sketches, he concludes one of his letters with the words “the number of caricatures is increasing.”  Indeed, there seems to have been only one among these learned gentlemen who impressed him with a feeling of respect and admiration—­namely, Alexander von Humboldt.  As Chopin’s remarks on him are the best part of his three Berlin letters, I shall quote them in full.  On seeing Von Humboldt at Lichtenstein’s he writes:—­

He is not above middle height, and his countenance cannot be called beautiful; but the somewhat protruding, broad, and well-moulded forehead, and the deep inquiring eye, announce the all-embracing mind which animates this humane as well as much-travelled savant.  Humboldt spoke French, and as well as his mother-tongue.

One of the chief events of Chopin’s visit to Berlin was, according to his own account, his second dinner with the natural philosophers, which took place the day before the close of the congress, and was very lively and entertaining:—­

Many appropriate songs were sung in which every one joined with more or less energy.  Zelter conducted; he had standing before him on a red pedestal as a sign of his exalted musical dignity a large gilt goblet, which seemed to give him much pleasure.  On this day the food was much better than usual.  People say the natural philosophers had at their meetings been specially occupied with the amelioration of roasts, sauces, soups, and the like.

“The Berliners are such an impertinent race,” says Goethe, “that to keep one’s self above water one must have Haare auf den Zahnen, and at times be rude.”  Such a judgment prepares one for much, but not for what Chopin dares to say:—­

Marylski [one of his Warsaw friends] has not the faintest shadow of taste if he asserts that the ladies of Berlin dress prettily.  They deck themselves out, it is true; but it is a pity for the fine stuffs which are cut up for such puppets!

What blasphemy!

After a fortnight’s stay in the Prussian capital Professor Jarocki and Chopin turned homeward on September 28, 1828.  They did not, however, go straight to Warsaw, but broke their journey at Posen, where they remained two days “in gratiam of an invitation from Archbishop Wolicki.”  A great part of the time he was at Posen he spent at the house of Prince Radziwill, improvising and playing sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven, and Hummel, either alone or with Capellmeister Klingohr.  On October 6 the travellers arrived in Warsaw, which Chopin was so impatient to reach that the professor was prevailed upon to take post-horses from Lowicz.  Before I have done with this trip to Berlin I must relate an incident which occurred at a stage between Frankfort on the Oder and Posen.