Baron von Humboldt publishes in the Berlin papers the following “call for help”:—“Suffering under the weight of an always increasing correspondence (between 1,600 and 2,000 items at an average every year: letters, pamphlets on subjects quite strange to me; manuscripts upon which I am required to give my opinion; projects of emigration and colonization; models, machines and natural objects; inquiries about aëronautics; requests to assist in the getting up of autograph collections; offers to nurse, to amuse, to cheer me up, &c. &c.), I try once more in this public manner to ask those persons on both continents who favour me with their well-meaning attentions, to occupy themselves less with my person, and not to use my house as an agent’s office, so that, with my already decreasing strength, physical as well as moral, a little rest and leisure may be left to me for my own work.

Late and with repugnance have I resolved upon this call for help; may it not be interpreted uncharitably!”