6 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



house ; you are my only visitor. What a pleasure it would 

 have been to me to see you again. You know how inalienably 

 I am bound to you by feelings of gratitude and esteem. I am 

 to read a long paper on Eefraction before the Institute to- 

 morrow. It is not yet finished ; and its completion may possi- 

 bly prevent my coming to see you this evening. Perhaps I shall 

 meet you to-morrow at the Institute. You have just reason 

 for being angry with me : do you love me enough to forgive 

 me ? If you only knew how unhappy I have been ! I pass my 

 time between the Ecole Poly technique and the Tuileries. I 

 work and sleep at the Ecole, where I consequently spend my 

 nights and mornings. I share the same room with Gay-Lussac. 

 He is my best friend, and I find his society most improving 

 and stimulating, and this stimulus seems to be mutual. I 

 fancy that though I have lost everything, I shall still be able to 

 enjoy independence on forty sous a day. How glad I shall 

 be to see you and our good friend Auguste de Stae'l. 



' HUMBOLDT.' 



It thus appears that Humboldt had no sooner arrived in Paris 

 than he became immersed in the active prosecution of a variety 

 of schemes. His diplomatic mission took him to the Tuileries, 

 his important position as a man of science necessitated his 

 attendance at the Institute, while his passion for scientific in- 

 vestigation led him to the Ecole Polytechnique. His suscep- 

 tibility to friendship is evinced in the generous affection and 

 admiration he expresses for Gay-Lussac, his ' best friend,' as 

 he terms him, and in the attachment he displays towards 

 Pictet. Y^et in the midst of this noble and intellectual activity 

 he asserts that he is unhappy, that he has lost everything, and 

 that in his misfortune he is deserted by all the world. The 

 name of De Stae'l brings to mind the assemblage of literary 

 genius then gathered in the French capital, and adds an 

 important feature to the programme of Humboldt's life in 

 Paris furnished us in the above letter. 



Should it be asked why Humboldt and his house were, as he 

 somewhat sarcastically expresses it, avoided like the plague, 

 how it happened that he had lost 'everything,' and why he 

 should express his conviction that he could live upon forty 

 sous a day, an answer will be found in the following interesting 



