211 Hnmboldt (Alex. Von) LETTERS to i??K IT*! hagen Von Euse> 1827-1*58, with Explanatory Notes and a full Index of Wamea. 8vo, oloth, 75c. London, I860. LETTERS OF ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. LETTERS ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, WRITTEN BETWEEN THE YEARS 1827 AND 1858, TO VARNHAGEN VON ENSE. TOGETHER WITH EXTRACTS FROM VARNHAGEN'S DIARIES, AND LETTERS FROM VARNHAGEN AND OTHERS TO HTJMBOLDT. AUTHORIZED TEANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN, WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES AND A FULL INDEX OF NAMES. LONDON : TRUBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1860. , (9 MORSE STEPHENS " YOUR last letter, so honourable for me, contained words which I should not like to misunderstand. ' You scarcely permit to yourself the possession of my impieties.' After my speedy decease you may deal as you please with such property. We only owe truth in this life to such persons as we deeply esteem, therefore it is due to you." Letter from Alexander von Humboldt to Varnhagen, 7th Decem- ber, 1841. THE PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. THESE letters have created the most lively sensation all over Germany, where, within a few weeks after their first publication, a fifth edition has already appeared. In the present eventful state of affairs they have been hailed as fresh and startling evidence of the fact, that liberal principles and a strong feeling of German nationality and unity have long been steadily gaining ground, even among the highest classes of Prussian society. Opinions and sentiments, such, for instance, as those recorded in the " Diary" after Letter CXXXIV., become porten- tous signs of the times when uttered by men in the position of Humboldt and Varnhagen. To this feature of the book, far more than to "the deli- cious bits of scandal" in it — as has been surmised, the powerful effect which it has produced from one end of the country to the other is mainly to be attri- buted. The fair editor of the original Letters has ex- patiated at some length on the propriety of pub- viii THE PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. lishing them so soon after Humboldt's death. This is a question with which the publishers of the English version can have no concern. The book having once been brought before the world, the correspondence, and the effect produced by it, be- come matters of contemporary history, which ought not to be withheld from the public of any civilized country. Some objection may be made that cer- tain passages, which bear upon living persons here, have been retained in the translation. But, as most of the letters containing these personal allusions have already gone the round of the papers, even the sup- pression would have defeated its own purpose, by creating a suspicion that the original contained pas- sages of greater acerbity than is really the case. And with due deference to the established rules of literary propriety, it might after all be asked which is the more desirable — to be attacked while living and able to defend oneself, or to incur posthumous obloquy, which our surviving friends may or may not feel disposed to ward off from our memory ? PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE following letters of Humboldt contain materials of inestimable importance for forming a true, legiti- mate, and unveiled picture of his mind and character. It was his will and desire that they should be made public at his death, as will be seen distinctly expressed in the extract on a previous page. Nowhere has he expressed himself with less reserve or more sincerity than in his intercourse with Varnhagen, his long tried and trusty friend, whom he loved and valued above all others. In him he reposed the most unreserved confidence, and although ordinarily in the habit of destroying most of the letters addressed to him, it was with Yarnhagen that he deposited such as he con- sidered important and desired to have preserved. He reckoned upon Varnhagen, who was the younger of the two, surviving him. Yarnhagen, however, died fiist, and transferred to me the duty, now become doubly such, of publishing these wondrous records of the life, activity, and habits of thought of this great man. In fulfilling so sacred a duty it became an act of piety to let every word remain exactly as it was written down. To have X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. presumed to alter his expressions would indeed have been to offer an insult to the shade of Humboldt ! Therefore, I have necessarily paid 110 greater heed to the well-meant desire of my publishers, to make even the slightest alterations, than I did to my own personal wishes and inclinations. One thing only was here to be considered — eternal truth — truth which I owe to Humboldt, to history, to literature, and to the revered memory of him who has bequeathed to me this task. Behold then the bequest, unaltered and entire as it has been deposited in my hands ! A vivid commentary on Humboldt' s letters is sup- plied by passages in Varnhagen's Diary — the latter giving us the spoken as well as written expression of Humboldt' s thoughts. Unfortunately but very few of Varnhagen's letters have been preserved or come to hand. Those we have, however, bear fully the impress of the noble friendship, the ever-active interchange of thought, the true fellowship of common labour in the cause of science and freedom, which bound Humboldt and Varnhagen together for so many years. The letters of numerous other famous and distin- guished persons, which are added, exhibit Humboldt in his wide -spread intercourse with the world, in his manifold relations to Scholars and Men of Letters, to Statesmen and Princes, all of whom sought him, and paid him homage. LUDMILLA ASSING. Berlin, February, 1860. P R E E A C E TO THE THIRD EDITION. ALTHOUGH it cannot be within my province to seek to reply to the verdict which certain journals have made it their business to pronounce on my having committed to the press the Humboldt- Varnhagen correspondence, I yet feel it incumbent upon me to notice at some length the protest of Alexander von Humboldt himself, inserted in the daily papers by the late General Hedemann, against any unau- thorized publication of his letters. I am the more prompted to do this, as that protest has been pub- lished by the General with pointed reference to this publication ; and, therefore, with the evident inten- tion of producing the erroneous belief that the letters directed to Varnhagen were included in that protest. In justice to myself I must not allow such a belief to gain ground, although there is enough in the protest itself to refute it. In this document, a portion of which has only been communicated by the General, Humboldt first of all states that more than two thousand letters were written by him every year to all sorts of persons. Xll PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. He therefore says, "I contest the pretended right even of those who by chance or purchase have become the possessors of confidential letters of mine," and then he protests against such letters being printed, even after his death. It was of course quite natural that Humboldt should have denied the right of unrestricted publica- tion of his letters to those who had become possessed of them by purchase or by gift ; nay, more, con- sidering the immense extent of his correspondence, even to those to whom they were originally ad- dressed ; but this by no means excludes the supposi- tion that he might have expressly conferred such a right in any special case, and that consequently it might have been conferred in the present instance. Now that such a special case existed with regard to the letters directed to my uncle, is undeniably shown by the passage affixed by me as a motto to the book, from a letter dated 7th December, 1841, of which I will quote here only the following words: "After my speedy decease you may deal as you please with such property" Such a publication, therefore, is not at variance with the protest ; on the contrary, the one con- firms the other. In the protest, Humboldt ex- pressly prohibits the printing " of such letters only as I have not myself set aside for publi- cation." It is therefore evident, from that very document, that letter* may, and even must exist somewhere, which Humboldt himself had set aside PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. Xlll for publication. The letter of December 7th, 1841, clearly points out where those letters existed. Thus, instead of clashing, that protest and the present publication go hand in hand. The permission for publication, qualified by the express clause "in case of death," is granted as ex- plicitly as possible in the letter of December 7th, 1841. It may be suggested that, in granting that per- mission, Humboldt had perhaps no distinct recol- lection of what letters he had sent to my uncle in former years ; yet Humboldt, at all events, was thenceforward perfectly aware of the special authori- zation given once and for ever, and all the letters, the publication of which has been so strongly com- mented upon, upon the ground of their containing objectionable matter, are of dates posterior to De- cember, 1841. The intention of having such publication effected after the death of Humboldt was always entertained by both men. Both of them, as I have in the most positive manner been informed by Varnhagen, would in the course of years revert again and again in their conversations to this subject, and I have occasionally myself been present whilst it was under discussion. No one has a right to impugn such a statement on my part. Any one who is willing and able to see, will find throughout the correspondence itself the clearest evidence of Humboldt' s having always acted on the supposition that these letters would be published I XIV PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. after his death ; nay, tliat he not only sanctioned it, but that he felt greatly interested and desirous himself that their instructive contents should be brought to the cognizance of the public amongst whom he had lived, soon after his death. Ample proof of this intention occurs all through the book. I will content myself with quoting a few passages only. In the letter of 28th January, 1856, (p. 246), it is said: "I hand over to you, my dear friend, as your own, Madame de Quitzow," (nick- name for Princess Lieven, see letters CLXIX. and CLXXIL). When Humboldt says in the protest, " I contest the alleged right, even of those who by chance or pur- chase have got possession of confidential letters," and on the other hand declares, in the passage quoted just now, that he was depositing the letter in Varnhagen's hands, " as his own" just as he says in the letter of December 7th, 1841, " you may deal as you please with such property" there is ample and irresistible proof of how little that protest applies to the letters sent to Varnhagen, as it could never have occurred to Humboldt to speak of an alleged right, where he had granted the right of property himself, and in explicit terms. On the 1st April, 1844, Humboldt writes to Varnhagen, (p. 110): " What I in my Careless conceit destroy is saved in your hands." Humboldt, we may gather from this, wished himself that these instruc- tive documents should be preserved for the benefit of PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. XV his contemporaries, and he sent them to Vamhagen, for the very purpose of saving them from being- burned, as was his usual custom of dealing with the shoals of letters which he was in the habit of receiving. On the 30th November, 1856, Humboldt writes, (p. 265) : " Pray take care of my pupil's letter " (a letter of H.R.H. the Duke of Weimar), " as well as of the paragraph in which I am mentioned as being discussed in the Belgian Chambers as a Materialist and Republican, who must be put down !" It was therefore Humboldt himself who urged the preservation of these documents. As he took no interest in autographs, he could only have wished them preserved for the sake of their contents ; wit- ness the paragraph respecting the debate in the Belgian Chambers, as a record of the character of the times, all of which plainly marks his desire to have them laid by for the purpose of publication after his death. Whenever Humboldt wished that the publication of one of the letters sent to my uncle should be put off until after the death of himself or of the writer of it, he expressly states so. Thus, in sending the letter of Arago he appends the remark (p. 63), "To his gifted friend Varnhageii von Ense, with a very urgent request to avoid any publication of it, as being an autograph letter, until after Arago' s death." That the letter would and should be published is treated by Humboldt as a matter of course. Only as Humboldt might die before Arago, and the letter, XVI PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. even in that case, was not to be published in the life- time of its writer, the further exceptional clause is added in the present instance, that publication must not take place before Arago's death. Such an addi- tional caution does not occur with reference to other letters, as, for instance, to that of Princess Lieven, or that of the Grand Duke of Weimar, &c. If, on the other hand, a letter of a third person was not to be published, on account of its peculiar contents, even after the writer's death, Humboldt, remembering the permission given to Varnhagen, expressly stipulates that the document should be returned to him. Thus, with regard to the letter of July 4th, 1854 (p. 221): — " I inclose a very crabbed letter of poor Bunsen, which you will keep very secret, and kindly send back to me by-and-by to my Berlin residence." In the same way, for instance, in a letter of 9th September, 1858 (p. 313), Humboldt requests the return of " three curiosa" he is sending — one of them a letter from Queen Victoria. There are other passages also to the same effect. It is impossible to imagine a more stringent and more complete series of proofs of Humboldt' s posi- tive wish and expectation that the letters sent by him to Varnhagen should be published after his death. The fact forces itself the more strongly on our convic- tion, if we remember that the two men had, besides, such frequent opportunities personally of conversing upon the matter. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. XV11 It may be asked, why did Humboldt specially wish for the publication of the letters sent to my uncle ? A plain and distinct answer to this question is given in the letter of December 1841, in which spontaneously granting to my uncle the wholly un- solicited permission to publish the letters after his death, he says : " We only owe truth in this life to such persons as we deeply esteem, therefore it is due to you." The logical counterpart of which is : In death we owe it to all, and first and foremost to our own nation. Why did Humboldt wish for this publication at all? Read (p. 266) the postscript to the letter of Novem- ber 30th, 1856, where, sending to Varnhagen a notice bearing on his character and political opinions, which he was anxious to have preserved, he says : " What men believe or disbelieve is usually made a matter of discussion only after their death" It was, moreover, his wish that his convictions should not be liable to be discussed. He had willed that the picture of his mind should go down to pos- terity pure and unfalsified. A giant intellect, so fervently venerated and acknowledged by his nation, that the mere fact of his views being known on certain questions may exert the most powerful and incalculable influence on the people and its progress ; it was that very reason which made him wish that the whole people should b XV111 PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. be granted access to the workings of his innermost mind. He knew well, in laying this injunction on my uncle, to what trusty hands he was confiding his re- quest. As to the Diaries of my uncle, they too are not to be considered as the jottings of mere idle moments. He repeatedly exacted from me the positive promise to publish them. Discussing this subject, shall I ever forget in what animated and impassioned speech he inveighed with crushing argument against those who indulged a mistaken tender regard for an indi- vidual at the expense of duty to the people and to historical truth ! Foreseeing very clearly the objec- tions which have now been raised against the pub- lication, he described most accurately and pointedly their mental and intellectual sources. This is all I have to say. For myself the question is settled by the fact that I have only executed the behests of both the great departed. And I trust I am light, if, with due respect to all to- whom respect is due, two such great, illus- trious names as those of Humboldt and Varnhagen are to me much better authority than the opinions of those who have objected to the publication. This is my first and last word in this affair. I cannot be expected to answer polemical attacks. It would also be the more hopeless to try and come to an understanding, as difference of opinion In this matter naturally springs from a total di- PREFACE TO THE THIED EDITION. XIX vergence of principle and thought. I readily ac- knowledge the right of an opinion adverse to the publication in those of my opponents, to whom a tender regard for persons of exalted rank appears a higher duty than what is due to the people and its welfare, to the establishment of retrospective histo- cal truth, and to the development of future political progress. With them it is impossible to argue. But if others, who profess to entertain liberal principles, chime in with that opinion, I cannot consider it my business to open their eyes to the state of their own minds. LUDMILLA ASSING. Berlin, 10th March, 1860. By way of postscript to this perfect justification of the publication, the following letter of gift is now added : — Berlin, 7th of December, 1856. To my dear niece, Ludmilla Assing, who for many years has bestowed upon me most loving care and attendance, I have in gratitude presented all my books and manuscripts, all my literary papers and XX PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. collections, and have delivered these things to her complete, whilst my hand is still warm, so that she may even now dispose of them according to her own best judgment. If a few of these objects are still in my own keeping, it is only for the purpose of gradually arranging, selecting, and rendering them more complete. This act of donation I testify with my own hand. KARL AUGUST LUDWIG PHILIPP VARNHAGEN VON ENSE. CONTENTS. PAGE I. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .1 II. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 1 III. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .2 IV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 3 V. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .4 VI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 4 VII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .5 VIII. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . 7 IX. Humboldt to Rahel . . . .9 X. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 10 XI. Humboldt to Eahel . . . .12 XII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 12 XIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .13 XIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 14 XV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .15 XVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . ... 15 XVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .19 XVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 20 XIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .21 XX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 22 XXI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .23 XXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 24 XXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .26 XXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 26 XXV. Humboldt to the Princess von Piickler . . 28 XXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 28 XXVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .30 XXVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 31 XXIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .33 XXX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 34 CONTENTS. PAGE XXXI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . .35 XXXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 36 XXXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .36 XXXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 39 XXXV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .40 XXXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 42 XXXVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .45 XXXVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 45 XXXIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . • . 46 XL. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 47 XLI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .48 XLII. Metternich to Humboldt . . 50 XLIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .52 XLIV. King Christian VIII. of Denmark to Humboldt . . 53 XLV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . .55 XL VI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 56 XLVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .57 XL VIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 58 XLIX. Guizot to Humboldt . . . .61 L. Arago to Humboldt . . .... 62 LI. Humboldt to Bettina von Arnim . . . .64 LII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . ... 65 LIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .67 LIV. Humholdt to Varnhagen . . 67 LV. Humboldt to Spiker . . . .70 LVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . ... 71 LVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .72 LVIII. King Christian VIII. of Denmark to Humboldt . .74 LIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .75 LX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 77 LXI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .79 LXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 83 LXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .84 LXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 85 LXV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .90 LXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 91 LXVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .92 LXVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 93 LXIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . ... .98 LXX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . 99 LXXI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .100 LXXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 101 CONTENTS. XX111 PA as LXXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . .102 LXXIV. Humboldt to the Prince of Prussia . . .104 LXXV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 105 LXXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen , . . .108 LXXVII. J. W. T. to Humboldt . . . Ill LXXVIII. The French Ambassador, Count Bresson, to Humboldt . 112 LXXIX. Arago to Humboldt . . . .114 LXXX. Four notes of Friedrich Wilhelm the Fourth to Hum- boldt . . . . 115 LXXXI. King Christian VIII. to Humboldt . . .117 LXXXII. John Herschel to Humboldt . . . 118 LXXXIII. Balzac to Humboldt . . . .121 LXXXIV. Sir Robert Peel to Humboldt . . . . 122 LXXXV. Metternich to Humboldt . . . .123 LXXXVI. Prescott to Humboldt . . . 124 LXXXVIL Madame de Recamier to Humboldt . . . 126 LXXXVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . , 126 LXXXIX. Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, to Humboldt . 127 XC. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 128 , XCI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .129 XCII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 131 XCIIL Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .132 . XCIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 133 XCV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .134 XCVI. Humboldt ,to Varnhagen . . , . 135 .XCVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .136 XCVIII. Metternich to Humboldt . . . 137 XCIX. Jules Janin to Humboldt . ' . . .138 C. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 140 CI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . , .141 CII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 143 CHI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .144 CIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 145 CV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .146 . CVL Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .147 CVII. Humboldt .to Varnhagen . . . .149 CVm. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 150 , CIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .151 CX. Humboldt to Friedrich Wilhelm the Fourth . .152 CXI. Bessel to Humboldt . . . .154 CXII. Victor Hugo to Humboldt . . . 160 CXIII. Friedrich Rueckert to Humboldt 161 XXIV CONTENTS. PAGE CXIV. Alexander Manzoni to Humboldt . . 162 CXV. Thiers to Humboldt . . . .164 CXVI. The Princess of Canino, Lucien Bonaparte's widow, to Humboldt . . . . 164 CXVII. The Duchess Helene of Orleans to Humboldt , 165 CXYIII. The Duchess Helene of Orleans to Humboldt . . 165 CXIX. The Duchess Helene of Orleans to Humboldt . 166 CXX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 166 CXXI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . , .168 CXXII. Metternich to Humboldt . . . 168 CXXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . , . .171 CXXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 171 CXXV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .173 CXXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 173 CXXVII. Mignet to Humboldt . • . . .174 CXXVIII. Humboldt to Baudin . . . 