374 HUMBOLDT AND GOETHE. 



return to Paris for a while, and finish some of the woi ks 

 that he had left there undone ; then he would come lo 

 Berlin. So back to Paris, his dear Paris, he went. 



He remained at Paris till the autumn of 1826, when he 

 made a visit to his brother at Tegel, to announce his 

 speedy and permanent return to Berlin. While stopping 

 in Berlin, or on his way back to Paris, he saw Goethe. 

 Of Goethe's impressions of Humboldt at this time we 

 have a record in " Eckerman's Conversations," under 

 the date of Monday, 11th December. Hear the German 

 Boswell. 



" I found Goethe in an animated and happy mood. 

 ' Alexander Yon Humboldt has passed some hours with 

 me, this morning,' said he, coming to meet me with 

 great vivacity ; ' What a man he is ! Long as I have 

 known him, he is continually astonishing me anew. I 

 may say he has not his equal in knowledge, in living 

 wisdom ; and such many-sidedness I have found nowhere 

 else. Wherever you call upon him, you find him at 

 home, everywhere ready to lavish upon you the intel- 

 lectual treasures he has amassed. He is like a fountain 

 with many pipes ; you need only to get a vessel to hold 

 under it, on any side refreshing streams flow at a mere 

 touch. He is to stay some days, and I shall feel, 

 when he goes away, as if I had lived years during his 

 visit.' " 



This is the way that a great man speaks of his equal. 

 How unlike those little fellows, the reviewers ! Clearly 

 Goethe would never have answered the requirements of 

 the Quarterly. 



In February 1827, Humboldt removed from Paris. He 

 did not proceed directly to Berlin, but joined his brother's 



