The Invention of Nature

‘un petit esprit malin’: Dove 1881, p.83; for later comments, see Caspar Voght, 14 February 1808, Voght 1959–65, vol.3, p.95.

21

AH malicious streak: Arago about AH, Biermann and Schwarz 2001b, no page no.

22

AH not spiteful: WH about AH, 1788, Dove 1881, p.83.

23

AH torn: WH to CH, 6 November 1790, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.1, p.270.

24

universities and reading in Germany: Watson 2010, p.55ff.

25

‘great and complicated’: George Cheyne, Worster 1977, p.40.

26

‘republic of letters’: this was a widely used term; see for example Joseph Pitton de Tournefort to Hans Sloane, 14 January 1701/2 and John Locke to Hans Sloane, 14 September 1694, MacGregor 1994, p.19.

27

AH and WH in Berlin: Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.33.

28

mother and brothers’ careers: AH, Meine Bekenntnisse, 1769–1805, Biermann 1987, pp.50, 53; Holl 2009, p.30; Beck 1959–1961, vol.1, p.11ff.; WH to CH, 15 January 1790, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.1, p.74.

29

AH in Frankfurt an der Oder: AH to Ephraim Beer, November 1787, AH Letters 1973, p.4; Beck 1959–61, vol.1, p.14.

30

AH in Göttingen: Holl 2009, p.23ff.; Beck 1959–61, vol.1, pp.18–21.

31

‘Our characters are too’: WH, Geier 2009, p.63.

32

AH dreamed of adventures: AH, Mein Aufbruch nach America, Biermann 1987, p.64.

33

visited botanical garden: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.92; AH, Meine Bekenntnisse, 1769–1805, Biermann 1987, p.51.

34

Forster’s influence: AH, Ich Über Mich Selbst, 1769–90, Biermann 1987, p.36ff.

35

15,000 ships to London: White 2012, p.168; see also Carl Philip Moritz, June 1782, Moritz 1965, p.26.

36

a ‘black forest’: Richard Rush, 7 January 1818, Rush 1833, p.79.

37

AH in London: AH to Wilhelm Gabriel Wegener, 20 June 1790; AH to Paul Usteri, 27 June 1790, AH to Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, 3 January 1791, AH Letters 1973, pp. 93, 96, 117; AH, Ich Über Mich Selbst, 1769–90, Biermann 1987, p.39.

38

AH crying in London: AH, Ich Über Mich Selbst, 1769–90, Biermann 1987, p.38.

39

‘There is a drive’: AH to Wilhelm Gabriel Wegener, 23 September 1790, AH Letters 1973, pp.106–7.

40

notice for sailors, Hampstead: AH, Ich Über Mich Selbst, 1769–90, Biermann 1987, p.38.

41

‘too good a son’: AH, Meine Bekenntnisse, 1769–1805, Biermann 1987, p.51; see also AH to Joachim Heinrich Campe, 17 March 1790, AH Letters 1973, p.88.

42

‘mad letters’: AH, Ich Über Mich Selbst, 1769–90, Biermann 1987, p.40.

43

‘My unhappy circumstances’: AH to Paul Usteri, 27 June 1790, AH Letters 1973, p.96.

44

‘perpetual drive’: AH to David Friedländer, 11 April 1799, AH Letters 1973, p.658.

45

‘brain has been’: Georg Forster to Heyne, Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.31.

46

going to ‘snap’: CH to WH, 21 January 1791, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.1, p.372; CH and AH had first met in December 1789.

47

‘race-horse speed’: Alexander Dallas Bache, 2 June 1859, ‘Tribute to the Memory of Humboldt’,

Pulpit and Rostrum

, 15 June 1859, p.133; see also WH to CH, 2 April 1790, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.1, p.116.

48

all numbers and account books: AH to William Gabriel Wegener, 23 September 1790, AH Letters 1973, p.106.

49

travel and botany books: AH to Samuel Thomas Sömmerring, 28 January 1791, AH Letters 1973, p.122.

50

‘sight of the ships’: AH to William Gabriel Wegener, 23 September 1790, AH Letters 1973, p.106.

51

‘master of his own’: AH to William Gabriel Wegener, 27 March 1789, AH Letters 1973, p.47.

52

mining academy Freiberg: AH, Meine Bekenntnisse, 1769–1805, Biermann 1987, p.54.

53

AH completes programme in 8 months: AH to Archibald MacLean, 14 October 1791, AH Letters 1973, p.153.

54

AH daily life in Freiberg: AH to Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten, 25 August 1791; AH to Paul Usteri, 22 September 1791; AH to Archibald MacLean, 14 October 1791, AH Letters 1973, pp.144, 151–2, 153–4.

55

wedding and Thuringia trip: AH to Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten, ibid., p.146.

56

CH to WH, 14 January 1790 and 21 January 1791, CH Letters 1910–16, vol.1, pp.65, 372.

57

AH spent every hour with friend: AH to Archibald MacLean, 14 October 1791, AH Letters 1973, p.154.

58

‘I have never loved’: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 2 March 1792, ibid., p.173.

59

AH berated himself: AH to Archibald MacLean, 6 November 1791, ibid., p.157.

60

AH half embarrassed by success: AH to Freiesleben, 7 March 1792, ibid., p.175.

61

rarely opened his heart: AH to William Gabriel Wegener, 27 March 1789, ibid., p.47.

62

AH thinking of old friends: AH to Archibald Maclean, 1 October 1792, 9 February 1793, Jahn and Lange 1973, pp.216, 233; see also AH’s letter to Carl Freiesleben during this time, for example 14 January 1793, 19 July 1793, 21 October 1793, 2 December 1793, 20 January 1794, AH Letters 1973, pp.227–9, 257–8, 279–81, 291–2, 310–15.

63

‘damned, always lonely’: AH to Archibald Maclean, 9 February 1793; see also 6 November 1791, AH Letters 1973, pp.157, 233.

64

in squalid taverns: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 21 October 1793, ibid., p.279.

65

two years of his life: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 10 April 1792, ibid., p.180.

66

‘sweetest hours’: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 6 July 1792, ibid., p.201; see also 21 October 1793 and 20 January 1794, ibid., pp.279, 313.

67