Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-07-08
cI1ARKSEILIE TENN. FRIDAY, JULY IS, 1859.
Humboldt's Personal Appear
f9t IA ance and Character. ~

sfil Hi ance ana CnafdcJeE. ~
Bayard Taylor, who was in Dubuque
when the intelligence of the death of Hum
boldt was received, furnished the Times Of
that city with the following sketch of the
personal appearance and character Of the
great German:
In person, Humboldt was short, strong
ly built, without any approach to eorpu-
lency. During the last years of his life he
carried his head bent, with STOPPING shoul-
ders, as if his body had not vigor enough
| to hold up the weight of the. knowledge
contained in his massive brain. Yet, in
the prime of life, when perfectly erect, his
height could not have been more than Eve
feet six inches. His head was large and
marked by beautiful symmetry, his fore
head smooth and unwrink ed, and the
blue eyes as soft, steady and clear as those
of child His sight was perfect, ena-
bling him to read the finest print without
spectacles. rals70a adi 50 .snsaea l4 itl.
His nose and mouth were Of the heavy.
Teutonic type, and the expression of his
face fully accorded with the truth, benig-
nifty of his character No person could
have seen him without being inspired with
an immediate personal regard for him In
the castle at Tegel, the patrimony of the
Humboldt family, hangs a picture repre-
senting 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, his hair is already snow white.
His countenance changed very little after
that period, the skin stillremaining smooth
and with fresh, healthy tint IS saaa's'.i
He died through the gradual decay of
his physical faculties, retaining his mental
powers to the last As late as 1858, he
was accustomed. to labor frequently for 16
hours at time, and the last published
volume of "Cosmas" exhibited no signs of
an enfeebled intellect, The first shock
his constitution received was given to it
by successive attacks of influenza, disor-
der very prevalent in Terlin. He had mo-
ticed the slower and more difficult action
of his physical functions, had perceived
the gradual dimnution Of hig vital pow
ers, and in the summer Of 1858. made a
calculation that if they cohtinned to give
way steadily in the same ratio, his death
must take place this year - 'si ' 2a
Probably no distinguished man of this
century, with theexception of Beranger,
surpassed Humboldt in simplicity, honesty
and native dignity of character. Though
born nobleman, the confidential friend
Of his king, and the accepted equal of the
monarch of Europe, his sympathies were
with the liberal party, and he never hesi-
tated to express them. While. his sum
mers were passed in the Royal Palace at
Potsdam, he occupied apartments in the
house, of his own. servant in Berlin, du-
ring the winter, Sowell were his political
predictions known, that at the Congress
of Vienna, of which he was member,
when he had proposed some temporary
measure which had an arbitrary character,
the, Emperor Alexander l. exclaimed =
"And it is yen arch republican as you are,
who propose such a .despotic measure p
Like Washington's Humboldt's, mind
was SO beautiful symmetrical, that it would
he easy to point out many men who went
beyond him in particular departments of
science. He was too great in all to be
specially distinguished, and in the extent
of his labors, as well as the amount of his
sacrifices in the acquisition Of knowledge,
he has never been surpassed by any man
He has enjoyed the unbounded respect
and Arbitration of three generations, and
now the world mourns in him the loss of
her greatest man. 37 1'Fog i.F 71d