156 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



You know how dearly I love your country, to which I owe so 

 much. I will however not weary your patience, dear Karl, 

 with poli tics, yet there are two observations which I am anxious 

 to make. 



' I have recently had an opportunity of admiring the high 

 cultivation of feeling and mode of expression exhibited by the 

 French, to which no other European nation has ever attained. 

 I was speaking to one of the common sentries allotted to us as 

 a guard of honour upon the cruelty of the Imperialists, who 

 often killed their prisoners. I remarked, "But you will grant, 

 citizen, that, nevertheless, they are good soldiers ? " " Soldiers ! " 

 replied the youth, who was scarcely twenty years of age and 

 insufferably dirty, " No, citizen ; to be a soldier one must be 

 a man. Those people have no notion of humanity ! " Might 

 not this be a quotation from Racine, and where would you 

 hear such an expression from a German soldier ? l The other 

 remark I wished to make was that these men really seem 

 to possess the spirit of the old republicans. They despise 

 the present constitution en detail, but the general idea of 

 a republic is never alluded to without calling forth visible 

 enthusiasm. The army on the Rhine rejoices at the progress 

 of Bonaparte in Italy, " because a republic ought to adopt a 

 comprehensive plan." These people are of the same mind 

 with Wilhelm Meister, who never saw a puppet show without 

 reflecting upon the elevation of mind in the human race. 



4 General Desaix is one of the most remarkable and, I may 

 add, one of the most amiable men I ever met. He has a head 

 like Cromwell, but possesses a larger share of good nature. 

 His exploits testify to his military talent. There is a touch of 

 gentleness and melancholy about him which renders him 

 attractive notwithstanding his rough exterior. He is well 

 acquainted with the antiphlogistic chemistry, and had a vague 

 notion of my safety-lamp, " as a German invention communi- 

 cated to the National Institute," probably by Dolomieu, who 

 lately read before the Institute a paper of mine on "Experience 

 sur Tinfluence du gaz acide mur oxygene sur la fibre animale." 



1 Since Humboldt wrote these words, what a change has been effected in 

 the relative state of culture of the French and German soldiers, especially 

 in regard to the feelings of humanity displayed by both nations ! 



