354 Reminiscences of Malte- Brun. 
therefore leave Paris, and at Bonn, where a new university is 
being formed, I do not doubt that your fame will secure you 
an honourable situation. You can make your own demands, 
and such a place would be secured to you for your whole life. 
You will then be removed from all uncertainties in your future 
existence, and from all politics ; living in the vicinity of France, 
you may devote yourself entirely to your science.” I was en- 
titled at that time to persuade him to take such a step, for his 
reputation as the first in his department in Europe, was so 
decided, that, if I had but hinted to Hardenberg that his ser- 
vices could be obtained, an offer would undoubtedly have been 
made to him. “My friend,” he replied, “it is true that my 
position here is: by no means a certain one ; at present it is a 
straitened one, and my immediate future prospects are doubt- 
ful, but you err when you believe that this causes me much 
uneasiness. When one has money enough, there is no place 
where one can live more agreeably than in Paris, and also no 
place where one can live less disagreeably with little money. 
I have no children, and love my wife, who has not been spoil- 
ed; actual want is still remote, and when affairs are somewhat 
brought into order, and peace returns, my position will at all 
events be improved. I know the Parisian public, and can live 
independently as a writer. But I shall never quit Paris, and 
shall never take my young wife to a strange country ; I can live 
no where but in Paris, the atmosphere of this town is to me the 
breath of life; and I should die in any other place ; conve- 
niences and pleasures are no where to be met with as they are 
here, whether one be rich or poor.” He could not express 
himself sufficiently strongly on the necessity of living in Paris’ 
alone. During this period of narrow circumstances I found 
him but rarely at home, but we made appointments in the 
gardens of the Tuileries, in the Champs Elysées, and at va- 
rious cafés, and he and his wife seemed always free from care 
and happy. The Journal des Debats probably did not appear 
at that time, but he published for a short period a journal 
whose title I have forgotten ; I made use of it in order to in- 
troduce some essays, translated by him into French, intended 
to inform the French of their position in regard to the victo- 
rious armies. They must have seemed too temperate in the- 
