the summer of 1790 that she wrote, “Ich leugne es nicht, daß ich es tief fühle, daß die schönsten, vollendetsten Blüten Deines Geistes sich nur in einer ganz freien Existenz entfalten werden.”³⁸ Up to that point she had believed that he was satisfied with his work in Berlin. For her part, she had earlier told Dalberg, Coadjutor of Mainz and a close family friend, that all along she had not really been pleased with Humboldt's work and the life that it entailed.³⁹

As far as Humboldt was concerned, he had always been enticed by the prospect of living in undisturbed solitude. While at Göttingen he went at times to a nearby village to be alone, to enjoy the quiet beauty of the country-side, away from all “gleichgültigen Menschen, nur umgeben von dem Gedanken,” lacking nothing, he claimed, to be fully happy.⁴⁰ And after their engagement, he felt that a free and undisturbed life was essential to their happiness: “Ja, Li, wir müssen ewig allein füreinander leben, nichts muß unsre Existenz einengen, nichts sie stören, dann ging nie aus dem Bund zweier Menschen so eine Seligkeit und so eine reiche Fülle des Daseins hervor.⁴¹ But, above the consideration of happiness, he felt that a period of freedom and isolation was vital to his personal development and the clarification of the ideas on man which had occupied much of his time and interest. If he emphasized the beauty and attractiveness of their future mode of life, it was the higher goal that was his primary concern: “… so ist der Genuß der Vater der Kraft, und nie wird etwas Schönes genossen, ohne daß etwas noch Schöneres daraus hervorgeht.”⁴²

As his ideas on the “Urgestalt” of man took form, Humboldt was conscious that he had to have time in which to clarify these ideas in his mind; his thought until this time was intuitive, ideas and convictions strongly felt yet systematically undeveloped: “Ewig schweben mir diese Ideen vor, ich möchte Muße haben, mich ihnen zu überlassen, damit ich tiefer in sie dränge und sie mir deutlicher vorständen, allein meine Seele ist so gestört, mein Geist so heruntergestimmt.”

The factors that influenced Humboldt's decision to resign his position—aside from the idea of pursuing the ideal existence described above—involved his dissatisfaction with the conditions in which he lived and worked in Berlin and problems raised by his and Caroline's desire to marry no later than the summer of 1791. Once this decision had been made, the most pressing problem was to gain the consent of Caroline's father to the marriage and to the resignation. With Humboldt's mother there was really no problem. At best she was indifferent to the details.

Humboldt had completed his legal study by 1790 and was given a post as a Referendarius in the Berlin Kammergericht. A probationary period of at least one year lay ahead of him before he would be given a permanent position and the title of Regierungsrat. To attain this he would have to pass two examinations—he had already passed a preliminary examination. Before the final examination a probationary period of approximately a year was prescribed, which had to be completed where begun, a condition which pressed Humboldt to an early decision, since he did not want to remain in Berlin but was considering either Magdeburg or Halberstadt. There living expenses would be less, and they would be closer to Caroline's home, Burgörner, near Mansfeld.⁴³

By May 1790 Caroline's father, a Prussian Kammerpräsident, had consented to the marriage and had indicated that he would give them 500 Thaler per year. With this they would have the 1800 Thaler that they considered necessary. The problem of a title was of prime importance to Caroline's father. To him it was simply unheard of for a Referendarius to marry, but he would allow it if nothing could be done. Although Humboldt always expressed a dislike of utilizing personal friendships and family connections for obtaining favors—however, he rarely refrained from using such connections—he went to Herzberg, the foreign minister, to see if he could be given the title of Legationsrat. Herzberg advised him to write to the king with the request; Friedrich Wilhelm II, in his youth, had been a close friend of Humboldt's father. In June, 1790, Humboldt received the title of Legationsrat—without pay.⁴⁴

Once actively involved in the activities of his legal position, however, Humboldt's increasing distaste for these activities, his suspicion of their positive value and his dislike for Berlin became increasingly obvious. Although he had been assured that by Christmas of 1791 he would have attained the rank of Assessor and that his performance was satisfactory, he found the duties meaningless when compared with the studies he wished to pursue:

Ich fühle es wohl, daß ich schon jetzt recht nützlich bin in gewisser Art, und es künftig in einem eigentlichen und größeren Wirkungskreise sehr sein könnte. Aber was ist dieser Nutzen gegen den, den man stiftet, wenn man in ungebundener Geistesfreiheit nur sich und den Menschen lebt, an die man durch Liebe geknüpft ist. Und da rauben die Geschäfte unendlich. Erst so viel Zeit, dann Stimmung, sie machen Kopf und Charakter platt, weil sie beide so auf die gewöhnlichen, allgemein geltenden Ideen herunterziehen, weil man so viel Mechanisches verrichten muß, höchstens der Scharfsinn geübt wird, und weil die Idee des Nutzens, der aufgewandten Zeit und der Quantität der fertig gemachten Arbeit eine so leere Eitelkeit gibt.⁴⁵