176 CXXIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . , . .178 CXXX. Metternich to Humboldt . . . 180 CXXXI. Prince Albert to Humboldt . . .181 CXXXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 182 CXXX1IL Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .183 CXXXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 187 CXXXV. Humboldt to Varnhagen .... 190 CXXXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 190 CXXXVII. Metternich to Humboldt . . . .191 CXXXV1II. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 192 CXXXIX. The Duchess Helene of Orleans to Humboldt . 192 CXL. Humboldt to* Varnhagen . . . 194 CXLI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .196 CXLII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . . 197 CXLIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .198 CXLIV. Humboldt to Bettina von Arnim . . 199 CXLV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 200 CXL VI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .202 CXL VII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 204 CXLVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .206 CXLIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 206 CL. Humboldt to Varnhagen .... 208 CLI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 210 CLII. Humboldt to Varnhagen .... 211 CLIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 212 CLIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . • . 213 CONTENTS. XXV PAGE CLV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 216 CLVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 217 CLVII. Arago to Humboldt .... 219 CLYIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .220 CLIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 220 CLX. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . .225 CLXI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .228 CLXII. Humboldt to Bettina von Arnim . . . 230 CLXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .232 CLXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 233 CLXV. Humboldt to Varnhagen .... 231 CLXVI. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . 235 CLXVIL Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .236 CLXVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 237 CLXIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 242 CLXX. The Princess Lieven to Humboldt . . 244 CLXXI. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . .245 CLXXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 246 CLXXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .248 CLXXIV. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . 249 CLXXV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .250 CLXXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 250 CLXXVII. The Prussian Minister- Resident von Gerolt to Humboldt 251 CLXXVIII. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . .253 CLXXIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 255 CLXXX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .256 CLXXXI. Grand Duke Karl Alexander of Saxe- Weimar to Humboldt . . . . 256 CLXXXII. Vamhagen to Humboldt . . . .256 CLXXXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 258 CLXXX1V. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .259 CLXXXV. Mettemich to Humboldt . . . 261 CLXXXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .262 CLXXXVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 263 CLXXXVIII. Humboldt to Vamhagen . . . .265 CLXXXIX. Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe- Weimar, to Hum- boldt . . . . 266 CXC. Jobard to Humboldt . . . .267 CXCI. Lines by Varnhagen on Hildebrandt's Picture of Hum- boldt's Study, and on the Legend appended to it by Humboldt himself . . . 269 CXCII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .270 XXVI CONTENTS. PAGE CXCIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . 272 CXCIV. Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Weimar, to Humboldt 273 CXCV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 274 CXCVI. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . .276 CXCVII. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . 278 CXCVIII. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . .280 CXCIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 281 CC. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .282 CCI. Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Weimar, to Humboldt 283 CCII. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . 284 CCIII. Varnhagen to Humboldt .... 286 CCIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 287 CCV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .287 CCVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 289 ' CCVII. Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe- Weimar, to Humboldt . . . . 290 CCVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .291 CCIX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 292 CCX. Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, to Humboldt . . . . 293 CCXI. Thiers to Humboldt . . . .294 CCXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 295 CCXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .296 CCXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . ... 298 CCXV. Varnhagen to Humboldt . . . .300 CCXVI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 301 CCXVII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .303 CCXVIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 305 CCXIX. Prince Napoleon to Humboldt . . . 306 CCXX. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 308 CCXXI. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .309 CCXXII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 310 CCXXIII. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . .311 CCXXIV. Humboldt to Varnhagen . . . 312 CCXXV. Humboldt to Ludmilla Assiiig . . .315 HUMBOLDT'S LETTERS, i. HtJMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 25th September, 1827. ALLOW me, my dear friend, to offer you the. best copy of my Paper* I have left. The last lines will make you more indulgent towards the rest. Tuesday. A. V. HlJMBOLDT. II. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. JBerlin, 1st November, 1827. You once said something to encourage me in my attempts at giving a vivid and true delineation of Nature (i.e., one in strictest accordance with the results of observation). That your words have left an agreeable impression on my mind, you may perceive by the accompanying slight expression of my gratitude, f I have almost entirely remodelled the " Explanations," * " On the principal Causes of the Variation of the Temperature of the Earth's Surface." f A copy of "Aspects of Nature" (Ansichten der Natur). In the Third Edition, The Rhodian Genius, vol. ii., pp. 297— 308.— TR. B and added the " Bhodian Genius," which Schiller ap- peared to fancy. With kindest regards, yours, A. HUMBOLDT. Strange that Koreff * has never sent me a line to acknowledge all we have been doing for him here. III. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 21 st November, 1827. Wednesday night. As I rely more on your good nature and my own notes — which I followed strictly — than on the report of it taken down by my audience, I herewith send you, my esteemed friend, the whole of the fifth Lecture, together with to-day's recapitulation of it. You cer- tainly will find no anti-philosophical tendency in it. Make any use of the papers you like — only no copying for the press — and be so good as to send them back by Saturday. That the notes were intended merely for my own use, you will perceive from the absence of order in their arrangement. The desire, however, of acting candidly sets me above any anxiety the whisper of vanity can create in me. A. HUMBOLDT. These papers (the Lectures) were to have been shown to Pro- fessor Hegel, in consequence of a report that had reached him, that Humboldt had allowed expressions hostile to philosophy to creep into them. * The well-known physician at Paris, one of Eahel's correspondents.— TR. IV. HlJMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 1 5th April, 1828. Might I disturb you to-day for a few moments, be- tween a quarter past two and three, to ask for advice in a literary matter. My book is to be called "Entwurf einer PhysischenWeltbeschreibung" ("Outlines of a Physical Description of the World") . I wished upon the title to have indicated the special occasion of the Lectures, and at the same time to have insinuated that I was giving more than the Lectures contained, and matter of another kind. " From Eecollections of Lectures in the years 1827 and 1828, by Al. v. Humboldt," has, I understand, been found absurdly pretentious. I give it up with all my heart ; but " Souvenirs d'un Cours de Physique du Monde," " Souvenirs d'un Voy- age en Perse," appear to me unobjectionable. How am I to manage the title — " Outlines of a Phys. D., by A. v. H." (" re-written on the occasion of Lectures," or, " partly re- written from Lectures") ? All these have a clumsy look. Adverbs are out of place in title- pages. How would it be if I were to add in small print, " part of this work was the subject of Lectures, in the years 1827 and 1828 ?" That's long, and then the verb ! " On occasion," is perhaps better. I trust to your ingenuity. I am sure you will help me out of this maze. Yours sincerely, attached and obedient, A. HUMBOLDT. Note ly Varnhagen. — It was I myself, who had, at the table of Prince Augustus, criticised the first title he mentions; Hum- holdt had heard of it through Beuth. B 2 V. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 3rd April, 1829. I shall call, that I may thank you in person ; that I may enjoy for some few moments the pleasure of your return, and congratulate you on the favourable im- pression your new official activity* has produced every- where ; and that in the present unfortunate state of my family affairs, I may entreat pardon from your highly gifted wife, whose friendship is so dear to me. The King never allows a book to be presented to him,- — not even by Prince Wittgenstein. It must take the ordinary course. I will, however, recommend itf very, very strongly to Albrecht. J I am done up, and am off in a week. Friday. A. HT. VI. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 26th April, 1830. This moment returned from Potsdam, I find your valued letters and delightful present. " Zinzendorf"§ will be a source of great pleasure to me. The book displays as peculiar a character as Lavater or Car- dan. The new pietistic fever which lee/ an (p. 22) to * Varnhagen was at this time sent as Envoy Extraordinary to Kassel, having been absent from the political arena since 1819, in consequence of the great offence taken by the Court of Berlin at the liberal tendencies dis- played by him during his diplomatic position at the Court of Baden from 1816.— TR. f One of Ranke's works. \ Secretary to Altenstein, Minister of State for Educational and Ecclesias- tical Affairs ; formerly Cabinet Councillor under Baron Stein. — TR. § A biographical memoir, by Varnhagen, of Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the famous Moravian settlement of Herrnhut. — TR. rage at Halle has made me smile. Your conclusion of the work is full of dignity and grace. I am delighted to hear that you are kind enough to wish to keep my " Cri de Petersbourg," a parody delivered before the Court— a hasty two nights' work, an attempt at flattery without servility — at talking of things as they should be. As you, and my dear old friend your gifted wife, take an interest in all my good fortune, I must tell you that the King is sending me to the Emperor,* during the Session of the Diet. I shall probably travel with the Crown Prince, who is to fetch the Empress to the rendezvous at Fischbach.f Yours, A. HT. Let us hope Zinzendorf's letters to the Saviour were more legible than this scrawl ! VII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 9th July, 1830. I trust you, and your excellent and accomplished wife, will allow me on the eve of my departure, to offer you my warmest thanks for your new and highly ac- ceptable present, f I was not personally acquainted with the man whose peculiarities you so thoughtfully develope. He was one of those who owe their distinc- tion to their individuality, and attain to greater conse- quence by their actions than through their writings. Such a character excites my wonder as a curiosity — a * Nicholas of Russia. The Russian Diet is meant. — TJR. t A country seat of the King of Prussia, in Silesia.— TR. J " Memoirs of John Benjamin Erhard, Philosopher and Physician." By K. A. Varnhagen von Ense. Stuttgart and Tubingen, Cotta. 1830. man who fancies that his recollections extend to the first year of his life (the Margravine's estimate was different : J'etais un enfant tres precoce ; a deux ans je savais parler, a trois ans je mar chats!), — has, like Cardan, a Familiar in a black cloak,* — soberly makes love to old maids, only to convert them to virtue and literature, — and who looks upon the fate of German professors under German princes as more tragical than that of the Greeks. The " Church Gazette "f will not number him among believers ; and the Schimmelmanns, \ my friend, will not give you much thanks for a book which recalls the Saturnalia of a sentimental Danish-Holstein mob. I am delighted beyond measure that you are going to take Harden- berg§ in hand — a difficult, but grateful, task, if you can only discriminate between the various epochs, and party spirit will, for once, be quiet. Even in Hegel's case it seems at last, to my great joy, -to be silenced in the Academy. Most gratefully yours, Friday. A. HuMBOLDT. We find the following entry in Varnhagen's Diary, under the above date : — "After the Revolution of July, Alexander von Humboldt said * Erhard was under the impression, as related in the work of Varnhagen, that he was attended and guarded by a supernatural being who always appeared to him wearing a black cloak or cape. Jerome Cardan, the dis- tinguished physician and astrologer, entertained a similar opinion, as has been also the case with many celebrated persons in ancient and modern times, from Socrates to our own day. — TR. f The " Church Gazette " is the ultra- Lutheran paper, edited by Dr. Hengstenberg. — TR. J The noble family of the Schimmelmanns, one of whom was a Minister of State, were great friends of Humboldt and of the Varnhagen family. — TR. § Hardenberg, Chancellor of State from 1810 to 1822. The memoir alluded to in the text seems never to have been published. — TR. to Gans,* who entertained extremely sanguine hopes with reference to the new Government : ' Believe me, my dear Mend, my wishes coin- cide with your own ; but I have very feeble hopes. I have watched the change of dynasties in Paris for the last forty years. Each has fallen from its own incapacity. Fresh promises are always ready to take the place of their predecessors ; but they never are fulfilled, and the same ruinous course is entered on anew. I have known, and, indeed, in some instances, "been intimate with most of the men of the day. Among them were some of distinguished talent and the best inten- tions, but they did not last. Sometimes they were no better than their predecessors, and often turned out even greater rogues. No Government has as yet kept faith with the people ; none has looked on its own interests as of subordinate importance to the public good. Until that happens no power will be permanently established in France. The nation has always been deceived, and now will be deceived again. Then again, too, will it punish these frauds and tricks, and for that it is already ripe and strong.' " VIII. VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT. Berlin t ^rd January, 1833. Of course it was me your Excellency lately met in the full blaze of a noonday sun. Unfortunately I recognised you too late, as you also were too late in recognising me. Fain would I have hurried after you, but a pace rapid enough to have overtaken you would have been unsuitable in my present state. I wanted at the time to have mentioned to your Excellency a cir- cumstance connected with Baron Billow, f in London. * Edward Gans born 1798, died 1839 ; Professor of Law at the University of Berlin, and representative of the Hegelian School of Philosophy. He en- joyed a great reputation for conversational power. — TR. f Baron Billow was the son-in-law of Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Prussian Minister in London from 1827 to 1841. He is called here daring by Varn- hagen, because, contrary to his instructions, he cultivated the friendship of the Whigs, and especially of Palmerston ; the danger alluded to was his impending recall, and replacement by Bunsen. — TR. 8 The news was fresh at the time, from a perfectly reliable source, and probably new even to you. It was an expres- sion of the King's to the effect that the danger in which that daring ambassador was involved might be considered as blown over. Since then your Excellency has had the news from all sides, and my story is out of date. At last we Prussians have got a general popular representation, or rather we have had it this long while, only we did not know it. My Lord Bishop Eylert* has opened our eyes and spoken the great word first — a second Mirabeau that, in lucidity of thought and boldness of expression. I can fancy not only the " Rittersaal," but the whole Schloss, trembling as those mighty words thundered in the Assembly, — " The re- presentation of the whole nation, of all estates and inte- rests is — the "Ordensfest" (Chapter Anniversary !)f I bow with reverence and admiration before this colossal audacity, this new, unheard-of combination, whereby the miserable Institutions which hitherto have passed cur- rent as the representative Institutions of Europe, whether as Parliaments, Chambers, States-General, Cortes and the like, were hurled back again into their nothing- ness. I have heard the orator only through the dumb mouth of the " State Grazette." But your Excellency was doubtless present, and you surely pity me, and say as of old was said when a speech of Demosthenes was read, " Oh, if you had only heard the man deliver it !" To have witnessed the approving smile, the gracious satisfaction, and the cheerful glances of the as- * Eulemann Friedrich Eylert, an evangelical bishop and author of a " Life of Friedrich Wilhelm III."— TR. f The Ordensfest was the anniversary meeting of the Chapters of the Orders of the Black and Red Eagle.— TR. 9 tounded audience must still further have heightened the effect. Oh, our Protestant parsons ! They are speeding on a goodly road, and bid fair to yield in nothing to their Catholic brethren, even in the days when priestcraft was fullblown ! A canting black-coat, such as this, makes us the laughing-stock of Europe. Constitu- tion or no Constitution, granted or denied, does not for the moment trouble me, but that the fel- low should try to palm off this " Ordensfest " upon us as a substitute for it, — is a piece of impudence that deserves to be rewarded with the madhouse or the gaol. And yet there's not a song, a street-ballad, or a cari- cature to lash such unseemliness ! All is still ! And now, as it is time for bed, I will lay me down, wishing pleasant dreams to you and to myself. "With the deepest respect, &c., &c., &c. V. (Compare A. v. Humboldt's Note to Eahel of 1st Feb. 1833.) IX. HUMBOLDT TO EAHEL. Berlin, 1st February, 1833. That I answer you thus early, dear madam, bodes no good. In this country, if anything is to come to maturity, it must last for fourteen months. There is then hope for it. The letter, which I beg of you not to leave in your friend's hands, will tell you all. At first, all was kind and interested attention, both when I spoke and when I wrote ; but this morning the very charming drawings were returned. The word that is underlined* might leave me still some hope, but I * Underlined in the letter to which allusion is made. — TR. 10 prefer deceiving myself to deceiving others, and the decision of Beuth's* character, with whom alone in this matter the decision rests, forbids all hope. That I have advocated most actively the views you en- tertain needs no proof. That ought to be with you an historical credo. Oh, that you could give me a word of consolation as to my. dear friend Yarnhagen, the only polished pillar of the literature (in the nobler acceptation of the term) of our Country, " since," as says the bishop with the drawn sword, " the most distinguished talents, as such, deserve no distinction." There is nothing to wonder at in such a thing being said ; but what is especially sad in it, appears to me to be the baseness of the society in which one lives here, and which is not even excited by such unworthy state- ments. Gruard carefully, both of you, your better nature. A. H. X. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 3rd February, 1833. I am infinitely grateful and deeply affected by your beautiful letter. Grace and euphony of language ought always, as here, to accompany grace of manner. My brother, who was here for two days, but mostly at the beck and call of princes, — who have the privilege of asking without being denied, — commissions me to tell you, my dear friend, how sensible he is of your flatter- ing offer ; but he is so much engaged in printing his quarto, on the Asiatic languages akin to the San- * Peter Christian Wilhelm von Beuth, Privy Councillor, Director of the Department of Commerce, Trade, and Public Buildings of the Ministry of Finance from 1821 to 1845.— TR. 11 skrit, that he cannot accept it, albeit he considers it of very great importance. He wishes, for the sake of the great man who is now no more,* that you should undertake the task. I am grieved to hear that you and your gifted wife have but a fragment of health between you, which you courteously lend to one another — a kind of mutual instruction, or Azais-com- pensation,t which I very much lament. I have re- ceived a long letter from Mme. de Cotta.J It appears she is likely to take upon herself the publication of the "Allgemeine Zeitung," another anti-salic move- ment. How strange that at certain times one prin- ciple pervades the entire world 1 The revival of faiths of yore ; the inextinguishable yearning after peace ; the mistrust of all improvement ; the hydrophobia of all talent ; the enforced uniformity of creeds ; diplo- matic love of protocols — car dines rerum. A. HT. Note of Vwnhagen. — I had answered, in consequence of Rahel's indisposition, in her name, the letter which had been addressed to her on the 1st, and in the postscript had expressed a wish that "Willhelm Ton Humboldt might review for the "Jahrbiicher der Kritik,"§ the concluding volume of " Faust," which was then shortly expected to appear. * Goethe. See Varnhagen's note to this letter.—- TR. f Alluding to a work by Azais, "Application des Compensations a la Revolution de 1789." Paris, 1830.— TR. J The widow of the eminent publisher. — TR. § At that time the first literary review in Germany. — TR. 12 XI. HUMBOLDT TO EAHEL. Berlin, 9th February, 1833. I have been with Beuth again to recal to his recol- lection his old friendship for L. He thought it wonld be more to the interest of the family to separate the purely architectural drawings from the mere landscapes and engravings. The architectural were the only ones of use to his institution, and if it were an object to the family, he was prepared to purchase to the extent of some hundred thalers (400 to 500 thalers?) Uninvit- ing as the proposal is, I thought, my dear lady, I might mention it to you. Beuth wishes, in the event of its being entertained, to treat with some one who will call on him at his own house. May the spring-time be- stow on both of you warmth, cheerfulness, and strength. The Byzantine empire (I mean ours here), is seriously divided into two parties, one espousing the cause of Bunsen's " Gresangbuch," the other that of Eisner's "Liederschatz."* The sympathies of the men of the sword and of all the aides-de-camp are with the " Lie- derschatz." I am still undecided. Saturday. A. HT. XII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Saturday, 9th March, 1833. A mind like yours, my noble-hearted friend, requires solitude and calm. It is ever drawing on its own re- * Eisner's " Liederschatz " is a collection of sacred hymns. — TH. 13 sources. Imagine, I only learned the fearful tidings* from Prince Carolath last night. You know how warm, how long-tried, and how indulgent a friend I lose in one who was the ornament of her sex. How amiable I found her, even in the trifling business I had to arrange for her with Beuth ; so familiar with all that is mutable and melancholy in life, and yet so cheerful, so full of serenity. Such powers of mind, and yet so genial, and so full of heart ! The world will long appear to you a dreary waste. To know, however, that you gave to that sweet spirit until it was sighed away, whatever mind and heart and grace of manner, such as yours, my dear Varnhagen, had to give, is, after all, balm for the wound. Take care, I pray you, of your health. A. HUMBOLDT. XIII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 3rd December, 1833. Pardon, a thousand times pardon, that I have been so long in sending you back the classical studies of Friedrich Schlegel. I have read them carefully, * Rahel, of whose death Humboldt is here speaking in terms of such infinite grief, requires some notice in this place. She was the wife of Varn- hagen von Ense, and exercised great influence in Berlin. During the war of freedom, which preceded the Congress of Vienna, her exertions in pro- moting the national cause were unremitting. She accompanied her hus- band to Vienna in 1814, and remained until July, 1815. On her return she threw open her salons, and became the centre of all learning, intelligence, and fashion. Her decease was severely felt, and her husband published, in 1834, a work entitled, " Rahel. Ein Buch des Andenkens fur ihre Freunde." Subsequently, he published the " Galerie von Bildnissen aus Rahel's Umgang" (Two volumes, Leipzig, 1836). — Tn. 14 and am convinced that many of the opinions on the Hellenic age, which the moderns arrogate to themselves, lie buried in Essays prior to 1795 (a Deucalion age !). Angelus Silesius* too, whom I have now for the first time learnt to appreciate, has given great pleasure to us both.f There is an air of piety about it that strikes one like the breath of genial spring, and the mysterious hieroglyphics of our late friend render your gift doubly dear tome. Spiker,j in announcing Oltmann's§ death, has committed the very extraordinary error of mis- taking a genitive for a signature, "Alexander von Humboldt's Astronomical Observations." I shall let it stand without putting it right. Your old and attached friend, A. HUMBOLDT. XIV. