PICTURES OF CHILDHOOD.

5

nappen to become famous in after years, adıniring and credulous biographers tell wonderful stories about them, but for the most part these stories are myths. The infancy of the great, we think, should be surrounded with marvellous influences. It will never do for us to make them common mortals like ourselves. So if we

fail to discover any traits of early divinity we must boldly invent them. Should the cheat be discovered the world will forgive it, for the sake of the pleasure it has given them.

That the childhood of Alexander, however, was an exceedingly happy one, cannot be doubted, for if ever Nature was kindly disposed towards any of her children, it was towards him. He was born of wealthy and noble parents, who mingled, by virtue of their rank and worth, with the most illustrious of the land. His home, the old castle of Tegel, situated in a pleasant country, was surrounded by charming and varied landscapes. His earliest glimpse of Nature was beautiful enough to make him desire to see the rest of the book: it was a fair page that opened before his childish eyes. And here, if the reader is imaginative, he can employ himself in filling up the outlines of the first five or six years of Alexander's life. He may picture him in the chambers of the old castle, climbing up his father's knee, and wondering, as he runs his fingers through his gray hair, what the wrinkles on his forehead mean; or tugging at the gown of his mother to make her answer some un answerable question; or, likelier still, scrambling on the floor with his brother William, and a heap of toys. Some day when playing alone, he sees the bookcase in the corner, and remembering, as in a dream, the pic

HIS FIRST TEACHER CAMPE.

tures with which the nurse pacified him when he was sick, he goes to it, and opening the door softly, lights by a sort of impish instinct, on the costliest volume on. the shelves. It is some famous work on natural history, a ponderous quarto filled with coloured prints of strange plants and animals, and still stranger men. He pores

Fearing at last that he is in nothing of him for a long

over them with great eyes. mischief, for she has heard time, his mother steals into the room, and finds him fast asleep, with the book in his lap. As he grows older he takes himself out of doors on all possible occasions. Now he is in the garden, plucking and studying flowers and grasses; now in the pine grove filling his pockets with last year's cones and needles, and now by the edge of the lake, skimming pebbles over its surface, or watching its fleet of mirrored clouds.

In such wise, says Fancy, who is sometimes truer than Fact, lived the boy Alexander, until 1775, when his education commenced. The science of education, a science which is still in its infancy, the opinion of its professors to the contrary notwithstanding, was at that time agitating the European world. The new method of Rousseau, which aimed at the physical as well as the mental development of its pupils, and which considered the study of natural science full as important as that of metaphysics, and the classics, had made many adherents in Germany, and among others Joachim Heinrich Campe. Born in 1746, Campe studied theology at Helmstadt and at Halle, and was appointed, in 1773, chaplain to the Prince of Prussia's regiment in Potsdam. He fulfilled for two years the duties of his sacred calling in that doubtful sphere of action, and feeling himself much more

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

fitted to teach children than men, and those men soldiers, he was transplanted by Major Von Humboldt to teach his sons, at the old castle of Tegel. A ripe and varied scholar even then, he enjoyed in after life the reputation of being, next to Klopstock, the greatest philologist and critic of German style. He is the author of a German dictionary, and other works calculated to improve the language. But the books by which he is best known. are those of travel and adventure. The chiefest of these are his "Discovery of America," and "Robinson Crusoe."

Looking back from the vantage ground of Time, and bearing in mind what Alexander Von Humboldt has done, what might have seemed a trivial thing then, a mere lucky chance, now seems the special ordering of Nature. He was fitted, we have since learned, to perform a great work for her; but before he could perform that work it was necessary that she should reveal it to him. If the child is to become the father of the man, the man must somehow be brought before the mental eye of the child. His infancy must be nurtured by noble books, and wise teachers, or

"By solemn vision, and bright silver dream."

What better teacher could the boy have had, considering the work he was to do, than one who translated that marvellous fiction of the homely old truth-teller, De Foe, -the fresh, unfading, world-renowned Robinson Crusoe? It was the book of all others to fire his youthful imagination with the desire of travel, and to fill his mind with the unconquerable spirit of adventure. It was a happy day when Joachim Heinrich Campe, philologist, critic,

8

CHRISTIAN KUNTH.

translator, and finally bookseller, became the tutcr of Humboldt.

He remained in the family a year, teaching the eldest boy the languages, and the youngest, who was then in his seventh year, whatever he was pleased to learn. Alexander was not so robust as his brother, for his health was considered delicate for many years, nor was he regarded as his equal in mental endowments.

Their next tutor was a young man of twenty, poor in this world's goods, but rich in what the proverb declares to be better than houses and lands-Learning. His name was Christian Kunth. He is said to have possessed an extraordinary knowledge of German, Latin, and French literature, and to have been deeply read in philosophy and history. He taught William the languages, and Alexander the natural sciences. One studied Man in classic antiquity and art, the other the World in its manifold forms and appearances. It seems strange, not to say impossible, for children of eight and ten to pursue such profound studies, but we must remember that these were not common children.

Nor was their teacher Kunth a common man. Had he been he would have stopped here. But having sense as well as learning, he took care of their bodies as well as their minds. Instead of merely cramming them with books until they became unwholesome monstrosities, mental patés de foie gras, he gave their thoughts and limbs free play, in the wind, and dew, and sunshine. They had holidays whenever they needed them; long walks with Kunth in the woods and fields; sails on the blue bosom of the Tegel lake; excursions to the fortress of Spandau, and now and then a flying visit to Berlin.

Or they threw aside their books, and ran off by them. selves, like the children they were, and romped and played to their hearts' content. This kept the roses of health in their cheeks (Alexander's as yet were delicate buds), and enabled them to

"bear their weight

Of learning lightly, like a flower."

But for this it might have been a nightshade of deadly power. Besides, their life was diversified by the coming and going of visitors: for their father was hospitable, and the castle was always open to his friends. Retiring from the world with honor, the world sought him, in the shape of its princes, statesmen, and scholars, to say nothing of generals, colonels, and the like, his old companions in arms. Among other celebrities who enjoyed the hospitalities of Tegel was Goethe, who accompanying Duke Karl August to Berlin in May 1778, to see a grand review, strolled over Schonhausen one morning and dined at the castle, with the Major and his family. Little did the man of thirty know that he saw in the boy of nine, one who was destined to accomplish as much in Science, as he himself in Literature. But the time came when he knew him, and admired him, none more warmly.

Among the most frequent of the visitors at the castle. was Dr. Ernst Ludwig Heim, of Spandau, who, having attended the now officially-defunct head-ranger, Von Burgsdorf, continued his visits, medical and friendly, to nis successor, Major Von Humboldt. And the major stood in need of his services, for his health, which had