266 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



while the king, on the other hand, was too sanguine and self- 

 satisfied to notice or lay to heart the silent reproof conveyed 

 in the mere presence of his liberal and enlightened friend. 

 Nor was there any diminution in the favour openly manifested 

 to Humboldt by his sovereign. Besides the pecuniary assistance 

 given in private, and the marked consideration evinced in ac- 

 knowledgment of the dedication of ' Cosmos,' he bestowed upon 

 his chamberlain, at an investiture of the order in 1844, the 

 decoration of the Star of the Red Eagle, in brilliants, to which 

 he added, in 1847, before the general installation, the further 

 distinction of the Order of the Black Eagle, the highest honour 

 that was in the royal power to confer. 1 The congratulations 

 addressed to him upon this occasion by Metternich contain a 

 graceful allusion to the motto of the order as peculiarly appro- 

 priate to the character of the recipient : ' The eagle, under 

 the shadow of whose wings sub umbra alarum you have 

 accomplished so much, will prove a suitable adornment to your 

 person. Suum cuique ! ' 2 The institution of the Order of 

 Merit will form the subject of a future page. 



In this manner the years wore away ; the soft evening 

 light that shone upon the high position of Humboldt deepened 

 in intensity, though the beams were shorn of their heat. The 

 irksome stagnation into which everything had fallen towards 

 the close of the former reign had given place to a reaction of 

 tempestuous agitation, in which unhappily there was no trace 

 of law or purpose ; whither the contending forces might carry 

 the government and the sovereign it was impossible to foresee, 

 but no one interested in the welfare of either could look into 

 the future without anxiety. There is perhaps nothing more 

 painful than to witness the approaching ruin of those around 

 us, and, while conscious of the power to save, to see all 

 help despised. Precisely in this position was Humboldt 

 now placed ; he beheld the king enclosed, as it were, in a 

 magic circle, which no spell could break, 3 by a band of 

 sycophants cemented as by the bonds of freemasonry ; none 



1 Varnhagen's ' Tagebiicher,' vol. ii. p. 251 j vol. iv. p. 6, 



2 ' Briefe an Varnhagen,' No. 130, 

 Briefe a Bunsen,' p. 80, 



