THE LAST TEN YEARS. 397 



suited me if it would be agreeable to me to lend my name to 

 the title of your work, I should then have declined what you 

 are pleased to term in your letter of the 4th of May an inten- 

 tional surprise. All that is left for me now to do is to tell you 

 candidly that this surprise, much as there is nattering to the 

 explorer of the Orinoco in your work, has served only to direct 

 his attention to the indelicacy of the literary customs of Germany 

 in the present day. I remain . . . 



' ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT/ 1 



It was only in extreme cases that Humboldt ever resorted to 

 publicity in affairs of a personal nature. During his latter 

 years, however, he never omitted to publish in the papers any 

 tidings that happened to reach him first of any missing ex- 

 plorer, in order to cheer the anxious relatives with the news. 

 He mourned with peculiar grief the unhappy fate of Eduard 

 Vogel, towards whose family he ministered consolation as long 

 as any hopes could be entertained. As a rule he showed an 

 aversion bordering on horror to publishing his private senti- 

 ments. The free expression of feeling which marked his corre- 

 spondence led him to wish it could have been as evanescent as 

 his conversation ; his displeasure was much excited when a letter 

 of his, in which he had expressed himself harshly of Stein, was 

 published in ' Die Grrenzboten.' He sought to make it binding 

 on both relatives and friends to withhold from publication his 

 letters or papers even after his death ; 2 but the unlady-like 

 conduct of one upon whom he had often showered extravagant 

 praises, 3 soon rendered every such precaution futile. 



The range of Humboldt's personal intercourse became almost 

 as extensive in his closing years as his correspondence. Every 

 one sought an interview with the ' Monarch ' in the manner 

 so graphically described by Bayard Taylor, some to demonstrate 

 more emphatically their sympathetic interest, others to see 

 his face once more and listen again to his lively conversation. 



1 In consequence of this defiance of literary courtesy, the anonymous 

 anthor, an officer in the Prussian Guards, was compelled to quit the service. 



2 Hinted at in Ehrenberg's ' Gedachtnissrede/ p. 46. On the subject of 

 this ' Request for the non-Publication of Confidential Letters/ see Zimmer- 

 niann's ' Humboldtbuch,' Tol. ii. p. 22. 



3 Varnhagen's unpublished reply to No. 213 in the collection. 



