286 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



without incurring its duties : Eobert Brown and Faraday, how- 

 ever, permitted their names to appear in the list of Fellows of 

 the Koyal Society as Knights of the Order, thus, as Humboldt 

 ironically observed, in childish vanity disregarding every 

 prohibition.' Through the influence of Humboldt the selec- 

 tion of foreign knights was deferred to the recommendations 

 of the Academy of Sciences, 4 that upon his death the order 

 should not be degraded by the undue influence of the court.' 

 In a similar spirit he watched throughout life over the inte- 

 rests of the order, seeing that no statutes were infringed, and 

 no outward observance disregarded. ' You may imagine,' he 

 writes to Bunsen, ' how easily the idea would suggest itself of 

 instituting various classes and badges, representing a quarter, 

 a half, or a three-quarter great man, pathological distinctions 

 which in other orders have created so much envy and hatred, 

 especially where, as in the order of the Ked Eagle, the badge 

 (! ! !) " carrying weight " has been a supplementary invention.' 

 Side by side with the angry disappointment of those who 

 had been passed over, Humboldt had the pleasure of receiving 

 the thanks of the favoured recipients of the honour. ' I accept 

 this distinction,' writes Arago, because it is far above any mere 

 order ; it is a vast European Academy.' Ingres, with the en- 

 thusiasm of a Frenchman, accompanies his thanks with the ex- 

 pression : ; Except by the power of Heaven, how could the 

 glory of your prince be more nobly supported than by your 

 presence, Monsieur le Baron, to whom are to be ascribed the 

 daring efforts of the finest intelligence of the age ! ' The 

 honour was also gracefully received by Metternich, who had 

 been selected by the king, as Humboldt supposed, with the 

 view of silencing his criticism. With becoming modesty 

 Metternich always submitted his votes to the wishes of the 

 Chancellor of the Order. ' You are aware,' he writes, on 

 May 16, 1853, 'of the complete confidence I repose in his 

 Majesty, that any choice the king may make will be that best 

 adapted for the support of the institution which his genius has 

 called into existence. My vote can but represent that of a 

 very humble servitor to the servants of science ; it is only by 

 submitting it to an authority of a much higher order that I 

 can hope to give it value. Ambition, my dear Baron, knows 



