262 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



was constancy only to be looked for in adherence to favourite 

 ideas ? It had long been painfully evident to Humboldt that 

 no outward influence would ever effect a change. On taking 

 leave once of Friedrich von Eaumer before starting for Paris, 

 he replied to the inquiry how it was he did not prefer remaining 

 at home at so important a crisis, 'to exert his liberal influence 

 upon the king : ' How can you believe that it is possible to 

 produce any effect upon an eccentric humorist ? ' l But this 

 very eccentricity of temperament rendered it possible that, as 

 in a game of chance, an opposite course of action might sud- 

 denly be manifested, and such a change was all the more pro- 

 bable from the nobility of the king's natural character, in which 

 Humboldt could never for an instant lose faith. The perpetual 

 alternations between hopes constantly revived and hopes a 

 thousand times deceived afford the true explanation of the 

 numerous contradictory expressions employed by Humboldt in 

 reference to the king during the years between 1844 and 1848. 

 We need not transcribe them individually; they are sufficiently 

 indicated in the following lines from ' Hermann und Dorothea,' 

 which were in those days a favourite quotation with him : 

 6 For the man who in times of uncertainty shows himself irre- 

 solute, does but increase the evil and spread it farther and 

 farther.* 2 



In animadverting upon his sovereign he always showed him- 

 self eager to screen the ^king, as much as possible, and to 

 throw the blame upon the ministers of the crown. He was much 

 grieved, therefore, by the speech delivered by Frederick William 

 at Konigsberg at 'the close of August, 1844, in which he ap- 

 pealed to 4 the pure loyalty which taught that a prince could 

 not be served by casting aspersions upon his most confidential 

 servants.' These words appeared to Humboldt an unnecessary 

 display of magnanimity which would scarcely meet with general 

 appreciation ; s he himself could not be brought to believe that 



1 Thus given in Varnhagen's t Tagebiicher/ vol. v. p. 246. 



2 ' Denii der Mensch, der zur schwankenden Zeit auch schwankend 



gesinnt ist, 

 Der vermehret das Uebel und breitet es weiter und weiter.' 



3 ' Briefe an Varnhagen/ No. 91. Also Varnhagen's ' Tagebiicher,' vol. 

 ii. p. 360, &c. 



