very highest speculative philosophy finds few admirers, and none but the very highest is able to make itself felt at all; and Humboldt would never have attained to his present high eminence had he devoted himself either to pure contemplative philosophy, or to any single scientific pursuit; he wants some of the faculties which make the philosopher; and he is too manifold to have devoted all his energies to one science; he, therefore, chose the medium path, but the one leading to the safest goal, and for which he is preëminently qualified, and has no rival. He devoted himself to acquire a sufficient knowledge of all the sciences, in order to generalize upon them; he built with the materials of many masters, and designed by the natural laws which control all; leaving metaphysics to more subtle, deeper, and loftier, minds, he has seldom, if ever, strayed beyond reach of the precincts of science and induction. Humboldt was, as a boy, very weakly and ailing. ring the last winter, and I am bound to devote my little leisure to study." Even as late as the 17th September, 1799, Kunth seems to have been anxious about his health; he writes to Moll: "If his health does not give way under the climate and the hardships of his journey, what may natural philosophy, in its most extended range, not promise itself from the observations of a man who, possessing his vast knowledge, and animated by the most intense passion for natural science, has dwelt for years in foreign regions ?" Some years prior to their going to the university, the Humboldts resided chiefly at Berlin, for here alone could they enlist the services of men qualified to instruct them in the various branches of knowledge fitting them for the academic career. | Wilhelm von Humboldt writes to the lady already mentioned: "You desire to know where I really resided in 1786, and the succeeding years. I was at Berlin; my mother resided there in the winter time, and in the summer I also remained in town with my younger brother and our tutor. We rode generally, on Sundays, to Tegel. I lived thus until the autumn of 1788. Then, I and my brother, accompanied by the same tutor, went to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, which had at that time a university, and remained until Easter, 1789;* when I went with my tutor, but without my brother, to Gottin gen; there my tutor left me, and from that time, in my 22d year, I first commenced to live alone, and thus you saw me in 1789 at Pyrmont. At Easter, 1789, my brother followed me to Gottingen." Thus had Kunth completed the education of his pupils in ten years, without their ever having visited a gymnasium, or any public school. George Forster writes on the 14th July, 1790, to Heyne: "Baron von Humboldt, who desires to be remembered to you, is with me, and has kept up pretty well during the journey, but still not so well as I could wish. He tells me, however, that he has been continually ailing since his fifth year, and only enjoyed comparative health directly after a severe illness, and that he soon relapsed until a new illness relieved him again for a time. I am, however, convinced that his body suffers because his mind is too active, and because his brain has been far too much harassed by the logical training in fashion at Berlin." And on the 6th of August, 1791, he writes to Jacobi: "Alexander von Humboldt is at Freiburg, and commences to be passing away from me. Wilhelm has long ceased to exist for me; During a subsequent career of upwards he is about marrying a lady from Erfurt, of forty years, occupying at times a high a Fraulein of Dachröden, and he has a position among the greatest men of the mind to forego all public employment, day—until the last hour of his existence which, considering his talent, is much to-Kunth continued his attachment, and be regretted. Alexander will be all the never ceased to feel the greatest anxiety more active and persevering, but wants and interest in his former pupils. physical power." In 1795, Humboldt complains about his health, in a letter to Fraulein Willdenow: "You have cause to be offended at my writing so seldom, but if you knew my circumstances you would excuse, if you could not justify me. I am for ever moving about, had a most severe illness for three months du Maternal gratitude induced the Baroness, as early as 1782, to settle an annuity for life on Kunth, and she confirmed this amongst other marks of regard in her will, as an acknowledgment of her high *In a subsequent letter he corrects these dates, they being all one year too late. appreciation of the care and faithfulness with which he had discharged the onerous duties incident to the intellectual and moral education of her children. Kunth remained through life the administrator of Alexander's property. When he entered the service of the state, nine years before the death of the Baroness, 1796, he continued an inmate of her dwelling, and at his own decease, in 1829, his last resting-place was selected in the family vault at Tegel, close to the grave of Wilhelm von Humboldt. THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF BERLIN IN 1780. Ere we follow the brothers Humboldt to the university, a glance may well be thrown at the position of Berlin society as forming the historic back-ground to the bright picture presented by the brothers. The influence of the great king was still felt during Humboldt's youth. He belonged, as he expressed it at the celebration of the