264 



honour, and as Grafe* makes noses of honour) 

 proving that all white labourers had also better be 

 slaves than freemen, has triumphed. What a mon- 

 strosity ! 



On the 22nd November, 1856, Yarnhagen writes in" his Diary : 

 " Started at half-past twelve and drove, in a tremendous rain, to Hum- 

 boldt's. He was delighted at my coming, and led me at once into the 

 room, where Hildebrandt's great water-colour drawing (framed) was 

 hung. Keally an excellent painting, in the rich variety of which the 

 figure of Humboldt (sitting) is prominent. Now arose the question 

 of the inscription to be chosen for it, I had rightly opined that he 

 did not so much desire me to propose an inscription as to approve of 

 one he had already fixed on. Contrary to my expectation it was 

 not a short sentence, but a tolerably long address a rhetorical com- 

 position contrasting felicitously the exploring traveller with the phi- 

 losopher on his return home. Several alterations were at first 

 approved of, but at last rejected. The picture has been presented by 

 Hildebrandt, not to Baron Humboldt, but to his valet, Seiffert. It is 

 to be engraved. "We looked at the rooms. In three of them his 

 materials for study lying about. All three heated to 19 Keaumur, 

 to me an insufferably high temperature. A large library not warmed. 

 Pictures by Madame Gaggiotti,f whose talent he praised highly. He 

 was surprised and pleased at finding that I also knew her. He 

 complained of irritation of the skin. I told him it was a known 

 complaint, pruritus ' semlis,' he added directly. He had, in a box, 

 a live chameleon, which he showed me, and of which he said ' that 

 it was the only animal which could direct one of its eyes upwards, 

 while looking downwards with the other ; only our parsons were as 

 clever, directing one eye to heaven, and the other to the good things 

 and advantages of the world.' "We talked also of Neufchatel ; the 

 King, he said, was hoping for the best, counting on Louis Bona- 

 parte. Manteuffel did not see things in so favourable a light, but was 

 merry about them notwithstanding. The Russian Chancellor, 

 Count von Nesselrode, said to Humboldt on his last visit, that the 



* A celebrated surgeon at Berlin. Tit. f An artist, native of Rome. TR. 



