HUMBOLDT AT POTSDAM. 4G9 



leaving Berlin, a splendidly illustrated work on the Gila 

 Country, which is now being published under the patron- 

 age of the King. It will cost about twenty-eight dollars 

 a copy. Humboldt himself wrote the preface, a copy of 

 which he gave me. He was greatly gratified at the 

 readiness with which our present Secretary of War gave 

 Mr. Mollhausen a second appointment." 



Such was Alexander Yon Humboldt, author and tra- 

 veller, as he. appeared to authors and travellers in the 

 palace of his King, and in his own quiet home. To the 

 citizens of Potsdam and Berlin, all of w^hom knew him 

 by sight, he appeared in a somewhat different light ; for 

 while many of them were ignorant of him as an author 

 and traveller, or had at best but a vague idea of his 

 world-wide renown in this respect, none were ignorant 

 of his rank as one of the King's privy councillors. 

 Everybody knew His Excellency, the Baron Yon Hum- 

 boldt, and honoured him like the King himself. He was 

 often seen at Potsdam, walking on the terrace of Sans 

 Souci with his Majesty, Frederic William lY., or saun- 

 tering by himself in the avenues of the park. One of 

 his favourite haunts at Sans Souci was a shady walk, in 

 a retired part of the garden. He loved this spot because 

 it reminded him of his friend, the former King, who was 

 buried there. Frederic William IH. slept by the side of 

 his queenly wife in a stately marble monument, the 

 work of the sculptor. Ranch. Upon this monument was 

 a recumbent statue of his Majesty, 



" With his martial cloak around him." 

 But it was in Berlin after all that Humboldt was best 



