342 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

 HOME LIFE. 



New Circumstances, but old Friends Co-operation with Pictet Plan for 

 the Publication of his Works English Translation Labours with 

 Gay-Lussac and Biot Letters to Friends at Berlin Visit to Italy 

 Visit to Germany Berlin Honours and Occupation Letters to old 

 Friends The Fall of Prussia Humboldt as a Mediator Consolation 

 in the Study of Nature. 



^ 



WHAT changes had transpired in France during Humboldt's 

 absence! The hopes of freedom had been cruelly blasted. 

 The Eevolution had assumed a new phase, and was proceeding 

 in quite a new direction ; a sultry atmosphere everywhere gave 

 painful warning of the outbreak of another political convulsion. 

 On his departure for America, Humboldt left France a republic ; 

 he returned to find an imperial throne occupied by an ambitious 

 conqueror; and, on his arrival at Paris, on August 18, he beheld 

 the people intoxicated with glory and conquest, still tumul- 

 tuous with the celebration of Napoleon's birthday, which had 

 been kept publicly, for the first time, on the 15th of the 

 month. 



Meanwhile the interests of science, especially in the branches 

 of mathematics, physics, and natural science, far from suffering 

 from the events of war, had been very largely promoted. Eich 

 endowments were granted to scientific institutions of every 

 kind, and men of science were not only cheered by tokens of 

 honourable distinction, but received liberal support in all their 

 undertakings. Paris had undoubtedly become the high school 

 for the exact and natural sciences. 



There seems some necessity for recalling these circumstances 

 to mind, since it is only by so doing that a just estimate can be 



