382 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



presented it to his Excellency when we were on our journey to 

 Siberia." " You accompanied his Excellency then ? " I asked. 

 " Yes," said he ; " we were there in '29." Seifert is justly proud 

 of having shared for thirty or forty years the fortunes of his 

 master. There was a ring, and a servant came in to announce 

 a visitor. " Ah ! the Prince Ypsilanti," said he : " don't let him 

 in ; don't let a single soul in ; I must go and dress his Excel- 

 lency. Sir, excuse me yours most respectfully ; " and there- 

 with he bowed himself out. As I descended to the street, I 

 passed Prince Ypsilanti on the stairs.' 



Thus closes the graphic sketch of this vivacious enthusiast. 

 He not unjustly applies to Humboldt, in the remarkable posi- 

 tion he held in the opinion of all cultivated classes, the epithet 

 ' throned monarch.' But here as in every other monarchical 

 existence, appearance and reality were often strangely at variance, 

 as will be seen by the sober history of this period, which forms 

 a suggestive comment on the enthusiastic description of Bayard 

 Taylor. 



Humboldt must have unquestionably appeared to be the 

 ' greatest living man ' to anyone whose estimation was grounded 

 solely on the number of outward signs of honourable distinction. 

 It comes not within the province of this biography to enume- 

 rate the orders and decorations which had been conferred upon 

 Humboldt scarcely was there a European order which he 

 had not the right to wear still less can we give a list of the 

 various societies, numbering more than a hundred and fifty, to 

 which he had been elected, and which included the most cele- 

 brated Academies of the leading nations of Europe and America, 

 not merely those of a purely scientific character, but any which 

 had for their object the spread of education and the advance-- 

 ment of civilisation. Not only was there no Academy, but 

 scarcely a learned society of which he was not at least an 

 honorary member ; repeatedly was he invested with the degree 

 of Doctor in the three faculties. On all public occasions, 

 inaugural meetings, or jubilee festivals, Humboldt was in- 

 variably the principal guest, and more than once during his 

 long life was he called to assist in the celebration of his own 

 achievements. As a type of these, we propose to give the fol- 

 lowing instances. 



