338 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



own death, of which he was continually reminded by the loss 

 of friends 'C'est comme cela que je serai dimanche!' 1 he 

 looked forward as a happy release : ' the termination of the 

 state of ennui we call life, which we are taught to view some- 

 what in its true aspect by our disappointments in the attain- 

 ment of literary fame and its accompanying pleasures.' * But 

 he was not anxious for his release to come ; while free from the 

 ' longing for life ' which had appeared to him so remarkable in 

 Bonpland, and which constantly pervaded the trifling letters of 

 Metternich, he ever felt a thirst for labour, which rendered 

 life most precious. A slight stroke of apoplexy, by which he 

 was attacked two years before his death ' an electric storm 

 on the nerves, perhaps only a flash of lightning ' filled him 

 with serious thoughts, but only ' like one who is going a 

 journey, and has still a good many letters to write.' 3 He is 

 6 the wise man who thrusts aside the appalling image of death 

 and calls to action ; ' with increasing impatience, he urged his 

 younger friends, to whom he applied for information, for a 

 speedy answer with the warning cry: 'The dead ride fast.' 

 He was indefatigable in study ; never were the words of Solon, 

 which we have quoted as the motto for this section, more 

 completely realised than in the declining years of Humboldt ; 

 so fresh did he keep his marvellous knowledge by a constant 

 acquisition of new facts and continued draughts from the living 

 waters supplied through the investigations of a younger gene- 

 ration, that up to the last he was more remarkable for his 

 universal acquaintance with science than even for his historical 

 records of its achievements. This impetus to labour, or rather 

 to work out the labour of others, combined with an indefati- 

 gable exercise of benevolence, enabled him to support the 

 ' burden of life.' ' More to be dreaded than death,' he had 

 once exclaimed, 'is that condition of physical suffering and 

 moral depression by which life is rendered a burden, when 

 Hope is shorn of her illusions, when feeling loses its freshness, 

 and when exertion is no longer cheered by that bold confidence 



1 ' Brief e an Varjihagen/ No. 150. 



2 De la Roquette, vol. i. p. 317; the expression dates from 1832, but 

 Humboldt frequently made use of it at the close of life. 



3 < Briefe an Varnhagen/ No. 199. 



