MEMOIR OF LEOPOLD VON BUCH. 371 



same thing, and afterwards complain that I have charged them witli commia- 

 sions which annoy them." The young man protests, cannot conceive how he 

 shonld be suspected of insincerity and ingratitude. " Very well," replies the 

 adroit interlocutor, " give me your word of honor that you will not even answer 

 me after receiving my commission." The other pledges himself. " Now that , 

 I have your word," resumes Von Buch, "here arc 2,000 dollars which you are 

 to make use of in your travels." As the injunction did not extend to silence, 

 the recipient felt constrained afterwards to share the secret with others besides 

 his benefactor. A young painter, tormented alike by the fever of art and the 

 anguish of destitution, was languishing at Rome ; there was nothing which 

 singled him out but his talent and his misery. Von Buch charges one of the 

 embassies with the remission of a considerable sum; and that the artist may be 

 restrained by delicacy from attempting to jienetratc the mystery, he is to be 

 told that it is a family restitution of an ancient date. 



As it was one of the chief pleasures of Von Buch's life to restore hope to 

 the unfortunate, so it peculiarly suited his character to act as a peace-maker 

 between the learned Av hen divided in opinion ; before all things, however, it 

 was indispensable that science, his sublime mistress, should be treated with the 

 most exact respect. Just and generous in his appreciation of men, he was al- 

 ways zealous in setting forth the merit of the labors of his cotemporaries. A 

 sure and constant friend, though blunt, eccentric, and at times impatient, he 

 was ever ready, if umbrage were taken, to make the advances necessary for con- 

 ciliation. Among intimates he was fond of recounting the ludicrous mistakes 

 which had beeu occasioned, during his travels, by the grotesque appearance 

 under which he presented himself. 



He loved society, but not what is called the great world. Those who had 

 seen him at court, whither his office, as well as the proprieties of his station in 

 life, sometimes led him, might have thought him drawn thither by his tastes, 

 but his resort even there Avas to the circles in Avliich intelligence supplied the 

 attraction. In these, the graces of language springing from an active and full 

 mind, re-cuforced by a surprising memory, gave to his conversation when he 

 was in the vein a peculiar charm. Polished in the company of females, he 

 knew how to appreciate those who in the courteous collisions of Avhich our 

 saloons are the lists, and which we call conversation, furnish by their sprightly 

 sallies often the best, but certainly the most graceful contingent. This admi- 

 ration, however, never trenched upon the liberty which he had consecrated to 

 science. Von Buch never married, but, in return, the family affections exer- 

 cised over him the blandest and most potent influence, and his love for the 

 young, towards Avhom he could find indulgence for everything but self-suf- 

 licicncy, prompted many of the actions of his life. 



When far advanced in age, he still quitted his domestic roof with the first 

 breath of spring. " I shall travel," was his simple announcement, and a walk 

 would conduct him from Berlin to Dresden, to the surprise of his more seden- 

 tary associates in the latter place j thence his course Avould be prolonged as far 

 as Bohemia or Switzerland. It was when an old man that he scaled the moun- 

 tain ranges of Greece, seeking among the extinct populations only those which 

 ally themselves with the real world, and finding more attraction and instruc- 

 tion in the chronology of a shell than in all the brilliant fictions which ani- 

 mated Parnassus and Ilymettus. 



In 1850, a German university having summoned naturalists to a congress 

 intended to celebrate the memory of Werner, Von Buch Avas present, and of 

 course became the centre of all regards, a tribute Avhich, with an affectionate 

 simplicity, he studiously referred to his early master. " As for myself," he 

 pleasantly said, in allusion to the only official title which he had ever adopted, 

 " I am nothing more than the oldest of the royal pupils of the kingdom of 

 Prussia." His return from this reunion conducted him through the country of 



