Humboldt's Letters. 71 



little lewd no doubt from being hunchbacked afford 

 the most striking contrast of political and human filth. 

 " To save the country," says Gentz, in his Primary Politi- 

 cal Position, " means to restore to the nobility of Prus- 

 sia their ancient privileges, to liberate all the noblemen 

 from taxes, so that they may spontaneously, after some 

 negotiation, offer their c don gratuit' to the monarch. 

 To enable them to do this the peasant must be indis- 

 solubly bound to the soil." How charmed " the Montrno- 

 rencys of the Ackermark " must have been to see what, 

 until then, was uselessly concealed in their miserable 

 souls, expressed in refined language by a talented 

 writer, and moulded into such systematical dogmas. 

 This narrow spirit of caste knows neither place nor 

 time. Like a threatening spectre it will reappear 

 when I shall be no more. I frequently ask myself 

 whether Adam Mueller could not, at the present time, 

 again canvass for votes among the " cross-bearers," who, 

 like Homerian heroes, take their repose stretched on 

 their bags in the wool market? Benjamin Constant 

 has exquisitely pictured this aristocratic idea of self- 

 importance in the parable of the Shipwrecked. He cries, 

 " Grand Dieu, je ne suis pas assez indiscret pour vous 

 prier de nous sauver tous ! Sauvez-moi tout seul !" 



If you have a moment's leisure, please read in the 

 3d volume of my " History of the Geography of the 

 Middle Ages," what I have said of the natural views 



