12 SKETCH OE THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



The first of this cyclus of lectures caused 

 such an extraordinary sensation, that not only 

 all the men of learning in, and the immediate 

 neighbourhood of, Berlin assembled, but from 

 the most remote parts of Germany, the friends 

 of science hastened to Berlin, in order to hear 

 at least one of Humboldt's lectures, and to make 

 his personal acquaintance. Mght after night, 

 the late King of Prussia, the members of the 

 royal family, the principal members of the aris- 

 tocracy, were present; and all classes of the 

 people, through the lively interest they took in 

 these lectures, testified their pride in the cele- 

 brated Alexander von Humboldt. Nay, more, 

 even the uneducated and the lower orders heard 

 now his name. His personality appeared to them 

 something wonderful and mysterious, and they 

 were anxious to see him who had discovered a 

 new world. Humboldt, unlike most other men 

 of renown in the scientific world, in thus appear- 

 ing publicly before the people, gave the noble 

 and cheering example that a baron, a high 

 officer of state, and a confidential counsellor of 

 a king, did not consider it below his dignity 

 to appear before the world, as a teacher in 

 the science for the advancement of which he 

 had made such great sacrifices, and in which 

 he occupied perhaps the most distinguished 



