260 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLBT. 



distracting, and arduous,' he writes to Gauss, on April 7, 1846. 

 ''I can scarcely secure more than the hours intended for repose 

 for the prosecution of my literary pursuits. You -will natu- 

 rally inquire why, at the age of seventy- six, I ;flo not seek 

 another position ? The problem of 'human 'life is rather a 

 complex one. (rood nature, the force of habit, and foolish 

 hopes, often prove a hindrance.' 'Two years previously it had 

 been justly remarked by Varrihagen : ' Humboldt is oppressed 

 by his multifarious occupations, but he would be sorry to be 

 without them ; society and the court have become to him like 

 a familiar tavern, where men are accustomed to spend their 

 evenings and enjoy their pipe.' The atmosphere of a court 

 life had indeed become to him so much a daily necessity, that 

 he took it amiss when occasionally he was not included in some 

 court festivity, though keenly alive to the vanity and unsatis- 

 factory nature of such assemblies. The elasticity of his mind 

 in no way suffered from the pressure of business and mental 

 effort to which he was subjected. Boussingault once offered an 

 ingenious explanation of this wonderful faculty in Humboldt : 

 ' You manage to think and write,' 'he remarks, ' where no one 

 else could put two ideas together. Travelling in America 

 seems to teach how to prosecute science under every possible 

 circumstance. After being able to write amid the deafening 

 noise of the New World, and in disregard of the attacks of 

 zanudos and mosquitos, I can conceive it possible to write also 

 amid the confusion of a court, and a crowd of courtiers.' 

 These social grievances must rather be regarded as means of 

 excitement, the enjoyment of which, slight as was the value he 

 set upon them, had become to him a necessity ; with all the 

 greater zeal could he throw himself into the serious work of the 

 night after a day spent among court festivities, in chit-chat and 

 compliments. For the loss of physical sleep, which latterly 

 was restricted to a very few hours, he no doubt found some 

 compensation in the intellectual sleep of his daily life. 



It was with a just sense of the true nature of his position that 

 among the motives that urged a continuance of court life he 

 had included along with good nature and custom the indulgence 

 of his c foolish hopes.' It does honour to the feelings of his 

 heart that he never renounced these hopes, even though his un- 



