400 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



larly to Frau von Biilow, over whose melancholy fate he fre- 

 quently mourned, and to General von Hedemann, he continued 

 to the last his most sympathetic interest. 



One after another was he called to mourn the loss of friends. 

 For none did he grieve more deeply than for Arago, who died 

 on October 2, 1853. From a Parisian source we learn how 

 greatly prized by the invalid was Humboldt's last letter to this 

 friend of his youth * a letter but small in size, but so full of 

 matter!' Like Grauss, Arago repeatedly asked for this last 

 letter, which was frequently read to him by his niece, c so dear 

 were the words to his heart, so full the consolation they con- 

 veyed.' While recalling the reminiscences of their mutual in- 

 tercourse the dying man exclaimed : 6 We never quarrelled but 

 once, and then it was over in a moment.' In former days he 

 had on one occasion said to Steiner : ' My friend Humboldt has 

 the most affectionate heart and the most slanderous tongue of 

 any one I ever knew.' Some abatement must be made to this 

 statement, from the curt manner in which it has been rendered 

 by the Swiss. The most frequent cause of the momentary mis- 

 understandings which took place between Humboldt and char- 

 acters such as Arago and Buch was in fact his own gentle 

 disposition, which ever led him to act the part of mediator. 

 Of this they had no comprehension, as his very pliancy had fos- 

 tered in them ' a despotic expression of opinion.' l In writing 

 to Hittorff, 2 he once very characteristically expressed himself: 

 6 1 am fated to find myself very often between two friends who 

 possess for the moment exactly opposite signs + .' It was then 

 his habit, if we may continue the figure, to equalize the differ- 

 ence by presenting himself as a neutral quantity a cypher. 

 As a necessary consequence, the more pertinaciously they held 

 to their position, the less for the moment did they place any 

 value on his friendship. 



Another friend, whom, after an acquaintance of more than 

 fifty years, Humboldt was called to follow to the tomb, was 

 the sculptor Rauch, a man of a grand simplicity of character, 

 who, next to Arago and Buch, occupied a prominent position in 

 Humboldt's regard during the closing years of his life. By him, 



1 ' Briefe an Varnhagen/ No. 150. 



2 De la Roquette, vol. ii. p. 249. 



