RESIDENCE AT BERLIN TO THE REVOLUTION OF JULY. 153 



soon after led to many acts of violence, did not escape the 

 penetrating glance of Humboldt, and he remarks in writing to 

 Count Cancrin from Warsaw on June 2, 1830 : ' My visit here 

 has filled my mind with many serious thoughts, over which 

 I brood in silence, for they are of a nature which, for fear 

 of being misunderstood, I can only communicate verbally.' 1 

 Cancrin, to whom, on account of his enlightened and unpreju- 

 diced tone of mind, Humboldt felt at liberty to write in these 

 terms, replied somewhat drily on June 17 : 2 'The Poles, as a 

 nation, are possessed of excellent qualities, but there is some- 

 thing sadly wanting. It is remarkable that in olden times they 

 were characterised by Bezmozgly as stupid and unintelligent.' 



While in Eussia, Humboldt had little ground for pride in 

 the position occupied by his native country. Neither at the 

 court nor among the crowd of officials at St. Petersburg did he 

 meet with any spirit favourable to Prussia ; by her vacillation 

 and indecision she had entirely lost influence. Her refusal 

 to unite with Eussia in an offensive and defensive alliance 

 had been very ill received, and scarcely any notice had been 

 taken of her friendly demonstrations in other matters. Count 

 Nesselrode jested over the policy pursued by Prussia; and 

 Humboldt found himself powerless to further the commercial 

 advantages of his country, since Cancrin, who on most other 

 points commanded his esteem, showed a continual aversion to 

 Prussia. Even the Emperor Nicholas declared ' that he knew 

 Berlin too well to hold it in much respect.' 3 It was of little 

 avail that Prince Wittgenstein, the leader in Prussian politics, 

 who was on a footing of intimacy with Humboldt, for once 

 displayed a fit of liberality upon a question of ecclesiastical 

 government. c I cannot escape the conviction,' he writes to 

 Humboldt on April 7, 1830, 'that evangelical Jesuitism is 

 of an aggressive character, and has acquired a position of 

 influence both with the State and the Church. Who knows 

 but that this is in reality the work of Eome ? ' Humboldt, 

 who had ever a horror of indiscretions, especially those of a 

 literary character, has written on the margin : ' 1 request that 



1 ' Im Ural und Altai/ p. 42. 



2 Unpublished. 



3 As related by Humboldt to Varnhagen, * Blatter/ vol. v, p. 284. 



