RESIDENCE AT BERLIN TO THE REVOLUTION OF 'J1JLY 10* 



After a short and exciting visit to Canning, he hurried through 

 Hamburg to Berlin, where he arrived on May 12, and took up 

 his residence in the centre of 6 the capital of German civilisation, 

 as people are beginning somewhat grandiosely to style Berlin.' * 

 For the unsettled life that awaited him, he must have been 

 in some degree prepared by his short preliminary visit, during 

 which ' he never felt sure for a single instant of being his own 

 master.' 2 He now found the court in more than usual com- 

 motion, for May 26 had been fixed for the solemnisation of the 

 marriage of Prince Charles with Princess Marie of Weimar. 

 Owing to the peculiarity of his position, which, from its personal 

 and ill-defined character, could not easily be accurately deter- 

 mined, it is not surprising that every kind of false and exag- 

 gerated rumour was afloat respecting his life at Berlin. Hurn- 

 boldt eagerly set himself to correct all such misstatements, since, 

 throughout life, nothing was to him so painful as unjust or ill- 

 founded newspaper reports about himself. 3 ' Your " Hamburger 

 Zeitung " has taken an aversion to me,' he remarks in a letter 

 to Schumacher on June 29. ' The king is certainly as gracious 

 to me as he has been for so many years past, but I am far from 

 being " daily in his society or exercising any influence in regard 

 to scientific appointments." ' The following year he even 

 thought himself obliged to explain to Bessel the true motives 

 for his change of residence, and in his reply, dated July 2, 1828, 

 Bessel writes : ' That you are attracted by the amiable quali- 

 ties of the king, and that you feel compensated for the sacrifices 

 you have made by the amount of usefulness you will be able to 

 exercise, I can readily understand ; but that the favour of the 

 king could offer any gratification to your ambition, never once 

 occurred to me as possible. You were as great in the deserts 

 of the Andes as in the drawing-rooms of Paris : you can attain 

 no higher eminence. In this lies the true grandeur of your 

 position.' The absurd expectations cherished by the Berlinese, 

 as to the influence Humboldt was to exert upon the court and 

 government, were naturally doomed to disappointment, and, as 

 a necessary consequence, rumour was busy for several months in 



1 ' Briefwechsel mit Berghaus/ vol. i. p. 56. 



2 Ibid. p. 78. 



3 See < Ira Ural und Altai,' p. 54. 



