,184 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



however, true and an impartial biographer must not hesitate 

 to admit the fact that a purely fraternal affection, quite apart 

 from any intellectual sympathy, was never experienced by 

 Alexander von Humboldt. The tender affection to a mother 

 or a wife, by which such love is usually awakened and fostered, 

 were ties denied to him, and that more through circumstances 

 than by any fault of his own. The shadow that rested upon 

 the days of his childhood has already been hinted at ; in the 

 thousands of letters written in after life, in which he ' loved 

 through the veil of life's eventful history to contemplate the 

 past,' the early home of his childhood is scarcely ever alluded 

 to, and never with any expression of pleasure. The question 

 of marriage was one he had never seriously entertained ; when 

 interrogated upon the subject, he was accustomed to reply that 

 science had been his only love. If in advanced life he was 

 often prodigal, as will be shown hereafter, of expressions of 

 goodwill towards men inferior to himself and unable intellec- 

 tually to. yield him aught in return, this must be ascribed 

 more to a feeling of gratitude than to the unrestrained dic- 

 tates of the heart. But let us not be misunderstood : he was 

 capable in the highest degree of disinterested self-sacrifice, his 

 whole being was entirely consecrated to feelings of this nature, 

 but they were displayed in that comprehensive affection which 

 to the ordinary observer appears at one time superhuman, at 

 another unnatural, and which only prizes the individual so far 

 as. it may influence the universal,. In these characteristics we 

 are almost reminded of that sublime example of Love, who, 

 while leaving/ his mpther and his brethren standing without, 

 stretched forth his hands, to, his disciples, and recognised in 

 them, because they were doing the will of his Father who is 

 in heaven, his mother and his brethren. 1 Ehrenberg, in a 

 generous defence of Humboldt from the reproach 'of an ex- 

 treme though noble egotism,' calls attention to c the tender and 

 almost enthusiastic friendship he entertained throughout life ' 

 for Freiesleben ; 2 - yet Humboldt was never even able to sepa- 

 rate the affectionate feelings he entertained for Freiesleben 



1 Matthew xii. 47-50. 



2 Ehrenberg, < Gedachtnissrede auf A. von Humboldt ' (Berlin, 1870), 

 p. 35, &c. 



