is universal wherever the sharpest or even the most justifiable things are said against living men. It is as though it were impossible for any verdict of his fellow men to cleave to a man while he is still among us: such verdicts are like garments, they become worn out and finally disappear. Instead of this, Humboldt's character, as it shows itself in the letters and conversations, is more and more seen to be the real contents of the book. He is dead. An abiding judgment is beginning to be formed over him, and the question must be answered: What kind of an aspect of his inmost nature is to be had here?

He had lived so many years that we still, even, looked upon him as a living character, who had flung a pamphlet into the world against his contemporaries. We began to perceive that he was really dead. The words which gave such offence are the words of a man who has vanished-the words of a man upon whom, so long as he lived, nothing imposed but the true, real labor for the benefit of humanity—a man whose uninterrupted labor in the service of knowledge stands before our eyes like a mountain, and who, (I speak it unhesitatingly), even in this book, is never untrue to his character.

For, whatever charges his utterances allow to be brought against him, the reproach of violated confidence, the direct contradiction into which he him seif falls, as shown perhaps from his own letters, in which he ever, from different stand-points, mentions the same things at the same time in accents both of praise and blame, and the manifest partiality with which he frequently catches up personal matters-all these things do not alter the state of the case in one particle. He talked flattery to the faces of persons whom in private conversation with Varnhagen he placed on the lowermost step; he praised and protected bad books and bad people, who did not deserve it; he kept silent where he might have said with a powerful voice what his meaning was. All that granted, in his true frame of mind he ever knew how to find the truth and to clothe it in sharp words. If we concede the one, as a less ideal development of his nature-which perhaps, by the force of circumstances, became a vital necessity—still so much the more firmly do we hold to the other, and feel that herein lies the truly imperishable in his character. If he could have suspected the possibility of his memory being made a prize of, close upon his death, he would certainly have striven with all his powers to prevent it; but since it has once so happened, and what is done cannot be undone, we recognize in Humboldt's words the proper sense of the intolerableness of the condition of affairs from which we to-day have escaped, and corroborate ourselves in forming a judgment as to what share or participation therein is to be ascribed to certain definite personages. In this connection, the appearance of this book is of historic significance. It was a success. No one knew the circumstances so well as he; no one would have ventured to speak as sharply and precisely of them. He presented the nation a train of most precise thoughts. These revelations come like a destiny. One felt that it was the truth that was here spoken-or even, perhaps, kept secret.

Humboldt appears, both when he found fault as well as when he flattered, to have done so without consideration. No one will be likely to imitate him in this respect, since no one is likely to stand forth clothed with the enchantment of such authority. He praised without limit. "Interesting," "important," "admirable," " ingenious," were the trifling small coin which he regardlessly thrust into the hand of almost every one, as into that of a beggar; but for the most part, however, only those whom he took for beggars. Even such an address as "dear and valued friend" belongs, to a certain extent, to the same category. He made use of it as the Italians employ their molto amico mio, ottimo amico, which is used to indicate a sort of superficial acquaintance. He did not hesitate to bestow encomiums upon men and works which he had never known. It had come to be a habit with him, as the investing with orders and titles must get to be a habit, for it is a physical impossibility that he from whom these issue should often know those who have been

clothed with them, even by name. Humboldt, however, most certainly had, along with the few whom he perhaps made arrogant through his words, so seductive in their sound, very many whom his praise benefited and whom he lifted up, on to a higher step towards himself.

There dwelt a power in his words, even when they were but sheer flattery, for which little foundation existed, which gave those to whom they were addressed a nobler respect, above themselves, and spurred them on to fulfill in the deed the ideal of the proper activity, which was held out to them as being nearly fully accomplished. While he, with scarcely perceptible condescension, seemed to place himself on a level with whoever applied to him, he knew how to infuse into such a feeling of his own activity, as though he were working together with them toward the great spiritual goal of humanity. We can but feel that the brilliant light in which his words of praise were put, streamed forth from himself. In such moments he took mankind as though they had already accomplished that which, under the most favorable circumstances, they might be able to accomplish at some future time; because he recognized in them the capability, he saw them already as developed and matured. It is quite possible that shallow natures accepted this gold as hard coin which could be paid out again penny for penny; for the most part, it is that class who have been publicly known, but no one knows all the hidden, successful effect that was the lot of others, without hurt to their own modesty, who feel themselves forever quickened and elevated by a single such sunbeam of praise.

