288 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



of labour with which they were themselves unfamiliar, and far 

 too frequently Humboldt had to complain of the ' stupidity of 

 setting sculptors to elect astronomers, and geologists to elect 

 painters, and this by way of proving it a liberal institution.' 

 c How little,' he complains to Bockh, ' are the so-called intellec- 

 tual men of Germany imbued with the spirit and object of this 

 institution, which is intended to unite in a select band the 

 most illustrious men in Europe, when I have just received a 

 voting paper for Kunth, from Jacob Grimm, who suggests the 

 name of Andreas Schmeller " on account of his excellent Bava- 

 rian dictionary in four volumes ! " It makes one sigh.' Hum- 

 boldt's smile was also called forth by Kiickert's voting paper, 

 ' nominating Justus Liebig, professor at Giessen, as an elegant 

 German writer, and Dr. Ludwig Uhland, professor in Tubingen, 

 as a successful German antiquary ; ' his indignation was se- 

 riously excited against Schelling 'for withdrawing his vote 

 from Liebig because his son-in-law, a farmer, had complained 

 of Liebig's artificial manure as disgusting in smell, and wholly 

 unmanageable. Strange logic ! ! ' , 



Humboldt's indignation was aroused still more keenly by the 

 non-voting of members. ' Your election by seventeen votes,' 

 he writes to Dirichlet on August 15, 1855, c was unanimous, 

 for you had all the votes that were recorded, inasmuch as on 

 this occasion twelve knights again, with great want of chivalry, 

 sent no reply, and thus displayed a lamentable indifference 

 very characteristic of Germans. It is the only order in Europe 

 in which the vacancies are filled up by the votes of the existing 

 members, and of the thirty associates entitled to vote by this 

 most liberal institution, there are twelve nearly half who 

 take so little interest in its fame that they can only be induced 

 to vote from a feeling of opposition, when they wish to keep 

 out some particular candidate.' He was constantly subjected 

 to similar annoyances from the Academy, with whom lay the 

 right of proposing a name upon the election of a foreign knight. 

 To Jacobi he complains : ' A fifth of the members of the 

 Academy, with a Cato-like scrupulosity, will have nothing to 

 do with the order because it would involve humbly offering 

 counsel to the king upon a question of science.' Even for 

 these academic nominations, he was accustomed to draw up a 