It was here in the court that Humboldt was confronted by examples of the de-humanizing of the individual he felt was the logical implication of the ideas of the Berlin Aufklärung. Working mainly on criminal cases, he could not accept the dispassionate manner of applying the law which was expected. All men, he felt, were basically as sensitive as he, and to be just and “noble” in dealing with others, he believed, one had to understand and penetrate their individualities:

Aus so einem ungeschickten Stück Akten will ich wissen, wie der Mensch ist in seinen Ideen, Gefühlen, und noch dazu meistens ein Mensch der in so verschiedener Lage mit mir lebt, daß es mich, auch wenn ich ihn um mich hätte, Studium kosten würde, in ihn hineinzugehen. Das Resultat dieser Beobachtungen, das oft so fein ist, muß ich dann einem steifen, positiven Gesetz anschmiegen, und diese Kluft zu überspringen, meine Zuflucht zu einem scharfsinnigen, oft spitzfindigen Räsonnement nehmen.⁴⁶

Humboldt's ideas on punishment also conflicted with the prevailing system. He put forth the advanced idea that many criminals could not act in any other way, that severe punishment destroyed every higher feeling and hardened the criminal. They must, he believed, experience happiness in order to become good. “Ich bin viel sanfter,” wrote Humboldt, “viel menschlicher geworden.”⁴⁷

The idea of giving up the position altogether had occurred to Humboldt by the end of October, but at the same time he realized that such a position was necessary if he wished to marry by the summer of 1791:

… denn diese Arbeit verkürzt die Zeit unsrer Trennung. Aber oft denk ich auch, ob es nicht besser gewesen wäre, diese Zeit ganz abzuschneiden, gleich oder doch jetzt gleich meinen Abschied zu nehmen … Und wenn ein paar Momente vorüber sind, seh ich wieder mehr die äussere Lage um mich her und denke, es ist doch eine nützliche Sorge für die Zukunft, es sichert mehr ein glückliches, sorgenfreies Leben, und dann schwank ich hin und her …⁴⁸

From his letters during this period one gets the impression that he had already decided to resign but would not do so until Caroline agreed and an alternative plan was made for the period immediately following their marriage. “Recht lieb wird mir diese Laufbahn nie werden, das fühl ich. Die Geschäfte werden meinen innern Neigungen immer fremd bleiben, die äußeren Vorteile mich nie reizen.”⁴⁹

In Berlin itself there was nothing that attracted Humboldt. Throughout his life he was always concerned that he be surrounded by individuals whose personalities and intellectual interests would complement his own. The contrast between what he found in Berlin and the circle that he had been introduced into through Caroline was clear. It was through Caroline that Humboldt came into close contact with Dalberg and Schiller, and eventually Goethe. In Erfurt there was Dalberg. In nearby Rudolstadt lived Caroline von Beulwitz, Caroline von Dacheröden's most intimate friend, who had long been close to Schiller, and whose sister, Charlotte von Lengefeld, married Schiller early in 1790. Erfurt, Rudolstadt, Jena and Weimar formed a compact circle of literary activity and represented a major German intellectual center. One of the favorite plans of the group including Schiller, Caroline von Dacheröden and Caroline von Beulwitz was to follow Dalberg to Mainz when he became Kurfürst, a plan which never came to fruition. With Dalberg, moreover, Humboldt hoped would develop the intimate personal and intellectual tie that he in fact later found in his friendship with Schiller. It was at Dalberg's urging that he later would write the Ideen:

Auch ist mir in allen Gesellschaften so bang, und den Mann, der einen Weg zu meinem Herzen fände, seh ich nicht. Gern gesteh ich's daß ich noch keinen kenne, in den mein ganzes Wesen übergegangen wäre, dessen Geist mich zugleich beschäftigt und dessen Charakter stark angezogen hätte. Ein solcher Umgang würde mir unendlich wohl tun. Ich ahnde ihn in Dalberg. Aber ich hoffe nie, ihm so nahe zu kommen, wenn ich's käme, dann glaub ich, würde ich an ihm besitzen, wonach ich mich sehnte.⁵⁰

