268 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



letter to Raumer on the subject. Before the Academy he 

 emphatically declared that he fully sympathised with Raumer's 

 sentiments, both religious and political, but ' regretted the 

 manner in which they had been expressed.' l He voted with 

 the majority against the proposition for referring the address 

 to an examining committee, 2 while he allowed a vote of censure 

 to be passed upon the offending Eaumer without recording a 

 dissentient vote. Inasmuch as he had publicly acknowledged 

 the impropriety of the address, Humboldt was compelled to 

 add his signature to the apology presented by the Academy 

 to the ministry, though designated by him as a ' miserable 

 composition.' 



Unfortunately he was led still* further ; it was one of his 

 peculiarities that he could never emerge from a quarrel with- 

 out concluding a diplomatic peace with all the parties con- 

 cerned. ' I should be exceedingly grieved, my dear friend and 

 colleague,' he wrote shortly afterwards to Encke, ' if in defend- 

 ing the intemperate speech of Raumer at the late sitting of 

 the Academy, I made -use of any hasty expressions which might 

 possibly have given you offence. I hope you will forgive my 

 indiscretion, and restore to me once again the kind feeling and 

 gratifying friendship which I have so long enjoyed. A late 

 dinner at the palace prevented me from expressing this to you 

 in person at the last meeting of the Academy. With the 

 most sincere esteem and affection, yours, &c., Alexander von 

 Humboldt.' Shortly afterwards he expresses his satisfaction 

 to Grauss that his friendly relationship with Encke had been 

 completely re-established. We cannot but renew the expression 

 of our regret that Humboldt should never have exemplified the 

 assertion of the poet : 3 ' While here below, there's nothing 

 worthy to excite a fear ! ' The justification, as imagined by 

 Platen, to be pleaded by posterity ' His thoughts were too 



1 Letter to Gauss of March 23, 1847. 



2 The newspapers were incorrect in asserting that he had proposed a 

 ' comite de lecture,' for he voted against the motion ; he merely explained 

 'that the Academy should not be regarded in Paris as an illiberal 

 institution.' 



s ' Hieuieden lohnt's der Miihe nicht zu zagen ! ' Platen's Sonette, 

 No. 38. 



