Col. Fremont, Man and Boy.--The Early Promise, and the Ripe Performance. There has come to our hands at the same time two notices of Col. Fremont, one in relation to his early age and schoolboy days, the other in relation to his great explorations, and both honorable to him, and from persons whose testimony is most honorable--his teacher, and the Baron Humboldt. In the preface to a school edition of Xenophon's Anabasis for a Greek class, by Dr. Roberton, now of Philadelphia, there is an account of the young Fremont as he first appeared at the grammar school of the Dr. at Charleston, (S. C.) and of his diligence, and progress, and moral deportment, and early promise of distinguished life; which is given, as the preface states, as an example and encouragement to all his scholars. The other is a letter from the great Baron Humboldt, and, besides expressing his own admiration of the labors of Fremont, communicates to him the grand golden medal of the King of Prussia for progress in the sciences, and makes known to him his election as an honorary member of the Geographical Society at Berlin. The following is the notice of the old teacher: "For your further encouragement, I will here relate a very remarkable instance of patient diligence and indomitable perseverance. "In the year 1827, after I had returned to Charleston from Scotland, and my classes were going on, a very respectable lawyer came to my school, I think some time in the month of October, with a youth apparently about sixteen, or perhaps not so much, (14,) of middle size, graceful in manners, rather slender, but well formed, and, upon the whole, what I would call handsome; of a keen, piercing eye, and a noble forehead, seemingly the very seat of genius. The gentleman stated that he found him given to study; that he had been about three weeks learning the Latin rudimen's, and (hoping, I suppose, to turn the youth's attention from the law to the ministry) had resolved to place him under my care for the purpose of learning Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, sufficient to enter Charleston College. I very gladly received him, for I immediately perceived he was no common youth, as intelligence beamed in his dark eye, and shone brightly on his countenance, indicating great ability, and an assurance of his future progress. I at once put him in the highest class, just beginning to read Caesar's Commentaries, and, although at first inferior, his prodigious memory and enthusiastic application soon enabled him to surpass the best. He began Greek at the same time, and read with some who had been long at it, in which he also soon excelled. In short, in the space of one year, he had with the class, and at odd hours with myself, read four books of Caesar, Cornelius Nepos, Sallust, six books of Virgil, nearly all Horace, and two books of Livy; and in Greek, all Graeca Minora, about the half of the first volume of Graeca Majora, and four books of Homer's Iliad. And whatever he read, he retained. It seemed to me, in fact, as if he learned by mere intuition. I was myself utterly astonished, and at the same time delighted, with his progress. I have hinted above that he was designed for the Church, but when I contemplated his bold, fearless disposition, his powerful inventive genius, his admiration of warlike exploits, and his love of heroic and adventurous deeds, I did not think it likely he would be a minister of the Gospel. He had not, however, the least appearance of any vice whatever. On the contrary, he was always the very pattern of virtue and modesty. I could not help loving him, so much did he captivate me by his gentlemanly conduct and extraordinary progress. It was easy to see that he would one day raise himself to eminence. Whilst under my instruction, I discovered his early genius for poetic composition in the following manner. When the Greek class read the account that Herodotus gives of the battle of Marathon, the bravery of Miltiades and his ten thousand Greeks raised his patriotic feelings to enthusiasm, and drew from him expressions which I thought were embodied in a few days afterwards in some well-written verses in a Charleston paper, on that far-famed unequal but successful conflict against tyranny and oppression; and, suspecting my talented scholar to be the author, I went to his desk, and asked him if he did not write them; and, hesitating at first, rather blushingly he confessed he did. I then said, 'I knew you could do such things, and I suppose you have some such pieces by you which I should like to see. Do bring them to me.' He consented, and in a day or two brought me a number, which I read with pleasure and admiration at the strong marks of genius stamped on all, but here and there requiring, as I thought, a very slight amendment. "I had hired a mathematician to teach both him and myself, (for I could not then teach that science,) and in this he also made such wonderful progress that, at the end of one year, he entered the junior class in Charleston College triumphantly, whilst others who had been studying four years and more were obliged to take the Sophomore class. About the end of the year 1828 I left Charleston, but I heard that he highly distinguished himself, and graduated in 1830. After that he taught mathematics for some time. His career afterwards has been one of heroic adventure, of hair-breadth escapes by flood and field, and of scientific explorations, which have made him world-wide renowned. In a letter I received from him very lately, he expresses his gratitude to me in the following words: 'I am very far from either forgetting you, or neglecting you, or in any way losing the old regard I had for you. There is no time to which I go back with more pleasure than that spent with you, for there was no time so thoroughly well spent; and of any thing I may have learned I remember nothing so well and so distinctly as what I acquired with you.' Here I cannot help saying that the merit was almost all his own. It is true that I encouraged and cheered him on, but if the soil into which I put the seeds of learning had not been of the richest quality, they never would have sprung up to a hundred fold in the full ear. Such, my young friends, is but an imperfect sketch of my once beloved and favorite pupil, now a Senator, and who may yet rise to be at the head of this great and growing Republic. My prayer is that he may ever be opposed to