256 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



when accompanying his sovereign officially to the christening of 

 the Prince of Wales, was viewed by Humboldt, from its brevity 

 scarcely a fortnight as a burdensome undertaking ; during 

 this ' bustling visit,' he was unable either to visit the Royal 

 Observatory or see his publisher, and, in view of his attend- 

 ance on the king, inquired what in so short a time could possi- 

 bly be either seen or learnt I 1 'I live,' he writes subsequently 

 to Varnhagen, 2 on March 16, 'in the midst of the glitter of 

 outward splendour and in the enjoyment of the romantic affec- 

 tion of a noble prince, yet in a moral and intellectual isolation 

 necessarily enforced by the stunted intellects of this divided, 

 erudite, and morose country a true desert, where minds nomi- 

 nally sympathetic are really in opposition a country gradually 

 assuming the dreary aspect of an eastern steppe. I trust you 

 will approve of one who has the courage to be singular in his 

 opinions.' The somewhat petulant tone of this complaint, cha- 

 racteristic of the irritability of old age, proves that Humboldt, 

 in his discontent with the course of action of the Home Govern- 

 ment, had not even the consolation of mingling with those 

 kindred spirits who represented the feeling of opposition which 

 was gradually gaining strength throughout the country, espe- 

 cially in the capital. Berlin had become more distasteful to 

 him than ever, ' a moral desert of sand ornamented with acacia 

 shrubs and flourishing potatoe-fields,' he terms it in writing to 

 Jacobi, on November 21, 1840, remarking that Berlin, 'with 

 all its breadth and monotonous small-talk, is retrograding as 

 fast as other countries are advancing in enlargement of views.' 

 He regrets particularly that public opinion should have been 

 excited against the king, more for what he might do 3 than 

 for anything he had done, for which the unstable character of 

 the monarch, ever bent on new schemes, was mostly to blame. 

 Humboldt, who was ' again living in daily intimate companion- 

 ship ' with his sovereign, was ever disposed to attribute his 

 faults to the influence of those by whom he was surrounded, who 



1 'Briefe an Bunsen,' No. 35. Letter to Gauss of July 3, 1842. < Briefe 

 an Varnhagen,' p. 106. See Varnhagen's ' Tagebiicher,' vol. ii. pp. 22, 23. 

 De la Roqnette, vol. ii. p. 232. 



2 ' Briet'e an Varnhagen,' No. 63. 



3 < Briefe an Bunsen,' Nos. 35, 36, and C8. 



