404 ALEXANDEE VON EUMBOLDT. 



trious princes and distinguished friends and admirers of Hum- 

 boldt,' and supported besides the suggestive appeal on the part 

 of his servant by private letters to many of his friends. Thus 

 Prince Demidoff wrote : ' Although already possessing an im- 

 pression of this beautiful print, I have had great pleasure in 

 ordering another copy, in order to do a service to your old and 

 faithful servant.' 



The following documents will furnish the best account of the 

 further history of this peculiar relationship, and we introduce 

 them without comment. The first is a petition from Humboldt 

 to Frederick William IV., drawn up in 1853. 1 



6 To his most gracious Majesty the King. 



6 Sire, In these lines, the first I have penned to you since my 

 near approach to death, I venture most humbly to solicit a last 

 favour from your Majesty. Since the ruin of my fortune in 

 scientific undertakings and the publication of a costly work, 

 I have unceasingly endeavoured, in much anxiety, to discharge 

 the heavy obligations under which I laboured when summoned 

 to Berlin by his late Majesty. In the unfortunate year 1848 

 alone I was called upon to pay 11,000 thalers, the greater part 

 of which was demanded by commercial transactions. Notwith- 

 standing my industrious employment of the hours of night, it 

 is very uncertain whether I shall be able before I die to discharge 

 the debt owing to the banking-house of Mendelssohn, to whose 

 kind forbearance I have been indebted for the last seventy 

 years. In order to free myself from the tormenting anxiety 

 that the small sum I have destined in my will for my faithful 

 servant Seifert, who accompanied me on my Asiatic expedition, 

 and who, through the favour of your Majesty, has been appointed 

 to the post of castellan, should be entirely swallowed up, I 

 throw myself in this solemn hour with every confidence at the 

 feet of your Majesty, with the request that at my death you 

 will come to the help of one who has so often pleaded for 

 others, and by a royal gift to an old man who has been so long 

 devoted to you, annihilate the debt still due to the house of 

 Mendelssohn, which I hope will not exceed one year's income. 

 The mere expression of my wish has brought me consolation. 

 For one who has for so many years enjoyed the privilege of 



1 For a copy of which we are indebted to Fraulein A. Seifert. 



