396 ALEXANDEE VON HUMBOLDT. 



quiet and leisure I can secure for work. I trust that this ap- 

 peal, to which I have at length most unwillingly resorted, may 

 not be unkindly interpreted. 



' ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 

 < Berlin : March 15, 1859.' 



The kind of annoyance which had at last wrung from him 

 this sigh of oppression may best be seen in the following 

 answers, penned to audacious querists, who nevertheless had 

 not the interest to call again for the replies : 



' I regret that I am unable to fulfil your request, and 

 furnish you with advice in the choice of a career in life. With 

 my numerous occupations, and at the advanced age of eighty-six, 

 I am quite unable to satisfy the applications for counsel that 

 I receive every week. I must restrict myself to the duties for 

 which I hold myself responsible. With the highest respect, I 

 remain, &c., 



' ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 

 'Potsdam: August 15, 1856.' 



' The numerous duties incumbent upon me render it impos- 

 sible to reply to so many indefinite questions. Any scientific 

 man will tell you the lectures you ought to attend upon physics, 

 geology, and botany, by Mitscherlich, Magnus, Gustav Rose, 

 and Ehrenberg. 



' ALEXANDER YON HUMBOLDT. 

 1 Berlin : June 17, 1858.' 



Humboldt's characteristic amiability is shown even in these 

 notes of refusal. The most striking proof however of the 

 suavity of his manner is to be found in his letter ' To Herr 

 Eugen Hermann, author of the novel which was published 

 in Leipzig and Philadelphia under the title of ' A Son of 

 Alexander von Humboldt, or the Maypure Indian.' The author, 

 who sheltered himself under a nom de plume, had had the 

 audacity to send this vile product of his imagination to the 

 venerable philosopher whom he had so grossly insulted ; the 

 following reply was immediately published by Humboldt in the 

 Spener'sche Zeitung of May 8, 1858 : 



c If, as would have been more becoming towards an old man 

 of eighty-eight who dwelt in the same town with yourself, you 

 had ere the first volume of your novel had been published con- 



