196 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



selections he introduced from the unpublished sonnets formed 

 a valuable addition to the work, and were described by Hum- 

 boldt in the short preface, dated May 15, 1841, 'as a diary in 

 which the phases of a noble mind are reflected.' 



Upon his brother's death Humboldt was drawn all the more 

 closely to his bereaved family ; Berlin became increasingly dis- 

 tasteful, and ' appeared to him, with its carnival-loving court, 

 like a dance of death.' New sorrows awaited him. In January 

 1837, he bemoans to Bockh : ' To-morrow we are to commit to 

 the tomb the mortal remains of my brother's eldest daughter, 

 Caroline, who of all his children most resembled him.' And 

 fifteen months later, in a letter to Carus, he remarks : c My 

 domestic circle is sadly broken up. The only daughter of my 

 brother resident here has left to join her husband, General 

 Hedemann, at Posen, where he has received an appointment ; 

 so beautiful Tegel is left with its new-made graves in solitude. 

 My last family tie is severed.' Henceforth even his visits to 

 Paris seemed ' but an ephemeral refreshment, as the return to 

 home-life was only the more painful.' Although ' his family,' 

 as he loved to call his nieces and their children, were scattered 

 6 like leaves from a tree,' his affectionate heart ever followed 

 them with the keenest interest. His letters of this period to 

 Frau von Wolzogen are filled with minute descriptions of their 

 characters, and details of their domestic history, to which we 

 can only casually allude. His state of mind may be gathered 

 from the reflections with which he interlined a letter from 

 Bonpland from San Borja, dated July 14, 1836, but which he 

 did not receive till the spring of 1837. These remarks intro- 

 duced between brackets are evidence of the melancholy which 

 then oppressed him, relieved only by the satisfaction he derived 

 from his useful and active life. He had communicated to his 

 friend the death of his brother, in a letter written on his 

 sixty-seventh birthday, September 14, 1835 ; Bonpland replied 

 immediately on the receipt of the sad intelligence, and endea- 

 voured in his own artless way to give him consolation : c How 

 greatly have I been grieved by your letter, dear Humboldt ! 

 Let me mourn with you and your illustrious family the loss of 

 the elder of the Humboldts. ... I was not before aware of the 

 precise date of your birthday [" September 14, 1769 ; lam ante- 



