FEOM EEVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 187 



4 Cosmos ' he modestly retires, in order that upon a subject 

 upon which his elder brother was an authority, his voice alone 

 should be heard. 



Veneration for the genius of William von Humboldt, to the 

 superiority of which he was keenly alive, and gratitude for the 

 pure and keen incitement that his society ever afforded him, was 

 nurtured in the soul of Alexander till it became a boundless de- 

 votion, justly meriting the tender name of brotherly affection. 

 Even in the days of their boyhood, no ill-feeling ever arose 

 between them, much as the lively banter of the younger was 

 occasionally distasteful to the graver disposition of the elder. 

 In riper years they were united in the closest harmony in 

 everything relating to public life by the consciousness of a 

 mutual endeavour after intellectual and political freedom. At 

 the close of the preceding chapter, we noticed the affectionate 

 tone pervading the letters written by Alexander to William 

 from Russia and Siberia ; we have now witnessed the anguish 

 of feeling he experienced at the bed-side of his dying brother, 

 as poured forth in the few lines he penned from the sick cham- 

 ber. Without seeking further evidence of this nature for in 

 his extensive correspondence the same feelings are often re- 

 peatedly expressed in words nearly identical we would direct 

 our attention to the practical proof he gave of his devotion to 

 his brother, now redoubled in intensity, in the collection and 

 publication of his writings and the assiduous endeavours to 

 place him before the world in the same position he held in his 

 own esteem. 



To the surviving brother the notices upon William von 

 Humboldt that appeared in the daily press seemed very in- 

 sufficient. While thanking Varnhagen for his eloge in the 

 6 Staatszeitung,' he adds : c A newspaper is scarcely the place in 

 which to honour men of distinction ; what with the claims of 

 the family, the censorship of the press, and an icy public, it is 

 a problem not to be solved even by your genius.' l He was 

 particularly annoyed by an article in the ' Morgenblatt,' in 

 which, among other blunders and misstatements, there was 

 dragged forward in an idle spirit of gossip the notorious and 



1 < Briefe an Varnhagen,' No. 19. 



