342 ALEXANDER VON EUMBOLDT. 



festation of political sympathy ; least of all should we be 

 inclined to view it as an effort to attract popular favour a step 

 which, from his shy temperament, would have been wholly 

 foreign to his nature. It is true he did not decline to yield 

 homage to those who had died for an idea, and felt no hesitation 

 in testifying his respect openly : but when it is remembered 

 that Frederick William IV. had once seriously determined to 

 accompany in person the funeral procession, 1 and that the 

 courtiers had also intended to undertake this distasteful duty, 

 the presence of Humboldt on the solemn occasion will appear 

 in the light of a voluntary representative of the king and the 

 court. The trying hour had now arrived, of which he had 

 prophetically spoken in 1842, when the 'old tricolour rags' 

 would have to be unfurled in order to preserve to his royal 

 friend a remnant of popularity. In our opinion, Humboldt's 

 presence on this occasion of public sorrow is undoubtedly to be 

 classed among the numerous efforts he was perpetually making 

 to secure to his sovereign the respect, if not the affection, of the 

 people, and to re-establish between 'them sentiments of peace 

 and reconciliation. 



There are comparatively but few letters of Humboldt's 

 extant belonging to the summer and autumn of 1848 : are we 

 to suppose that he abstained from giving expression to his 

 sentiments 2 during this unsettled period, or is there any other 

 cause to account for this interruption to his correspondence ? 

 There can be no doubt that many letters were addressed to 

 Varnhagen which have not been included in his well-known 

 collection. In any case sufficient remain to present us with 

 an outline of the occurrences of that time. Humboldt was not 

 one of those who are easily driven to despair, he rejoiced rather 

 at having been a witness of the events that had taken place. 

 The constitutional freedom that had been secured had ever been 

 arden-tly longed for by him, he would only have preferred that 

 it had been brought about by, the well-timed concessions of the 

 king rather than by the convulsions of revolutionary proceed- 

 ings. 3 He now felt anxious that the Government should possess 



^Varnhagen's f Tagebiicher,' vol. iv. p. 341. 



2 Gathered from a letter to Bunsen. No. 57. 



3 Ibid, j see 'Briefe an einen jungen Freund/ p. 13. 



