INTRODUCTION. XI 



ledge, until finally, in his old age, honors such as no states- 

 man ever won, were laid as voluntary offerings at his feet. 

 The indifference which he regarded them showed how little 

 such rewards had entered into his plan of life. Yet,though 

 the acknowledged equal of kings, he was never seduced by 

 the splendors of courts to forget his character as a man, 

 whose sympathies were with the people rather than their 

 rulers. So well were his political predilections understood 

 among the monarchs who called him friend, that at the Con- 

 gress of Verona,of which he was a member, when he proposed 

 some temporary measure which had an arbitrary charac- 

 ter, the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia, turning to him, 

 said in a tone of mock reproach : " And is it you, arch-re- 

 publican as you are, who propose this despotic measure ?" 

 This incident was related to me by Humboldt himself, dur- 

 ing my last interview with him. One can therefore under- 

 stand the depth of that esteem felt for him by the present 

 demented king of Prussia, when the latter introduced Hum- 

 boldt to the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, at Prague, 

 some four or five years ago. His Jesuitical majesty asked : 

 " Who is the Baron Von Humboldt, that you present him 

 to me with so much empressement f I have never heard of 

 him !" " Not heard of him !" exclaimed the king, in honest 

 amazement ; " why he is the greatest man since the De- 

 luge !" 



Humboldt's large fortune was wholly expended in the 

 prosecution of his travels and the publication of his works, 

 and during the later years of his life, he was entirely depen- 

 dent on his diplomatic pension, and the copyright of his 