In contrast to this Berlin offered little. His friendship with Henriette Herz and Dorothea Veit paled by comparison. He had struck up friendships with some of the younger officials in the city, notably Carl Gustav von Brinckmann and Friedrich von Gentz, but, with the exception of the latter, they lacked the intellectual qualities that attracted him. The enlightenment in Berlin he compared to the correctness of a very mediocre writer; his deep interest in man was not shared by his companions:

Was kann der Umgang geben, wenn es nicht das Gefühl des Werts der Menschen um einen her ist? und gerade in dem Kreise, den ich in Berlin kenne, finde ich nur höchstens Wert der Ideen und Räsonnements, der Menschen, wie selten? … Unsre Gesichtspunkte werden nun ewig dieselben sein, die Menschen, in ihren vielfachen Gestalten, unser Studium bleiben, die Arten, auf sie zu wirken, die Kunst, der wir uns am eifrigsten widmen.⁵¹

To Caroline he wrote that they could not live happily in the boring atmosphere in Berlin, that they would have all they desired “wenn wir vereint in einem kleinen Kreise glücklich durch uns leben.”⁵²

By the end of 1790 the decision to resign was made, and Caroline devoted herself to convincing Humboldt that, financially, they would be just as well off in the beginning as if he had remained in Berlin. His real ability, she wrote, was in the realm of “schönen geistigen Gestalten zu schweben, es ist ein Reichtum der Ideen und eine Eigenheit der Ansichten in Dir, die Dich zu etwas andrem bestimmt …”⁵³ The difficulty would be in gaining the consent of Caroline's father, a traditionalist, to whom such a decision was incomprehensible. This delicate bit of diplomacy was managed by Caroline, and in two letters describing her conversations with her father, the gap dividing them—the complete opposition of their outlooks, the contrast with the older views of the Prussian nobility and bureaucracy—is clear. After an initial expression of horror by her father at such unexpected news, Caroline explained the decision:

Papa hörte mich auch ganz aus und ging nachdenkend in der Stube herum. ‘Daß der Wihelm,’ fing er endlich wieder an, ‘doch auch gar keinen Sinn hat, sich zu poussieren, Wege einzuschlagen, die ihm zu schnellerem Avancement verhelfen.’ ‘Ei,’ sagte ich, ‘er hat und wird nie Sinn für die Sache haben, woher also der Sinn für die Mittel, und Mittel, die noch obendrein geradezu seinem Charakter widersprechen.’ … ‘Aber in drei bis vier Jahren,’ sagte Papa, ‘wäre Wilhelm gewiß Präsident, und da hat er nicht mehr so viel zu tun und kann seinen eignen Studien mehr leben, denn die sind's gewiss, die ihm am Herzen liegen.’ ‘Wohl mehr wie die Präsidentenstelle,’ antwortete ich.⁵⁴

When, a week later, Caroline brought the subject up once again, her father:

… seufzte nur noch über Göttingen, das die jungen Leute verdürbe, wo sie zu viel lernten, um Geschmack am Geschäftsleben zu behalten, und stellte mir vor, was die Leute in Berlin sagen würden, wenn Du bei Deinen Aussichten, eine brillante Karriere zu machen, frewilling abgingst. Diese Art Betrachtungen muß man sich nun resignieren, einige Zeit zu hören.⁵⁵

For Humboldt the decision to resign represented the solution to the problem of his personal happiness that at the same time satisfied his conception of a higher usefulness and presented the opportunity to exercise what he saw as his particular talent for furthering the advancement of humanity: “… wenn Sie genauer überlegen wie ich bin, was mich eigentlich glücklich machen kann, und in welcher Lage ich sein muß, um mir und andren wohltätig zu werden; so werden Sie mir gewiss Recht geben.”⁵⁶ On June 29, 1791, he and Caroline were married in Erfurt.

Notes

1. Humboldt to Caroline von Dacheröden, May 19, 1791, Wilhelm und Caroline von Humboldt in ihren Briefen, ed. Anna von Sydow (Berlin, 1906-16), I, 460.

2. Wilhelm von Humboldt, Werke, ed. Andreas Flitner and Klaus Giel (Stuttgart, 1960-64), I, 64.

3. Siegfried A. Kaehler, Wilhelm von Humboldt und der Staat, 2nd ed. (Göttingen, 1963), p. 101.

4. Ibid., p. 12.

5. Ibid., p. 113.

6. Ibid., p. 17.

7. Eduard Spranger, Wilhelm von Humboldt und die Humanitätsidee (Berlin, 1909), p. 46.

8. Humboldt to Caroline, Jan. (n.d.), 1790, I, 73.

9. Humboldt to Caroline, March 20, 1789, I, 30-31.

10. Humboldt to Caroline, April (n.d.), 1790, I, 134.

11. Humboldt to Caroline, May 19, 1791, I, 460.

12. Humboldt to Caroline, Nov. 11, 1790, I, 280.

13. Humboldt to C. G. Körner, Nov. 12, 1798, Wilhelm von Humboldts Briefe an Christian Gottfried Körner, ed. Albert Leitzmann, Historische Studien, No. 367 (Berlin, 1940), pp. 62-63.

