IDEA OF KOSMOS. 375 



scin-in-law, Count Biilow, who had just been appointed 

 ambassador to England, on a journey to London. Hum 

 boldt's stay in England was short, for in May we find him 

 permanently settled in Berlin. He found his brother in 

 Berlin, for he had a residence there, as well as at Tegel, 

 and scores of his old friends, amons; others Ausrustus 

 Schlegel. The king received him with open arms, and 

 conferred upon him the title of privy councillor. He 

 might have been Secretarj^ of State, if he had chosen ; 

 indeed, there was no office too good for him, but he loved 

 Science too well to change it for Politics. Never 

 enamoured of that artful, but powerful goddess, who, 

 whatever her faults, is sure in the end to reward her 

 worshippers, he was less likely to be won by her blandish- 

 ments then, than at any other period of his life. He had 

 a new and grand scheme on foot, — ^one that he had pon- 

 dered over for years. He thought of it at Paris, in his 

 study among his books and manuscripts, and in the salons 

 of art and fashion, among the wise and the foolish. He 

 thought of it in Mexico, as he groped his way in the 

 darkness of the mines, or wandered among the ruins of 

 vanished nations. He thought of it in Peru, on the 

 rugged sides of Chimborazo and Cotopaxi ; in the terrible 

 pass of Quindiu ; in the dense forests of the Orinoco, 

 and at Cumana among the earthquakes. He thought of 

 it on the deck of the Pizarro, in the midst of the Sea, and on 

 the crater of Teneriffe in the illimitable wilderness of Air. 

 He thought of it everywhere, by day and at night, in his 

 waking^ moments, and in his dreams. It was always 

 with him. It was the one thou^i^ht of his thoudits, his 

 first and last conception, the most majestic statue of his 

 house of life. It was " Kosmos." " Its undefined 



