EAELY HOME. 19 



frequently devolved upon him to entertain persons of distinc- 

 tion, and on one occasion he had the honour to receive the 

 Duke of Brunswick a circumstance which furnishes sufficient 

 proof of the versatility of his powers and the confidence which 

 was reposed in him. 1 ' It is rare,' remarks the celebrated 

 political economist, State-Councillor Hoffmann, in his obituary 

 of Kunth, 2 ' to find such brilliant hopes receiving so happy a 

 fulfilment. The bond existing between Kunth and his pupils 

 was of a more indissoluble nature than that formed merely 

 through the solicitude of a faithful teacher to communicate to 

 highly gifted pupils the knowledge he himself possessed.' 



It would seem that Kunth but rarely gave instruction person- 

 ally to his pupils, and his unassuming nature never allowed 

 him to claim more than a limited influence in producing the 

 intellectual distinction which they subsequently attained. It 

 is related by Henriette Herz, 3 that on one occasion during the 

 winter of 1827-8, as Alexander von Humboldt was delivering 

 an admirable lecture, excellent both in purport and arrange- 

 ment, before a mixed audience at Berlin, when every eye was 

 beaming with excited admiration, Kunth whispered in her ear, 

 ' He is not indebted to me for this ! ' and once, when allusion 

 was made in the presence of William von Humboldt to the ex- 

 tensive knowledge of history possessed by Kunth, accompanied 

 by a remark upon his almost painful amount of prolixity, he 

 observed : ' That is true ; his lectures upon history make one 

 almost wish to have been Adam, when history had only just 

 begun.' 4 There can be no doubt, however, that the views held 

 by Kunth upon citizenship, political life, and philanthropy, and 

 the sympathy he invariably manifested with all endeavours 

 after freedom, must have exercised a very considerable influence 

 upon the minds of his pupils, and it is evident from the expres- 

 sions he subsequently made use of in controverting the views 

 of the minister Stein in the retrospect of his latter years, that 

 he formed, as it were, the prototype of their characters. Kunth 



1 Kimtli's ' Manuscript .Autobiography.' 



2 Staatszeitung ' of November 3, 1829. 



3 Fiirst, ' Henriette Herz/ p. 148. 



4 ' Aus dem Nachlasse Varnhagen's. Briefe von Chamisso, Gneisenau, 

 Haugwitz, Willielm von Humboldt, &c.,' vol. i. p. 11. 



c 2 