centennial jubilee in honor of Frederick ascending the throne, "to that old generation whose souls still received the image of the great monarch from personal youthful contemplation." But although Berlin may then already, and especially since the time of Lessing and Mendelssohn, have made some progress in an enlightened way of answering religious, social, scientific, artistic, and even political questions, yet these pulsations of a higher life were very weak and intermittent; they exhibited themselves so rarely and so isolated that there could have been no idea of a universal prevalence of the higher affections. The number of really enlightened men was very small, and the domestic social circles in which they could permit their lights to shine were still fewer. The court was composed of and limited to a few friends, chiefly Frenchmen. The high court and military officials, who formed the aristocracy, were deficient in all intellectual and engaging sociabilities. The inferior employés were underpaid and overworked, and business and general distress checked every effort at intellectual or moral improvement. The wealthier portion of the mercantile community distinguished itself only in the extravagance with which they educated their children; but there were not even the remotest symptoms of real cultivation. The men of science withdrew into the inner circles of their families, and there was, in fact, no general social intercourse. What charm or incitement could such a state of things present to young and gifted minds like those of the Humboldts? What inducement could even the more enlightened circles, who had banished Lessing as a free-thinker, offer to youths who were already moved by the promptings of a new mental world? The picture drawn by George Forster, although severe, may give some indication of the state of society in the Prussian capital, and of the impression it made upon an intelligent Englishman. He writes to his friend Jacobi, during his stay in Berlin, in 1779: "I have deceived myself very much in the opinion I brought with me about this great city. Thus, I found the exterior much handsomer, and the interior far blacker, than I had pictured to myself. Berlin is, no doubt, one of the handsomest cities in Europe. But the inhabitants! Hospitality and rational enjoyment degenerated into licentiousness and gluttony-I might almost say voraciousness-free and enlightened thinking into barrent wantonness and unbridled infidelity. And then the sensible, clever clergymen, who, out of the plenty of their virtue and moral perfection, purify religion and wish to make it perfectly comprehensible to the common understanding! I expected to find here extraordinary men, pure, noble, inspired with God's Holy Spirit, simple and full of child-like humility, and lo! I meet with the pride and conceit of the wise and learned; and these wise men, they are blind, yet possessing clear sight, and deaf with sound hearing. The French Academy! Permit me to shake the dust from my feet, and proceed further. About the fair sex I would rather not speak at all. If ever they were thoroughly corrupt anywhere they are so at Berlin, where selfishness and coquetry are as much at home as in Paris-where the tone of good society proceeds in exactly the same footsteps, inclined to insipid witticisms and compliments, and to an uninterrupted effort after the so-called jolis riens-where nothing is thought of, and, except the grossest sensuousness, nothing is felt; and this from the princely circles down to the lowest citizen." It need excite no surprise that such a society should have generally disliked a man like Goethe during his stay at Berlin, or that the great poet should have felt dis- | particularly valued owing to the excellence gusted and discontented with the degener- of the experiments which accompanied ate brood. He expressed his dislike of the them, and among others they attracted Berliners in one of the coarsest sentences: the two Humboldts to the Herz dwelling. "I swear," he says "no obscenity, no The immediate cause was the consultation donkeyism of the Jack-pudding kind is about a lightning conductor at Tegel, a so disgusting. I have prayed to the gods safeguard then little known at Berlin. that they may sustain my courage and up- Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt rightness unto the end, and rather to entered almost from the very first moment change the destination than allow me to into the most intimate relations with the creep so miserably along the last stage of Herz family. Surrounded from their earmy journey." liest infancy by all the elements of a higher cultivation, it followed that the brothers were, even at the ages of eighteen and sixteen, distinguished for the elegance of their manners, their vivacity and intelligence, and, in fact, for their amiability and comprehensive range of knowledge. To their love of the sublime and beautiful, there was, no doubt, also added some interest for beauty itself. Alexander, particularly, was a graceful dancer; he taught Mrs. Herz the new minuette à la reine; and he had in the affairs of the heart a peculiarly keen instinct. The reminiscences of other ladies, in later times, who saw him at his brother Wilhelm's residence at Jena, where he visited often, picture him, the great naturalist who was continually occupied with galvanic and electric batteries, and other implements of science, as a most engaging, handsome man-unquestionably