§13
When Humboldt[[48]] was on his way back from the Ural Mountains, he was welcomed to Moscow at a formal meeting of the Society for the Pursuit of Natural Science, most of whose members were state functionaries of some kind, not at all interested in science, either natural or unnatural. But the glory of Humboldt—a Privy Councillor of the Prussian King, a man on whom the Tsar had graciously conferred the Order of St. Anne, with instructions that the recipient was to be put to no expense in the matter—was a fact of which even they were not ignorant; and they were determined to show themselves to advantage before a man who had climbed Chimborazo and who lived at Sans-Souci.[[49]]
[48]. Alexander Humboldt (1769-1859), born at Berlin, a famous writer on natural science.
[49]. The Prussian palace, near Potsdam.