BAYARD TAYLOR'S VISIT TO HUMBOLDT. 



From Berlin, under date of Nov. 25tli., 1856, Bayard Taylor 

 writes the N. Y. Trihune tlie following account of his visit to Alex. 

 Von Humboldt, lie says : 



" I came to Berlin, not to visit its museums and galleries, its mag- 

 nificent streets of lindens, its operas and theaters, not to mingle in 

 the gay life of its streets and saloons, but for the sake of seeing and 

 speaking with the world's greatest living man — Alexander Von 

 Humboldt. 



At present, with his great age and universal renown, regarded as 

 a throned monarch in the world of science, his friends .have been 

 obliged, perforce, to protect him from the exhaustive homage of his 

 thousands of subjects, and, for his own sake, to make difficult the 

 ways of access to him. The friend and familiar companion of the 

 King, he may be said, equally, to hold his own court, with the priv- 

 ilege, however, of at any time breaking through the formalities 

 which self-defense has rendered necessary. 



Some of my works, I knew, had found their way into his hands: 

 I was at the beginning of a journey which would probably lead me 

 through regions which his feet had traversed and his genius illus- 

 trated, and it was not merely a natural curiosity that attracted me 

 toward him. I followed the advice of some German friends, and 

 made use of no mediatory influence, but simply dispatched a note to 

 him, stating my name and object, and asking for an interview. 



Three days afterward I received, through the city post, a reply in 



his own hand, stating'that, although he was suifcring from a cold 



which had followed his removal from Potsdam to the capitol, he 



would willingly receive me, and appointed one o'clock to-day for the 



visit. I was punctual to the minute, and reached his residence in 



the OrSntenburger-strasse, as the clock struck. While in Berlin, 



he lives with his servant, Seifert, whose name only I found on the 



door. It was a plain, two-story house, with a dull pink front, and 



inhabited, like most of the houses in German cities, by two or three 



families. The bell wire over Seifebt's name came from the second 



story. I pulled; the heavy porte cochcre opened of itself, and I 



mounted the steps until I reached a second bell-pull, over a plate 



inscribed ' Alexander Von Humboldt.' 



(163) 



