328 HUMBOLDT IN THE SALONS. 



nently a social one, and because it revived and refreshed 

 him in his labours, and sharpened his insight into life 

 and man. Like his friend Goethe, he was a man of 

 the world, in the noblest sense of that much-abused 

 term. He loved to meet and converse with the distin- 

 guished men and women who filled the salons of Paris. 

 Even its frivolous characters, the light-headed and light- 

 heeled crowd, were not despised by him. He amused 

 himself at their expense occasionally, but it was in 

 such a pleasant manner that they could not be angry. 

 He had a vein of genial humour in him, and, when 

 the occasion demanded it, a biting wit. The worst 

 that could be said of him was, that he was a little 

 sarcastic. 



"In the salons of Metternich," says Yarnhagen Yon 

 Ense, who met him at Paris, in 1810; "in the salons of 

 Metternich (at that time Austrian ambassador near the 

 Court of St. Clond), I saw Humboldt only as a brilliant 

 and admired meteor, so much so, that I hardly found 

 time to present myself to him, and to whisper in his ear 

 a few of those names which gave me a right to a per- 

 sonal acquaintance with him. Rarely has a man engaged 

 in such a degree the esteem of all, the admiration of 

 most opposite parties, and the zeal of all in power to 

 serve him. Napoleon does not love him. He knows 

 Humboldt as a shrewd thinker, whose way of thinking, 

 and whose opinion can not be bent ; but the Emperor 

 and his Court, and the high authorities have never denied 

 the impression which they received by the presence of 

 this bold traveller, by the power of knowledge, and the 

 light which seems to stream from it in every direction. 

 The learned of all nations are proud ^f their high asso- 



