48 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



CHAPTER III. 

 CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS AND PERSONAL INCIDENTS. 



Preservation of a Position of Independence Cautious Behaviour as a 

 Foreigner Egyptian Antiquaries Daily Routine Places of Resi- 

 dence Social Intercourse Readiness to assist Fellow-Countrymen 

 Patronage of Artists and Men of Science Visit of King Frederick 

 William III. to Paris in 1814 Humboldt accompanies the King to 

 London, Aix-la-Chapelle, Verona, Rome, and Naples Termination of 

 his Sojourn in Paris. 



WHILE Alexander von Humboldt was devoting himself to his 

 scientific pursuits in Paris, his brother William, since his 

 return from Eome in 1808, had been taking an active part in 

 the Prussian Government as Minister of Public Instruction. 

 To his intervention with the king may be ascribed the founda- 

 tion in 1809 of the University of Berlin, which was formally 

 opened the following year. After a brief tenure of office he 

 resigned his seat in the cabinet, and accepted the appointment 

 of Ambassador to Vienna. 



At this juncture the Chancellor of State, Von Hardenberg, to 

 whom the administrative talents of Alexander von Humboldt 

 had become known during his official employment at Bayreuth, 

 eagerly sought to secure his services in the office vacated by his 

 brother, even should he decline to accept the title of Minister 

 of State. Humboldt, as a man of science, preferred, however, 

 to maintain a position of independence, the more so as the 

 publication of his voluminous works on America, notwithstand- 

 ing the co-operation of Bonpland, Oltmanns, and Willdenow, 

 was still far from being complete. 



Upon the same grounds he declined a proposal made to him 

 in London on December 12, 1825, by Father Thomas Murphy, 



