He wrote to Freiesleben: "I am quite intoxicated with joy.... Do not feel anxious about my health; I shall take care not to over-exert myself, and after the first the work will not be heavy. I cannot conclude without acknowledging that it is again to you that I am indebted for this happiness; indeed I feel it only too keenly. What knowledge have I, dear Freiesleben, that has not been taught me by you!... How sweet is the thought to me that it is to you that I owe all this; it seems as if it bound me closer to you, as if I carried something about me that had been planted within me and cultivated by yourself...." Thus all through life was the appreciative, warm-hearted man glad to show his gratitude for the stimulus of intellectual friends. Who does not love to be appreciated! How many of us wait to say kind things to our friends until death makes it impossible! Again he wrote: "I possess a certain amount of vanity, and am willing to confess it; but I know the power of my own will, and I feel that whatever I set myself to do I shall do well." While so earnestly engaged in study, Humboldt, with his benevolent heart, could not see the children of the miners grow up in ignorance. He therefore opened free schools for them, and paid the teachers from his own purse. Not many young men at twenty-four would have thought of so admirable a plan. Meantime he was experiencing the first keen joy of fame. The Elector of Saxony had sent the author of "Flora Fribergensis" a gold medal. The Swedish botanist Vahl had named a magnificent species of an East Indian laurel after him, the _laurifolia Humboldtia_. It had paid to be a student; to be led by the "eager impulse" within him. The next year he wrote to Freiesleben:-- "You are aware that I am quite mad enough to be engaged upon three books at once.... I have discovered several new lichens. I have also been occupied upon the history of the weaving of the ancients.... My head is quite distracted with all I have to attend to--mining, banking, manufacturing, and organizing; ... the mines, however, are prospering.... I am promoted to be counsellor of mines at Berlin, with a salary, probably, of fifteen hundred thalers (here I have four hundred), and, after remaining there a few months, I shall most likely be appointed director of mines, either in Westphalia or Rothenburg, and receive from two thousand to three thousand thalers. I tell you everything, and open my heart to you."