280 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



art. He was no stranger to the fact that extensive scientific 

 institutions were, unfortunately, expensive to keep up when 

 concentrated in the capital. ' This consideration,' he writes to 

 Encke ' was a powerful motive with my brother in opposing 

 the establishment of a University at Berlin. How distressing 

 would it be to all parties were it found to be necessary at some 

 future time to increase the grant to the University by one half ! ' 

 When cases of emergency were brought before the notice of 

 Alexander von Humboldt, he found it quite impossible to with- 

 hold immediate assistance. Thus, when the Government failed 

 to render aid for want of courage, Humboldt would use his in- 

 fluence upon the generous disposition of the king, and in urgent 

 cases Frederick William IV. never refused assistance. Prior 

 to the events of 1840, it had been a cherished wish of Hum- 

 boldt's to obtain an increase of salary for Jacobi, the great 

 mathematician, but for such a man it seemed to him unworthy 

 to 'attain his object through such a sleepy crew as the 

 ministers,' and he therefore determined to secure in person the 

 consent of the monarch at his coronation at Konigsberg. Upon 

 Jacobi's dangerous illness, three years later, he interceded with 

 the king for a grant of 1,500 thalers to defray the expenses of 

 a journey to Italy : three hours afterwards an order for payment 

 was transmitted to Thile. Humboldt wrote with great delight 

 to Dirichlet on May 28, 1843 : ' The king " highly approves " 

 my letter, and told me at once he should send an order, not 

 for 1,500, but for 2,000 thalers. When renewing my thanks 

 upon bidding him good night, he naively remarked, "How 

 could you think I should act otherwise ? " He is indeed a noble 

 character.' Many such instances might be adduced during the 

 years prior to 1848. We shall content ourselves with observing 

 that the king was influenced not merely by the pleasure he took 

 in noble resolves, but in the sympathy he felt for everything 

 intellectual. It was this sympathy that Humboldt knew well 

 how to arouse. Even the pension bestowed by the king with so 

 much delicacy and good feeling upon Henriette Herz at the 

 close of her life, was prompted by the admiration Humboldt 

 expressed for her intellectual powers. 1 



1 Varnhagen's ' Tagebiicher/ vol. iii. p. 258 j see J. Fiirst's i Henriette 

 Herz.' 



