376 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



mingle in the gay life of its streets and salons, but for the 

 sake of seeing and speaking with the world's greatest living 

 man Alexander von Humboldt. 



6 At that time, with his great age and his universal renown, 

 regarded as a throned monarch in the world of science, his 

 friends were obliged, perforce, to protect him from the ex- 

 haustive homage of his thousands of subjects, and for his own 

 sake, to make difficult the ways of access to him. The friend 

 and familiar companion of the king, he might be said, equally, 

 to hold his own court, with the privilege, however, of at any 

 time breaking through the formalities which only self-defence 

 had rendered necessary. Some of my works, I knew, had 

 found their way into his hands : I was at the beginning of a 

 journey which would probably lead me through regions which 

 his feet had traversed and his genius illustrated, and it was 

 not merely a natural curiosity which attracted me towards him. 

 I followed the advice of some German friends, and made use 

 of no mediatory influence, but simply despatched a note to 

 him, stating my name and object, and asking for an inter- 

 view. 



' Three days afterwards I received through the city post a 

 reply in his own hand, stating that, although he was suffering 

 from a cold which had followed his removal from Potsdam to 

 the capital, he would willingly receive me, and appointed one 

 o'clock the next day for the visit. I was punctual to the 

 minute, and reached his residence in the Oranienburger-Strasse 

 as the clock struck. While in Berlin he lived with his servant, 

 Seifert, whose name only I found on the door. It was a plain 

 two-story house, with a dull pink front, and inhabited, like 

 most of the houses in German cities, by two or three families. 

 The bell-wire over Seifert's name came from the second story. 

 I pulled ; the heavy porte-cochere opened of itself, and I 

 mounted the steps until I reached a second bell-pull, over a plate 

 inscribed, " Alexander von Humboldt." 



* A stout square-faced man of about fifty, whom I at once 

 recognised as Seifert, opened the door for me. " Are you Herr 

 Taylor ? " he asked ; and added, on receiving my reply : "His 

 Excellency is ready to receive you." He ushered me into a 

 room filled with stuffed birds and other objects of natural 



