FROM ACCESSION OF FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 287 



how to disguise itself under a thousand masks ; forgive me the 

 one that mine has assumed ! ' ] Humboldt, who preserved to 

 the last a keen appreciation of the intellectual, though some- 

 what frivolous, correspondence of his quondam fellow-student, 

 ventured once in the face of his own admission to defend the 

 nomination of Metternich to this honour, against the sarcasms 

 of Berlin, by the assertion that this conservative statesman had 

 never neglected the duty of extending his protection to science. 

 As years rolled on, Humboldt was often heard to assert that 

 the institution of the Order of Merit had ' done little to en- 

 hance the lustre of his latter days.' It is true he showed the 

 same lively interest whenever a vacancy had to be filled up, 

 as he did in all elections at the Academy, and he always 

 manifested extreme pleasure whenever ' he had accomplished 

 anything reflecting glory upon the order ; ' but these efforts 

 were not made without considerable exertion. In many cases 

 he had to consult the wishes of the king, who, as a rule, 

 forbore to take the initiative ; and the influence he exerted 

 among his fellow-knights was not always crowned with success. 

 On one occasion, he complains bitterly that a candidate in 

 whose cause he had written seventeen letters had received but 

 thirteen votes, and thus ' four letters had been in vain ! ' 

 Gauss even, in the selection of a candidate among geologists, 

 'subordinated his own wishes with the greatest pleasure to 

 those of Humboldt ; ' and Bockh, to whose counsel Humboldt 

 often appealed when making choice of a philologist, showed 

 himself in return ever ready to lend his vote. ' Do you ab- 

 solutely insist on Lobeck,' Humboldt once inquired of him, 

 ' or is there any chance for me to make you waver ? ' On the 

 death of Buch, Wilhelrn Schadow made a direct appeal for his 

 ' word of promise,' accompanying his request with the delicate 

 excuse : ' In case of a vacancy occurring among the votaries of 

 art, one cannot have the satisfaction of offering you a return 

 service, so that there only remains the consolation of thinking- 

 there is but one man in the world whose opinion is of uni- 

 versal value.' But it was not every member of this intel- 

 lectual Areopagus who was willing to confess inadequacy of 

 judgment concerning the achievements of others in departments 



1 See < Briefe an Varnhagen/ Nos, 98, 122. 



