FRIENDS AND COADJUTORS AT PARIS. 35 



History, though he did not enter upon his duties till the 

 year 1794. In 1798 he visited the Nile as member of the 

 Grovernment expedition to Egypt, and there won distinction 

 by his zeal and industry. Upon his return to France he 

 resumed his labours at the Museum, and held in succession 

 various appointments of increasing honour and responsibility, 

 during which he was occasionally brought into collision with 

 his distinguished rival Cuvier. His works on zoology prove 

 him to have been an industrious and ingenious writer ; he 

 died in 1844. Long after Humboldt returned to Berlin, his 

 friendship with Saint-Hilaire was maintained by letters of the 

 most affectionate character, and the esteem with which he 

 regarded his gifted friend is shown in the following letter 

 to his widow: l 



1 Sanssouci : July 18, 1844. 



c Madam, Honoured for so many years with the friendship of 

 the illustrious man whose loss is so deeply deplored, I feel a 

 keen desire to express sympathy with your grief, and to renew 

 upon this sad occasion the homage of my respectful devotion. 

 In the midst of your sorrow you cannot fail to be touched with 

 emotion, not only at the wide-spread admiration everywhere 

 excited, especially in his native country, by the eminent 

 services rendered by your noble husband to the cause of science, 

 but also by the universal appreciation evinced of a character 

 presenting the rare combination of so much that is noble in 

 disposition with intellectual endowments of a superior order. 

 The elevation of your sentiments will lead you to find 

 consolation in these expressions of universal sorrow, and in 

 the sweet recollections of the happiness you were enabled, as a 

 loving and affectionate wife, to shed over the latter days of my 

 valued friend. 



' Pray accept the assurance of the profound respect with 

 which I have the honour to subscribe myself, 



4 Madam, 

 ' Your very humble and obedient servant, 



'AL. HUMBOLDT.' 



1 De la Roquette, vol. ii. p. 275. 

 D 2 