Humboldt had the instinct of seeing things in a brilliant light. His inclinations, like his distastes, were somewhat suberabundant. His style shows that, he acknowledged to Varnhagen that he was somewhat florid, often too florid. He likes to give the nouns an escort of stately adjectives, and the periods a sonorous rounding-off. So much more cold and prosy, then, do his words seem where throughout no opportunity of ideal intuition of vision offers itself. He expresses himself with an air of abandon. What

he so condemns is not the lacking power, with a good will, but rather it is the spirit of vain-glory which spreads itself so as to take the light from others. One can go through the book, but offensive blame is only cast upon those who seek to force their own notions upon the world in a prejudicial manner. Humboldt will recognize no bounds which are set up to the free action of the mind-let no one undertake forcibly to play the guide in this domain-let no one dare to carry through his form as the only source of salvation (even as a Government officer, professing to be of the greatest wisdom,bis form, which points out to the world the right path, without the aid even of the police. Whoever thus contemplates Humboldt's opinions, even the most noxious of them, must perceive in them the sense of the freedom to which he was ever true, and to which his life and his pursuits were consecrated.

An opportunity to express these thoughts offers itself in the shape of a little book which has issued from the publishing house of Franz Duncker, in Berlin, entitled, "Correspondence and Conversations of Alexander von Humboldt with a Young Friend." The author does not give his name, but intimates, however, sufficiently that this may readily be ascertained by means of inquiry. But it matters little, in reality, so far as the writing is concerned, who the author may be; the information given is fully satisfying, that in the year 1848 he lived as a student in Berlin, and is now living in England as a private citizen. The book contains several letters of Humboldt's, of no special interest, its chief contents consisting of notes of a limited number of visits and conversations, scattered over a period of nine years.

Humboldt, who, according to his own statement, wrote some three thousand letters in the course of a year, and from day to day learned to know any quantity of strange faces, may here be seen pictured forth from the cir cumstances thus related, in a most wonderfully happy manner. The world must be full of people who have had correspondence with and stood with him in verbal intercourse.

Without doubt, out of the collections of a few only here in Berlin, one could bring together thick volumes which would contain by far more interesting things than have thus far been made known. A perfect flood of letters and remembrances were easily to be imagined, if all portfolios were to open themselves, by which the few pages which here form the topic of conversation must needs be quite submerged; meanwhile, until this takes place, let them ever henceforward be permitted to have a claim as aids to a knowledge of the great man, to point out a new side of his nature, or, if this will already pass as known, to bring some beautiful evidence of his manner, as it unfolds itself.

* It is a current belief in Germany that the under-officers of the Government are universally reliable and trustworthy, and that the most implicit confidence may be placed both in their words and actions, and consequently that no police are needed to watch their movements.- -Translator.

We see how a young student approached Humboldt and became drawn to him and firmly held, and this circumstance attests to us the now almost forgotten form of a lively mutual relation existing between youth and age, which is now scarcely ever seen, except in ancient examples. Here a young man, full of ideal thoughts and of a longing to express them; there an old man, listening to him, and with quite an air of innocent resignation, giving detailed answers. Like Socrates, when, in Xenophon's representation, he answered the questions of the children-or like Plato, among young men, without loss to his dignity, giving himself up to deeply interesting dialogues. concerning the highest problem-so we hear Humboldt discoursing upon immortality and the good of mankind.

