THE LAST TEN YEARS. 383 



On August 4 and 5, 1844, a fete was given by the Academy 

 of Berlin in celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Hum- 

 boldt's return to Europe. To the enthusiastic address by Carl 

 Ritter, 1 Humboldt modestly replied in the manner ' most ap- 

 propriate to every position in life amid all the disenchantments 

 of this world by the heartiest expression of thanks.' Still more 

 marked was the homage paid him by the same Academy six 

 years later, upon the fiftieth anniversary of his election as an 

 honorary member. A special meeting was convened by Leopold 

 von Buch in honour of this jubilee announced at first by mis- 

 take for May 16 instead of August 4, 1850 for the purpose of 

 inaugurating a bust of Humboldt in the hall of the Academy. 

 We have now before us a heap of letters addressed to the 

 secretary, in which Humboldt eagerly sought to escape the 

 honour intended him, so painful to his modesty. On May 3, 

 he writes to Encke : ' Your sympathy, my dear friend, will 

 have already told you my trouble. In his generous enthu- 

 siasm, Leopold von Buch has forgotten that in giving, the 

 feelings of the recipient must also be considered. I have not 

 yet recovered the 14th of September last' his eightieth 

 birthday 'and the dreadful news I have heard to-day (the 

 inauguration of a bust ! !) has upset me so much that I shall 

 not be able to work for a month. I look to you to deliver me, 

 my dear friend. Even the busts of statesmen are not placed 

 in the council chamber till after death. . . . You will be- 

 lieve me capable of forming a judgment as to the value of 

 scientific achievements. You may therefore imagine how 

 overawed I am at the thought of Leibnitz.' His letter to 

 Bockh of the same date is almost equally emphatic : c A bust 

 erected in my lifetime, and in the alarming neighbourhood of 

 Leibnitz! . . . Witheveryhonourtherecomesaninsult. . . . 

 If I might only be allowed to die in peace.' On the following 

 day he again ' implores ' that a resolution so distasteful to his 

 personal feelings might be abandoned, especially 6 as concerning 

 the legitimacy of these feelings he alone could be a judge. To 

 an old man of eighty-one, so near death, it can but be a sub- 

 ject of grief and shame to see his bust erected by the Academy 

 during his lifetime, and placed side by side with that of the 



1 See p. 214. 



