FROM REVOLUTION OF' JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 231 



express himself with feeling eloquence in daily intercourse 

 with his sovereign. The well-digested and clearly expressed 

 thoughts of this intimate companion upon the "enjoyment 

 and description of Nature, and the study of her laws," uttered 

 in daily converse in the garden, *br while travelling, were 

 listened to and pondered by the royal auditor, by whom in calm 

 reflection they were eventually appropriated and assimilated. 

 His mind was thus gradually led to the recognition of the 

 great analogy between nature and revelation ; in both he dis- 

 covered the same laws, the same miracles, the same mystery, 

 and in both he adored the same Creator; in both gifts he 

 owned with gratitude the same "Giver, and thus secured cer- 

 tainty in his knowledge, peace in his faith, and calm repose in 

 the happy tenor of his life. 4 When conversing with such men 

 as Alexander von Humboldt, it was a gratification and a 

 pleasure to listen to him, so clear, deep, and full was the 

 stream of his simple eloquence. 2 It was to Humboldt that the 

 king was indebted for his familiar acquaintance with the lite- 

 rature of the day.' 3 



We have given this flattering encomium in full, since it con- 

 tains the only valid and consistent comment upon Humboldt's 

 relationship to Frederick William If I. that has been expressed 

 by an eye-witness. In order to form a due estimate of the 

 truthfulness of this picture, it is only necessary to point out 

 the characteristic attributed to Humboldt of a simplicity al- 

 most childlike ; as Eylert could have had no inducement to 

 idealise Humboldt at the expense of the hero of his biography, 

 it is evident how little value is to be placed upon such 

 expressions as the ' clear view of men and things ' and ' the full 

 stream of eloquence ' displayed by the king in conversation. 

 The relative truth of the picture is however undoubted ; and 

 to this friendly intercourse witli Humboldt was the monarch 

 unquestionably indebted for most of his ideas upon general 

 subjects, and much of his appreciation of high art so far at 

 least as no direct religious element was involved, as, from 



1 Eylert, ' Cliarakterzuge u.s.w. Friedrich Wilhelin's III.' vol. iii. pt. 2, 

 pp. 209, 210. 



2 Ibid. vol. i. Preface, p. xiv. 

 "* Ihid. vol. iii. pt. 3, p. 320. 