as the handsomest of the two brothers. Scarcely had Frederick the Great breathed his last when a stop was put to intellectual progress, and all the elements of mischief broke loose; shallow bureaucratic politics, arrogant barrack patriotism, governmental and ecclesiastical interference with the affairs and liberties of men, canting hypocrisy and fraudulent mysticism, alchemists, and "illuminati," back-stairs intrigue and depraved female influences, censorship and mental oppression-all ran riot with brazen effrontery, and blunted and stifled every free and noble aspira tion. This view of Berlin is confirmed by Forster in 1788, ten years after his first visit, in a letter to the then celebrated anatomist Sommering, and, also, in a letter written to a friend in 1788, by Professor Fischer, the tutor of both the Humboldts. A limited few, who belonged to the school of Lessing and Kunth, kept alive the smouldering flame of a higher intelligence. The chief among these were Engel, Biester, Mendelssohn, David Friedlander, Marcus, Herz, and Zöllner. The great charm of these circles was the influence exercised in them by some of their female members. We need only mention the daughters of Mendelssohn, the pious and romantic Doreathea Schlegel, Henriette Mendelssohn, the instructress of the unfortunate Duchess of Praslin, Fraulein Briess (afterwards Frau von Rochow, and then Frau von Fouqué), Henriette Herz, the friend of Schleiermacher and the two Humboldts, and the great Rehel, a lady of, perhaps, the most extraordinary mental powers. The social réunions of Rehel became in time an historical element of Berlin education, and the lectures on philosophy and natural history delivered by Marcus Herz in his own house, from the commencement of the eighth decade, became the resort of the most select portion of Berlin society. The lectures on natural philosophy were A peculiar feature of the society we have here described is the fact that the chief elements were composed of Jews and Jewesses; and it is remarkable that at the time we speak of, the intelligence which properly proceeded from Lessing was concentrated in Jewish circles. Henriette Herz mentions, through her biographer, how at that time Jewish society in Berlin was sought after in preference to every other. How free Humboldt was from all religious prejudice, may be inferred from the words of the same lady; she mentions: "That when Alexander von Humboldt in these past years corresponded with a mutual lady friend and myself from his family seat, Tegel, he generally headed his letters, 'Castle Tedious;' certainly, he only did this in such letters as were written in Hebrew characters, for in those I had given him and his brother Wilhelm the first instructions, which were subsequently continued with considerable success by another." Several of the letters addressed to Mrs. Herz and David Friedlander are still in existence, and are cha racterized by extreme good-nature and the most pleasant humor. In letters whose contents were accessible to every one, it would have been injudicious for a young noble of that day to have confessed that he found more amusement in the society of young Jewesses than in the castle of his forefathers. Those friendships which Humboldt formed in early life have been maintained by him through succeeding generations up to the present day; he is on the most intimate footing with the Mendelssohns; he visits them twice in every week-once at the house of the widow of Joseph Mendelssohn, and once at that of her son; and if not engaged to appear at the king's table, he visits the Mendelssohns more frequently. Thus did he spend the last 14th of September- his eighty-sixth birthday at Mrs. Joseph Mendelssohn's, in the circle of the family who are bound to him by ties of the deepest attachment and veneration. During the dinner, the hostess sent to the home of the venerable old man an easy chair, surmounted by a laurel crown. He was so agreeably overcome by this mark of friendship and affection, that he | could not avoid expressing his deep gratitude in the warmest terms the same evening from the royal palace at Potsdam, where the king's wish had summoned him. But to return from our digression. While the men of this inner society were occupied with the pursuits of science and philosophy, the females devoted themselves with all the ardor of youth to polite literature. French, English, and Italian classics were studied earnestly; the mighty genius of Goethe was early appreciated; they raved with Werther, joyed with Schiller, and, above all, they almost idolized Lessing. The great aim of those youthful enthusiasts was to do for society what Lessing had done for literature, viz., to free it from all conventionalisms, and lead it back to nature. No wonder that a community inspired at once by the greatest intelligence and the highest fancy, confined to itself, and thrown upon its own resources by the surrounding profligacy and want of taste, should first have ennobled every member, and then reäcted upon society at large until their influence has converted the Berlin of 1780 into what it has become in 1855. From the New Monthly Magazine. FONTAINEBLEAU UNDER LOUIS XIII. AND NAPOLEON I. LOUIS XIII. was accustomed to con- of likely to disgust the king. Louis, not verse every evening with Madame de liking to appear the slave of his minister, Hautefort-for, having obtained the situa- affected sometimes to blame his measures, tion held