388 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



and our children of the West, who live in this blessed land of 

 liberty, will reverence and revere the name which we now love 

 so well.' 



As we have been compelled to restrict ourselves, in enumera- 

 ting the various official and semi-official expressions of admira- 

 tion bestowed ' upon the crowned head ' of science, to the most 

 characteristic examples, so, in view of the thousand individual 

 expressions of homage, from the monarch down to the school- 

 master, country clergyman, or journalist, it is hopeless to 

 attempt anything more than a general summary, lest the 

 reader should be subjected to the same feeling of satiety and 

 weariness by which Humboldt was often doubtless oppressed 

 when his quiet hours for work were interrupted by this severe 

 tax upon his fame. 



We propose to cast a glance over the mass of letters and 

 addresses received by Humboldt during the latter years of his 

 life, and perhaps to take them in the confused order in which 

 they lie will give the clearest idea of the harmony reigning 

 throughout this chorus of praise addressed to the idol of the 

 century. Ernst Moritz Arndt rejoices in being a contemporary 

 of Humboldt, from whom he has always received tokens of 

 friendship and goodwill, although their spheres of life had been 

 widely separated ' wide as the starry heavens are from the con- 

 fines of earth ; ' he presented him a ' bouquet of poems, for every- 

 thing in nature, from the blossoming heath to man himself, 

 rejoices in your kind and loving looks.' From Jacob Grrimm 

 he receives the following salutation : ' How noble is your con- 

 duct towards all the oppressed ! At the court fete the other 

 evening, after seeking you for some time in vain, I at length 

 saw you in the long gallery going home, and could not even 

 reach you to shake you by the hand. May you long be spared 

 in your present vigour of body and mind.' Eiickert ' implores 

 Humboldt to do something in " Cosmos," suitable to his high 

 position,' for the salvation of some one in misfortune. Eauch 

 relates how in passing by the monument of Frederick the Great, 

 on one occasion, his mind being ' occupied with Humboldt,' a 

 train of pleasing reflections were awakened by the thought that 

 ' those grand heroes on the monument of the Great King had 

 stood sponsors to Humboldt,' and now from their lofty position 



