RESIDENCE AT BEELIN TO THE REVOLUTION OF JULY. 159 



profession, a distinguished philosopher and explorer of America ; 

 and the beneficial influence his rule exerted upon the manage- 

 ment of the various departments under his control tempts one 

 almost to wish that Alexander von Humboldt, the refined and 

 cultivated critic in art, who was ever eager on all subjects to 

 secure the advice and direction of those fully competent to form 

 a judgment, did not overcome his reluctance and consent to 

 occupy the position of presiding over this great institution for the 

 furtherance of fine arts, at the head of a committee composed 

 of such men as Eauch, Schinkel, and Waagen. It is, however, 

 impossible not to sympathise with his resolve to concentrate the 

 powers of his universal genius upon subjects of greater moment, 

 in which his heart was more deeply stirred. 



After his return from Eussia, Humboldt was not long per- 

 mitted to enjoy personal intercourse with his brother. In 

 May he was called upon to undertake a journey to Warsaw, 

 after which he accompanied the Empress Charlotte and the 

 Crown Prince Frederick William by way of Posen, to meet the 

 king at Schloss Fischbach, whence he paid a visit to Ottma- 

 chau, a property of his brother's in Silesia. No sooner had he re- 

 turned to Berlin than, in the beginning of July, he set out again 

 with the king to Teplitz, while his brother sought the resto- 

 rative influence of the waters of Grastein. 1 In the first few days 

 of August, while at Pirna on his return from Teplitz, the news 

 reached the king of the Paris Eevolution of July an epoch 

 from which dates a new phase in the life of Humboldt, which 

 will come before us in the next chapter. How little confidence 

 he had himself felt in the apparent tranquillity in the political 

 world may be gathered from the following passage in a letter 

 he addressed to Bunsen from Teplitz : 2 ' The dismember- 

 ment of the Ottoman Empire, which, like Poland, has sought 

 protection from the conqueror, the unsuccessful attempt to 



1 Varnhagen, ' Blatter,' vol. v. p. 263. 



2 Briefe von A. von Humboldt an Bunsen/ p. 8. The date of this 

 5tter, July 1, as appears even from the postscript, is erroneous. On the 9th 

 [umboldt was still at Berlin on the point of setting out for Teplitz (see 



tiefe an Varnhagen,' p. 8). As the letter to Bunsen was written two 

 vys before leaving Teplitz, the date of July 31 or August 1 must be 

 instituted. Nothing was, however, then known of the events transpiring 



Paris, as we learn from some marginal notes in Humboldt's handwriting. 



