246 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



ebullition of discontent. Small as he deemed his influence to 

 be, he was never weary of using it, as duty impelled him, in the 

 furtherance of every good cause, and to the advantage of the 

 king. Bessel, the monarchist, as he was called by Humboldt, 

 writes him on November 1, 1845 : ' It is widely reported here 

 that your Excellency intends leaving Prussia ; that you had 

 declared you must' expatriate yourself. I believe it to be one 

 of the fabrications of the day. Even supposing your Excellency 

 had encountered some disheartening opposition, I feel sure, 

 from the profound esteem you entertain for our sovereign, that 

 you would have deemed such treatmeht rather a reason for non- 

 expatriation. Nevertheless, I beg of your Excellency most 

 earnestly to set my mind at rest in regard to this matter.' 

 ' Strange reports,' remarks Humboldt on this occasion, ' that 

 have apparently arisen from my political sentiments being 

 widely different from those of the Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion.' 



The adroit use made by Humboldt of the most trivial occa- 

 sions to encourage the expression of great principles is very 

 clearly exhibited in a letter addressed by him to the king at 

 Charlottenburg on January 2, 1842, for some portions of which 

 we are indebted to the circumstance that Humboldt quoted 

 from it largely the same day to Johannes Schulze. The sub- 

 ject to which the extracts have reference was the bestowment 

 of a mark of distinction on Felix Mendelssohn a distinction 

 which Humboldt was anxious should also be conferred on 

 Meyerbeer, a Jew, in order that the king might be fully ab- 

 solved in the eyes of the public from the suspicion of bigotry. 

 The passage referred to contains the remarkable words : ' A 

 purely monarchical government from its very nature presup- 

 poses that the personal feeling of the monarch is in accordance 

 with the feelings of the people. The temper, or rather, I 

 should say, the affection of a people depends upon their confi- 

 dence in the ability and exalted sentiments of their ruler. 

 There are moments of crisis in public opinion. Your depar- 

 ture, and the approaching ceremony in the investiture of orders 

 which, in its outward form (a public symposium), has become 

 an important national institution, ought not to go by unused. 

 Confidence is maintained so long as the feeling continues that 



