170 , ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



In the concluding paragraph, which has already been quoted, 1 

 Humboldt solicits that his protege, Steuben the artist, should 

 be favourably introduced to the notice of the princess. The 

 letter is a masterpiece of candour and tact qualities which 

 are indeed traceable in all Humboldt's writings. An accurate 

 knowledge of human nature is everywhere revealed ; that which 

 it would be unbecoming to mention openly is delicately but 

 unmistakably indicated ; with consummate tact he points out 

 4 the weaknesses of certain personages' manifestly alluding to 

 Louis-Philippe and thus gives warning while apparently de- 

 clining so to do. In all that he openly states it would be 

 difficult to point out an error. He was completely justified in 

 the conviction that ' the wife of the Duke of Orleans ' would be 

 exempt from the personal danger to which, eleven years later, 

 his widow was exposed. In his comments upon political affairs, 

 while acknowledging the calm then prevalent, he is filled with 

 anxious thoughts for the future. The few remarks he makes 

 upon Algiers suffice to show that, with a deep interest in the 

 intellectual and social glory of France, he was yet far from 

 countenancing the passion of the nation for military glory. 

 From Humboldt's keen-sighted comments upon the ladies of 

 the court, it is evident that though a bachelor he had become 

 an adept in the study of female character. Consistently with 

 his well-known benevolence, he could not but avail himself as 

 a patron of art, we might almost say the fostering guardian of 

 all talent, of such an opportunity of rendering a fresh act of 

 kindness to a deserving protege. 



The Orleans marriage was welcomed by Humboldt as an event 

 tending towards the union of Prussian and German interests 

 with those of France, and the encouragement of liberal principles 

 as opposed to the oppressive policy of Eussia. . From the first, 

 he had earnestly endeavoured to infuse a feeling of reconcilia- 

 tion into the court of Berlin. As early as May 1832, upon 

 Humboldt's return from his first mission, General von Rochow 

 ascribed to the lively narratives ' Herr von Humboldt gave 

 of his visits to the studios of Paris ' the change in the threat- 

 ening aspect of the times and the relapse to ' indolence, in- 



1 Vol. ii. p. 66. 



