THE LAST TEN YEAES. 389 



sent down a greeting to their still living and illustrious god- 

 son, 'who was destined to win laurels no less imperishable 

 upon the field of science.' One letter of warmest thanks 

 comes from Ottilie von Goethe, who indeed declares she had 

 never had occasion to write one of any other description ; 

 ' for if I do sometimes pen a few lines of request, it seems but 

 as the first half of a letter, so soon is it followed by one of 

 thanks, showing that your Excellency is ever ready to grant 

 that which has scarcely even been asked. Wolf has been just 

 now telling me, with so much emotion and gratitude that had 

 he been your grandson you could not have done more for him, 

 that I exclaimed : " Should I not then give thanks ? " Even 

 Liszt and Caroline Princess Wittgenstein write to thank their 

 'benefactor.' Meyerbeer accompanies the ' traditional tea-cake,' 

 which since the death of his mother he was accustomed to send 

 every 14th of September for Humboldt's ' breakfast-table,' with 

 the most extravagant praise of one in whom he ' honoured not 

 only the immortal philosopher, but also the noble and be- 

 nevolent benefactor of all his family, and of himself in his 

 professional career, from whom during a long series of years, in 

 every important crisis of his life, he had received fatherly advice 

 and assistance and the support of his kind protection. He 

 blessed the day in which Heaven had granted to the world the 

 great philosopher Alexander von Humboldt, who, equally great 

 as the hero of science and the champion of all that is noblest 

 and most intellectual, is at once an object of love and admiration 

 to the whole world.' The congratulatory letters of Bockh, if 

 more dignified in tone, are no less marked by the expression of 

 enthusiastic feeling. ' A radiant gleam of hope is shed across 

 these beclouded times through the life and labours of your 

 Excellency, and I can scarcely realise the condition of Prussia 

 should this star, alas ! sink below the horizon. Through a 

 merciful Providence, may this day be far distant ! ' On another 

 occasion he speaks of Humboldt's birthday as ' a day sacred not 

 merely to his relatives and nearest friends, but to all men of 

 elevated feeling or scientific pursuits.' .... 'That man 

 must indeed be blessed for whose preservation in life the 

 keenest interest is manifested not only by the scientific, or, to 

 express it more comprehensively, the intellectual world, but 



