FKOM ACCESSION OF FKEDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 259 



talent, the nature of the crystal spheres of the ancients, the 

 origin of the torch dances, caryatides, &c. ' Besides Cracow 

 and the tolerance edict, as it is termed, one is plagued by 

 erudite kings,' he despondingly remarks to Bockh. ... 'In 

 Leibnitz's time the talk at court was all about nomadology, 

 now it is hellenism. . . . The conversation of an evening 

 here always terminates in erudite inquiries ; pray excuse the 

 stupidity of my questions ! ' The unsuitability of such tastes 

 in a prince did not escape him ; he could not fail to be as- 

 tonished that the king should know by heart every German 

 translation of ' Antigone/ but he was equally amazed at his 

 indifference to the proceedings of the Diet of the Khine. The 

 usual evening conversations were, moreover, dry and restricted : 

 the king drew ; with the exception of Humboldt, no one ven- 

 tured to speak, and even he ' confined himself to the mention 

 of facts, without venturing on the expression of thoughts.' 1 

 It distressed him to see scientific results, which he honoured as 

 such, used merely as topics of conversation, in exchange for in- 

 tellectual food of a far poorer quality. ' The king asked me,' 

 he writes to Encke, ' to read to him your treatise upon comets, 

 which he thinks ought to be something remarkable. Unfor- 

 tunately, I had not the book with me at Potsdam, so we read 

 some love stories out of an almanack.' As years rolled on, the 

 conversation at court became increasingly vapid and insipid. 

 In November, 1855, Humboldt, in course of conversation, 

 relates to Varnhagen that Louis Schneider, the actor, had been 

 assisting him in entertaining the king of an evening, and that 

 the wife of General von Luck had on one occasion taken his 

 place and read some anecdotes out of Meidinger's grammar, 

 with which the king was greatly amused, and laughed ;heartily. 

 6 When I read to him,' he adds, c he goes to sleep*' 2 



Why Humboldt should not have sought in some way to 

 withdraw from the court, where the fulfilment of his duties 

 proved so intolerably irksome, is a question so self-evident 

 that we are not surprised to find that he once propounded it 

 to his friends. ' The life I am leading here is wearisome, 





1 Varnhagen, ' Tagebiicher,' vol. ii. p. 227. 



2 Ibid. vol. xii., under date of November 16, 1855. 



s 2 