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 'Berlin, 9th December, 1833. I send you, my dear friend, a few lines from the amiable Duchess of Dessau. Every kind allusion to our (Eahel) must be dear to your heart. Sunday. A. V. HUMBOLDT. * Johann Schemer, otherwise known as Angelus Silesius, born in 1624, a physician at Breslau ; afterwards became a convert to popery, and a priest. He was chiefly known by his religious and mystic poems, and died 1677. One of the most important of his works is the " Cherubische Wandersmann." Humboldt, in the letter above, alludes to the work published by Varnhagen at this time — which he had just received — in which. Varnhagen had given extracts from Silesius. It is entitled, " Ausziige aus Angelus Silesius und Saint Martin" (von K. A. Varnhagen von Ense), Berlin, 1834. — TR. f Meaning himself and his brother Wilhelm. — TR. J Editor and proprietor of a popular newspaper at Berlin.— -TR. § Jabbo Oltmann, deceased 1833, a German astronomer. — TR. 15 Dessau, 1st December, 1833. Accept my best thanks for the books you sent me. Each of them interested me in its own way. I lament not to have known " Rah el " personally, the more so, as having clearly realized her inner self, I would fain have made acquaintance with her outward form, and recognised in it the working of the germ within. FUEDERIKA, Duchess of Anhalt. Still full of wonder about E., " the book of all books." May I ask you, my dear friend, for Friedrich Schlegel's complete works — say the third volume ? XV. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 19th December, 1833. Prevented by the tedious, restless life at Court from personally informing myself as to my friend's health, I am driven, alas ! to writing to beg you will kindly send me back the letter of the Duchess of Dessau, con- taining the kind expressions about our dear beatified friend. A. v. HUMBOLDT. Thursday. • XVI. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 27 October, 1834. I am going to press with my work, — the work of my life. The mad fancy has seized me of representing in a single work the whole material world, — all that is known to us of the phenomena of heavenly space and 16 terrestrial life, from the nebulae of stars to the geograph- ical distribution of mosses on granite rocks, and this in a work in which a lively style shall at once inter- est and charm. Each great and important principle, wherever it appears to lurk, is to be mentioned in connection with facts. It must represent an epoch in the mental development of man as regards his know- ledge of nature. The Prolegomena are nearly ready, containing, — The inaugural Lecture (discours d'ouver- ture) entirely recast (I delivered it viva voce, but dic- tated it the same day) ; the picture of Nature ; induce- ments to the pursuit of Natural Philosophy to be found in the spirit of the age ; which are threefold : 1 . Poesie descriptive, and vivid pictures of scenery in modern tra- vels ; 2. Landscape-painting, visible representations of exotic life, — its origin, — when it became a necessity of life and a source of exquisite delight ; why the ancients, with their desire to gratify the senses, could not have possessed it; 3. The vegetable kingdom, classification according to the characteristics of the plants (not botanical garden fashion) ; the history of the physical description of the World ; how the idea of the Universe — of the connection between all phenomena has been becoming clear to different nations in the course of centuries. These Prolegomena form the most impor- tant part of the work, and contain, first, the general heads. They are followed by the special part, com- prehending the detail (I enclose part of a tabulated list) : Space — the physics of Astronomy — the solid portion of the globe— its interior and exterior — the electro-magnetism of the interior — Vulcanism, i.e., the reaction of the interior of a planet upon its sur- face— the arrangement of matter — a short Geognosy 17 — sea — atmosphere — climate — organic life — distribu- tion of plants — distribution of animals — races of man — languages, — and so on, to show that their physical organisation (the articulation of sound) is governed by intelligence (the produce and manifestation of which is speech). In the special part all statistical results, as exact as in Laplace's " Exposition du Systeme du Monde." As these details are not capable of being treated from a literary point of view, in the same way as the general combinations of natural science, the pure facts will be stated in short sentences arranged almost tabularly, so that the student, in a few pages, may find under the head of Climate, Terrestrial Magnetism, &c., results, in a condensed form, which it would take many years of study to acquire. Uniformity of style, (i.e., harmony in the whole as a literary production) will be attained by short introductions to each chapter in the special part. Ottfried Miiller has followed this plan with great success in his admirably-written work on Archaeology. I wanted you, my dear friend, to have from me per- sonally a clear idea of my undertaking. I have not succeeded in compressing the whole into one volume ; and yet it would have left the grandest impression in that abbreviated form. I hope two volumes will include the whole. No foot-notes, but notes at the end of each chapter, which may be passed over, but contain sound erudition and additional details. The whole is not what has hitherto been commonly called " Physical Description of the Earth," as it comprises all created things — Heaven and Earth. I began it in French fif- teen years ago, and called it " Essai sur la Physique du Monde." In Germany I intended at first to call it c 18 " Buch von der ISTatur," after those we have in the middle ages by Albertus Magnus. All these, however, are too vague. My title at present is " Kosmos : Out- lines of a description of the physical World, by A. v. H. ; enlarged from Sketches of Lectures delivered by him in 1827 and 1828. Gotta." I wanted to add the word "Kosmos," to force people indeed to call the book so, in order to avoid their speaking of it as H.'s physical description of the earth, and so throwing it into the class of such writers as Mitterpacher.* Weltbe- schreibung (description of the World), a term analogous to Weltgeschichte (history of the World), would, as an unusual word, be confounded with Erdbeschreibung (history of the earth). I know that Kosmos is very grand, and not without a certain tinge of affectation ; but the title contains a striking word, meaning both heaven and earth, and stands in contrast to the "Graa" (that rather indifferent earthy book of Professor Zeune, a true Erdbeschreibung). My brother, too, is for the title " Kosmos ;" I was long in doubt about it. Now; my dear friend, for my request ! I cannot make up my mind to send away the beginning of my manu- script without begging you to cast a critical glance over it. You have yourself so great a faculty in respect of grace of style, and are at once so talented and independ- ent, that you will not hastily condemn phrases for being peculiar or differing from your own. Be kind enough to read the Address, and add a sheet, writing on it, — "I should prefer to ," without giving any reasons. Do not, however, find a fault with- * Ludwig Mitterpacher, the author of a work entitled " Anfangsgrunde der Physischen Astronomic," Vienna, 1781 (Principles of Celestial Mechanics). — TR. 19 out helping me to mend it ; and put me at my ease about the title. Yours very faithfully, Monday. A. V. HlJMBOLDT. The besetting sins of my style are, an unfor- tunate propensity to poetical expressions, a long par- ticipial construction, and too great concentration of various opinions and sentiments in the same sentence. I think that these radical evils, inevitable as they are from the construction of my mind, will be diminished by strict simplicity and generalisation which exist beside it (a soaring, if I may be vain enough to say so, above observed results). A book on Nature ought to produce an impression like Nature herself. The point, however, to which I have especially, as in my "Aspects of Nature/3 paid attention, and in which my style differs entirely from Forster and Chateaubriand, is this, that I have endeavoured in description to be trutJiful, distinct, nay even scientifically accurate, without get- ting into the dry atmosphere of abstract science. XVII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 28th October, 1834. You have comforted and cheered me by your kind letter, and still kinder care. You have entered thoroughly into the spirit in which I have approached my task ; only the expression of my affectionate con- fidence— an evidence of the extent to which your talent is appreciated by the Humboldt family — has made you too indulgent and complimentary. Your remarks c 2 20 exhibit a degree of nicety, good taste, and penetration, that makes the alteration of it a work of positive pleasure to me. I have made use of all, at least almost all — nineteen -twentieths and more. One is always a little obstinate about what one has originally written one's self. I beg you a thousand pardons for sending you some pages, which (in the new matter towards the end of the Address) I had not looked through. Some of the phrases were completely en- tangled. You must allow me, one of these days, to thank in person. I will then show you the correc- tions at the end of the Address. I should have been happy, could I have shown our (Eahel) some of these pictures of travel. Yours most gratefully, A. v. HUMBOLDT. If only we had, in German, a book of synonyms as good and as simply arranged as the one I send you, and which I have no doubt you are not acquainted with ! It was recommended to me by the Abbe Delisle, as saving a vast deal of time in the event of one's having to look for an equivalent. You see at once the word which may be substituted. I will call for the book. XVIII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, Sunday, 6 A.M. 5th April, 1835. You, my dear Varnhagen, who do not shrink from pain, and who, even sympathetically, trace and con- 21 template it in the depths of the heart ; you must in this sad time receive some words of affection which both brothers offer you. His release is not yet come. I left him at eleven last night, and am now hastening to him again. Yesterday was a less trying day. A state of semi- stupor, much tolerably calm sleep, and each time he woke, words of love and comfort — the clearness of that great mind that grasps and analyses everything — turned inward on itself. His voice was very feeble, husky, and of a childish treble, for which reason leeches were again applied to his throat. Perfect consciousness ! ! " Think of me very often," he had said the day before ; " but mind you do so cheerfully. I was very happy ; and to-day has been another happy day for me, for love is the highest good of all. Soon I shall be with our mother, and gain insight into the higher and better order of things." I have not a shadow of hope left. I never had be- lieved these old eyes had so many tears left. It has lasted now a week.* XIX. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 5th May, 1835, I have, alas ! been so haunted by a host of princely visitors, so hurried along by the blast, cold, yet un- refreshing,. that I could not find time to thank you for Bollmannf and my late (brother's) biography. I * Wilhelm von Humboldt died at Tegel, 6 P.M., 8th April, 1835. f The memoir written concerning Justus Erich Bollrnann, by Varnhagen, 22 was not then mistaken as regards the latter, in which I had already recognised your handiwork, and the censor's " teachings up," when the " State Gazette" fell into my hands. One should take care not to speak in such papers about men of mark, even with talent such as yours ; the problem is a difficult one to solve, what with the family, the censor, and a public — cold as ice. The name of Mundt^ reminds me of some very remarkable pages in his Madonna, on the pro- pensity of Germans to give way to strong but indistinct feelings in contemplating nature. There is much truth in these observations, and I thought I read in them a condemnation of myself. So much, my dear friend, about this world, now desolate for us both. Most gratefully yours, A. HUMBOLDT. I must say, I am sorry you do not wish to see the Grand-Duchess. XX. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 6th May, 1835. I return you the parts forwarded to me, as they (see " Denkwurdigkeiten," vol. iv.) is here alluded to. This person was a Hanoverian, known chiefly for an unsuccessful though daring attempt to liberate Lafayette from the fortress of Olmiitz in 1791. He subsequently lived in England and the United States, where he was engaged in mercantile and financial speculations ; died at Kingston, Jamaica, whither he had gone on a mission connected with the Barings. — TK. * Theodor Mundt, an author of some note, attached to the literary school of Young Germany, one of the curators of the Eoyal Library at Berlin. The title of the book alluded to is "Madonna. Unterhaltungen mit einer Heiligen," .Leipzig, 1835. It created a sensation at the time, and manifests talents of no mean order, but grotesqueness and want of reality preponderate in it. — TR. 23 might make a break in your series. I was personally intimate with almost all the people whom Bollmann so vividly and truly depicts. We see how he him- self rises as he advances in life, and becomes engaged in more important affairs. Strange line of life — medecin de sametage. I have now formed a better opinion of him through you; for, without being able to get at the real cause, I found, these last few years, that Bollmann was not popular in Lafayette's family. A. HT. XXI. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, Saturday, 2,3rd May, 1835. If, my dear friend, the " Morgenblatt "* of the 18th May falls into your hands, be kind enough to cast a glance at a not altogether agreeable article, " Wilhelm von Humboldt's Burial." My brother is there repre- sented as dying, deserted by his family. To such misrepresentations, however, I pay little attention. I want now to guess what that other thing is which, like music, my brother " knew nothing of, and which one cannot call by its right name." Is that God, or some sort of profligacy ? I know of no such saying of his. Do try, my dear friend, to find out how the sen- tence is interpreted by the public. My brother's re- tirement, too, from political life was so universally known that it seems extraordinary to say they do not know whether he was to blame for it ? You see how gladly I avail myself of your acuteness and affec- * The "Morgenblatt," at this time one of the leading literary- papers of Germany. — TR. 24 tion, for supplying my own deficiency in respect of the former. Yours most gratefully, A. HUMBOLDT. XXII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 28th March, 1836. A mind like yours, my generous friend, is able to devise in its tenderness and its vigour a justification for all. I am therefore not afraid, after so long an absence, and a winter cut up by princely attendances and festivities, to come before you this morning with a request. You are the only man in this town, poor in tone and intellectually desolate as it is, who dis- plays a soul for the measured expression of sorrowful sentiment and for harmony of style. May I beg of you to cast a critical glance over the accompanying sheets.* Einging the changes of laudation for forty individuals has been an odious style- destroy ing neces- sity. It was settled who were to be invited to the high table. I think, too, that I have saved myself rather cleverly by certain individual hints, and a graduated panegyric. I beg you will allow me to call to-day towards eleven to fetch the sheets for which the printer is in a hurry, and to profit by any obser- vations you may be disposed to make. If necessary, I will alter sous votre dictee at your house. It would be an act of charity if you would receive me by your bedside. Yours, with deep respect, Monday. A. HUMBOLDT. I shall call at eleven. * Preface to Wilhelm von Hutnboldt's work on the Kawi language. — Tn. 25 On the llth May, 1836, Varnhagen wrote in his Diary: "Alexander von Humboldt called on me quite early this morning, and stayed an hour and a half. The French princes, who arrived here to-day, furnished the chief subject of conversation. The perplexity of the King is not small. He wishes to show his guests every attention, and at the same time to make these attentions appear at St. Petersburg as incivilities. Ancillon,* the minister, has not yet ventured to tell the Crown-prince the real object of this journey. He has left it to chance to inform him of it. Our princes were -greatly enraged, and railed at the unwelcome visit. The Princesses Auguste and Marie, who spoke favourably of it, got hard words. There was a talk of a row in the theatre ; some people, it was said, would applaud, but it was hoped far more would hiss them. An incident of the kind has already occurred on their passage through Treves. Our princes, however, in spite of any feeling of their own to the contrary, will, in com- pliance with the King's desire, which has been very plainly intimated to them, be extremely polite. The Queen of the Netherlands, who happens to be here just now, and who was believed to be most hostile to them, sets a good example, and announces her intention of receiving the visitors at her house. The ambassador, M. Bressonf and Baron Humboldt, had previously advised against the visit. That it has now become an accomplished fact appears to have been brought about by Prince Metternich, who, wanting the good offices of France in Eastern affairs, and at the same time wishing to give no offence to Russia, puts Prussia forward, as, after her example, the reception of the French princes at Vienna will be a matter of course. The affair may certainly be called an event, and one likely to ex- * Friedrich Ancillon, born 1767, at this time Prussian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He published several works connected with states- manship and history. In politics his views were moderate, as may be per- ceived by his work entitled " Ueber den Geist der Staatsverfassungen und dessen Einfluss auf die Gesetzgebung " (Berlin, 1825). — TE. f Count Charles Bresson, Peer of France, born 1798, from an early age destined for diplomacy. He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to the Court of Berlin in 1832, and continued there as Minister Plenipotentiary. About the end of 1832, it was his diplomatic skill alone, which prevented war between France and Prussia. Louis Philippe created him a Count and Peer of France in 1837, in consequence of his successful negotiations in reference to the marriage of the Duke of Orleans. — TR. 26 ercise great influence on people's minds and views — a fact obvious to every one. Our Court, every one must think, either has not the principles it has hitherto appeared to have, or it is too weak to maintain them, and is forced to feign others. In both cases bad !" XXIII. HUMBOLDT TO YATINHAGEN. Berlin, 31st May, 1836. The following refers to an article, attributed to Major von Eado- witz, in the " Allgemeine Zeitung," in which Baron Raumer's work (" Letters on England") had been unfavourably reviewed. The writer of these letters* must have had little to fear from any of Frailty's trumped-up charges. In his (Kadowitz's) general opinion ahout the shallowness and tameness of this " man of vast historical research/' I quite agree. Besides, von Eaumer reads as if one were smarting under the corporal's rattan, and that is a thing I cannot stand, and will not forgive. XXIV. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. t, 24 April, 1837. It is a great consolation that in this city, intel- lectually deserted (how brilliant it was in Eahel's palmy days !), both brothers are still living in the memory of him in whom alone sound sense, delicate moral feeling, and elegance of diction have survived. * Eaumer, in these letters, had discussed, in rather unnecessary detail, the relative morality of the cooks and maid-servants in London and Berlin. — TR. 27 All my searches to-day for the separate impression of the Essay were fruitless. I have not even, I find, the special volume of the Academy for 1822, as I was then living in Paris. But this I will bring you in a few days. I will also show you the list of all my brother's posthumous works, which I have been at some pains to prepare, and which you, perhaps, will enlarge. Cotta will print them all, as well as the eight hundred sonnets and the religious poems from Spain, which are also as yet unprinted. I work with pious devotion at the arrangements for this Edition, so that I may die in peace before its completion. How could I ever have suspected you, dear friend, of wanting to exhibit me at the excellent Princess's, to make a Sontag of me, in fact (after the precedent adopted in the drawing-room of the Princess Belgio- joso) ! I shall be happy to lecture to a small circle of from twelve to fifteen persons, certainly not otherwise, because Berlin is a little, illiterate, and over- spiteful town, and would call it absurd if I were to have a third performance, after already having had two, unfor- tunately so public ; and, besides that, I am happily no Sontag in Berlin, and the lecture can, therefore, be very properly kept a secret de comedie. "You will be charitable enough to treat the matter in my view of it, and not to blame me. With all respect, yours, A. v. H. 28 XXV. HUMBOLDT TO THE PRINCESS VON PlJCKLER. J'arrive la iiuit meme de Potsdam et j'accepte avec plaisir 1'aimable offre de Madame la Princesse pour demain mercredi soir a huit heures precises, car le spectacle dure une lieure. Je crains de prendre jeudi, vu 1'incertitude des perturbations planetaires. Toutes les personnes que vous voulez bien choisir, me sont agreables, je prierais seulement Madame la Princesse de ne pas inviter Bauch, Gaiis, et M. et Mad. Kiihle parceque deja ils ont passe* par cet ennui. M. de Varnhagen ajoutera qui il voudra. Eien ne surpasse le tact qu'il.a pour deviner qui pourrait avoir quelque indulgence a m'entendre. Mille respectueux et affec- tueux hommages. AL. HUMBOLDT. Ce mardi 2 Mai 1837. XXVI. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. (No date.) I called, my dear friend, for two reasons: — 1. To bring you the opus of Minister Kamptz* (" Casus in ter- minis," 25 copies printed), which, perhaps, you have not yet seen, and which called forth another very violent one from the late Minister of Mecldenburg- Strelitz, Von Oertzen, of scalded memory. f How one may be hoaxed you may read, p. 30 and line 2, 2. To ask you not to laugh at me if, to-morrow, you are invited to a lecture at the Princess's. I vow to * " Der Demagogen Verfolger." — TR. t Von Oertzen was literally scalded to death in a vapour bath. — TR. 29 you that vanity (although I am by no means free from that) has less to do with this step than indecision of character and good nature. I thought myself obliged to give the Princess this gratification — her daughter, too, urged me strongly, and she showed me a harmless list of ten persons. If you wish to propose, or bring with you, one or more friends, I have no objection ; but no one, mind, who has already heard me. Your friends are mine. I can look for indulgence from them. I maintain that a man is not altogether without merit, if, after having spent his life among figures and stones, he has given himself the trouble to learn to write Grerman. Y"ours, AL. HT. I hope also to be able to get you the violent pamphlet of the Strelitz Minister, in which there is much more wit (i. e. than in that of Kamptz). Varnhagen in his Diary of 3rd May, 1831, remarks: "In the evening the long-talked-of lecture of Baron Humboldt, at the Princess von Piickler's. The lecture was very fine, and made a very favourable impression. I spoke to General von Riihle* about Humboldt' s character; he entirely agreed with me, 'that we shall never know what we have possessed in him until he is dead.' " Baron Humboldt was with me yesterday, and brought me the little pamphlet (of which only twenty-five copies were printed), of Minister von Kamptz, ' Casus in terminis,' in which he places the change of dynasty in France in the best light, and justifies the Mecklenburg marriage. This was so contrary to his former princi- ples that I said to him at once, ' If he could see his double we should have him imprisoning himself.' There are plenty of persons still who oppose the marriage. Duke Charles of Mecklenburg- * General von Ruble, geographer and cartographer. — TR. 30 Strelitz has regularly intrigued to prevent it, and tried to form an alliance in the Mecklenburg and Prussian families — an alliance and a pledge against all marriages with the house of Orleans. In fact, there was some talk of a formal protest against it. All this in most violent opposition to the expressed sentiments of the King. Duke Charles is now really ill, from vexation and annoyance, not only at this, but other matters." XXVII. HlJMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, Wth May, 1837. At length, my dear friend, I can send you the Part of the Academy's Transactions, which contains the important Treatise on History. I will, soon exchange with you this part, which I have borrowed, for another, which you shall keep. It appears there have never been any separate impressions of it taken. You dis- appeared so suddenly from the last performance, that I greatly fear your leaving the house on that eventful day was merely a sacrifice on my account. I am eternally oscillating between Potsdam and Berlin. To-morrow again to Potsdam, where (on the 16^) we are expecting the amiable Princess,* who has thrown discord into the whole Hellenic camp, and whom they will now be delighted to find not pretty enough "by far." Most gratefully yours, Wednesday. A. HuMBOLDT. Je savais depuis longtemps que le General Bugeaud ne parlait pas fran£ais, je vois k present que sa veritable * Helene, Princess of Mecklenburg - Schwerin, afterwards Duchess of Orleans. 