FROM REVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 207 



tific grounds alone, not to interrupt a work advantageous to 

 navigation, in which all Europe is interested, and by which a 

 lustre is shed upon Gottingen. The answer has always been 

 that the condition of explicit recantation could not possibly be 

 dispensed with, as the king must not appear to vacillate in 

 the course he has adopted, as by so doing he would be yielding 

 to other German princes (the King of Wurtemberg was in 

 Berlin) the right of bestowing appointments to the ejected pro- 

 fessors. I write this with the deepest sorrow, as I see no way of 

 redress. Supposing that the document were so drawn up as to 

 meet every claim, and to satisfy the feelings of the petitioner, 

 it is only too probable that while it would be withheld from 

 publication, a statement would appear in the " Hannoversche 

 Zeitung " to the effect that his Majesty had been induced to 

 reinstate the petitioner on account of a recantation. The king, 

 too, would be fully justified in so interpreting the petition. In 

 the present conflict, the political interests of the executive 

 power, or rather the views taken of these interests, are at vari- 

 ance with the moral sense of our friend. Not that I should in 

 any way regard it as a breach of moral feeling to conclude 

 a separate peace in this unhappy campaign, but other considera- 

 tions are involved, arising from the position of a university 

 professor, and out of the excited state of the students. I 

 believe, my dear friend, that in this matter, which concerns 

 me as much as it does science, I have done everything that it 

 was possible to do. We have at all events attained some 

 decisive points. It is something to know exactly our present 

 position. If these events had not occurred I should I confess 

 have been inclined to instance the example of France, where I 

 have been a spectator of so many changes in the government 

 and constitution. It would be well if scientific institutions 

 could hold themselves aloof from all political movements ; I say 

 institutions, for you will naturally believe, from the opinions 

 I have everywhere openly expressed for the last forty years, that 

 I do not mean to commit the atrocity of wishing that men of 

 science should not also be citizens, and exert a beneficial influ- 

 ence upon the growth of intelligence, the elevation of our race, 

 and the free communication of thought and feeling.' 



In order to form a just estimate of Humboldt's views and 



