292 ALEXANDEE VON HUMBOLDT. 



liberal form of election, whether by knights or academicians, 

 the prospect of shortly including members from the free land 

 of America, Humboldt's own ' unchangeable predilection for 

 liberal institutions ' evinced in his writings from the time of the 

 first French Eevolution, and his friendship with Forster all 

 this was vividly represented in the letter. Nor were the ele- 

 gancies of a courteous flattery wanting in the appeal. ' Who,' 

 he continued, ' could imagine that the trivialities of knighthood, 

 or an elevation in rank, could possibly add lustre to a name so 

 glorious as that of Ludwig Uhland, so widely honoured, so 

 intimately connected with the struggle for freedom ? Accede 

 to my request ; in many things in this life I have been suc- 

 cessful. . . . Have I not some right to ask you to relieve me 

 from the labyrinth of embarrassment in which I have been so 

 undeservedly plunged ? There is nothing for which I have 

 greater admiration than the unflinching principle of a Cato, 

 when exhibited in a worthy cause, whereby good may be 

 effected ; but the inconsiderate step from which I earnestly 

 desire to warn you is of a very different character.' The same 

 evening a third letter was despatched to Bockh, as ' a cry of 

 distress over the embarrassment in which we are placed by the 

 Cato-like humour of this obstinate member of a rump parlia- 

 ment.' ' If you only had felt this misgiving,' he continues, not 

 without an implied reproof, ' when you first made the sugges- 

 tion, or when you saw me incurring ridicule by writing nearly 

 a dozen canvassing letters to painters and musicians, or even 

 when I was dissuading the king from listening to the insinua- 

 tions of the ambassador from the court of Wurtemberg as to 

 the dangerous political influence of our candidate. You and 

 I, my dear friend, were only concerned about the opposition of 

 the king ; we had no conception that the person for whom we 

 were thus exerting ourselves would place us in this dilemma. 

 ... I am writing to-night to Uhland, but I doubt if I shall 

 have the same success with him as I had with Manzoni. I 

 would urge you, my dear friend, to write yourself to him, the 

 first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, the King of Bavaria 

 has been instituting an order on the model of ours, to which 

 he has nominated Uhland, and the nomination has been made 

 public. In the meantime, should Uhland have publicly de- 



