FROM ACCESSION OF FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 237 



detail the character of this sovereign, for not only has it long 

 since been written on the page of history, but from its very 

 nature it prevented Humb6ldt, near as he stood to the king in 

 external relationships, from ever approaching him in closer 

 friendship than many other men of less distinction. To Frede- 

 rick William IV., on the contrary, Humboldt felt bound by 

 the much closer ties of mental sympathy ; and when we call to 

 mind that during the whole of this reign, from 1840 to the 

 illness of the king, a year and a half before Humboldt's death, 

 the two friends had lived in daily intercourse, that his life 

 during this period belonged, as he expressed it, 1 to another, 

 namely, to the king, we feel it incumbent upon us to give at 

 least an outline of the character of Frederick William IV. 

 Humboldt was in the habit of expressing himself unreservedly 

 upon this subject in his confidential correspondence ; but these 

 expressions refer only to passing events, and require, there- 

 fore, some generalisation before they can be brought into 

 consistency. 



Frederick William IV. was with the exception of Frederick 

 the Great the most gifted monarch that has ever occupied 

 the throne of Prussia; but for the special art of governing 

 he possessed so little capability that he seems to have been 

 selected by fate to be the most unfortunate of his line. His 

 comprehensive mind was open to impressions upon almost all 

 subjects, and his apprehension was quick and correct : gifted 

 with great power of language, he was accustomed to give 

 expression to his ideas, whether borrowed or original, in a flow 

 of natural eloquence that entitles him to be considered perhaps 

 one of the greatest masters of style in the Grerman language. 

 Endowed with a highly susceptible temperament, he displayed, 

 by turns, a keen sense of the ludicrous and a fire of noble enthu- 

 siasm, which rendered his society extremely agreeable to those 

 he admitted to unreserved intercourse. But, notwithstanding 

 these qualities, there was no stability either in thought or 

 feeling ; in the multiplicity of his views, sentiments, and 

 resolves, there was lacking the comprehensive and controlling 

 unity of a manly soul ; they came upon him, as it were, uncalled 



1 In a letter to Carus, dated February 5, 1844. 



