384 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



immortal discoverer of the Differential Calculus, while the cele- 

 brities of the generation who had past away Kant, Euler, 

 Lagrange, Lessing, andBessel had received no such distinction. 

 The debt of gratitude he owes to his colleagues will not with- 

 hold him from maintaining and vindicating his personal 

 feelings, upon which depend his tranquillity and capacity for 

 work.' 



Through these representations Humboldt succeeded in in- 

 ducing the Academy to abandon the intention of arranging a 

 special meeting for August 4, and to hold the jubilee in con- 

 junction with the usual celebration in honour of Leibnitz on 

 July 4, when the resolution for erecting his marble bust was to 

 be made public, while the accomplishment was to be postponed 

 until as Bockh expressed it in his address ' the fate common 

 to mankind, still it was to be hoped far distant, should remove 

 him from our sight.' In accordance with the excellent maxim 

 of 4 Comparisons are odious,' Bockh, 1 in his address, abstained 

 from any elaborate, comparison between Humboldt and his 

 ' alarming neighbour ' Leibnitz, contenting himself with bring- 

 ing out the parallel that both these distinguished men 'per- 

 formed their duties as academicians in an ideal manner.' The 

 indefatigable exertions and multifarious achievements of Hum- 

 boldt were briefly but powerfully set forth. ' In him,' exclaims 

 Bockh in conclusion, ' nature derives inspiration from the mind ; 

 through the power of the imagination and the graces of lan- 

 guage, he invests reality with the charm of the ideal, which 

 comes to us elders as a zephyr's breath from the days of our 

 3'outh, when Alexander von Humboldt and his immortal brother 

 lived in companionship with those by whom our classic litera- 

 ture was formed, and to whom the " Horen " and the " Chari- 

 . tinnen " were a channel of communication. Inspired with a 

 deep sympathy for every human interest, he is lifted above the 

 prejudices of his time and his position, participates in every 

 noble effort, and acknowledges the achievements of others. To 

 these qualities is added a frank expression of opinion, great in- 

 dependence of thought, mildness of demeanour, and indefati- 

 gable energy in securing the good of others. It will not 

 therefore be inappropriate for me to conclude with the words 



1 ' Monatsberichte der Berl. Akad. d. Wiss./ 1850, p. 247, see p. 322. 