31 langue est le Mongol. What a Timour-like pro- clamation that of the armee civilisatrice !* My brother's Essay is, as regards language, one of the most finished of his productions. " Grod governs the world. The problem of history is to trace out these eternally secret decrees " (p. 317). That is, after all, the result ; and as to this result I have at times, I will not say quarrelled, but had discussions with my brother. It is a result which at any rate falls in with the oldest sentiment of all, and one which has found utterance in every human tongue. My brother's treatise is a commentary on this vague feeling, de- veloping, interpreting, and eulogising it. In the same way the physiologist assumes so-called vital powers, in order to explain organic phenomena, because his knowledge of the physical powers, which operate on so-called inanimate nature, are insufficient to ex- plain this play of living organisations. Does that prove vital powers to exist ? I know you will be angry with me, because you opine that the leading idea of this glorious treatise does not give me entire satisfaction. *> XXVIII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Wednesday, 17th May, 1837. You have prepared me a great treat, my much- honoured friend. I hope these " Observations on the Art of Historical Writing " will one day be added to a new part of your excellent minor works. The brain grows dizzy as one watches the profusion in which * The proclamation by which Marshal Bugcaud initiated his command in Algiers. — TR. 32 materials are borne in upon us from fresh sources in every land. You show us how such matter may be subordinated to mind. A thousand years hence, and things will be much simpler. Nations have been able to preserve their individuality in spite of the march of armies from one end of the Continent to the other. Since the great epoch of Columbus and Grama, when one quarter, nay, one hemisphere, of the globe made acquaintance with the other, that restless element, the sea, has made the ubiquity of a certain species of civilization, that of Western Europe, a possibility. Across each boundary line of the firm earth new man- ners, new beliefs, new wants force their way among the most isolated clusters of remote lands. Are not the South .Sea Islands already Protestant parishes? A floating battery, a single man-of-war, changes the fate of Chili The Princess Helene, by her sweet grace and intel- lectual superiority, achieved, yesterday, the mastery over much rude and stubborn matter. It was most absurd to see how some people strove to look solemn, dignified, and — silly. I am especially delighted that she goes to her new home with the greatest cheerfulness. I wish she were crossing the Ehine with a less retinue. Her mother is a worthy, well- educated lady, but timid ; and as to the others who figure in her suite, there would be no great loss if they remained on this side the stream. Fortunately, the great Trench world is free from the petty jeering and fault-finding which reign paramount in Berlin and Potsdam, where empty-headed folk keep pecking for months together at a caricature drawn by their own feeble imagination. 33 I admitted Privy Councillor Miiller,* (who appre- ciates you and your productions,) to a share in my enjoyments. But, lawyer-like, he went off upon the very first sheet, No. 63 (" Eezension des Provincial- rechts von Groetze").f Would you, my dear friend, send me the first part of that review for Miiller ? Very gratefully yours, A. v. HUMBOLDT. XXIX. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Monday, 30th May, 1837. My dear Friend, — The Part of the "Academy's Transactions " is entirely at your disposal until I can send you a copy of it for yourself. The communica- tion you send for our talented friend Gans is par- ticularly agreeable to me. Hegel's historical studies will interest me specially, because till now I have en- tertained a wild prejudice against the theory that every nation must be the representative of some particular idea ; that everything has happened " that it might come to pass " as was written by the philosopher. I shall read it carefully, and shall be quite ready to quit my prejudice. Yours, A. v. HUMBOLDT. * Cabinet Councillor of King Friedrich Wilhelm III.— TR. f Review of the " Treatise on Provincial Law," by Von Goetze. 34 XXX. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Saturday, 1st July, 1837. To-morrow Tegel, and Monday off again to that everlasting watering-place, where the sight of the Prince of Warsaw* will not do much towards cheering up my weary soul ; it is therefore not permitted me personally to present my sincere thanks. " Sophie Charlotte"! and Hegel's " Philosophy of History" will accompany me, and afford me real enjoyment. My own taste will lead me to read you. There is indeed a forest of ideas for me in this Hegel, whom Gaiis, in such masterly style, has reproduced with the full stamp of his great individuality : but to a man like me, — spell- bound, insect-fashion, to earth and the endless variety of natural phenomena which it contains, — a dry theo- retical assertion of utterly false facts and views about America and the Indian world is enslaving and oppres- sive. For all that I do not fail to recognise the grandeur it contains. In you all is at once profound and gentle, and you possess what he wants, never-fading grace and freshness of language. A. HUMBOLDT. I have ordered my life right badly, and am doing all I can to arrive at early stupidity. Gladly would I re- nounce the European beef, which Hegel (p. 77) talks of as being better than the American, and take up my abode with poor weak crocodiles (alas ! they're twenty-five feet long). Pages 442 — 444, our worthy friend has evi- dently been polishing up to make them more palatable. * Prince Paskiewitch.— TR. t A biographical memoir by Varnhagen. — TR. 35 XXXI. HlJMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 4th October, 1837. There are times, my dear friend, when you are pleased to confer durability on fleeting productions of the day, and to preserve what would otherwise be scat- tered to the winds, and so I send you the short Ad- dress which the papers gave in such a mutilated form. The substance of it will please you, even though you may think the language might have been better chosen had it been more thoroughly prepared. The political Hanover I found as you have represented it, and pri- vate conversations with King Ernest full of both rage and fear, have confirmed your view. Leist of Stade,* with his five hours' speech, has, I am told, again been doing honied mischief. Yours, A. HT. Stieglitz'f appearance here was to me like a visit from a ghost. He was Wilhelm's oldest friend, and once saved his life when he was bathing in the Leine. \ (My brother called out to him with unexampled sto- icism, "I'm a dead man, but never mind!"} There's something " uncanny " in the influence of that man's mind. * Leist, Councillor of State, principal adviser of King Ernest Augustus of Hanover in the abrogation of the fundamental law (Grundgesetz) of that kingdom, and of the dismissal of the seven Gottingen professors. — TR. f Stieglitz, born 1767, at Arolsen, died 1840 ; an original writer upon medical subjects, and physician to the King of Hanover. — TR. J The river Leine near Gottingen, where the two friends were students. — TR. D 2 36 XXXII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Saturday, 22nd October, 1837. 2 A.M. After a very depressing stay of nearly a week in Potsdam, I find on my return your affectionate token of remembrance. Accept this very evening, my dear friend, my warmest thanks. You have praised my endeavours — the object of my highest ambition — to avoid fossilization, so long as I am permitted, to be active, and to hold fast the belief that "Nature has laid her curse upon stagnation." Youth is the emblem of Progress, and the ruling powers here (the Berlin world-elephants) sont des monies en service extraordinaire. Good night. A. HUMBOLDT. XXXIII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, Tuesday, ItJi November, 1837. The beginning of my letter is poor : the end of it more rational. But you must not lose the dramatic effect of the whole ! What you ask, my dear friend, is attended with mortal risk, involving, as it does, not only my own feelings, but those of a family who nervously suspect allusions in every word. The more telling and spirited your sketch, particularly at pp. 10 — 15 [" He started from leading principles" . . " What many entirely deny him" . . ], the more unearthly everything appears in this short essay, as the softening element would be implied in the portraiture of a complete and, in the political and 37 literary world, not altogether unimportant life. This more complete portraiture is, however, now impossible ; therefore, my desire will always be to care for his fame by the circulation of his literary works. To omit — to alter anything in this beautiful essay would be to rob it of charm and vigour. You have written the whole in the noblest spirit, but there are passages (Eeineke Fuchs, the relation to Madame de Humboldt) which especially just now are not very pleasant to touch upon. As you expect me frankly to state my indi- vidual impressions, I will record them. They are often merely doubts. P. 5. " A stranger to abstract thought " . . . The term "middle philosophy" refers probably to that of Kant, to which he was most strongly inclined. He especially believed that metaphysics, but of the pre- Hegelian order, was that study of his youth in which he excelled. I merely wish for a closer definition. P. 6. "In the proper sense of the word unproduc- tive "? The philosophy of language, on entirely new principles, spirit of antiquity, treatment of history, depth of feeling in poetry — in all these departments he has not produced any unimportant work. P. 8. " Style downright ice/' Soften this a little. You do so p. 30, where you have the word ' warms.' P. 13. "A reputation is soon gained, and the name Mephistopheles or Eeineke . ." One could wish the two distinguishing names away, as everything in the pre- ceding one is couched in the happiest and liveliest of style. " Mephistopheles " reminds one of Duke Charles. P. 14. This question about heart and the saying of Talleyrand, which I was not acquainted with, and 38 which could only be made sense of by the supposition of an insinuated reproach of political indecision, are rather unpleasant. " C'etait un des homines d'etat dont 1'Europe de mon temps n'en a pas compte trois ou quatre," I have heard from Talleyrand's own lips. P. 15. "What many entirely denied him;" . . . very acute and fine. The old Princess Louisa said of you, " You were most to be feared when you were taking up one's cause." P. 18. My brother often related that Stieglitz saved his life, but the words, which would have appeared boastful in his mouth, I hear now for the first time from Stieglitz. They are very characteristic and true. There is therefore nothing to desire but a word, which shall explain all, and prevent misunderstanding. P. 23. That he had an unbounded admiration for Eahel is very, very true ! P. 28. " Principles of constitutional government." If ever you make use of these papers, my dear friend, make this interpolation : " although at a later period in other articles he has earnestly, in the most decided way, urged the necessity for a constitution founded on a general representation of the people." The limi- tation is needful. I have myself had in my hands his plan for a constitution and system of election, and in these opinions he died. P. 31. Instead of " avarice," too great thriftiness. Once more I read, and being more composed, find it, on the whole, among the best things you have written. Pp. 6, 7, 10—12 ! 13—20, 24—27, 30 ! ! You have reproduced all, yes, nearly all, — and that with infinite 39 kindliness, — which you here and there appeared to have treated rather severely. "II n'y a rien de maudit," said the great painter Gerard, " que de consnlter la famille sur la ressemblance du defunt. II y a de quoi se prendre, telle est leur exigeance ! Us auraient fait bon marche du parent vivant." That's what you will say of me. In conclusion, I ask myself whether I am not, by begging you in the commencement not to print the paper, robbing my tenderly and anxiously beloved brother of a great fame. I sJiould, indeed, be robbing him of fame, for who is there that could write about him with such pene- trating truth and eloquence? What I therefore now wish to sacrifice, and venture to entreat of you, is after all a trifle. With your skill in composition, the change is easily made. I allude to the few lines which in pages 13 and 14 I have underlined; Rahel's opinion (pages 14 and 15) not included. She is always gentle, just, and graceful. Eeceive then, my honoured friend, my warmest, heartfelt thanks. Don't answer this; I shall call on you to-morrow about twelve. Yours, A. HUMBOLDT. • XXXIV. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 9th June, 1838. I arn very happy, my honoured friend, in being able to present you with the only volumes of the great Eussian poet* which have yet appeared. May I call on you to-morrow (Sunday) at one o'clock, that my * Pusclikin. 40 eyes may see the beautiful eyes which have led you, to our literary benefit, into the labyrinth of Scla- vonic languages ? I have called twice on Mr. TL, and as he was not at home, I left a card for him, in addition to which I have written him an affectionate letter, with offers of service for Petersburg (for the jour- ney to Geneva), but have not heard a syllable from him since. Such behaviour in a young man, who but for me would still be sitting at Orenburg as a small Cossack official, is difficult of explanation. Most gratefully yours, A. HT. If I may call don't answer this. XXXV. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 3rd August, 1838. I look upon you, my honoured friend, as the arbiter not only of good taste, but also of grace and aristo- cratic manners. I have written two essays, which have not yet been printed, for Cotta's* new Quarterly pub- lication, with which his advisers are much delighted : a description of the natural features of the plateau of Bogota, and on the fluctuations of the yield of gold since the middle ages. He sent me for the two (making four sheets in print) a draft on Frege for fifty Friedrichs d'or, that is more than twelve Friedrichs d'or per sheet. Much as I want money, I should like to send back half of it ; but in carrying out this resolve, it occurs to me that I ought first to * Deutsche Viertel-Jahrschrift. 41 make inquiries as to what may be now considered the maximum pay for articles in journals, whether six, eight, or ten Friedrichs d'or is customary ; I should then have less to return. It may be of consequence to me at some future time. Pardon this matter-of- fact question, and be indulgent enough to write me in a few days a couple of lines. I am going to-day to the island. HT. In Yarnhagen's Diary, of 9th August, 1838, there is the follow- ing remark : " Humboldt, in a long visit, gave me the news from Toplitz. Both the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Russia have carefully avoided being left alone with each other, as each appre- hended embarrassment from it. The Emperor spoke on several occasions very contemptuously of the present form of Trench govern- ment, and was particularly severe on King Louis Philippe. Prince Metternich was gay and careless ; for the present he was wholly without apprehension, but harboured the gloomy foreboding, that with Louis Philippe's death affairs would take a fresh turn and war would be inevitable. "Will he try to make others think so for the nonce ? I ask. In dealing with Metternich, one must always apply the test of seeing how far any particular opinion fits in for the moment with his position." 9th of April, 1839 — Yarnhagen records in his Diary : " Humboldt called unexpectedly, and made the most profound apologies for not having seen me for so long a time ; and now he emptied out his budget with its thousand bits of news from Paris and from here ; nearly two hours of it. He looks upon affairs in Prance as very critical, and has written to Prince Metternich lately in this spirit, that ' To-day the French crisis is entirely internal, but to-morrow even it may take an outward turn, and how needful will it then be for Germany to bo consolidated in itself, and that the absurdities of Cologne and Hanover should be put an end to.' ?) 42 On the 19th. of April, 1839, Yarnhagen relates in his Diary : " Yisited Humboldt, who told me a great number of things, and showed me a fine portrait of Arago, that pleased me mightily ! He spoke much of the Anglo-Russian complications in the East Indies and Persia, and related to me what he had heard from the mouth of the Russian Emperor himself on the subject. The Emperor was embittered against the English, and thought it of the highest im- portance to counteract their dominion in Asia. Humboldt allows that I am right in saying that a good fifty years must pass away before any real danger' from Russia will threaten the English in the East, but that apprehension and zeal might even, without necessity, produce a conflict in Europe,* before it would come to a collision in that quarter ; both sides, however, would no doubt bethink them- selves before bringing matters to such a pass." On the 25th May, 1839, Yarnhagen writes in his Diary : " Met Humboldt ' Unter den Linden.' "We had a long chat. He told me that people about the Court, the King excepted, who never speaks ill of the dead, and the Crown Prince, who even expressed some regret, had spoken abominably about the death of Gans. The other princes were delighted — the Princess von Liegnitzf spoke most malignantly." XXXVI. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, Monday, 3rd June, 1839. The bookj which you lent me, dear friend, is a precious book, as indeed everything must be called * Humboldt's political insight lias been verified by the events of 1854, when " apprehension and zeal " really brought about a war, the probability of which Russia seemed to have more fully foreseen than England or France.— TR. f The morganatic wife of Friedrich William III. — TR. £ Dorow's " Memoirs and Letters," vol. iii. 43 precious which denotes the individuality of man. My brother's letters are very fine ; his critique on the Chancellor does much honour to his character, and the conclusion, which appears to detract somewhat from the praise he has expressed, conceals a profound political meaning. It may have reference to another grander termination, to which that development of events might have led. I am more especially de- lighted with the recognition of your talent, of your powers of delineation, and the recognition of the rich- ness of soul which (revealed to few) lies in Kanel's letters. Adam Miiller's* aristocratic crotchets and the Princess,! so boorishly natural in her amours, hunch- backed, and therefore sure to be to some degree unchaste, furnish a capital contrast between political and social rubbish : " to save the Fatherland means," says Gentz's j first man, "reinstating the Prussian nobility in its privileges, and leaving it untaxed, in order that after a short negotiation it may present to the monarch its ' don gratuit/ Moreover the man shall remain chained without hope of release to the soil." How the Mont- * Adam Miiller, born in 1779, at Berlin. He became, like his friend Gentz, a religious apostate and political renegade ; he was at last employed in the Chancellerie of Prince Metternich, and died in 1829. Varnhagen is loud in praise of Miiller' s personal amiability and of his great conversational parts. — TR. f Sophie Wilhelmine von Baireuth. £ Friedrich Gentz, a native of Breslau, born 1767. In 1802 he left Prussia, entered the Austrian diplomatic service, and became a convert to Catholicism. In politics he began as an ardent liberal, but ended by being one of the most sophistical defenders of Conservative doctrines. His numerous writings against Napoleon caused much excitement, and obtained for him a subsidy of £9000 from England. Among other topics which engaged his attention was the " Jnnius" question, and he indicated Sir Philip Francis as the author of the letters. One of the works which obtained him great credit was a Treatise upon the " Finances of Great Britain," published at Ham- burg in 1801.— TK. 44 morencies of the Ukermark* must have been delighted at seeing the stuff which had lain uselessly in their poor souls, now moulded into precise dogmas in such polished language by so talented a writer ! This spirit of caste is not confined to time or space. Once again, when I shall be no more, it will appear spectre-like and threatening. I am often asking myself whether Adam Muller might not again collect subscriptions among the knights who lie stretched out on the sacks in the Wool Market (like the Homeric heroes) at their ease. Benjamin Constant has very prettily ex- pressed this immutable heirloom of pride in the parable of the shipwreck, " Grand Dieu, je ne suis pas assez indiscret pour votis prier de nous sauver tous. Sauvez- moi tout seul." If you have a few moments' leisure just turn over the leaves of the third volume of my " History of the Geography of the Middle Ages," and see what I have said on the views entertained by Christopher Columbus in respect of Nature, and on his style, vol. iii. p. 232. The dream, p. 316. It was the subject of a reading at Chateaubriand's and Madame Kecamier's, and took, as every outburst of feeling does when manifested between dreary steppes of minute erudition. I hope soon to be able to offer you the five volumes already out. The negligence of my bookseller prevents my doing so at present. A. HT. On the 9th June, 1839, Varnhagen observes in his Diary: "Humboldt confirms the opinion I have more than once expressed, that too much must not be inferred from the silence of authors, He adduces three important and perfectly undeniable facts, as to which one finds no evidence in places where one would naturally, above all * The Counts Arnim-Boitzenburg. — TR. 45 others, expect to find it. In the records of Barcelona there is not a trace of the triumphal entry made by Columbus ; in Marco Polo no mention of the great wall of China, and in the archives of Portugal nothing about the voyage of Amerigo Yespucci in the service of that Crown. ("History of the Geography of the New World," Pt. IV. p. 160, et seq.) XXXVII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Friday, 13th September, 1839. M. Piaget has left a very agreeable impression on me. He would probably be most useful in the College Franqais, as Professeur de litterature ou d'histoire, but the pedantic preceptorial examination stands in the way. I will use every exertion with M. von Werther ; the rather unliterary moustache and the long sleek South Sea hair will, I fancy, somewhat astonish the latter. Your old and attached friend, A. v. HUMBOLDT. Wonderful, indeed, that the Neufchatel Council ad- vise the Cabinet against Piaget. Par jalousie de metier ? XXXVIII. HUMBOLDT TO VAUNHAGEN. Berlin, 29th December, 1839. It is a noble and right charitable act that you have done in lending me this little work,* which would other- wise certainly have escaped me. The praise bestowed on it by you who are able so vividly to sketch the picture * Fr. Jacobs' " Jubelschrift fur Kries in Gotha." 46 of a life, and to colour it so pleasingly without obliterat- ing the outline, is of great authority. Kries,* moreovej, was one of the friends of my youth. We attended Heyne's lectures at the Seminarium together. I will return you the book soon. A. HUMBOLDT. (In great haste.) XXXIX. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Wednesday afternoon, 26th February, 1840. I lament, dear friend, having missed you ; I was suffering sadly in my foot from a wretched little whitlow on my toe, and only got to-day (for the first time) as far as the house of my neighbour Leopold von Buch.f Best thanks for Sesenheim. J No doubt you were right in rescuing from oblivion the little work, the character of which is German in the highest degree, and which, owing to your preface, has won such an interest with thoughtful men. There is throughout this little book a fine perception of that which a German must always hold sacred and im- portant in the literature of his country. The writer ran- sacks Sesenheim and Drusenheim, as others the Troad. The proper names are unhappily less poetical. Passages pp. 12 & 13 are extremely graceful in style. Then we have the philologist in awkward indecision as to that * Friedrich Kries, a mathematician and Professor in the Gymnasium at Gotha — TR. f Leopold von Buch, born in 1777, died in March, 1853, — the celebrated geologist. — TR. £ " Wallfahrt nach Sesenheim." By August Ferdinand Nake. Edited by K. A. Varnhagen von Ense. Berlin, 1840. 