246 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



this request would be more consonant to his feelings than the recovery 

 of the money, — and I am now in his debt. What he has done for me, 

 I know he has done for many others, in silence and unknown to the 

 world. 



"I wish I could go on to state something more of his character, 

 his conversational powers, &c., but I feel that I am not in a condition 

 to speak of them. I will only say, that his habits .were very pe- 

 culiar. He was an early riser, and yet he was seen at late hours 

 in the saloons in different parts of Paris. From the year 1830 to 

 1848, while in Paris, he had been charged by the King of Prussia 

 to send reports upon the condition of things there. He had before 

 prepared for the Iving of Prussia a report on the political condition of 

 the Spanish colonies in America, which no doubt had its influence 

 afterwards upon the recognition of the independence of those colonies. 

 The importance of such reports to the government of Prussia may be 

 inferred from a perusal of his political and statistical essays upon 

 Mexico and Cuba. It is a circumstance worth noticing, that, above all 

 great powers, Prussia has more distinguished scientific and literary 

 men among her diplomatists than any other state. And so was Hum- 

 boldt actually a diplomatist in Paris, having been placed in that 

 position, not from choice, but in consequence of the benevolence of the 

 King, who desired to give him an opportunity of being in Paris as 

 often and as long as he chose. 



" But from that time there were two men in him, — the diplomatist, 

 living in the Plotel des Princes, and the naturalist, who roomed in the 

 Rue de la Harpe, in a modest apartment in the second story, where 

 his scientific friends had access to him every day before seven. After 

 that he was frequently seen working in the library of the Institute, 

 until the time when the Grand Seigneur made his appearance at the 

 Court or in the saloons of Paris. 



" The influence he has exerted upon the progress of science is incal- 

 culable. I need only allude to the fact that the Cosmos, bringing every 

 branch of natural science down to the comprehension of all classes of 

 students, has been translated into the language of every civilized na- 

 tion of the world, and gone through several editions. With him ends a 

 great period in the history of science, a period to which Cuvier, La- 

 place, Arago, Gay-Lussac, DeCandolle, and Robert Brown belonged, 

 and of whom only one is still living, — the venerable Biot. 



" Gentlemen, I present the following resolutions for your considera- 

 tion : — 



