41G HUMBOLDT'S LIBERALITY. 



I opened the note, and I see it now before me as dis- 

 tinctly as if I held the paper in my hand. It said : 



" ' My friend, I hear that you intend leaving Paris in 

 consequence of some embarrassments. That shall not 

 be. I wish you to remain here as long as the object for 

 which you came is not accomplished. I inclose you a 

 check for fifty pounds. It is a loan which you ma;y 

 repay when you can.' 



" Some years afterwards, when I could have repaid him, 

 I wrote, asking for the privilege of remaining for ever in 

 his debt, knowing that this request would be more con- 

 sonant to his feelings than the recovery of the money, 

 and I am now in his debt. What he has done for me I 

 know he has done for many others — in silence and un- 

 known to the world. 



"It is a circumstance worth noticing," continues Pro- 

 "essor Agassiz, " that above all the great powers Prus- 

 •da has more distinguished scientific and literary men 

 among her diplomatists than any other State. And so 

 Humboldt was actually a diplomatist in Paris ; though 

 he was placed in that position, not from choice, but in 

 consequence of the benevolence of the King, who wanted 

 to give him an opportunity of being in Paris as often and 

 as long as he chose. 



"But from that time there were two men in him, the 

 diplomatist, living in the Hotel des Princes, and the natu- 

 ralist who roomed in the Rue de la Harpe, in a modest 

 apartment in the second story, where his scientific friends 

 had access to him every day before seven. After that 

 he was frequently seen working in the library of the 

 Institute until the time when the Grand Seigneur made 

 his appearance at the court, or in the salons of Paris." 