47 which he has but half investigated; uncertain, as over an old manuscript which he has read too hastily. Whether Frederika's* sisters, " whose parts we have no business to take," page 48, or whether the catholic priest who had "effected her ruin," and then, according to another reading, had " not effected her ruin ;" be pleased with all this — I do not decide; we are also not yet clear about the Troad and the Scamander, and Helen had in her time to put up with a deal of Greek scandal. Your old and very grateful friend, A. v. HDT. XL. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Monday, 9th March, 1840. The Crown Prince, to whom I took your " Lebens- buch " this morning, has commissioned me, my dear friend, to express to you his " friendliest thanks." In doing so he recalled to mind your "Sophie Charlotte," your " Seydlitz," your ever graceful language, and your powers of delineating critical relations in life. I read him your outspoken passage about Grimm. It pleased him much, and gave rise to a conversation about Hanover. He spoke very sensibly on the subject : "the King of Hanover does not know how to manage Germans ; he doesn't know how easily they are won over if only one knows how to avail one's self of a moment of genial impulse, /should, on the very day on which the news of the close of the Gottingen election reached Ha- nover, have sent an aide-de-camp or civil functionary to * The daughter of the pastor of Sesenheim, with whom Goethe, then a student at Strasburg, had a romantic and somewhat serioiis love affair. — TR. 48 Gottingen to return my thanks to the professors, and to ask them whether it would he agreeable to their feelings if I were to reinstate all the seven professors." These are words that flow from a noble nature. I shall not talk to the Crown Prince about your Essay on Niebuhr, with which I thoroughly agree. Your old and attached friend, A. v. HOT. XLI. HUMBOLDT TO VABNHAGEN. Wednesday, ISth March, 1840. An insipid pamphlet of M. Gretsch against MelgunofF, and against a book utterly unknown to me — Konig's* — full of Siberia, bow-strings, secret service money, and Eussian patriotism — an intolerable production ! Would you like to read it, my dear friend ? You are the only one of us that can understand it entirely. The book would almost reconcile me to M. Melgunoff, against whom I had begun to conceive some little dis- like. I certainly have no recollection of him, or the conversation I had with him; but he must have strangely interpreted and translated in his own style the language I addressed to him, when he makes me enter the lists against one, the treasures of whose mind and the grace of whose diction as well as man- ner, I am always praising. Is it likely that I should * Heinrich Konig, a German novelist of some note, published in 1837, assisted by a Eussian friend, Melgunoff, " Literarische Bilder aus Buss- land" (Literary Pictures from Bussia). Nicolaus Gretsch, a Bussian Coun- cillor of State, a most prolific, but very shallow author, attacked Konig's book in the pamphlet to which allusion is made above. — TR. 49 break out against you in the only conversation I ever had with a man who brought me a letter from your own hand ? Who will attribute to me such indiscreet Orinoco manners? Marheineke* has also been campaigning in the criti- cal journals, more against Savignyf than against Stahl. j There is much sharpness in the air, and the Blacks give no quarter. The end of the philippic is very eloquent, arriving at the climax of the transition from the Eationalists through St. Hegel to Galileo. Unfortunately the twelve preceding pages are destitute of all colour, and indifferent in style. Gorres§ and Schelling can colour better. The only thing that interests me in all this is the dramatic part, and the talent which is or is not displayed. CaBsareopapy, territorial system, nay, the " authority of a decided positive system of dogmas and of a marked physi- ognomy " which M. Marheineke, p. 41, wishes to see introduced, are to me horrors or carnival pleasantries. Both parties are only different sorts of compression engines, and a " philosophically " established Christian dogmatism of " marked physiognomy" is, of all corsets, to me the most oppressive. Eaumer (Karl) has published " Crusades " — cru- * Philip Conrad Marheineke, an eminent German divine ; in philosophy a follower of Hegel ; died 1846.— TR. f Friedrich Carl von Savigny, author of the " History of Eoman Law in the Middle Ages," esteemed leader of the historical school in jurisprudence ; an ultra-Conservative in politics and religion. — TR. J Friedrich Julius Stahl, a Professor in the University of Berlin, and one of the editors of the New Prussian Gazette (" Kreuzzeitung"). He was born and bred an Israelite in Bavaria, and started in early life as a republican and a demagogue. At the present time the learned Professor is conspicuous as an ultra- Prussian, an ultra-Lutheran, and ultra- Absolutist. — TR. § Joseph Gorres, a profound scholar, in his youth an ardent Republican, in his old age an ultra- Conservative and fanatical Catholic. — TR. E 50 sades against the geologists. The Saracens are Leo- pold von Buch (your new convert) and myself. A. HT. And Sintenis* in Magdeburg, and the Neufchatel Council, "who issued a proclamation against the Deluge," all 1840. Three comets won't suffice. I have a letter from the Marquis of Clanricarde, at St. Petersburg, dated 5th March : " No news has been heard for the last four or five weeks, of the expedition to Khiva." " It is purely an attack upon the Khan, whom they propose to dethrone and to put his brother in his place." You see he tries to appear perfectly unconcerned. What an innocent lamblike policy ! XLII. METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT. Vienne, ce 29 Mars, 1840. Mon cher Baron ! mettant point en doute, que Monsieur le Prince Eoyal, auquel j'ai 1'honneur de repondre aujourd'hui, vous donnera connaissance de ma declaration, c'est a ma lettre a S. A. E. que je m'en rapporte. Vous verrez que je me mets a ses ordres, et cela toutefois sous la reserve de mon ignorance archeologique. A cette ignorance vient se joindre celle des attributions de la Presidence. Voici en tout cas, ce que je pense d'une position * Wilhelm Friedrich Sintenis, a Protestant minister at Magdeburg, a Rationalist, very obnoxious to the ultra-religious party of that city. In con- sequence of a criticism upon a picture which he published in the " Mag- deburg Gazette," he was denounced from the pulpit by his opponents in 1840, and the affair made a great noise at the time throughout Prussia.— TR. 51 individuelle dans son rapport avec une association scientifique quelconque. II y a trois especes d'hommes. Les uns sont de veritables savants, et leur nombre est fort restreint. D'autres sont amis des sciences en general, ou de telle branche des sciences en particulier ; leur nombre est bien autrement etendu. La troisieme classe qui est la plus nombreuse, c'est celle des ames seches, des esprits etroits, des viveurs qui souvent sont de tres bonnes gens, mais pour lesquels les sciences et les arts sont du superflu. Je me range dans la seconde de ces categories. Moi et mes confreres pouvons servir utilement la cul- ture morale pourvu que nous ne nous en melions pas trop en detail. La ou je crois pouvoir faire le bien, je regarde comme un devoir de m'y vouer ; dans la presente occasion cependant je n'aurai que de la bonne volonte a mettre dans la balance. Comme ma pro- fession de foi est renfermee dans mes explications en- vers 1'auguste Protecteur, c'est a ce que j'ai pris la liberte de lui dire, que je prends celle de vous ren- voyer. II y a si longtems, mon cher baron, que vous n'etes venu nous voir, que quand vous vous corrigerez, vous eprouverez plus d'une satisfaction ou bien des progres fort reels, que nous avons faits sur les terrains qui vous comptent au nombre des dominateurs. Jac- quin, dont la perte est tres regrettable, a ete parfaite- ment remplace par Endlicher, homme d'un genie eminent. Baumgarten et Ettingshausen sont des savants tres distingues. L'ecole poly technique marche a merveille, et forme des savants et des ouvriers fort utiles. Rossi est le premier opticien de nos terns et E 2 52 le jeune Voigtlander marche sur ses traces. L'eta- blissement du Baron Charles Hiigel a ouvert un nouveau et vaste champ a la botanique. Les sciences et les arts marchent ainsi a souhait. Ce qui leur manque, c'est un inspecteur tel que vous. Vous vous plaignez, mon cher baron, de vous trouver etre le plus ancien des etrangers dans 1'In- stitut. Ce sort est sans doute triste, parcequ'il est inevitable, a moins qu'on ne fasse la sottise de s'en aller avant d'autres, mais il est nature!. J'eprouve le meme sentiment, et cela sur un champ qui certes est le plus vaste des champs ! De tous les Eois et chefs de cabinet en foiiction entre les annees 1813 et 1815 les seuls vivants sont le Eoi de Prusse et moi. L'epoque nxembrasse cependant qu'un quart de siecle, tant il est vrai que 25 ans sont toute une epoque his- torique ! Ne nous decourageons pas pour si peu de chose, et allons comme si de rien n'etait. Mille sinceres hommages, mon cher Baron. METTERNICH. XLIII. Hl/MBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Thursday, 9th April, 1840. Here are two salamanders.* The black (black-edged) King of Denmark is not only a Norway-constitutional, but also a mineralogical king, who has written very nice memoirs on Vesuvius. As his predecessor was an astronomical king, gave comet prizes, and presented great men, like General Miifningf and myself, with * Notes snatched from the fire. — TR. f Friedrich Ferdinand Carl von Muffling, Commissioner at Wellington's 53 chronometers, and as he died of a comet (the night Galli discovered his), it came to pass that the Danish astronomers feared for their heavenly trade under an earthly (subterranean) king. I was asked to take ad- vantage of the favour which of old was evinced for me. I therefore sought for a pretext which I never did before, of offering my congratulations on his accession. This is the occasion of the black drama. The letter is simple and intelligent. A. HT. Eead M. Quinet* (the passage on Goethe and Bet- tina), and return me the poison. XLIV. KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HUMBOLDT. Copenhague, ce 13 Janvier, 1840. Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt ! Parmi les lettres particulieres qui me sont parvenues depuis mon avene- ment au trone, aucune ne m'a fait un plus sensible plaisir que celle que vous m'avez adressee sous la date du 17 Decembre. Votre souvenir a le plus grand prix pour moi, et je me rappelle avec un bien grand interet les entretiens que j'ai eus avec vous, Monsieur le Baron, a Paris, il y a deja nombre d'annees, mais depuis vous avez enrichi les sciences de nouvelles recherches et la Siberie exploitee par vous, comme head quarters in the campaign of 1815, and afterwards, during the occupa- tion of the Allies, for five months Governor of Paris ; in 1841, President of the Privy Council. — TR. * Edgard Quinet, a French poet, published, in 1839, a work under the title of " Allemagne et Italic," betraying, in some passages, a great hostility to Germany. — TR. 54 jadis 1'Amerique, offre aux sciences naturelles des aper$us nouveaux, qui ne sont dus qu'a vous, Monsieur le Baron. Oui, je m'estimerais heureux de m'entre- tenir un jour avec vous sur ces nouvelles recherches. Les sciences naturelles offrent toujours des interets nouveaux, et je ne negligerai certainement pas de concourir a leur avancement autant qu'il dependra de moi. Les travaux astronomiques et geodesiques de votre celebre ami Schumacher meritent certainement ma protection. Ce savant s'est acquis un nom europeen et j'apprecie ses rares merites. — Quand aux observa- tions magnetiques d'apres la methode de Gauss je in'occupe de les amplifier ici a Copenhague, ou un observatoire etabli depuis 1834 pres de 1'ecole poly- technique sera place plus convenablement sur le rem- part de la ville et nous y etablirons deux differents emplacements, Fun pour les observations sur la de- clinaison, Tautre pour Tappareil de rinclinaison. Le celebre Oersted dirigera cet etablissement. Je m'estime heureux, Monsieur le Baron, de pou- voir vous entretenir de ravaiicement des sciences na- turelles dans mon pays, vous y puiserez la certitude que je ne negligerai aucune occasion pour justifier les bonnes idees que vous avez de mon interet pour les sciences et pour tout ce qui peut tendre a eclairer mes sujets et les rendre heureux. Je desire, Monsieur le Baron, que vous trouviez souvent le loisir de vous entretenir avec moi et je m'empresserai de cultiver des relations si agreables pour moi. La Eeine me charge de ses complimens pour vous, 55 et je saisis 1' occasion pour me dire avec la plus haute consideration, Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt, votre tout affectionne CHRISTIAN. XLV. HUMBOLDT TO VAKNHAGEN. Saturday, Llth April, 1840. The Crown Prince is very desirous of being allowed to look at your interesting letter from Prince Metter- nich. Would you, my dear friend, send it to me this evening by half-past seven ? .A.. _tLT. On the subject of this letter, Varnhagen remarks in his Diary of the 2nd of April, 1840: "A long autograph letter from Prince Metternich turned up at home. He declares my picture of. the Vienna Congress to be perfectly true, with some slight exceptions that could be easily set right. He himself circumstantially confirms the relation of the arrival in Yienna of the news of Napoleon having left Elba — a letter of historical value !" On the 5th of April, 1840, Yarnhagen again mentions this letter of Metternich in his Diary : " Humboldt called at noon. He had heard of the letter yesterday from Wittgenstein ; Wittgenstein had spoken about it to him, Count Orloff, and other strangers as a most re- markable thing. Humboldt, too, was exceedingly astonished and de- lighted ; he gave me a letter to read that Prince Metternich had written to him on the position of certain Natural Historians in Yienna, and on the Presidency of the ArchaBological Society in Home. Humboldt tells me melancholy stories of the machinations of the Ehenish-Westphalian nobles, which find favour with the Crown Prince. A scheme is on foot for erecting a grand Catholic educa- tional establishment for the nobility, an establishment in which the Jesuits can build themselves a nest. On some one remarking that the 56 Crown Prince, in his absence of mind, seemed never to have reflected that the illness of the King might bring about an important change in affairs, the Minister, Yon Rochow, replied : ' You may depend upon it he has thought of it, and has had a good many things ready to bring forward, more particularly several regulations in respect of Church matters, to which I shall feel myself obliged to offer the strongest opposition.' " XLVI. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 13th of April, 1840. The Crown Prince has expressly commissioned me, my dear friend, to present you his thanks for so inter- esting a communication. Count Alvensleben was pre- sent. All considered the letter to reflect great honour upon you and your description of the Congress,* and also to be remarkable for its noble simplicity in the relation of a memorable occurrence. f ' Et tout cela prouve que ma fille est muette" and that one lets a talent like yours (talent of advice, description, and well-tried worldly wisdom) lie fallow, in order that one day, at your death, as at my brother's, men may wonder and lament that they had not earlier thought of employ- ing you. " Cosi va il mondo." A. HT. I am thoroughly Quakerised. Mrs. Fry and William Allen ; little sermons in gaols (the most horrible the Quakeress, perhaps, had ever seen), and little tracts against dram drinking. * The Congress of Vienna. — TR. 57 XLVII. HtJMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Friday, 29th of March, 1840. Decide, master of elegant diction and euphony— I had : " So weit Humanitat (Gesittung) den Erdkreis umfasste." I now prefer, 1. " Er hat gleich machtig, so weit Gesittung und Weltverkehr reichen, auf die Herrscher wie auf die Volker gewirkt" (reichen, not reichten — that I detest) ; or, 2. "So weit Gesittung und Welt- verkehr die Menschheit veredelten ;" or, 3. " Die Menschheit empf anglich machten ;" or, 4. " Die Menschheit geeinigt." Would not No. 4 (the last) be best? Perhaps you may have an inspiration. Slip a note quietly into my hand to-night at Stagemann's ;* perhaps the old read- ing is best after all. A. HT. " Humanitat " I shall give up in any case, having read in the last volume of Campe's Dictionary so many jokes directed against it. " Sed quamquam, primo statim beatissimi saeculi ortu, Nerva Caesar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit prin- cipatum ac libertatem ; augeatque quotidie felicitatem imperii Nerva Trajanus." — Tacitus in Agricola, cap. 3. Also on that same old Nerva, (noble, refined, and literary in his taste) : " Quod si vita suppeditet, princi- * Friedrich August von Stagemann, born 1763, at Vierraden, in the Ukermark, in 1809, became Councillor of State, and subsequently editor of the " Staats-zeitung." Known as a poet of some pretension. Died December, 1840.— TR. 58 patum divi Nervae, et imperium Trajani, uberiorem securioremque materiam senectuti seposui: rara tern- porum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, et quae sentias dicere licet."— Tacit. Hist. I. 1. In order to avoid too special references, I shall simply give the numerical quotations ; thus : Tacit. Vita Ag. c. 3, Hist. I. 1. HT. XLYIII. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Berlin, Tuesday night, 27th October, 1840. That I was so long without calling upon you, my dear and valued .friend, before and after my northern cam- paign, is only because there are impossibilities in life against which it is vain to struggle. I wanted to hasten to you immediately after the festivities here, but the un- certainty of my journey to Paris (I declined it because at the time it would neither have been honourable to the King or to myself, since Prussia could not play an independent part), the approaching departure of Billow, the arrival of Greneral Hedemann,* who is still ailing, and has his family with him, as well as a rheumatic fever which kept me six days at home, brought all to nought. To-morrow, 8 A.M., I shall have again to migrate to Sans Souci, but only, as I hope, for a few days. I now therefore take up my pen to have some little confiden- tial talk with you. First of all, sincere thanks for your talented and noble treatment of the very ordinary tc Erinnerungen von M. Arndt "! I had indeed ob- served the hostility evinced towards you. The tone * Son-in-law of Wilhelm v. Humboldt.— TR. 59 of your review is the noblest kind of revenge.* This man, whom I never personally knew, owes his advance- ment to important events, and not to himself. Strange, is it not, that in these latter days, in the evening of his life, an importance has been given him which has not arisen entirely from a love of justice? As you love everything that is characteristic, I will return your kindness with another but very small one. I. present you with a letter from Guizot, which he wrote to me, not altogether without an object, when I was at Konigsberg ; the underscoring is my own, as you would guess if I did not tell you. I showed the letter to the King ; it was written after the Belgian,! Billow, and Guizot had been at Windsor, and the business promised well, as it does now, when Thiers, all at once, shows himself so complaisantly weak, and Palmerston so dog- matically defiant. Do not, however, let the letter get out of your hands. I thank you heartily for the news of the Grimms. It is of great importance to me to follow exactly the course of events. During the months that I was living on the "historical hill/'j surrounded, in turn, by elements the most contradictory, I pro- ceeded independently in one course. The King had given his orders about the Grimms to others, not to me ; as, however, nothing had been done by the time he returned from Konigsberg, I presented a " Pro-memoria " to the King on the occurrences at Konigsberg, as well as on the necessity of insisting on his own will as the only means of propitiating the * Varnhagen had written a review on these Reminiscences. — TR. f Leopold, King of the Belgians. — TR. Sans Souci.— TR. 60 public mind in matters which have excited the sym- pathies of all, and of appointing -the two Grimms, Albrecht and Dahlmann.* For Dahlmann there re- mained but little hope ; Albrecht was invited and declined, sheltering himself behind his gratitude to Saxony. It would have been a satisfaction to the sevenf if Albrecht had been appointed Professor at Berlin ; at any rate they will learn in Hanover that the King has made an offer to the Elbinger. As regards the Grimms, the King has determined that Minister Eichhornj shall propose to them to come as Acade- micians, and as they live like man and wife, offers them a pension, the amount to be fixed by themselves. That the King insists upon such matters being managed with delicacy, you may see in the negotiation with Tieck. As librarians, the excellent people are of little use, and whether Wilhelm, as Corresponding Member of the Academy, lectures or does not lecture is of little consequence. The great thing is to have them. There can therefore be no question about " Einschmug- geln," "Erniedrigung," " zu spat ihrer gedenken," — dans un regne de cent jours! It is at least honourable to the Ladenberg administration that I have been able to induce them to propose Dahlmann in a formal and complimentary way as Professor at the University of Breslau, where there is a vacancy. I have done my duty in opening the way : the carrying out of the scheme is not in my hands. As soon as ever I return from Potsdam, I shall urge strongly upon Eichhorn that he ought at once, and purely as a matter of public * Albrecht, a native of Elbing, one of the seven dismissed German profes- sors. Dahlmann was another. — TR. f Professors. I Minister of Public Worship.— TK. 61 business, to take the affair of the Grimms in hand — an affair essentially German and of national import- ance. The interference of a number of persons in these sort of matters is injurious, though excusable from the general interest they create. I wonder, my dear friend, if you will be able and willing to read these few lines, the sense of which is less open to criticism than the sound. Diplomatist that you are, I need not implore you not to read my letter to the "Child;"* still she must be made ac- quainted with the real posture of affairs, in respect of which I have been guilty of no neglect. A. HT. A most melancholy circumstance has occurred ; the only son of my friend, the astronomer Bessel, a young man, twenty-five years of age, of extraordinary mathe- matical talent (he was at the School of Architecture), died yesterday. Nervous fever. Bopp's Eeview gives me great pleasure. XLIX. GUIZOT TO HUMBOLDT. Londre8t 24 Aout, 1840. MONSIEUR LE BARON, — Yous etes parfaitement aim- able d'avoir pense a m'envoyer les deux nouveaux volumes des ceuvres de Monsieur votre frere. Je vous remercie, et du present qui a eu lui-meme tant de valeur, et du souvenir qui en a au moins autant pour moi. J'espere bien qu'a travers toutes nos affaires, * Bettina von Arnim. 62 car ce sont vos affaires comme les miennes, je viendrai a bout de lire quelque chose de ce grand travail. Je voudrais employer mon tems d'une facon aussi complete et aussi variee que vous savez le faire. Grardez-en un peu pour travailler au succes d'une bonne et sage politique. Elle vous doit deja beaucoup. Elle a encore besoin de vous. J'envie au baron de Biilow le plaisir de vous voir. Je regrette infiniment sa societe a Londres. La con- versation, la vraie conversation, nourrie et libre, est fort rare ici. La sienne me manquera beaucoup. Je voudrais bien aller quelque jour vous faire une visite cnez vous, voir de pres votre pays, celui de tous ou 1'esprit humain joue le plus grand role, et sonnouveau Eoi, digne,-me dit-on, d'un tel pays. En attendant, gardez-moi, je vous prie, Monsieur le Baron, toute votre ancienne bienveillance, et croyer a la duree comme a la sincerite des sentimens que je vous porte depuis bien long- tems. GrTJIZOT. Note ly HumboUt. — Begu a Konigsberg pendant les fetes. A. VON HUMBOLDT. L. ARAGO TO HUMBOLDT. Paris, 12 Mars, 1841. Je ne dois pas, je ne veux pas croire que tu m'aies demande serieusement* si je verrais avec plaisir ton * Note ly Humloldt. — I had asked [Arago] if he thought it possible that the difference of our political wishes (war with Germany) could disturb our mutual relations ? A. HT. 63 voyage a Paris. Est-ce done que tu douterais de mon invariable attachement? Saches que je regarderais toute incertitude sur ce point comme la plus cruelle injure. En dehors de ma famille, tu es, sans aucune comparaison, la personne du monde que j'aime le plus tendrement. II faut aussi te resigner, tu es le seul de mes amis sur qui je compterais dans des circonstances difficiles. Je suis vraiment heureux de la pensee que je pas- serai quelques soirees avec la personne a qui je dois mon gout pour la meteorologie et la physique du globe. II y aura pour toi un lit a Pobservatoire. Le pauvre Savary est dans un etat deplorable. Le medecin m'assure que sa maladie de poitrine ne per- met aucun espoir. Quel malheur ! Tu arriveras a Paris a Touverture de mon cours d'astronqmie. Mon nouvel amphitheatre est d'un luxe scandaleux. Je suis charme de la guerison du pauvre Sheiffer* (est-ce ainsi?). Ton bon cceur t'a toujours cree une nombreuse famille. Adieu, mon meilleur ami. Mon attachement pour toi ne finira qu'avec ma vie. P. ARAGO. Note by Humloldt. — To his gifted friend Varnhagen von Ense, with a very urgent request to avoid any publication of it, as being an autograph letter, until after Arago's death. * A preposterous French corruption of the name of Seiffert, Humboldt's valet, to whom he was much attached, and to whom he bequeathed his library.