by her grandmother of lady in and to applaud all that Madame de Hautewaiting to the queen, she was, although fort said in his disparagement. One day unmarried, always addressed as Madame. he presented her with four hundred thouThe king only talked to her about hunt- sand a year pension, assuring her that the ing, dogs, and the game he killed. Ma- cardinal knew nothing about it, and that dame or Mademoiselle de Hautefort, she owed it to his bounty alone. She who was very fond of the queen, faith- did not conceal from him that she exceedfully reported to her all these conversa-ingly mistrusted his discretion, and was tions: Anne of Austria constantly entreated her to speak against the cardinal, and suggested every thing she could think VOL XXXVIL-NO. IV. quite aware that he reported every thing to the cardinal that he heard said against him, and that she herself feared that some 31 day she too would become the victim of this confidence, and of the freedom with which she presumed to censure his conduct. The king endeavored to reassure her by promising that the cardinal would never know what she said in confidence to him; adding, however, that she was the only person in the world to whom he would make such a promise, which she ought to consider as the highest proof of the affection he felt towards her. Sometimes he was of another opinion, and defended the cardinal's conduct with the utmost warmth, adding that he was much attached to him, that he could not govern without his assistance, and that, whatever she might say to dissuade him, he was determined to continue him as his minister, and be guided entirely his advice. "I see well enough," replied she, "that I can place no dependence either in your promises or in your affection. You would at any moment sacrifice me to the cardinal, for you have not the courage to oppose him. He would force you to dismiss me, and it would not any day surprise me to be obliged to leave the court in consequence of a dismissal signed by your own hand." The king protested that she had nothing to fear, that the cardinal should never force him to sign such an order, and that she must never believe those who might come in his name under such a pretence, as it would never be with his consent. dame de Hautefort. He was not so much alarmed at the plans she herself might form-the person he dreaded was her friend, Mademoiselle de Chérault, who exercised the most absolute power over her. As he was determined that no one should approach the king who was not his decided partisan, he determined to destroy an ascendency that might become dangerous, and decided on removing the recalled favorite by similar means to those he had employed already with so much success. Mademoiselle de la Fayette had superseded Madame de Hautefort, then Madame de Hautefort had again caused the king to forget her rival, and now he hoped, by placing the young Marquis de Cinq Mars about the person of Louis, that he should by degrees succeed in destroying the influence that the lady in waiting appeared gaining over the mind of a monarch whose timid nature reduced him to a state of perpetual childhood. The work I have already quoted thus describes the conclusion of the platonic affections of Louis and the intrigues of Richelieu : The cardinal had succeeded in his desire of weakening the attachment of the king to Madame de Hautefort. When she came to see him at Fontainebleau, in 1639, she was received with the most marked coolness and indifference; and in a private interview that took place between them, the king reproached her with having spoken against the Marquis de Cinq Mars, to whom he was much The cardinal, seeing that Madame de more attached than he had ever been to Hautefort began to exercise a certain her (a compliment any thing but gallant). degree of influence over the king's mind, After some days had elapsed she received a endeavored to gain her to his interests. visit from Monsieur de Brienne, who signiHe represented to her that, far from fied to her his majesty's order that she wishing to oppose the confidence reposed should immediately retire from the court. in her by Louis, he only sought to in- She replied that he had no power to send crease it, and that if she would sincerely her away. This reply having been reportforward his interests he would create hered to the king by the secretary of stateduchess; he even volunteered some advice as to how she should act in order to perpetuate the king's regard for her, and when they had had any little disagreement he endeavored to reconcile them. The king was much gratified at seeing that the cardinal supported Madame de Hautefort, and when she was inclined to oppose him with unusual determination, he threatened to tell the cardinal, as if the minister was more to be feared than the sovereign. Richelien, always suspicious He ordered that a lettre de cachet stroulā and jealous of his authority, grew uneasy, be sent her, which she only laughed at, at seeing the increasing influence of Ma- saying to those who brought it, that she "It is true," said he, “I promised her that no one should have the power of exiling her; but it was on condition that she would act with prudence, and give me no cause to complain of her conduct. Does she imagine that her reputation of virtue is every thing that is necessary to insure my friendship? I require from her, as well, that she should avoid all cabals and intrigues; and this is what she will not do.” |