268 Humboldt's Letters. 



both ; the King is cross and peevish, capricious, and 

 prone to excuse himself by saying that he is powerless, 

 and must be governed by his ministers. 



On the 30th of January, 1852, Yarnhagen adds: 

 " Humboldt takes a lively interest in the widow of the 

 philologist F. ; her husband has done much work for 

 him. At Humboldt's urgent advice, she has petitioned 

 the King for a pension, and Humboldt and Boekh were 

 to support the petition by their signatures. But F. was 

 a democrat, not an active, but an avowed one, and the 

 King might have heard of it. To neutralize this, Hum- 

 boldt proposed to request Stahl to join in countersign- 

 ing the petition. His own name can now accomplish 

 nothing with the King ! On what days have we fallen, 

 when Humboldt asks Stahl to give him countenance 1" 



147. 



HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, Feb. 5th, 1852. 



I BELIEVE, my dear friend, that the letter I have just 

 received, will greatly confirm your ideas about Paris. 

 Galuski, the translator of the second volume of Kosmos, 

 is a man of noble instincts, great talents, and much 



