178 ALEXANDEB VON HUMBOLDT. 



would then be received as a proof that my sojourn here has 

 given satisfaction an acknowledgment which might yield me 

 some advantage.' The prominent position he now occupied at 

 Paris received additional value in his eyes from the increased 

 influence it gave him with members of the French Govern- 

 ment, when furthering the interests of men of science. The 

 recommendations he presented to Louis-Philippe or his minister 

 for the distribution of decorations or other marks of honour 

 were not confined to his fellow-countrymen, but were often 

 made in support of the claims of Frenchmen. 



It must not, however, be imagined that, like many other 

 distinguished men, Humboldt followed with any peculiar 

 pleasure this dilettante employment, for as such he always re- 

 garded everything connected with politics ; on the contrary, 

 during his visits to Paris between the years 1830 and 1848, 

 he loved to consider himself purely as a man of science. His 

 two important works upon Asia, as well as the 'Examen 

 critique/ were brought out during these visits, the latter in 

 several editions. He also succeeded in acquiring many new 

 facts for the third volume of ' Cosmos.' It will readily be con- 

 ceived that the translation of the introduction to the first 

 volume, which he himself executed ' with extreme care and 

 labour' during the winter of 18445, is the only portion of 

 the work that attains the full force and power of expression of 

 the original. He confesses to have been driven ' in desperation 

 to the vain resolve ' of undertaking the translation by the fear 

 of appearing ridiculous in the eyes of the French. His strong 

 desire ever to receive as much intellectual wealth as he ex- 

 pended led him to attend the lectures on historical philology 

 delivered during the year 1831 by Hase, Champollion, and 

 Letronne ; and subsequently those by Bockh on kindred sub- 

 jects at Berlin. He was also present at a course of lectures 

 upon the history of science by Cuvier, whose passionate attack 

 upon Goethe's theory of the unity of structure in vertebrate 

 animals he did not scruple to controvert during the lectures 

 in whispered comments to his neighbours. 1 Even in 1845 he 



1 L. Agassiz, ' Address delivered on the Centennial Anniversary of the 

 Birth of Alexander von Humboldt ' (Boston, 1869), p. 43. 



