The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1859-06-23
PROF. LIEBER REc0LLECrIoNs OF HUM
BOLDT

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dispensed with, resolutions were passed and
several Of the persons present delivered
addresses, i'll honor Of Humboldt. Among
others who addressed the meeting were
Professors Lcber, Bachc and Guyot, and
Hon. George Bancroft. Letters were also
read from Lieut.. Maury, ID. ID. Barnard
and others. We print few extracts from
the remarks Of Prof Licber:
1t is not considered inappropriate,
believe, on occasions like this, to give dis.
tinctness to the picture by stating personal
observations. Allow me, then, to relate a
ve"y simple, yet characteristic, fact.
visited Humboldt ut PotsGam in tho year
1914, when he had reached, therefore, the
age of sevcnty-ivc; for You know that
lie was born in that memorable wear, 769,
in which Cuvicr was born, and wellington,
and Chauteaubrand, and Napoleon, ard
Canning, and Walter Scott, and Mcintosh
Just ten years after Schiller, just twenty
"ttcr Goethe. Humboldt told me at that
time that he was engaged in work which
he intended to call Cosmos that he was
| obliged chiefly to write at night, for in the
morning he studied and arranged materials.
and Ill the evening he was expected to be
with the King from o'clock to about ii
Alter his return from the King he was
engaged i'll writing until or 9 o'clock.
Humboldt, when in Berlin or Potsdam
was~retained, it We may uso the protes.
sonal term, to join the evening circle Of
the King for the indicated hours 1t was
all, l believe, he was actually expected to
perform in return for the titles, honors and
revenue which he was enjoying, except
that the monarch sometimes selected him
AS companion on his journeys. Hum
boldt described to me the character of
these royal evening reunions. Everything
of interest, rs the day brought it to notice
was there discussed. The drawing Of Il
beautiful live oak, near Charleston, which
a fair friend had. made for me, was taken
by Humboldt to that circle, where it at
tracted SO much attention, that he begged
me to leave it, and ho told me that the vol
ume describing our aqueluct, which my
friend the author, now the President Of the
College, had given me at the time Of its
publication, and which had then sent
linn, had furnished the topic Of discussion
for dn entire week. We collected, he said,
all possible works on ancient and modern
aquedacts, and compared, discussed and
applied, for many successive evenings. Is
there, then, royal road to knowledge,
after all, when n Humboldt eau be re-
taineds
May l extend your supposed permis-
sion of giving personal anecdotes, pro-
rided they arc of sufficiently biogra-
phical character, such as Plutarch, perhaps
would not have dislaned to record I de-
sire to show what interest he took in every
thing connected with progress. have
reason to believe that it was chiefly owing
to him that the King Of Prussia offered
Inc, not long after my visit, chair to bc
created in the University of Berlin, cxclu-
sively devoted to the science and art of
punishment, or oPocnology. l had con-
versed with the Monarch on the supc, iority
Of solitary confinement at labor over all
the other prison systems, when he ,concIud.
ed our interview with these words ~
wish you would convince NJ. Won Hum
boldt Of your views. 1Ie is rather opposed
TO them. shall let him know that you
wllsee him."
Humboldt and prison discipline sounded
strange to my cars. I went and found
TINT he loved truth better than his own
opihion..or bias; and my suggestion that
so comprehensive Il University as that of
Berlin, our common native city, ought to
he henored with having The first chair O:
poenology, for which it was high time to
carve out distinct branch of treating the
convict in all his phases after the act of
conviction, was seized upon at once by his
liberal mind. lie soon carried the Minis.
ter of Justice along with him, and the
offer to which have alluded was the con-
sequence.
On the other hand, friend, whose name
is perhaps more interviewer with the his.
tory of our canal than that of any other
citizen, except Clinton, informs me that he
had the pleasure Of sitting by the side of
Humboldt at royal dinner, at Cbarlotten-
burg. During the whole time they
were engaged in conversing almost exclu-
siveIy on our great canal, and that greater
one which ought to unite in everlasting
wedlock the sturdy Atlantic and teemino
Pacific, have now yearned for one another
for centuries. Humboldt spoke with n
knowledge of details and a saeacious dis.
cernment which were surprising to nv
friend, we'll versel in all the kEowledpe Of
details Of these topics.