230 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 23, 1859. 



OTIS and generous protector.* Thus, as it was the constant practice 

 of his life to spare no trouble in sustaining those who had need of 

 support, his loss will be deeply felt by men of science, art, and 

 letters, not only in Germany, but throughout the civilized world. 



During the career of the illustrious traveller, we know that he 

 paid many visits to England, one of the first of which was in 

 1799, when he became acquainted with Eobert Brown, and to this 

 event I shall allude in speaking of that great botanist, for whom 

 he had the sincerest regard. It was, indeed, one of his many 

 good acts, that he induced the King of Prussia to bestow on that 

 Robert Brown, so little known to public men in England, the high 

 honour of the Order of Merit. 



When in England in 1826, though then only fifty-seven, he 

 had been before the world as a celebrated author during so many 

 years that he was already looked upon as becoming old. But 

 from that date he was destined to play for thirty-three years a new 

 and, in many respects, a more important part. In 1827 he took up 

 his residence in Berlin, and soon became a favourite of Frederick 

 William III., and afterwards of the present Sovereign of Prussia. 

 There are those, I know, who have regretted that the philo- 

 sopher was thus converted into the courtier, but this opinion 

 has no good foundation. In truth, he found in King Fre- 

 derick William IV. a reciprocity of sentiment and a love of 

 knowledge which might, with his influence, be turned to great 

 advantage in the encouragement of all those who were busily 

 engaged in the pursuit of scientific researches, and most efficaciously 

 and warmly did Humboldt work on in this praiseworthy career. 

 Impressed with the strong desire to aid every meritorious man 

 of science, he was indeed fortunate in being the bosom friend of a 

 warm-hearted Monarch, who invariably responded to his call. No 

 one who has witnessed the free and unreserved converse between 

 Humboldt and his Sovereign could fail to be convinced, that he 



* Whilst these pages were passing through the press, I perused in the * Boston Weekly- 

 Courier ' of the 26th May the eulogy of Humboldt, read before the American Academy of 

 Sciences by my eminent friend Agassiz, informing the* public how, at a critical period in 

 his youthful days, when fi-om want of means he was about to leave Paris, the young natu- 

 ralist was unexpectedly relieved by a liberal donative from the great traveller, sent to him 

 in the most delicate manner, and was thus enabled to continue studies without which his 

 career might have been nipped in the bud. After an eloquent analysis of the various works 

 and generalisations of the deceased, and a warm encomium of his deep-searching volume, 

 the ' Views of Nature,' Agassiz says with truth, — " Every child in our schools has his 

 mind fed from the labours of Humboldt's brain wherever geography is no longer taught in 

 the old routine." — June 15, 1859. 



