OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 177 



civilized world evinced the greatest concern. 

 The newspapers furnished bulletins, and the 

 highest personages in Europe inquired by 

 telegraph, or personally, concerning the state of 

 his health. 



Alexander von Humboldt was on intimate 

 terms with kings ; himself a courtier and a 

 baron, living in the immediate circle of royalty, 

 he was yet a liberal man, a friend of personal 

 freedom, a stanch supporter of every free de- 

 velopment of thought, an admirer of the just, 

 the true, and the beautiful. He never coun- 

 tenanced the sinister attempts against public 

 rights, which frequently manifested themselves 

 in his immediate circle, and repeatedly expressed 

 his true conviction concerning them. Hum- 

 boldt recognised the right of all men to indi- 

 vidual liberty, assured that it is inseparable 

 from perfect growth, both in nature and in 

 mankind. 



During the latter period of his more quiet 

 life, Humboldt was chiefly engaged with his 

 " Cosmos," which appeared, so far as the first 

 division of the fourth volume, in 1858. Besides 

 the gradual completion of this work, he had to 

 furnish a preface to the works of his friend 

 Arago, who, like many other of his friends, had 

 been removed by death. In the spring of 1858, 



N 



