390 ' ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



also by the political world, and indeed so far as it is able to 

 realise it, by the whole human race.' Bunsen even celebrates 

 the 14th of September, 1858, 'as a festival in which all the 

 world was interested, in the spectacle of a man of the greatest 

 intellect that had appeared for a couple of centuries entering 

 upon his ninetieth year, in the fmll vigour of his powers, with 

 a warm interest for all that is noble and elevated, not merely in 

 his own country but throughout the world, and preserving 

 undiminished love and sympathy for his personal friends.' 



'Humanity is ennobled when the divine instincts 



are brought out in man through the continued improvement 

 and development of the intellectual powers.' The same occa- 

 sion leads Metternich to cast an envious glance over Hum- 

 boldt's career, ' which could terminate only in victory.' He 

 could not but regard those as happy 'who were concerned 

 with positive science rather than with the vacillating humour 

 of political parties.' ' The support of a man like you,' writes 

 Cavour, 'forms the highest reward that can be offered to a 

 minister in return for his laborious efforts. The name of 

 Alexander von Humboldt is as much venerated in Piedmont as 

 in Germany.' 'The Museum at Berlin would have many charms 

 for me,' writes Thiers in a short note, ' but my greatest pleasure 

 would be in seeing you.' He refers l to Humboldt as ' the most 

 illustrious savant of our century, whom we French have the 

 vanity to regard as a Frenchman, imagining that he belongs as 

 much to us as to Germany.' 



How often, too, is Humboldt laid claim to by America, where 

 he is continually designated as a second Columbus. From New 

 Granada, Mexico, and Cuba came letters of grateful remem- 

 brance, requesting him to reply in Castilian, so that the answer 

 may acquire a double value. From New York the assurance 

 reaches him that ' the lofty Chimborazo is but one monument 

 of his fame.' From far-off regions in ,the interior anonymous 

 presents were sent ; from the banks of the St. Lawrence and 

 the Ohio, as we'll as from various parts of Europe, spiritually- 

 minded persons wrote expressing their anxiety concerning the 

 soul's welfare of one, for whose genius they cherished so high a 

 veneration. For an artist about to cross the ocean, Carl Kilter 



1 'Briefe an Varnhagen/ No. 211. 



