-. : 4'' :.*.'.' '::.,: .ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



distinguished men of learning, eminent artists and celebrated 

 singers all found their way to the banks of the Seine, and by 

 their presence lent to the classic Lutetia a glory she had never 

 before attained. One magnificent building after another rose 

 at the word of Napoleon, apparently as a tribute to national 

 vanity, but in reality as a glorification of himself; scientific 

 institutions were founded one after the other, and the old- 

 established universities and societies, especially if they stood 

 associated with a bygone royalty, were reconstructed and 

 dignified with the appellation of 'Imperial.' Paris, in short, 

 became the theatre for all that was glorious, grand, and in- 

 spiring ; and while the emperor was consuming the strength 

 of the nation by the sanguinary wars he was incessantly prose- 

 cuting beyond the frontier, the arts of peace were successfully 

 cultivated in the capital. 



But while acting the Caesar away from home, Napoleon was 

 no less anxious to play the Augustus on his return to the 

 Tuileries. The state of an imperial court was established in 

 all its splendour. A crowd of new offices of State were insti- 

 tuted, and a new order of nobility created, upon whom the 

 ancient nobles looked at first with scorn ; but as the empire 

 gradually gained in stability, many of the old families appeared 

 again at court : some, indeed, with the object of being 

 - reconciled to the new-made Caesar, of paying him homage and 

 becoming the recipients of his favours ; others, again, only to 

 ridicule in secret the manners of the upstart. Yet Napoleon 

 felt flattered when he saw around him at the Tuileries even 

 such members of the ancient noblesse. Much, therefore, that 

 in those days appeared grand and exalted was in reality but 

 a dumb show a mere stage spectacle and never was the pro- 

 verb ' There is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous ' 

 more fully exemplified than at the court of Napoleon I. 



At the time when Humboldt arrived in Paris the empire 

 was at the height of its glory. We have already seen that he 

 was no stranger to the French capital, but had freely associated 

 with its scientific circles both before and after his expedition 

 to America. To him, as a man of birth and position, every 

 house and palace in the empire was thrown open ; to him, as 

 a distinguished traveller and successful investigator familiarly 