14. Wilhelm von Burgsdorff to Karl Gustav von Brinckmann, Aug. 30, 1797, Neue Briefe von Karoline von Humboldt, ed. A. Leitzmann (Halle, 1901), p. 139.

15. Humboldt to Caroline, May 19, 1791, I, 460-461.

16. Wilhelm von Humboldt, Gesammelte Schriften, ed. A. Leitzmann et al. (Berlin, 1903-20), XIV, 38ff.

17. Humboldt to Caroline, Jan. 5, 1791, I, 356.

18. Gesammelte Schriften, XIV, 41-42.

19. Humboldt to Caroline, March 20, 1789, I, 32.

20. Humboldt to Forster, Nov. 10, 1788, Wilhelm von Humboldts Gesammelte Werke, ed. Carl Brandes (Berlin, 1841-46), I, 271-272; see also Humboldt to Forster, March 14, June 20 and July 1, 1789, Gesammelte Werke, I, 273-275, as well as the diary, Gesammelte Schriften, XIV, 57-61.

21. Gesammelte Schriften, XIV, 85-86.

22. Humboldt to Caroline, May 22, 1789, I, 38-39.

23. Humboldt to Caroline, April 9, 1790, I, 117-118.

24. Humboldt to Caroline, April (n.d.), 1790, I, 133.

25. Humboldt to Caroline, Dec. 22, 1790, I, 343-345.

26. Humboldt to Caroline, June 29, 1790, I, 188; also Sept. 30, 1790, I, 232.

27. Humboldt to Caroline, March 15, 1791, I, 428-429.

28. Humboldt to Caroline, March 15, 1791, I, 429.

29. Humboldt to Caroline, May 24, 1791, I, 466.

30. Humboldt to Caroline, Sept. 17, 1790, I, 220-221.

31. Humboldt to Caroline, Dec. 13, 1790, I, 322.

32. Humboldt to Caroline, Dec. 13, 1790, I, 322-323.

33. Kaehler, Humboldt und der Staat, pp. 100-113.

34. Ibid., p. 101.

35. Humboldt to Caroline, March 15, 1791, I, 427-428.

36. Caroline to Humboldt, Jan. 21, 1789, I, 25.

37. Caroline to Humboldt, Jan. 29, 1789, I, 25.

38. Caroline to Humboldt, Dec. 9, 1790, I, 313-314.

39. Caroline to Humboldt, Jan. 9, 1791, I, 361.

40. Humboldt to Caroline, May 22, 1789, I, 42.

41. Humboldt to Caroline, Jan. 5, 1791, I, 356.

42. Humboldt to Caroline Jan (n.d.), 1790, I, 60.

43. Humboldt to Caroline, March 30, 1790, I, 113-114.

44. Caroline to Humboldt, May 1, 1790, I, 140-141; also Humboldt to Caroline, May 18, 1790, I, 145-146 and June 19, 1790, I, 169; as well as Humboldt to F. H. Jacobi, June 20, 1790, Briefe von Wilhelm von Humboldt an Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, ed. A. Leitzmann (Halle, 1892), p. 34.

45. Humboldt to Caroline, Oct. 31, 1790, I, 262.

46. Humboldt to Caroline, Oct. 31, 1790, I, 262-263.

47. Humboldt to Caroline, Sept. 22, 1790, I, 222-223.

48. Humboldt to Caroline, Oct. 31, 1790, I, 263-264.

49. Humboldt to Caroline, Nov. 11, 1790, I, 277.

50. Humboldt to Caroline, Dec. 16, 1790, I, 327.

51. Humboldt to Brinckmann, Sept. 3, 1790, Wilhelm von Humboldts Briefe an Karl Gustav von Brinckmann, ed. A. Leitzmann (Leipzig, 1939), pp. 7-8.

52. Humboldt to Caroline, March 13, 1790, I, 101.

53. Caroline to Humboldt, Nov. 24, 1790, I, 291-292.

54. Caroline to Humboldt, Jan. 14, 1791, I, 364-365.

55. Caroline to Humboldt, Jan. 21, 1791, I, 369-370.

56. Humboldt to Brickmann, Feb. 1, 1791, p. 14.