war, injustice, and oppression of every kind, a blessing to his country, and an example of every noble virtue to the whole world." As many of our readers understand French, and might like to see the letters of the great Humboldt, the patriarch of science, and for fifty years at the head of the scientific world, and now in the eighty-second year of his age, we here give it in French, as copied from the original. Monsieur le Senateur: Il m'est bien doux, Monsieur, de vous adresser ces lignes par mon excellent ami, notre ministre aux Etats-Unis, M. de Gerolt. Apres vous avoir donne dans la nouvelle edition de mes Tableaux de la Nature le temoignage publique de l'admiration qui est due a vos gigantesques travaux entre St. Louis du Missouri et les cotes de la mer du Sud, je me sens heureux de vous offrir, dans ce petit signe de vie, l'hommage de ma vive reconnaisance. Vous avez deploye un noble courage dans des expeditions lointaines, brave tous les dangers des frimas et du manque de nourriture, enrichi toutes les parties de sciences naturelles, illustre un vaste pays qui nous etait presque entierement inconnu. Un merite si rare a ete reconnu par un souverain, vivement interesse aux progres de la geographie physique: le Roi m'ordonne de vous offrir la grande medaille d'or, destinee a ceux qui ont travaille a des progres scientifiques. J'espere que cette marque de la bienveillance royale vous sera agreable dans un moment, ou sur la proposition de l'illustre geographe Charles Ritter, la societe de geographie residant a Berlin vous a nomme pour membre honnoraire. Quant a moi je dois vous remercier particulierement aussi de l'honneur que vous m'avez fait d'attacher mon nom et celui de mon collaborateur et ami intime M. Bonpland a des contrees voisines de celles qui ont ete l'objet de nos travaux. La Californie qui a noblement resiste a l'introduction de l'esclavage sera dignement representee par un ami de la liberte et des progres de l'intelligence. Agreez, je vous prie, Monsieur le Senateur, l'expression de ma haute et affectueuse consideration. Votre t. h. et t. o. serviteur. A. V. HUMBOLDT. A Sans-Souci le 7 octobre 1850. On the envelope thus addressed: "A Monsieur, Monsieur le Colonel Fremont, Senateur. Avec la grade medaille d'or Pour les progres dans les sciences. Baron Humboldt." The following is the English translation of Baron Humboldt's letter: To Col. Fremont, Senator. It is very agreeable to me, sir, to address you these lines by my excellent friend, our Minister to the United States, Mr. de Gerolt. After having given you in the new edition of my "Aspects of Nature" the public testimony of the admiration which is due to your gigantic labors between St. Louis, of Missouri, and the coasts of the South Sea, I feel happy to offer you, in this living token (dans ce petit signe de vie) the homage of my warm acknowledgment. You have displayed a noble courage in distant expeditions, braved all the dangers of cold and famine, enriched all the branches of the natural sciences, illustrated a vast country which was almost entirely unknown to us. A merit so rare has been acknowledged by a sovereign warmly interested in the progress of physical geography; the King orders me to offer you the grand golden medal destined to those who have labored at scientific progress. I hope that this mark of the royal good will, will be agreeable to you at a time when, upon the proposition of the illustrious geographer, Char. Ritter, the Geographical Society at Berlin has named you an honorary member. For myself, I must thank you particularly also for the honor which you have done in attaching my name and that of my fellow-laborer and intimate friend, Mr. Bompland, to countries neighboring to those which have been the object of our labors. California, which has so nobly resisted the introduction of slavery, will be worthily represented by a friend of liberty and of the progress of intelligence. Accept, I pray you, sir, the expression of my high and affectionate consideration. Your most humble and most obedient servant, A. V. HUMBOLDT. Sans Souci, October 7, 1850. On the envelope thus addressed: "To Colonel Fremont, Senator. With the great Golden Medal For progress in the sciences. Baron Humboldt." The following is the description of the medal: Of fine gold, massive, more than double the size of the American double eagle, and of exquisite workmanship. On the face is the medallion head of the King, Frederic William the Fourth, surrounded by figures emblematical of Religion, Jurisprudence, Medicine, and the Arts. On the reverse, Apollo, in the chariot of the sun, drawn by four high-mettled plunging horses, traversing the zodiac, and darting rays of light from his head. The following is the public testimony of the Baron's admiration of the gigantic labors of Fremont, referred to in the letter, as contained in the new, or third edition of his Aspects of Nature, and which, as a reference, becomes a natural appendant to the letter: "Fremont's map and geographical investigations comprehend the extensive region from the junction of the Kanzas river with the Missouri to the falls of the Columbia, and to the missions of Santa Barbara and Puebla de los Angeles, in New California; or a space of 28 degrees of longitude, and from the 34th to the 45th parallel of latitude. Four hundred points have been determined hyposometrically by barometric observations, and, for the most part, geographically by astronomical observations; so that a district which, with the windings of the route, amounts to 3,600 geographical miles, from the mouth of the Kanzas to Fort Vancouver and the shores of the Pacific, (almost 720 miles more than the distance from Madrid to Tobolsk,) has been represented in profile, showing the relative heights above the level of the sea. As I was, I believe, the first person who undertook to represent, in geognostic profile, the form of entire countries--such as the Iberian peninsula, the high lands of Mexico, and the Cordilleras of South America, (the semi-perspective projections of a Siberian traveller, the Abbe Chappe, were founded on mere and generally ill-judged estimations of the fall of rivers) --it has given me peculiar pleasure to see the geographical method of representing the form of the earth in a vertical direction, or the elevation of the solid portion of our planet above its watery covering, applied on so grand a scale as has been done in Fremont's map."