258 Humboldt's Letters. 



have worthily shown, not only that you value her 

 material prosperity, but that you are alive to higher 

 interests, and accord sympathy and respect to efforts 

 directed to the advancement of knowledge, the educa- 

 tion of the people, and the general culture of mankind. 

 As a reward for a portion of these efforts, to which my 

 long and chequered life has been devoted, I accept with 

 pride your flattering gift. By the favor of two illustri- 

 ous monarchs it has been my privilege, for twenty- 

 two years, with but little interruption, to live as 

 your townsman, and to find, in scenery beautiful 

 by nature and art, those inspirations indispensable 

 to a life-like portraiture of nature, which aims to 

 display the workings of the powers of the universe. 

 Grateful for this good fortune, I have adorned almost 

 all my later writings with the historic name which has 

 become dear to me, and in the walls of which the year 

 1767 witnessed the birth of my brother, whose memory 

 lives in the hearts of those who have preserved a sense 

 of the enlarged proportions of a political life which pro- 

 gresses in obedience to laws inherent hi the constitution 

 of society. 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



On receipt of the Honorary Citizenship of Potsdam. 



