The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-07-21
HumbOIdt'S Personal Appearance
and Character.

Bayard Taylor, who was in Dubuque when
the intelligence of the death of Humboldt
was re ceived, furnished the Times Of that
city with the following sketch of the per-
sonal appearance and character of that great
German:
In person, Humboldt was short, strongly
built, yet without any approach to corpulen.
cy. During the last years of his life, he
carried his head bent, with STOPPING shoul-
ders, as II his body had not vigor enough TO
hold up the weight of the knowledge con-
tanned in his massive brain. Yet in the
prime OF life, when perfectly erect his height
could not have been more than five feet, six
inches. His head was large, and marked by
beautiful symmetry, his forehead smooth
and unwrinkled, and the blue eyes os soft,
steady and clear as those Of child. His
sight was perfect, enabling him to read the
finest print without spectacles.
His nose and mouth were of the heavy
Teutonic type, and the expression of his face
fully accorded with the truth, consistency
and benignity of his character. No person
could have seen him without being inspired
with an immediate personal regard for him.
In the castle at Tegl, the parimony Of the
Humboldt family, hangs picture represent
ing him in his thirty. fifth year, on the side
of Chimborazo. He there appears rather
slender, but with the same massive head and
clear blue eyes, and with thick brown locks
In another portrait, at the age of fifty, hit
hair is already snow-white. His counten
ance changed very little after that period
the skin still remaining smooth, and with
fresh healthy tint.
He died through the gradual decay of hi
physical faculties, retaining his mental pow
ers to the last. AS late as 1858, he was &C
cus,omed to labor frequently for sixteel
hours at time, and the last published vol
ume of "Cosnos" exhibited no signs of q!
enfeebed intellect. The first shock hi
constitution received was given to it by sue
cessive attacks Of influenza, disorder yer!
prevalent in Berlin. He had noticed tn
slow and more difficult action of his physic
al functions, had perceived the gradual dim
mutton of his vital powers, and in the sum
mer of 1858 made calculation that if the
continued. to give way steadily in the sam
ratio, his death must take place this year.
Probably no distinguished man of thi
century, with the exception of Beranger
surpassed Humboldt in simplicity, honest
and native dinity Of character. Thoug
born a nobleman, the confidential friend {
his king, and the accepted equal of the NOR
archs Of Europe, his sympathies were wit
the liberal party, and he never hesitatea
: express them. While his summers wei
passed in the Royal Palace at Potsdam,
occupied apartments in the house of his ow
servant in Berlin, during the winter. S
we'll were his political predictions known
that the Congress of Vienna, of which h
was member, when be had proposed som
temporary measure which had an arbitrar
character, the Emperor Alexander l, e2
, claimed: :-"And it is you arch-republica
as ycu are, who propose such q despot
measure -
Like oshington's, Humboldt's mind W
> so beautifully symmetrical, that it would
easy to point out many men who went b
yond him in particular departments of SC
. ence. He was too great in all to be sp
cia!lly distinguished, and the extent of h
) labors, as we'll as the amount of his sacri
II ces in the acquisition of knowledge, he h
. has never been surpassed by any man. Fl
t life has been q splendid success. He h
. enjoyed the unbounded respect and admir-
g ton of three generations, and now the wor
u mourns in him the loss of her greatest ma