— TR. 64 LI. HUMBOLDT TO BETTINA VON AftNIM. (Copy in Yarnliagen's handwriting.) Saturday, 2lst November, 1840. How could you, my dear madam, for one moment doubt my gratitude for information as to the real con- dition of these noble-minded men, for whom, after suffering such unmerited distress, and such long and shameful neglect, a position free from care is at last about to be prepared! I have considered that for the two of them in such a position in Berlin three thousand thalers would be requisite, and have acted throughout upon this supposition. The King has made it a rule never to let any matter connected with finance originate with him. He has besides, as is the case with all princes, no standard by which to measure the wants of literary men. The great minds who are to be gathered together have the same homely wants as lesser ones. He who wills the end, must, therefore, will the means as well ; especially in a matter which attracts the eyes of all, and is intimately connected with the national honour. The Minister, Eichhorn, to whom all these arrangements are confided, is delighted at the expected arrival of the Grimms. He has of old been on the most friendly footing with Jacob Grimm. It is not more than an hour since I was with him, defending my view of the matter. He assures me that he will carry out everything gradually in the best manner possible, but that confidence should be reposed in him, and that he ought to be allowed to act without being interfered 65 with. Accept, madam, the expression of my highest esteem and most grateful sentiments. AL. HUMBOLDT. LII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, April 22nd, 1841. Your letter has been a source of unbounded comfort to me. I see from it that we are the same friends still, and that you have attributed my long — and to me very sad — invisibility to the distraction of my position, and to the constant employment of energies always striving to reach an unattainable goal. In the evening of a chequered though not altogether well- spent life, it is a consolation to retain the esteem of those to whom we are united in thoughts, feelings, and aspirations. I shall thank you in person. As for Mr. L., I must intercede for him with the Princess of Prussia this very afternoon, and will also endeavour to induce her Imperial Highness* to aid me with her usual energy. With unaltered respect and affection, Yours, A. v. HUMBOLDT. I had occasion while at Potsdam to read to the King, at his request, Schelling's Lecture on Nature and Art (Philosoph. Schriften, vol. i., 1809). The passages on Eaffaelle, Leonardo da Vinci, and the pos- sibility of a new age of prosperity for Art, are as grace- ful as any our language can produce. The reading produced on the King the impression of a beautiful song, but the bird is now sixty-seven years old, and passes from one golden cage to another ! * Grand Duchess of Weimar, mother of the Princess of Prussia, and sister to the Emperor Nicholas.— TR. F 66 Varnhagen says, in his Diary of the 25th April, 1841 : — " Hum- boldt called, and remained with me upwards of an hour and a half. I found him looking ill, but lively, cheerful, and more than ever inclined to chat. He praises the King for his noble way of think- ing, and his good intentions, but considers him no man of action, and that when he acts he does so by fits and starts, without settled purpose or moderation. Be it, however, good nature or timidity, it is certain he often does not dare to do things which he is extremely anxious to do, and which he could easily accomplish. Thus, for instance, he is now waiting with impatience for Minister von "Wer- ther to tender his resignation, and asks Humboldt if he (Yon Wer- ther) had not expressed to him some intention of doing so." On April 30th, 1841, Yarnhagen remarks: — " Humboldt has many enemies among literary men, as he has at Court. Attempts are incessantly made to abuse him, but if any one opens his lips decidedly in his praise, blame is at once silenced, as few persons are capable of maintaining it. A gentleman told me lately that he did not know what to think of Humboldt, he could not arrive at any clear opinion about him. I replied, ' Think always what is best of him. Give him credit for invariably intending what is best, and then you will be least likely to go wrong.' Another gentleman expressed himself ironically on another occasion thus : ' Humboldt was a great man, until he came to Berlin, then he became an ordinary one.' Moritz Bobert* answered that Eahel had often said, ' In Berlin nothing retains its place, everything declines and becomes shabby ; aye, if the Pope himself were to come to*Berlin he would not long remain the Pope ; he would become something ordinaire, perhaps a riding- master !' This saying of Eahel is most true. I remember it well, but it has never yet been put on paper. This peculiarity of Berlin deserves, however, deeper investigation. It indicates a lively power of undeveloped greatness, and may, if developed into something Positive, carry Berlin on to its highest fame ; but if it stops short in the mere Negative, it will of course become her shame ! ' Yonder,' as Goethe somewhere observes, ' live an irreverent race of men.' The idea is somewhat similar." * One of the brothers of Rahel Yarnhagen. — TR. 67 LIIL HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Saturday, April 24th, 1841. Very sorry, my dear friend, not to have found you ! Correct the title, which I must send off. Of course it is necessary to say " that this is not the lecture of 1828," and this sentence I have been wishing to in- troduce aphoristically into the title in smaller type ; such a thing may be unusual after the name, but I wish that you should approve of it. HT. KOSMOS, Entwurf einer physischen "Weltbeschreibung, Yon A. VON HUMBOLDT. !N"ach Umrissen von Vorlesungen aus den Jahren 1827 und 1828, erweitert und berichtigt durch die Forschungen (Entdeckungen ?) der neusten Zeit. Naturso vero rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus momentis fide caret, si quis modo partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo. — Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. 7, c. 1. KOSMOS, Outlines of a Physical Description of the "World, By A. VON HUMBOLDT. After Sketches of Lectures from the Years 1827 and 1828, enlarged and corrected by Eesearches (Discoveries ?) of the latest Times. Stuttgart. LIV. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Wednesday, "28th April, 1841. Be very kind and indulgent in reading me. I wish you to have a very complete conception of the compo- sition of my work. In Chap. A,, I have made many improvements. Cast your eye especially over p. 37, and F 2 68 over the Notes. Schelling's name, pp. 37, 68 ; Hegel, p. 66. The distinct assurance (p. 64), that I am not attacking the originator of the Philosophy of Nature,* will, I trust, make my pungent severity on the " merry Saturnalia," le lal en masque of the maddest Natural Philosophers, more pardonable in his eyes. II f aid avoir le courage d'imprimer ce que I' on a dit et ecrit depuis trente ans. It was a lamentable epoch, during which Germany sank far below England and France. A system of Chemistry, in which one did not get one's hands wet. Diamond is flint arrived at consciousness — Granite is ^Ether. Carus. The side of the moon which is turned towards the earth has a different convexity to that of the side which is turned away from it . Reason — The moon would fain stretch out her loving arms ; incapable of this, she gazes fixedly at the earth, and thus has lengthened out the lower portion of her face. Granite blocks on rocks are spasmodic products of Nature. Forests, as everybody knows, are the hair of the animal Earth, and the distended equatorial the belly side of Nature. America is a female figure, long, slender, watery and, at the 48th degree, icy cold. Degrees of lati- tude are years ; Woman is " old" at forty-eight. The East is oxygen, the West hydrogen. It rains when eastern clouds mingle with the western. Schellirig. Petrifactions in rocks are not relics of what has * Sclielling. 69 once had life. They are Nature's first attempts at creating animals and plants. (In Siberia dogs devoured for years one of these specimens of " first attempts," — a putrid elephant at the mouth of the Lena). Here are the Saturnalia for you ! Give a special look at the notes en gros, some of which (A, p. 40-49, B, p. 55-57) I enclose. The bulk of the work I should like to be charac- terized by universality of design and breadth of view, written in an animated and even, where possible, a graceful style, and with the technical expressions trans- formed into others which should be happily chosen, descriptive, and pictorial. Correct freely, dear friend 1 I shall follow you with pleasure where I can. I want to banish into the notes some not quite ordinary erudition. The book should thus become the reflex of myself — my life — my person, now grown so very old. Treating the subject in this desultory way I can proceed aphoristically. I want rather to suggest than to lay down. Much will be per- fectly intelligible to thoso only who are thoroughly versed in some one branch of Natural History. My mode of treatment, however, is, I think, calculated not to disturb those whose acquirements are less. My aim is to soar above the things'which we know in 1841 . Hens agitat molem. Oh, may the spirit still be there ! That such a work will not be finished by one born of the comet-year 1769, is as clear as day. The seve- ral fragments must appear in Parts of from twelve to fifteen sheets, so that those who see me buried will have something complete in every Part. So of the " Prolegomena/' Nos. 1 to 4 shall come out together, 70 containing my "Inducement," descriptive poetry, which you have not yet seen ; — a portion of my work, from which I expect much. No. 5, containing the " History of the Theories of the "World," which I have quite ready, is to fill the whole of the Second Part. Throughout, the simple and scientifically descriptive must be incorporated with the rhetorical. It is so in Nature herself. The glittering stars delight the senses and inspire the mind, and yet everything beneath the vault of Heaven moves in a path of mathematical precision. The main point is for the language to be always dignified ; the impression of the grandeur of Nature will not then be wanting. I am sure you will not scold me for quoting (C) in a note (all notes to be in small print, never at the foot of the page, but at the end of each section) the little- known passage of Shakspeare ? I had said that the knowledge of Nature was not exactly necessary for enjoyment, but that it increased it. Pardon my haste. I am going to-morrow morning with the King to Potsdam for six or seven days. Your grateful and unreadable friend, A. v. HUMBOLDT. LV. HUMBOLDT TO SPIKER. (C.) Shakspeare's " Love's Labour Lost." Act 1, scene 1. Biron thus speaks to the King of Navarre : " These earthly godfathers of Heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed star, 71 Have no more profit of their shining nights, Than those that walk, and wot not what they are ; Too much to know, is to know nought but fame, And every godfather can give a name." " Den ird'schen Pathen aller Himmelslichter, Die jeden Fixstern alsobald getauft, Kommt ihre Glanzesnacht nicht mehr zu Statten, Als denen, die hingehn, unwissend wer sie sind ! Zu vieles wissen, heisst den Ruhm nur kennen, Und jeden kann ein Pathe wohl benennen." Daignez me renvoyer cette page. Je me sers de votre belle traduction dans une note qu'on imprime dans mon Kosmos. Vous permettrez que je dise, from Spiker's translation. Cela me fera plaisir aurai- je a encourir la fureur du Marquis Auguste de Schlegel ou de Tieck Acorombonus ? Dites-moi s'ils ont aussi traduit ce morcean ? Amities. HT. Note ly Varnhagen. Unhappily, the translation of Spiker is bad from every point of view. LYI. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Monday night, May 3rd, 1841. I am afraid, my dear friend, that I shall have to go to Potsdam again on Thursday, and thence, on the 10th or 12th, "to Paris. I am to send some copy to Gotta before then. Do not leave me so long in suspense between punishment and indulgence. I beg you to send me a few lines with the MS. Yours, A. v. HUMBOLDT. 72 LVIL HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Tuesday, May 4th, 1841. Even if I deduct, my dear friend, the delicate and gentle words which, your desire to tranquillise me has added to your sentence, there still remains much, very much in your welcome letter of to-day which makes me very happy. I shall to-morrow morning, about 11, impose upon you the penance* of receiving me for a few moments, and of accepting my thanks. The " schmeichle mich " must be a mistake of the copyist ; at least, it is not so according to the best of my judgment. • A wrong accusative, p. 44, you had better show me. It cannot be " Einsicht in den Zusammen- hang-" one does look into it. Spikerf shall disappear. I had a foreboding of the evil, and prefer omitting the whole passage, even in English, which rather contains a panegyric on ignorance, than indicates that knowledge can increase enjoyment. With reference to the " Saturnalia," I see you leave me perfect liberty. You say, in mentioning the Dane, \ "I only make the remark, I do not protest." I did not wish to mention Steffens, however much he may deserve some rebuke for his great ignorance of all experimental science, and his culpable vain laziness. * 5th. May — fast day. t See Letter LV. with Varnhagen's note.— TR. £ Henrich Steffens, a native of Stavanger, in Norway, born 1773, a pupil of Schelling, probably his greatest disciple in the so-called " Natur Philo- sophie." Pietist. Also known as a novelist. From 1831 to 1845 he was Professor in the University of Berlin, and died early in the last-named year.— TR. 73 I call " Saturnalia " that merry but short farce of which I lately gave you some specimens, which were not however from Steffens, but a few steps lower in the scale, from his worshippers. If Steffens were a poor scholar, oppressed by the mighty, I should be more timid ; but, since you love autographa, I will present you with one from which you shall learn how northern Kings believe that there is in Berlin a school of philosophy headed by Steffens, which is salutary to theologians, et gui nest pas celle de Hegel! ! Steffens will imagine that he was comprehended in the number of the " deep and mighty thinkers against whose advice we acted." Besides, the perilous phrase is im- mediately followed by another : " Abuse of youthful energies — for serious minds which have in an equal degree turned themselves to philosophy and observation, have remained strangers to these Saturnalia." Such a phrase is a defense, a fort detache, and Steffens certainly imagined that he too had turned himself to experimental Philosophy, because he once went down a pit in Freiberg. By softening the matter I should spoil all, and we should, in writing, have the same courage we exhibit in speaking; but both in the same easy and cheerful manner. Have you dis- covered in Steffens's tedious autobiography (which has been dinned into me at Sans Souci) how saintliness and an aristocratic bias may be traced in him to a twofold indoctrination of some of his ancestors by an Arch- bishop and a King ? Ce sont des heritages ! A. V. HUMBOLDT. 74 LVIII. KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HTJMBOLDT. Copenhagm, ce 25 Mars, 1841. Monsieur le Baron ! C'est a moi de remercier doublement le celebre Conseiller intime Dieffenbach de 1'attention qu'il a eu de m'envoyer ses ouvrages sur 1'art de guerir le strabisme et le begayement, puisqu'elle in' a valu le plaisir de recevoir votre chere lettre du 24 fevrier. Introduit par vous, Monsieur le Baron, on est sor de reussir ; dans ce cas-ci les oeuvres et la repu- tation de Tauteur dispenseiit d'en dire davantage, mais vous rendez pleine justice aux services signales que le Conseiller intime Dieffenbach a rendu a I'humanite, et je m'empresse de les reconnaitre en conferant mon ordre de Danebrog a ce savant distingue. Ma lettre a ce sujet lui sera remise par mon Envoy e le Comte de Eeventlau, et je recommanderai particulierement au Chevalier Diefienbach les chirurgiens danois qui visi- teront Berlin, pour s'approprier Fart qu'il vient d'illustrer. Le porteur de cette lettre qui j'ose recommander a votre protection est le Candidat en theologie Borne- mann, jeune homme doue de talents et de connais- sances, que j 'envois a Berlin aupres de mon compatriote StefFens pour etudier la philosophie ; non precisement celle de Hegel, qui trouve d'autres proneurs a notre universite, mais celle qui peut contribuer a rectifier les idees souvent exagerees de nos philosophes modernes. Steifens est retenu a Berlin par des liens sacres, fondes sur la reconnaissance qu'il doit au Eoi, mais je desire que son genie et ses connaissances ne soient pas perdues 75 pour nous, et que ce jeune savant profite de ses lumieres, avant qu'elles ne cessent de vivifier tout ce qui vient en rapport avec mon celebre compatriote, qui, a mon avis, vaut, a lui seul, toute une faculte academique. Je suis avec le plus grand interet, fonde sur 1'amitie la plus sincere et des rapports (de position) que je ne saurais meconnaitre, tout ce que votre excellent Eoi fait et entreprend pour le bonheur de ses sujets, pour la nationalite germanique et pour la conservation de la paix. Que ses efforts soient benis du Tout-puissant, et ses peuples verront une prosperite affermie et aug- mentee, ce qui contribuera puissamment au bien-etre de leurs voisins. Le Eoi a eu tant de bonte pour mon fils, je ne puis assez le recoiinaitre. J'envisage, Dieu merci, son avenir sous les auspices les plus heureux, fondes sur Funion avec Taimable Duchesse Caroline de Mecklen- bourg-Strelitz. J'apprecie les vceux que vous m'adressez a ce sujet, et je suis avec la plus haute consideration, Monsieur le Baron Humboldt, votre tout affectionne CHRISTIAN, E. LIX. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, May 17th, 1844. (Written at Varnhagen's, and left with the Preface to Wilhelm v. Humboldt' s works.) I am very grieved at not being able to shake hands with you before leaving, harassed as I am by the pre- parations for to-morrow's start ; first Potsdam, then 76 Paris, till October. To you I turn again as the source — till Eiickert* returns, the only source — of pure taste, linguistic perception, and nicest sense of propriety. Tell me (but be indulgent the while), what part of the Preface I must omit. But where you find a fault pray help to mend it. I wrote the two pages late at night in a gloomy frame of mind. They err, perhaps, in having somewhat too sentimental a tendency in their praise. P. 1, line 2. " Noch," because I have lived to see it. L. 10. "Die hochbegabteri Geister," perhaps dis- pleasing to you ; " Menschen ?" A. V. HUMBOLDT. Yarnhagen wrote, on November 21st, 1841, the following remark on Humboldt. " Read to-day Alexander von Humboldt's Des- patches, written from Paris in 1835, to the King. "Not the least like what comes from Alexander Humboldt! They might have been written by anybody, and, worst of all, no one could have written them otherwise than they are! Such is the nature of political affairs. They resolve themselves into trifles of no intrinsic import- ance, but made weighty from a general understanding that they shall be so regarded. Add to this the stereotyped hypocrisy of forms, assumptions, and exaggerations, and truth must ever be in danger of being lost. And I examined myself, and confessed that were I once engaged in the like matters, I, too, should be unable to raise myself out of this groove ! And then, people wonder that in England and France journalists become ministers ! As though very ordinary despatches were not infinitely easier to write than first-rate leading articles !" * Friedrich Euckert, the German poet. — TR. 77 LX. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Friday, December 3rd, 1841. Among that for which I have to thank you, ray dear friend, I best like Hormayr's* vigorous letter. Le style est tout Thorame. He is not like the men we see around us, the best of whom lose themselves in " sup- pressions, euphonisms, instigations, and indecisions." His faith in Minister's! liberalism may fairly be sup- posed to rest on a misconception of the motives of acting. There is no doubt that Count Minister has, in the noblest way, contributed to the deliverance of Germany ; but never, we may be sure, with a view to * Joseph, Freiherr von Hormayr was born at Innsbruck, in 1781, and was distinguished during the invasion of the Tyrol by Napoleon, whose armies, in 1809, he kept at bay, and whom he baffled at all points. At the truce of Znaim, in August 1809, the Tyrol and the Voralberg were evacuated, and Hormayr returned to historical studies, from which he was carried, together with many other persons, to a temporary prison. In 1828 he abandoned the Austrian service, and entered that of Bavaria, accepting office in the Depart- ment of Foreign Affairs. In 1832 he was despatched to Hanover as Kesident Minister, and in 1839 removed to Bremen as Bavarian Representative to the Hanse Towns. Here he remained until 1846, when he was recalled to Miinchen, where he died in 1848. During his residence at Bremen he published his two most important works, " Lebensbilder aus dem Befreiungs- Kriege " — " Pictures from the War of Freedom," (1841 — 44) ; and " Anemo- nen aus dem Tagebuche eines alten Pilgermannes " — "Anemones from the diary of an old Pilgrim" (1845-47). In these works he exposed the Austrian government, in a more powerful manner than had ever been previously attempted by any German writer. He was the author of several other works, one of them a " History of Andreas Hofer" (1817). — Tu. f Ernst Friedrich Herbert, Count von Miinster, a native of Hanover, born in 1766. A well-known diplomatist, who, after occupying many high posts, among which was the Hanoverian Ambassadorship at St. Petersburg, became Minister in London, served forty-two years in various capacities, and was relieved of office in February, 1831, upon the appointment of an English Royal Duke to the Viceroyship of Hanover. He declined both rank and pension, but accepted the Grand Cross of the Bath, with the insignia of which the King himself invested him. — TR. 78 letting in upon us the light which, down to the present moment has been dreaded like a spectre. Bruno [Bauer]* has found me pre-adamitically converted. When I was young the Court Clergy held opinions much the same. The one who confirmed me said, that the Evangelists had made a variety of notes, from which in later times biographies had been romanced (gedich- tet). Many years ago I wrote: "Toutes les religions positives offrent trois parties distinctes ; un traite de moeurs partout le meme et tres pur, un reve geolo- gique, et un my the ou petit roman historique, le dernier element obtient le plus d'importance." — I send Baron Seckendorf's book. He is also in favour of a Constitution, to wit the " re puro," in whom the people are - incarnate — in a philosophical sense, of course. It must be popular ; indeed, but for a shrewd suspicion on his part that it would, he would never have printed it. We should never allow such persons to be in any doubt as to our own sentiments. I have replied to him in his capacity of Yice-President, that I should read his book with attention, widely as our views differed with respect to popular representation. How murky and oppressive is the atmosphere in this the evening of my life. With unaltered attachment, your A. v. HUMBOLDT. The day before the date of the above letter (December 2nd, 1841), Yarnhagen wrote in his Diary: — " Humboldt with me yesterday. Accounts from Paris. "What he thinks of aifairs here. He thinks seriously of retiring. He knows very well that it is his name only that weighs with the King, that his influence is far exceeded by others. Thiers said to him. in Paris, ' People talk so much about * Bruno Bauer, one of the most daring Biblical exegetists of the day. — TR. 79 revolutionary France, but it appears to me that Prussia is in a pretty state of commotion too!' In a letter from Guizot to Humboldt much was said in praise of the King. Humboldt showed it to him. When they came to the word succes the King cried, ' Good God! things look but poorly in that quarter. The less we say about that the better !' Humboldt finds in fact that the tone of public feeling here has become alarmingly low. The King has ene- mies even in the highest circles. Minister Eichhorn is universally hated, and cuts a wretched figure at Court. There seems no longer to be any doubt about Bunsen's going to England as our Ambassador. Count Stolberg is about the only one who openly depreciates Bun- sen. Humboldt makes merry with Bunsen's sanctimonious little tract, 'Passion Week."' On December 3rd, 1841, Yarnhagen remarks: "I have just re- ceived a note from Humboldt. He sends me a pamphlet of President von Seckendorf, in which ' a Constitution is demanded, to wit, the re puro, the incarnation of the people.' He adds : ' It must be popular ; indeed, but for a shrewd suspicion on his part that it would be so he would never have had it printed.' At the end he says, in deep melancholy, ' How murky and oppressive is the atmosphere in this the evening of my life !' Hard to be Humboldt, and yet obliged to speak thus, on the pinnacle of honour and in the fullness of fame. There is in truth little that can be a source of pleasure to him, and nothing but his satirical vivacity makes life at this place in any degree tolerable to him." LXL HUMBOLDT TO VAKNHAGEN. Berlin, Monday night, Dec. 7th, 1841. I have no time, my dear friend, for writing to thank you for your talented representation of Schwerin's* life — a work of solid historical worth. A thoroughly ap- * " Loben des Feldmarschalls Grafen von Schwerin." 