How perverted is the common life of the day, how we forget, what simple questions, addressing themselves alike to all ages of life, yet laying hold of our inmost heart, how it moves us, wherever we meet with the sight, when old age, forsaking the world, full of rich experience, confides to expectant youth its mellow thoughts. This also constitutes the chief source of attraction in Eckermann's "Conversations with Goethe." Goethe's death, and that of Humboldt, constitute here, as there, the natural conclusion of the book. With how few whose age has been overshadowed by fame has it been the good fortune thus, in a comfortable state of rest, to be permitted to address themselves to the youth; to how few, being young, and longing in this wise to meet with old age, has this privilege been accorded, and with it, for their whole remaining life, the indestructible feeling of a higher existence, which is the fruit of such intercourse.

To those, however, who have had this instruction from old age, the remembrance is one that can never die. 'The whole service of the little book lies in the representation of Humboldt, from this side, and it is positively a matter of astonishment that its author, after having so fully recognized and made conspicuous the ideal spirit and purpose of his work, could have embodied in it some, if only a few, of Humboldt's opinions of men still to-day living in Berlin.

Goethe

There is a limit, a boundary line, to such communications. desired that twenty years might pass before the gaps in his correspondence with Schiller should be filled out; and when Goethe himself died this correspondence was already over twenty years old. Though such delicacy of feeling may have been carried too far, still on no account should one who desires to count himself of the society of cultivated men, and, moreover, lays any claim to it, who knows in general what this society or fellowship signi. fies, permit himself to put in print the sharp criticisms against cotemporaries. which had been confided to him verbally. Humboldt's death does not alter the case in the least; and directly after such a marked offence against usage as occurred in the book of which mention is made above, the author ought to be doubly careful to choose what to say and what to leave unsaid. The same applies with equal force, perhaps to the passage where he prepares and

reads before Humboldt his poem addressed to him, and is "interrupted by him with repeated expressions of praise." I allow myself this criticism, since I pass it upon one who is anonymous.

In one respect, however, I take back what I have just said. Where such men as Goethe and Humboldt are concerned, it seems almost an impossibility that a single one of their utterances which remains anywhere, either engraved on the memory of man or fixed upon paper, should be able to be withheld. What Goethe uttered in the most careless moment is treasured up and printed, almost as though it were a process of nature that showed itself even in his least significant thoughts. One can therefore reproach the individuals through whom it happened, but not, however, look upon the thing done as something in itself to have been prevented. Painful feelings it brings with it to many; but of what use is it to trouble ourselves about that which a sort of necessity seems to govern? It ought to be, that such a man, who saw everything, heard everything, weighed it and pronounced a clear judgment upon it, should walk through our century. It was these judgments that bestowed the power to last in the memory of mankind, and at some future day to break forth; and in mankind, again, the curiosity has been placed, by reason of which every one grasps covetously after, and by means of which, apparently, more and more of these hidden wares will be brought forth to the light of day. And what an acquisition! Fifty to sixty years of an epoch lie thus in Humboldt's communications, and give the future a picture of things that passed away with him. If one takes, in connection with this, what Goethe lived through both before and with him, and in a similar all-comprehensive manner has provided us with the written commentaries of his mind, then we see almost a century worn away in the utterances of the two great minds. Other nations, too, have their memoir-writersnone, however, witnesses who from such a height were sent forth upon their mission. Both, in intercourse with the most prominent men of the worldboth, in personal appearance-apparently subordinating themselves frequently to the demands of an etiquette which they even perhaps required, because for long years they had been accustomed to its outward forms, although in heart linked to advancing freedom, and filled with contempt toward those who strove to deny, to circumvent or to impair her.

This love toward freedom, or, to make use of a more prosaic expression, the demand for the overthrow of spiritual or mental restraint on all questions, is that which distinguishes the German especially before other nations. No wonder, then, that it makes itself known as the foundational characteristic of our great men. It is this that makes it possible for us to assimilate the foreign or strange without changing our natures, to live in all countries, and carry with us our fatherland—to cherish, in conclusion, that true Christian patriotism (I use the word Christian here, not in a church sense, but in an ethical) which consists not in hate, but in love, toward other peoples. It will not be denied, that for political life, as it has shaped itself for Germany, it suits