402 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



him express a passionate warmth of veneration to be equalled 

 only by that demonstrated by the Duchess von Sagan. 'My 

 hopes are in you,' she exclaims in writing from Paris on 

 December 3, 1858, 'from whom I derive every earthly good. 

 There is nothing left but to entreat you for one line, for which 

 my heart longs ardently.' On January 9, 1859, she writes :---' I 

 am working hard, and have commissions ; but I lack the in- 

 expressible happiness of seeing you enter my studio, over- 

 whelming me with honour by your presence, and encouraging 

 me by the sweet consolation of your generous praise to attempt 

 everything. Your own Emma.' This beautiful affection shines 

 like the pure but trembling rays of an evening star upon the 

 last weary steps of the lonely traveller. 



Lonely ? Before we apply such a term, let us take a last 

 look into the domestic arrangements of his home. There re- 

 mains, in fact, yet to describe the most remarkable of all the 

 relationships formed by Humboldt during his long life ; we al- 

 lude to that of his attendant Seifert and his family. The con- 

 fidential servant, the trusted and valued household steward so 

 graphically described in Bayard Taylor's lively narrative, is in 

 itself a phenomenon of such ordinary occurrence, that it has 

 long served as a type on the stage. No wonder therefore that 

 Seifert, by years of faithful service, numbering as many as 

 thirty-three entered upon prior to the Asiatic expedition 

 should have acquired at length a position of great importance 

 in the household of Humboldt; it is only natural that he 

 should have relied upon the gratitude of the man who was pos- 

 sessed of the most unfailing of memories. In years long past, 

 Humboldt's letters to his friends had once been full of the 

 heavy anxiety occasioned him by the illness of 'his great 

 Siberian huntsman ; ' he added, in commendation of Seifert, 

 that in the summer excursions .to Paretz or Erdrnannsdorf, he 

 always considered a volume or two of Schiller an indispensable 

 accompaniment. The interest felt in Seifert was even ex- 

 tended to his daughter ; upon the margin of a letter upon very 

 different subjects he has noted carefully : ' To-day Frau M611- 

 hausen's first boy christened.' Humboldt's relationship to 

 Seifert, however, gradually assumed, on account of the un- 

 certain form in which he received his wages, a character by no 



