346 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



a conviction that a just and liberal policy 'in contrast to 

 Austrian tyranny could not fail eventually, through the force of 

 Prussian opinion, to influence the German people and their 

 various governments.' l As long as it was possible, he sought to 

 maintain his opinions before the king : ' Our noble king,' 

 he wrote to Bunsen, in November 1849, 'holds firmly to his 

 promises for Germany, if I have not misinterpreted hopes 

 and eager wishes.' Again, ' when casting a somewhat melan- 

 choly glance within and around him on his antediluvian 

 birthday,' September 14, I860, 2 it appeared to him that 

 Frederick William was 'the only pure and upright charac- 

 ter amid the crowd ' of his surroundings ; at the same time lie 

 could not but perceive with sorrow that the Prussian policy 

 was still conducted in the same spirit of perpetual vacillation, 

 in justification of which ' new motives, real or assumed, were 

 being constantly pleaded.' To Bunsen he clearly indicates 

 ' the three vital points, none of which can be dealt with 

 separately, to the joint action of which is to be attributed the 

 careless and indifferent temper of the people,' a matter of great 

 importance in the isolated situation of Prussia : ' the unfortu- 

 nate Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, so purely German and lying 

 somewhat nearer to us than the Chinese ; the German Parlia- 

 ment at Erfurt, which cannot be saved from destruction even by 

 a laudation cut in stone ; and, lastly, Austria, who, assuming 

 towards us an attitude of contemptuous scorn, is ever aiming 

 at the destruction of every constitutional and representative 

 government.' The nomination of Eadowitz, of whom he after- 

 wards bore testimony, that he had 'always striven towards 

 noble purposes by the use of means in which his imagination 

 found satisfaction,' and the demonstration in Prussia against 

 the 'crimes of Hassenpflug,' combined to inspire Humboldt 

 with fresh hopes ; the State appeared to him to be surrounded 

 by dangers, although, to the Princess of Prussia, he expressed 

 his joy that a time of action had come, ' for the measure of 

 humiliation was full.' But it was not yet full, for not until 

 the day of Olmiitz did Prussia show the depth of degradation to 

 which she had sunk ; as the Princess of Prussia remarked, in 



1 < Briefe an Bunsen/ Nos. 63 ; 64. 



2 Ibid. No. 65. 