8vo. Berlin. 1841. 80 preciative penetration into the individuality of this great man animates the whole : and in depicting, to be true to Nature is the most essential point of all. A surly counsel to [the King to] ride away, and a victory gained entirely by himself, had placed an insurmount- able barrier in the hero's path. The aged hero dying standard in hand in the bloody fight, at the head of 13,000 unsympathizing men, forms a closing scene that is truly picturesque. Like Columbus he was poetically grand and prosaically penurious. In one respect (a point which I have no doubt has been overlooked by many), this work does great credit to your talent as an historian; I mean the contrivance, indeed, by which you prevent the story of the fight being broken off by the narrative of Schwerin's death.* I will bring you myself the " collected works," and prefer my request for the second part of Hormayr'sf precious pepper draught. Your last letter, so honourable for me, contained words which I should not like to misunderstand. " You scarcely permit to yourself the possession of my impieties/' After my speedy decease you may deal as you please with such property. We only owe truth in this life to such persons as we deeply esteem, there- fore it is due to you. A. H. On the 1 8th December, 1841, Yarnhagen wrote in his Diary : " I was told to-day, but quite in confidence, the romantic story of the King's * See Coxe's " House of Austria," Vol. II. p. 403 ; Wraxall's Memoirs, Vol. I. p. 162.— TR. f " Anemonen aus dem Tagebuclie eines Pilgermannes." See note, p. 77. — TR. intended journey to England to be present at the christening of the Prince of Wales. The thing, I was told, had been very quietly arranged, and the promising opening it afforded had contributed much to making the appointment of Bunsen as ambassador palatable at the English Court. This latter part of the statement makes me rather suspicious of the whole. I am sure this is not the real state of our diplomatic relations. If, however, this story has any foundation in fact, and the project is really entertained, Bunsen must of course have some- thing to do with it, and great results, in my opinion very dangerous things, may be expected from that. Close connection with Eng- land would be a serious matter, but intimate union with the Anglican Church and the Tories, downright ruin ! All Prussia, all Germany, all Europe would assume such a union to exist, whether it did or not. That alone would be a thousand pities, and cost the King more in the opinions of his people than he can just now afford to lose — I hope the whole is a myth ! Humboldt says : ' The howling mania is mightily on the increase. He was howled at when he was leav- ing by a few; but now that he has returned, by all.' His smart and witty remarks are truly refreshing in the midst of our dull-witted society." Before his departure for England, Humboldt came to take leave of Yarnhagen, who wrote about it in his Diary, January 14th, 1842 : " Humboldt came to take his leave ; he departs to-morrow evening. He had called at Count v. Maltzan's,* of whose life there was little hope to-day. ' His death will bring us Canitz, not Billow,' said Hum- boldt, complaining. I consoled him by saying that Canitz too might be put aside. ' And who is to come then?' ' Bunsen.' ' That would be too bad indeed. He will, no doubt, accompany the King on his return ; that is already arranged.' Humboldt gets into a dreadful passion when speaking of Canitz, and he cannot understand how it is that I no longer fear this Canitz, arch- aristocrat, arch-theologian, — by that same token silly, I might say downright stupid, — the arch-anti-French, maliciously satirical, and often undignified, Canitz. ' You are a Tory yourself,' said Humboldt. ' I do not know exactly how that may be,' I replied, * A Minister at that time on the point of death. — TR. G 82 ' but Canitz is honest, clever, and straightforward, will carry his point, and as to the rest, affairs and events will break him in.' " * After Humboldt's return, Varnhagen writes, February 24th, in his Diary : "Humboldt has given me a very favourable account of England. At court, great splendour, but a simple and natural mode of private life ; conversation easy and friendly, and good-natured in its tone, even between the members of rival political factions. Peel he does not like, did not like him before, says that he looks like a Dutchman, is rather vain than ambitious, has narrow views. Lord Aberdeen's taciturnity is invincible. It has not, however, the effect of making folks believe he could if he would say something good. Bunsen has, in numerous instances, shown an utter want of tact : all the world is against him. The King more than ever disposed to take his part. Even Englishmen say, 'The whole affair of the King's journey is only an intrigue of Bunsen' s.' " "With reference to our affairs here there is much speculation, sur- mising and assurance. Eor foreign affairs for the present, the pious Arnim is sent for from Brussels — at a later period Canitz will be appointed; or, as I say, Bunsen. Count v. Alvensleben is men- tioned as going to Vienna, and Radowitz, as a provisional ar- rangement, to Carlsruhe, until the embassy at the Diet becomes vacant. I suppose they have not yet the courage to take Bunsen and put Biilow aside ; but every month, every week, will add to their courage, and then both will happen. Maltzan's recovery is despaired of. The days on which he is somewhat better are fol- lowed by violent relapse, and his lucid intervals succeeded almost invariably by greater darkness. A sad condition !" * Freiherr von Canitz, Prussian ambassador at Hanover, afterwards Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1846 — 18. His principles were of the strongest absolutist order combined with pietistic tendencies. — Tit. 83 LXII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNIIAGEN. Berlin, Monday, 2Sth February, 1842. I should be glad, my dear friend, to have a couple of lines to relieve me from the anxiety I am in about your health. I have secured a pension of 300 thalers (a miserable sum, but one likely to increase) for the right gifted poet Freiligrath,* of Darmstadt, who is much impoverished, and living abroad without any settled means of support. Can you lend me his poems ? A. HT. Note ly Varnhagen. — On Tuesday Humboldt sent me the follow- ing, together with the feidlleton of the "Journal des Debate," in which Philarete Chasles rails and scoifs in a vulgar way at German literature, and the greatest German writers : — And this wretch has, under Guizot's administration become Professeur des Langues du Nord (litt. Anglaise- Allemande) au College de France. Keep this silly and insipid piece of rascality. A. HT. * Humboldt seems to have had but an imperfect knowledge of Freiligrath's circumstances at the time. The poet certainly depended on his literary labours as a means of subsistence, but he was not " impoverished," and, at all events, accepted the pension (returned by him, two years later) only as an encouragement to his talent, having no idea that it could be meant, as would appear from this letter, as a royal alms-giving. Humboldt, it must be borne in mind, interested himself for Freiligrath — not at the request of Freiligrath himself, but at the desire of the late Chancellor von Miiller, at Weimar, who, without Freiligrath's knowledge, had asked Humboldt to use his inflence in the poet's favour. — TR. G 2 84 LXIII. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Berlin, 16th March, 1842. Pray make yourself quite easy about the mishap. The King buys Italian pictures, but never French ones. Cherubim's portrait is certainly very fine, and, as far as I can remember, I saw it at Cherubini's own house. As he is still alive, and Ingres * is very rich, I do not comprehend how the portrait can be for sale. Tell the intelligent " Child "f you gave me the feuilleton. In the last number of the " Journal des Debats " that has reached us, is a severe — very good article about the abominable Jew-law with which we are threatened, and about which I have already expressed some very strong language. Most gratefully yours, Wednesday. A. HT. It was intended in the preamble of the law to speak of that "miracle of God in preserving the Jewish people amongst other nations, and of the will of Grod in keeping that people in isolation/' To that I made answer, "The law was opposed to all principles of State policy, which aimed at the union of all classes ; that it was a dangerous presumption in weak humanity * The distinguished painter, for many years Director of the French Academy in Rome. He may be known to many persons in this country by Calamatta's beautiful engraving of his Vceu de Louis XIII. — Tn. f Bettina von Arnim. " Kind " is a Weimar coterie term, which was in use among Goethe's set. It does not exactly mean "child," but rather " pet." Bettina von Arnim, who was not exactly the most unaffected of ladies, appropriated the word in publishing " Goethe's Correspondence with a Child "—meaning herself.— TR. 85 to pretend to the interpretation of the primaeval decrees of God ; and that the history of dark ages might tell us what excesses such interpretations were apt to encourage." Under an appearance of outward splendour, and in the enjoyment of the somewhat fantastic preference of a high-minded prince, I live in a moral and mental iso- lation, such as can only be produced by the barren condition of the mind of this divided, erudite land, repellant at poles of similar denomination, — still grumbling, and day by day contracting towards the East, — a true steppe country ! May you be satisfied with him who has the courage, though alone in it, of adhering to his opinions (avoir le courage de ses LXIV. HtJMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 21st March, 1842. My dear and so happily restored Friend ! It is a matter of infinite joy to me to learn from your welcome letter that the very agreeable society at the Princess's has bodily, — and with my culpable ma- terialism I shall therefore also say spiritually, — re- freshed you. Such society, mostly this same barren Berlinish ornamental matter blown together, assumes a perfectly different aspect in the house of the Princess Piickler. It is, as it were, the spirit that should inspire the State. The matter seems ennobled. I still keep your copy of the system of " Christian Doctrine,"* having formerly at Potsdam been much * " Die Christliche Glaubenslebre," by Strauss. Tubingen. 1840. — TR. 86 amused with the Straussian " Saviour :" we learn from that work not only what he does not believe (which is less new to me), but what is more, what was believed and taught by the black men who understand how to im- pose fresh fetters upon mankind, who even put on the armour of their former enemies. The passage about Spinoza I shall be glad to copy out. Will not the recent date of the Second Part of the " Christian Doc- trine" (1841) be urged as an objection, in these days when people boast of lecturing from notes made a long while before ? It would seem to me to have been better strategy had he pointed out the unheard-of anachro- nisms, with some remarks about the new-fangled faith* in the whole historical romance of the Apostolic myth-collectors. A man who teaches so publicly himself, must put up with the publicity of the defence of those who differ from him. Such an oral introductory communication, couched in a gentle tone of remon- strance, would only make a later publication of it diffi- cult, and produce a haughty smile or a denial. Not the Spiiiozistic mishap ; — no : only this abuse of the noblest intellectual powers in the service of brutalising doc- trines of dark ages is really painful to me. Personally, I confess, the man possessed no attraction for me ; but I felt a sort of liking for him, as indeed I am always carried away and excited when, as in his speech on Art, the gentle breath of fancy gives warmth and life to euphony of speech. Now I have done with him. In his last speech, not that on Art, but the one delivered * The remainder of this paragraph refers to Schelling, who had been called to Berlin by the King, and who, after a silence of thirty years, came forth as the champion of a system of mystic philosophy, which, in many respects, is diametrically opposed to* his earlier opinions. — TB. 87 under the glare of torches, there is a hint at going away, as after an accomplished (and well-paid) musical tour. I suppose this is only a sentimental expression to create alarm. Now for a few answers in reference to the biography, of which I am almost frightened to think, not on account of politics, but from family considerations. I fully rely upon your promise. The man will surely never wish to give pain to so many ! Wilhelm was born in Potsdam, as his father was a Eoyal Chamberlain, and at the same time Acting Chamberlain to Elizabeth, Princess of Prussia. He left Potsdam when the Princess was taken to Stettin. My father enjoyed to the last the highest favour of the Prince of Prussia, who regularly every year paid him a visit at Tegel. This will explain to you the pas- sage in the English Despatch where it is said (I think very early in 1 7 7 5 ; " Eaumer's Contributions to Modern History," vol. v., p. 297): "Hertzberg or Schulenberg could form a Ministry, but those have the greatest probability of success, although they are of a different stamp, who are considered the Prince's favourites. Among the first of these is Baron Humboldt, formerly a functionary in the allied army, a man of natural good sense and of a fine character ; Baron Hordt, an enterprising spirit/'. . . The vtwc& functionary is a strange mistake. My father (Major) was aide-de-camp to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, after having served for a long time in the Finkenstein Eegiment of Dragoons. He was often sent by the Duke to Friedrich II. in the worst times of the Seven Years' War. Therefore Friedrich II. writes in his letters on Wedel's Dcconfihire, " I have said to Humboldt everything 88 which at such a distance can be said." (Manuscript letters which the King very lately bought in Prussia.) My family comes from Eastern Pomerania. My brother and I were for a long time the last of our name. My mother was a Colomb, cousin of Princess Bliicher, and consequently niece to the old President in Aurich (East Friesland). Her first husband was a Baron Holwede. By this marriage she had my half-brother Holwede, late of the Gensdarmes regi- ment. My mother had the credit of having, at the instigation of old Privy Councillor Kunth, given us an extremely careful education. Wilhelm, in his earliest years, was brought up under Campe,* then our private tutor. The foundation for his profound know- ledge of Greek was laid by Loffler, the liberal-minded author of a work on the Neo-Platonism of the early Church Fathers, then Chaplain to the Regiment of Gensdarmes, and afterwards Chief Consistorial Chancellor at Gotha. After Loffler, Fischer of the Grey Friarsf taught Wilhelm Greek for some years, a man who, although it was not generally known, besides mathematics had a considerable knowledge of Greek. That Engel, Eeitemeier, Dohm, and Klein for a long time delivered to us lectures on philo- sophy, jurisprudence, and politics you already know. Whilst at the University in Frankfort, j for six months, we lived with Loffler, who was a Professor there. In Gottingen we both for a year frequented Heyne's philological lectures. My father was the proprietor of Tegel (formerly a * The well-known pedagogue, afterwards a bookseller at Braunschweig. — TR. t The oldest of the six colleges in Berlin. — TR. I On the Oder.— Tit. 89 shooting box of the great Elector, and therefore' held only by hereditary tenancy, Wilhelm being the first who possessed it as a manor, and therefore Schinkel* pulled down four turrets in order to preserve the one ancient tower of the time of the great Elector) and Eingenwalde, near Soldin, in the Newmark. Eingen- walde afterwards belonged to me, and then to Counts Eeede and Achim Arnim. Wilhelm, at his death, possessed Tegel, Burgorner, and Auleben (acquired through his wife at the time the Dacheroden entail was cancelled), Hadersleben, in the circle of Magde- burg, and the Castle of Ottmachau in Silesia, which after the Peace of Paris was given him as a dotation.f Sonnet I., 394, refers to a second child, I think, which Madame von Humboldt lost in Eome. One was buried in Paris. I implore you not to communicate to the compiler anything as if coming from me. He would certainly mention it in his Preface, and then I should be respon- sible for much that I fear. Excuse this stercoran-babble of a hash. A. HT. Note ly Varnhagen. — He had, I suppose, just been reading of the Stercoranists in Strauss' s " Christian Doctrine." Hence the word here .J * Schickel, a Berlin architect, to whom that city owes a considerable portion of its great architectural splendour. — TE. f He was one of the Prussian diplomatists who signed that peace. — TR. J Stercoranists. " Quasi videlicet doceamus, corpus Christi dentibus laniari, et in insta/r alterius cujusdam, cibi in corpore humano digeri " (For- mula Concordise), in reply to the Calvinist insinuations of " Stercoranism." Strauss, Dogmatik, II., p. 601, has some very cynical remarks on the same subjects. — TR. 90 LXY. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Thursday, 31st March, 1842. Having this moment only returned with the King from Potsdam, I find Lao-Tseu, which has a peculiar fla- vour of pre-herodotic antiquity. The letter which accom- panies the Chinese philosopher puts me into a melan- choly mood. I see that you have not yet the courage of believing in your recovery, nor the consciousness of returning physical strength. That your intellectual vigour is not diminished, each of your letters attests. I hope I have not lost any of these letters. I wrote to you, about a week ago, a letter of four long pages about the dogmatising Christian philosopher, and on the answers to the questions of the biographer who troubles me with his saintly curiosity. My letter, I hope, has safely arrived. It also contains much chit- chat about my brother's early education. You do not mention my talkativeness at all. Must I be under any uneasiness about it ? We have succeeded with Bulow. He will come on Saturday. It might be the beginning of something, perhaps, or the end, le bouquet, the scenic effect of the stage? I yesterday dined with Tholuck* and Beckedorfff in Potsdam. I should otherwise not have seen them. Your faithful and attached, A. HT. * The well-known orthodox Theologian and Professor of Divinity at Halle. — TR. t Ludolf von Beckedorff, of the Tholuck school.— TR. 91 LXYI. HUMBOLDT TO YAENHAGEN. Berlin, 6th April, 1842. After the insolently promulgated sentence of the Inquisition in the case of Bruno Bauer, I suppose I must no longer retain possession of your Strauss. I return you with many thanks this remarkable book, which has furnished me with much matter for thought. The method of its logical arrangement is excellent ; besides which, it imparts to us the whole history of the religious beliefs current in our time, especially the priestly craft with which people, Schleiermacher- like,* profess all forms of the Christian myths, accommodate themselves to dissentients, and, the " chalice being drained," will have themselves put under the sod with a cortege of Eoyal carriages ; while for each of these myths a so-called philosophical explanation has been substituted. What I do not like in Strauss is the recklessness he evinces as regards Natural History, and which allows him to see no difficulty in the evolution of the organic from the inorganic, not even in the creation of man out of primaeval Chaldaic mud. That he seems to make very light of the wonderful things beyond the grave I am the more inclined to pardon him, because, with very moderate expectations, the surprise comes upon us in a much more agreeable and welcome form. For you, 0 happy man ! it will be no surprise. In to- day's inquisitorial formulary one phrase has struck me * Allusion to Schleiermacher's profession of the orthodox faith on his death-bed. The King, Friedrich Wilhelm III., when hearing of it, ordered the court carriages to follow his funeral.- Tu. 92 as genuinely Spanish, and revolting. It is that the culprit would " himself acknowledge." Neque aliud reges, aut qui eadem ssevitia usi sunt, nisi dedecus sibi atque illis gloriam peperere. I send you a " Don Juan." The language is very beautiful, and there is much imagination. I am curious to know how you like it. The constitutional Roi des Landes* said yesterday again at his table, before forty people, — the Grb'ttingen professors had spoken in an address of their patriotism : — " Profes- sors have no country at all. Professors, whores (that there should be no mistake in the matter, he added des putains), and danseuses were to be had anywhere for money ; they will go wherever they are offered a few groschen more." What a shame Jo call that a Ger- man prince ! Yours faithfully attached, Wednesday Night. A. HT. LXYII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Berlin, 7th April, 1842. Our unknown friend is very amiable. I have ceased to feel any anxiety. You know how to heal every wound. I send you with pleasure a copy of the few lines which, as I intended, reached the King's hands on the following morning. I made use of that round- about way because I was thus enabled more freely to express my discontent in writing. The matter is now * King Ernest Augustus of Hanover. Les Landes is a flat tract of country near Bordeaux, in physical peculiarities similar to the Hanoverian territory. — TK. 93 in better train ; perhaps, however, not irrevocably given up. I must therefore most earnestly beg you not to let those lines go out of your hands ! They would certainly find their way into the newspapers, and tend to frustrate my exertions in an important matter. The King sent for me very early, and it redounds to his honour that he heartily thanked me for the free expression of my opinion. I did not go to Potsdam to-day, because I wished to urge, in a full sitting of the Academicians, the election of the talented Jewish natural philosopher, Eiess. It turned out honourably for the Academy ; only three black-balls. I shall be in attendance upon the King from to- morrow until Sunday. I will try to rout out for Stuttgart some autograph poem of importance of "Wilhelm von Humboldt's. What I have are, unfortu- nately, only copies. Take care of your health, my dear friend. It is not quite firmly restored. Yours, Thursday Niglit. A. V. HuMBOLDT. LXVIII. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Friday, June 24, 1842. Your kind remembrance, my dear and accomplished friend, conferred upon me a benefit so much the greater as I came back from Sans Souci greatly suffering from a cold. Besides, I live in all the horrors of moving to dreary lodgings in an absurd part of that Siberian quarter of the town, the Oranienburger Strasse, and have hardly an inkstand upon my table. For the present only the expression of my grati- 94 tude. My affection for Marheineke, I have myself expressed to him. A thunderbolt in the form of a Ministerial Warrant, inserted in the newspapers, with some specimens of censor cleverness, would have been more salutary than the impracticable law for regulating the press, and a grand inquisitor for establishing the liberty of the press. We have so much to say to each other, and I hope yet to be able to pay you a visit before you leave. And then the cheering sight of four Crown Princes and Heirs Apparent : the one a pale sciatic creature, the next a besotted Icelander, the third a blind political fanatic, and the fourth obstinate, opinionated, and feeble- witted.* Such is the future monarchical world ! Yours, A. HT. I am going with the King to the Ehine. That I could not allow myself to be paraded at St. Peters- burg you will understand. The Chancellor has the pleasure of being still exposed to the coarse invectives both of the non-invited and of those who were ex- pelled from the banquet. How glass buttons, peacock feathers, and ribbons excite men, to be surelf Note of Varnhagen. — Marheineke' s article on the Anglican Church, in the " Jahrbiichern fur wissenschaftliche Kritik," with a few stupidities perpetrated by the censor. Varnhagen, in his Diary on the 26th June, 1 842, writes, on the subject of the new Order : " Humboldt has given me a circumstantial account of the institution of the new Order. The King at first wrote down a list of names in Sanscrit characters. This list was commu- * The Crown Prince of Wiirtemberg, and the Heirs Apparent, now Kings, of Denmark, Hanover, and Bavaria. — Tr. •j* Allusion to the new Order pour le Me rite. 95 nicated to Humboldt, Eichhorn, Savigny, and Thiele, for their opinion. Then it was much altered; several names were added, others struck out, and for six weeks the suspense lasted. At first, the King wanted to nominate forty-six members, as many as there were years in the reign of Friedrich the Great. The number forty he rejected on account of the ridicule thrown on the Quarante of the French Academy. At last he limited the number to thirty. In all this the King proceeded according to his own mind. Arago had been origi- nally nominated by the King. Metternich was added at the King's express and constantly urged wish. Rumohr* was struck oif the list. Steffens, the King thought, was in reality not strong enough, either as a philosopher or as a naturalist. Liszt was the King's decided choice, and no objections had any effect in his case. Spontini was to have had the Order, but Savigny and Privy Councillor Miiller pre- vailed on him to omit his name. Against Moore it was alleged to the King that he had lampooned Prussia in verse. ' That is nothing to me ? ' was his reply. Against Melloni they objected that he had been a Carbonaro and chief of a revolutionary Junta. ' That is per- fectly indifferent to me/ was his answer; and he would have nomi- nated O'Connell had he but shown sufficient scientific qualifications. The King wished to have the names of Eaumer and Eanke ; but Eichhorn and Savigny only that of the latter ; thereupon both were omitted. In contradiction to the opinions expressed above (in the case of Melloni, Moore, and Arago), the historian Schlosser was put aside on account of his party- spirit (?). Metternich had spoken in a bantering spirit of the See of Jerusalem, and therefore he was made a member, that he might not scoff at the Order too. Humboldt thinks that to have been the secret motive. For Metternich' s sake, Uwarofff was not named, because then the former would not have been the only one of his class. LinkJ was not considered to be im- portant enough." On the 27th of June, 1842, Varnhagen added, "Supplementary remarks to yesterday's notes. Humboldt told me he had announced * Carl Friedrich Ludwig Felix von Rumohr, the noted art critic. — Tu. t The Russian diplomatist. — TR. The botanist.