port with Guizot, who
was then Minister for Foreign Affairs, and very much interested in
Oriental studies.

Boehtlingk seems never to have forgiven me, and he and several of his
friends were highly displeased at my ultimate success in securing a
publisher for the Rig-veda in England. Their language was most
unbecoming, and they tried, and actually urged other Sanskrit
scholars, to criticize my edition, though I must say to their credit
that they afterwards confessed that it was all that could be desired.

Many years later, Boehtlingk published a violent attack on me,
entitled _F. Max Mueller als Mythendichter_, but I thought it
unnecessary to take up the dispute, and preferred to leave my friends
to judge for themselves between me and this propounder of accusations,
the legitimacy of which he was utterly unable to establish. However,
as I discovered later that he accused me of having acted
discourteously towards the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, with
whom I had never had any direct dealings, and stated that he had
prevented that illustrious body from ever making me a corresponding
member, I thought it right to offer an explanation to the Secretary,
and I have in my possession his reply, in which he wrote that there
was no foundation whatever for Professor Boehtlingk's statements.

However, the outcome of it was that I did not go to St. Petersburg,
but went on with my work at the Library in Paris, till one day I found
it necessary to run over to London, to copy and collate certain MSS.,
and there I found the long-sought-for benefactors, who were to enable
me to carry out the work of my life.

Of course, during my stay in Paris there was no idea of my going into
society, or of buying tickets for theatres or concerts. I went out to
dinner at some small restaurant, but otherwise I remained at home, and
viewed Paris life from my high windows, looking out on the Chambre des
Deputes on one side, the Madeleine close to me on the left, and the
Porte St. Martin far away at the end of the Boulevards. Baron
d'Eckstein, as I have said, was willing to introduce me into society,
but I refused his kind offers. In fact, I was more or less of a bear,
and I now regret having missed meeting many interesting characters,
and having kept aloof from others, because my interests were absorbed
elsewhere. Burnouf asked me sometimes to his house; so did a Monsieur
Troyer, who had been in India and published some Sanskrit texts, and
whos