RESIDENCE AT BERLIN TO THE REVOLUTION OF JULY. 107 



fluence. The pietists now hate him heartily.' 1 To all this, 

 however, he was quite indifferent, treating it in jest, as was his 

 wont. Beyond the immediate circle of the court, he enjoyed, 

 with his former Parisian versatility, unrestricted intercourse 

 in every rank of society, and associated with almost everyone 

 in Berlin who possessed any claim to distinction either by 

 intellect or position. He was to be found as often at the 

 assemblies of Field-Marshal Grneisenau as among the sesthetic 

 circles that gathered round Rahel, or at the house of Beer, 

 where he was accustomed to assert that ' he enjoyed himself 

 much more than at court.' Eitter, in writing to Sommering, 

 remarks: s We have this winter (1827-1828) spent many 

 pleasant evenings, owing to the presence of Humboldt ; he has 

 an enviable talent for constituting himself the centre of in- 

 tellectual and scientific converse.' 2 4 1 often endeavoured,' ob- 

 serves Holtei, 3 ' when meeting him in society at Berlin, to 

 engage him in conversation in the manner I found so success- 

 ful at Paris. There it was my habit, when his vital energy 

 had been somewhat exhausted by the lively rattle of general 

 conversation, to entice the great man into a corner, and lead 

 him into tete-a-tete converse, where I was delighted to start 

 him upon some interesting topic. Thanks to his facility in 

 explaining a subject, I might almost say the necessity he felt 

 of making himself understood, and his habit of adapting him- 

 self to the capacity of his hearer, my experiment was eminently 

 successful.' To the same writer we are indebted for the follow- 

 ing graphic picture : 4 c Upon his entrance a joyous exclamation 

 was heard from all present, and as soon as the company were 

 again seated the lady of the house would exercise her privilege 

 of starting a topic of conversation by addressing some pro- 

 position to the distinguished guest, while everyone became an 

 eager listener. There was no necessity for the subject to be 

 of a scientific character, it served the purpose equally well if 

 it were a piece of general news or town gossip in which there 

 might possibly be some admixture of scandal .... the in- 



1 Varnhagen, ' Blatter/ vol. v. p. 268. 



2 R. Wagner, ' Sommering's Leben,' vol. ii. p. 174. 



3 Holtei, * Vierzig Jahre/ vol. iv. p. 32. 



4 Holtei, < Die Eselsfresser,' vol. ii. p. 196. 