— -TR. 96 to the King beforehand, that the Academy of Sciences would elect, as a member of their body, M. Riess, a Jew, and that the King had replied, he would give his assent to the election without any hesitation. 'I hope,' added he, 'that your brother has not com- mitted the folly of putting in the statutes, that no Jew ought to be in the Academy.' Minister Eichhorn knew that the King had no scruples, but to himself the thing was disagreeable, and he thought it also offensive to Thiele, Rochow, Stolberg, and others. He there- fore kept back for six weeks the application of the Academy for the Royal Assent, and then he wrote to the Academy to know whether they were aware that Riess was a Jew. The Academicians were indignant at that question, and unanimously replied that they adhered to their statutes, that they had made an election in accord- ance with them, and that they returned the Minister's question as an improper one, without answering it. This rebuke Eichhorn quietly pocketed, and at last despatched to the King the request for his assent, which was immediately granted. However, the King- seemed to feel some dissatisfaction on ascertaining that he was grant- ing what Eriedrich the Great had refused, viz., the admission of a Jew to the Academy. Eriedrich did not give his consent to the elec- tion of Moses Mendelssohn, because, as it was believed, they did not know whether the Empress of Russia, Catherine, who was a member of the Academy, would be pleased with such a colleague." On the 30th of August, 1842, Yarnhagen remarks in his Diary : "Humboldt tells me of Eichhorn' s meannesses, and much of the King's amiability, good humour, wit, and joviality. But he thinks that he does not give up his favourite views ; that he will adhere to his intentions, even if he should appear to withdraw them. The King was more pleased with Count Mortimer Maltzan than with any other of his ministers ; he had full confidence in him, and expected every- thing of him. Discussion about the meaning of the word geistreich, and in how far it was applicable to the King. Humboldt thinks also the King is anxious to travel to Greece, and that then he will be sufe to go on to Jerusalem. He says it is to be feared, that at last the parsons will get him in their power, and will break his 97 naturally cheerful disposition. Humboldt will go with private com- missions to the King of the French at Eu, then to Paris ; in Decem- ber he will be back in Berlin." On the 18th of March, 1843, Varnhagen describes in his Diary a visit paid to him by Humboldt after the return of the latter from Paris. " Humboldt came to see me to-day; he has aged much since I saw him last ; but his mind and heart are both fresh and vigorous. He was cheerful and happy whilst in Paris, but here at once a melancholy mood has come over him. "What he found here was wretchedness ; the old well-known way of trifling with dangerous things in childish hilarity. Besides, he is overwhelmed with com- plaints and demands. Every one wishes him to speak — to use his influence. 'Influence,' he exclaims, 'nobody possesses! not even Bunsen and Eadowitz, the King's favourites; they can do nothing but humour the fancies and foibles they detect, serve and sacrifice to them, and if they were to want anything which lay beyond that sphere, it would soon be all over with them. The King does just what he likes, and what results from his early fixed opinions ; and if per- chance he listens to advice, it has no weight with him.' He speaks with contempt of Eichhorn and Savigny, as hypocritical sycophants, who allow themselves to be led by Thiele, Gerlach,* and Hengstenberg. The King has given up none of his former plans, and he may any moment make new attempts with them in reference to the Jews, the keeping of Sunday, the consecration of Bishops in the Anglican fashion, the new arrangements regarding the nobility, &c. He forms plans as if he were to live to become a hundred years old ; he thinks of erecting immense buildings, of laying out parks and gardens, of carrying out great works of art, and also of travels. A visit to Athens has already been mooted, and in the background there no doubt looms a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ! Napoleonic expeditions of peace to London, St. Petersburg, and to the Orient, and conquests of scholars and artists instead of countries ! Art and fancy on the throne, fanatical jugglery round about, and hypocritical abuse in * The saintly General, head of the Kreuzzeitung party. — Tu. H 98 sport ! and with all that, a man truly intellectual, truly amiable, and animated with the best will ! What will all this come to ! " LXIX. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Berlin, April 3rd, 1843. My dear Friend, — That I am so late in bringing you my heartiest thanks for your delightful present, is owing to my having been obliged to take advantage of a visit to Potsdam, in order to travel with you through your early years, and to make myself at home in the " enlarged" relations of the Congress of the World in Yienna. It is a happy addition ; this his- tory of your own early development. It is a real pleasure to see such spirits moving in the active world, and influencing affairs before our eyes. How unjust we once were in judging the men who tried to settle Europe in the great Congress. I cannot help saying, how much higher were our pretensions then in our unjust temper, if now, in comparison with the wretched- ness which surrounds us, the personages assembled in Yienna present themselves as great Statesmen to our memory. Instead of them, we possess Court Philoso- phers, female Missionary Ministresses, Court Divines, and Startling-effect-preachers. Minister Bulow complains that you did not even visit him once in his family between eight and nine o'clock. He will have to-morrow (Tuesday) a public reception evening, and you would be an ornament to his circle. He never invites by letter any who know as certainly as you do how they are dear to him. Monday. A. V. HuMBOLDT. 99 LXX. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. Tuesday, June 13th, 1843. Forgive me, my dear friend, that through Eeimer's * absence, my eternal distractions and oscillations, and arrangements for a small journey to Pomerania (13th — 22nd), I was prevented from sooner bringing you the two new volumes of Wilhelm's works. I know you are not immoderately in love with his commentary on Hermann and Dorothea. It might doubtless more conveniently have been transformed into a treatise on epic poetry in general ; but you may see even in the book on the Kawi language, how fondly that great intellect always united general principles with details. The sonnets are full of sublime earnestness and depth of feeling. I shall call to shake hands with you, and to ask you in what way I could safely send a copy te Mr. Thomas Carlyle. A — inspires me with little confidence, and Billow's packets must not be too bulky. To M. Carrieret I shall send my best thanks. The " Fossil minister," J I kfrow, has proved his vitality by an amiable letter to you. There is a biography of me too, dans les biographies redigees par un horn me de rien, in which I am described as a socially malignant brute. Such a thing does not kill one, but it does not improve one much either. Your old and attached friend, A. v. HT. * The well-known publisher of Berlin. — TR. t Now Professor of Philosophy at Munich.— TR. J Prince Metternich.-- TR. H 2 100 LXXI. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Berlin, June 26th, 1843. I am convinced, my dear friend, that I am giving you some pleasure in communicating to you (alone) a fragment of a new volume of Eckermann.* Wonder- ful adoration of the vigour of youth as divine source of productiveness (adoration in an old man !) ; admiration of Napoleon, unclogged by the considerations of any moral law. I must earnestly beg you not to show the fragment to our " child,"f nor to speak to Brock- hausj about the communication made to me by Ecker- mann. It might do him harm, and he is unhappy enough already. I hope that "Wilhelm's last two volumes have at length reached you through Busch- mann.§ The weather was very favourable for our journey to the north. Such journeys are well adapted for deceiving princes on the condition of their people. * The Boswell of Goethe. See Oxenford's excellent translation of " E.'s Conversations with Goethe." — TR. f Bettina von Arnim. — TR. £ Eckermann had made a contract with Brockhaus, by which the latter, in consideration of the price paid to Eckermann, was to produce three thousand copies of his " Conversations with Goethe." Brockhaus, however, had not sufficient confidence in the sale to do this ; therefore he divided the edition of three thousand into two impressions of fifteen hundred each. In the second impression there were some slight changes in the text ; upon this, Eckermann, who knew nothing about the publisher's arrangements, and, indeed, had nothing to do with them, brought an action against Brockhaus, which went, of course, in favour of the publisher. Eckermann, throughout the transaction, appears as a headstrong and self- conceited man, with extravagant ideas in reference to his book. — TR. § A very able linguist, and Sub-librarian at Berlin. He was the faithful amanuensis of Wilhelm v. Humboldt, whose work on the Kawi language he carried through the press. — TR. 101 I addressed a few words "from a window" to the young men, on the intellectual links which simulta- neously, and without suffering diminution by distance, are strengthened through the communication of liberal feelings and of lasting hope in all that honours the progress of mankind. You will find this little Address in the " State Gazette," such as I wrote it down immediately after having delivered it extem- pore. Without this precaution, my friends, whose number is daily increasing, would have distorted it. I read parts of Custine* to the King. He is a man of infinite talent, and the work is gloriously written. I know only two volumes as yet, and prefer the first, since it represents, in a masterly style, a new gran- deur of tragic events. With great esteem, your A. v. HUMBOLDT. Monday. Please return Eckermann. LXXII. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Tuesday, 27th June, 1843. I am terrified, my dear friend, at the prospect of your going to Tegel on Thursday, and finding only an empty house. Billow takes leave of the King to-day, and intends to-morrow (Wednesday) to leave for Schlangenbad with his wife and two eldest daughters. I write this in case I should not be fortunate enough (to-day) to see you before you leave. The torchlight procession in Diisseldorf might throw a light on many * The Marquis de Custine, author of the well-known work on Kussia. — TR. 102 things. I enclose (as you preserve everything that concerns your friends) the little address. Yours, A. HT. LXXIII. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Sans Souci, 27th August, 1843. Sunday, How, my dear friend, should I not hasten to thank you for your charming gift, your affectionate re- membrance of one who is intellectually dwindling away 1 I know of nothing more graceful in com- position (deep and heartfelt conception), in euphony of language, or in the blending of the landscape tints, than your Life Pictures, and your judgment of what has had literary value in our times. That you have thought even of me, and the unimportant words I have spoken, I call generous. Many a time have I followed you eagerly in these three volumes, along formerly-trodden but ever-inviting paths ; but in this " Sylva Sylvarum," nothing was more agreeable to me than what you so earnestly and truly said (ii. 256 — 272) about the historical error in the "genuine Grermanic" separation of classes. My rage for politics, you see, does not leave me; and I still cling to the things of earth, as (according to Kant) I learn from you, we should not boast too much of the immor- tality of the soul after its so-called disembodiment. " The budding twig which has shot up within the limits of the northern realms" (I am getting wicked) has not become quite acclimatized yet; and as to waiting I have not much time for that, having waited for more than fifty-three years . . . The Germans will yet write many books about liberty. 103 The Card-player,* ii. 157, will again cause some excitement in the neighbourhood of my " hill." I think, however, I discover symptoms of a milder tone, of which one certainly does not like to be reminded. The phrase, " this miserable wretch" has, I think, disappeared. You see that I read you with pleasure, and yet not exactly out of fear alone. A. v. HT. We have as yet had no conversation about Custine's book. The first volume, as an eloquent, spirited de- scription (dramatic, indeed!) was most successful. How thoroughly annoying such a book must be even to those who despise the idea of justifying their conduct. 11 y a dcs longueurs de declamations, a certain rheto- rical shade, which wearies. I think the publication of that more than tragic letter (Princess Trubetzkoi's) was very wrong.f Independently of the irritation that pub- lishing it must necessarily create, there was still room to hope matters might be accommodated by a fresh petition. What right has any one to play so desperate a game — to take life itself? A further terror for me is the literary worship paid to the scribblings of Madame Girardin and Madame Gay. Such worship might perhaps be pardoned in a lovely Grand Duchess, j * Czechtitzky, celebrated at Berlin as an actor and billiard-player. When he could not any longer find persons to play with him he took to card-playing, in which he got equally skilled and won enormous sums of money. It is re- lated of him by Varnhagen that in order to revise the expression : — " Sich im Golde walzen" (rolling in money), he covered his floor with gold pieces, and, in the presence of witnesses, absolutely rolled about upon them in a state of nudity. Fortune forsook him at length, and he used to beg persons to spit in his face ; for though he had rolled in money, he had lost it all. — Tu. f The sad story of the Princess Trubetzkoi is too well known, through the Marquis de Custine's book, to need recapitulation. — TK. The Grand Duchess Helene. — TE. 104 That "St. Simonism" was the invention of a Prussian man of business tickles me immensely. As it touches the honour of Kb'nigsberg, I pass it over here in silence. LXXIV. HUMBOLDT TO THE PRINCE OF PRUSSIA. Berlin, December 2dth, 1843. Your Koyal Highness, — I hasten humbly to inform you that the box containing the Universal Astrometer, the joint invention of Lieut. D. and H. v. A — , to- gether with your gracious commands, have reached me safely. I shall of course do everything with reference to this matter that your Eoyal Highness may desire. Both gallant officers have already, in a letter dated Temesvar, 13th December of this year, reported the arrival of the instrument, with this very naive ad- dition, "that I might procure for both inventors a military decoration from His Majesty the King, the Universal Physician of all Arts and Sciences." But that the Universal Doctor should prescribe just this universal physic, will require a few lines to be written to His Majesty by these gentlemen themselves. The so-called Universal Astrometers were in great repute in the Middle Ages, but, in the present state of astronomy, they are not used in any observatory, the observer making his own calculations. Self- registering instruments of this sort are therefore only likely to be recommended for reward in case of their inventors being brought into immediate contact with the monarch. The King adheres to this rule even in the case of books, no written acknowledgment of 105 which is ever given unless they are accompanied by a letter. Under these circumstances your Eoyal Highness will, I trust, not take it amiss my thanking Lieut. H. v. A. in the most friendly manner, for the con- fidence he has reposed in me, and urging him, in order to aid the means at my disposal for serving him and his friend according to your Eoyal Highness's wish and command, to send me a few lines (mentioning my name) for His Majesty the King. For the sake of security, your Eoyal Highness will, perhaps, be graciously pleased to allow the letter for Temesvar to be sent under your sealed envelope to the Ambassador, General von Canitz. I shall open the box at the Observatory in the presence of Professor Encke, whom, in conformity with the usual custom in these cases, I will request to prepare a Eeport for the Privy Council. As the epithet " sinnreich " (ingenious) may always be applied to instruments, even when they are not novel, I will try and beg for them a draught of this " Universal Physic." With profoundest respect, I remain, Your Eoyal Highness's most humble, A. v. HUMBOLDT. LXXV. HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. Monday, 1st January, 1844. I hasten, my dear friend, at the risk of losing the Potsdam train, to tell you (for all that you were anonymous in sending it) that the King, in the midst of his bubble-blowing, lead-melting, chorister- singing, and vigils, has been very, very much delighted 106 with your sweet present. In its composition, full of grace and loveliness, Heaven is seen in the reflection of earthly love. The King at once guessed at the young fairies, Bettina5 s " cygnet brood/' and wishes to be allowed to send his thanks. A. v. HT. Privatissime. — I had some scruples about the hiero- glyphic which distinguishes the male swan from the female, but the King thought that I was quite arriere with regard to the changes which Art-life has caused in modern education. Note ly Varnhagen. — Bettina v. Arnim had sent me an exqui- sitely drawn and wonderfully beautiful sketch representing two naked figures, a girl and a youth standing by a tree, on the top of which a nightingale was singing. This she commissioned me to send anony- mously to Baron Humboldt, in order that he might also anonymously send it to the King as a New Year's gift. The expressive nakedness of the youth might certainly create some surprise, but would easily be pardoned in Bettina. But that the King should think her daughters had drawn the sketch, is a bit too bad, unless his pre- tending to believe such a thing is to be construed as a sly hit at Bettina ! April 1, 1844, Yarnhagen wrote in his Diary: " After a long interval another visit from Humboldt. He told me all that occupied his mind. He does all he can ; but it is not much that he can do : a man of seventy-four is, after all, a man .of seventy-four ! He himself alluded pointedly to his advanced age. The accumulation of business pressed on him, he said, and yet he was not prepared to forego it. Court and company were to him as a club, in which he was in the habit of spending his evening and taking his glass. " The King, he says, is occupied with nothing but his fancies, and these are mostly spiritual and religious, rituals, churchbuildings, mis- sions, and the like. About earthly matters he takes little care, and whether Louis Philippe's death brings about a crisis, what may happen 107 at that of Metternich, or what our relations are with Russia, are mat- ters of perfect indifference, nay, he hardly gives them a thought. Whoever is favourite for the time and manages to indulge his fancies, has the game in his own hands. Bunsen, Radowitz, and Canitz stand highest with him ; Stolberg, only in the second rank. With all that, there is the greatest absence of mind and thoughtlessness. E-iickert had, on the occasion of his recovery, sent the Queen some pretty poems. They were pronounced charming, but no one thought of the propriety of sending an acknowledgment after the receipt of such an offering. At last, long afterwards, it occurred to the Queen to do so, and Riickert was to be sent for, but he had left Berlin some three weeks before ! As for Schelling, the King scarcely sees him once in a twelvemonth ; since he has got him, he cares little about him ; Steffens, too, though he likes him, he rarely invites. Reu- mont* is a slight exception in the list, and has some share in the favouritism of Bunsen and Count v. Briihl. (They are joking here about * * *, his dancing, &c. Humboldt said he was green, if he does not happen to be exactly yellow ; the King replied, Everybody looks so at * * *) Bunsen has not grown wiser. He proposed to the King to buy California, to send missionaries there, &c. He energetically favours the enterprises of Baroness Helfert. He wished to send out his. own son with her, and offered to supply from his private means £12,000 sterling towards establishing colonies where the missions should form the principal element. However, he with- drew his offer, seeing that he could not rely on t&e sympathies of the King. Meanwhile Baroness Helfert has, for the present, received from the King a present of 10,000 thalers only; but Minister Rother,f who opposed her more extended plans, was still obliged to send two agents, who were to report on the condition of the estates of Baroness Helfert in the East Indies. They also wished to induce the King to take interest in the settlements in Texas, always with an interweaving of religious interests. Humboldt had written to Bunsen urging him strongly to warn Eichhorn, and consider the hatred which his way of acting must produce, and which the King * Alfred Reumont, a native of Aachen, Prussian Minister at Rome, a co- pious writer on Italian history, poetry, and archaeology. — Tit. f Minister of Finance. — Tn. 108 certainly must share. When Bunsen was here, he spoke to him energetically to the same effect, representing the matter to him in the most serious light ; but Eunsen, who had talked to him for two hours with the greatest eagerness about Egypt, thereupon answered never a word, but rose and went away. Humboldt thinks him vain enough to accept a place in the Cabinet. It seems to me that Hum- boldt has by far too much intercourse with Bunsen, and shows him too much friendship. The Queen, Humboldt thinks, has no Eoman Catholic predilections ; on the contrary, is an arch-Protestant, and more zealous even than the King himself, whom she constantly urges on in this direction. Her influence would be more effective if she understood the matter better. " In the evening, Humboldt sent me a kind note accompanied by the book ' Kussie, Allemagne, et France,' par Marc Pournier, Paris, 1844, and eighteen valuable autographs of Arago, Metternich, Peel, Stanley, Recamier, Balzac, Prescott, Brunei, Herschel, Bresson, Helene of Orleans, the Duchess of Dino, and four confidential cheer- ful notes of the King, addressed to him. A splendid gift !" LXXVL HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. JBerlin, April 1st, 1844. I will try, my noble-hearted friend, whether by the offer of some few unimportant presents besides the horrible Ruthenic (Little Russian) poison,* I can provide you with some enjoyment for to-night. That I am nattered in all the letters, except in the one from our friend of Solingen, has not been able to prevent my offering you what might interest you. 1. Lord Stanley, the present Minister, f to whom I had recommended a cousin of our Dieffenbach, { the * "Kussie, Allemagne, et France." Par Marc Fournier. Paris. 1844. The Ruthenes (who were " invented " by Metternich) are a very inconsider- able branch of the Slavonic nation settled in Gallicia. — TK. f Secretary of State for the Colonies. — TR. J The eminent surgeon at Berlin. — TR. 109 author of an excellent Voyage to New Zealand.* The traveller was implicated in the riots at Frankfort, for which reason it is still difficult to get him an appoint- ment in Germany. If I could travel I would wish for no better companion. 2. The conjecture from Solingen. 3. A remarkable letter from Bresson, dated Feb- ruary 6th, 1839. 4. A very hearty letter from Arago, to whom I had dedicated the "Examen de 1'Histoire de la Geo- graphie du 15me Siecle." I do not recollect if I have given you anything before from Arago's hand. 5. A note from the King,f at the time when he aided me to a great extent in obtaining the liberation of young demagogues. The case here mentioned was that of young Honinghaus, in which I was certainly successful. The letter of the Crown Prince bears wit- ness to his noble indignation against Kamptz and his like. 6. A letter from the Duchess of Orleans. 7. A letter from the King of Denmark. Simul- taneously with Arago I had recommended to the King the great lunar astronomer Hansen,J in Gotha. Our request was complied with, and Arago also received a very kind autograph letter from Christianus Eex, once a constitutionalist in Norway. 8. Another note from the Crown Prince, cheerful and piquant. It was of great consequence to him that * Dieffenbach's " Travels in New Zealand, with Contributions to the Geo- graphy, