THE LAST TEN YEAES. 363 



Franz, Bopp, and Max Miiller therefore three would infallibly 

 have taken it amiss had I only inserted the opinion of one.' 



This procedure may after all appear but natural in philo- 

 logical subjects, which came not within Humboldt's own pro- 

 vince of study, but he adopted precisely the same line of con- 

 duct in regard to scientific subjects. In these even he is, to a 

 certain extent, but the superintendent and arranger of work, 

 allotting to each labourer his appointed task. His demands 

 taxed most heavily his friends at Berlin : late in the night he 

 writes to Grustav Eose, urging him for a speedy reply to a query 

 with the impatient exclamation : c The dead and the aged ride 

 fast I ' He repeatedly requests Dove to send him a pamphlet he 

 had mislaid, or to come and see him at once for the sake of ex- 

 plaining some passages in his writings which seemed to Hum- 

 boldt obscure. All numerical tables were submitted to the 

 Berlin astronomers, as he dared not rely upon ' one so incorrect 

 and superannuated.' On these subjects he was also very submis- 

 sive : c I shall be very happy to make any alteration you may 

 suggest ; I may very probably be in error.' In these solicitations, 

 as in everything else, he shows himself the wily diplomatist ; 

 in deference to Galle, in whom he thought he detected some 

 6 religious sentimentality,' he struck out the word mystic, which 

 he had certainly not made use of in any sense offensive to" 

 religion. In writing to him, Humboldt, contrary to his usual 

 practice, makes frequent allusion to the Divine Being, and His 

 'omnipotence,' occasionally adopting such expressions as 'sinful.' 

 It is unnecessary again to allude to the flattering expressions 

 with which he was accustomed to overwhelm all from whom he 

 sought assistance. His letters would not unfrequently commence 

 with sentences like the following : ' Dearest friend, colleague, 

 and instructor, If one could only boast of anything so glorious 

 as your achievements . . . . ' His appeals for assistance were 

 by no means confined to his friends at Berlin ; far and wide 

 beyond the boundaries of Prussia he was accustomed to send 

 the proof-sheets. We have seen how delicately the office of 

 critic was disowned by Bessel, although he willingly performed 

 its duties. To Arago Humboldt once wrote : l c I have a swarm 

 of fire-flies in my head, and if you do not succeed in driving 



1 De la Roquette, vol. i. p. 225. 



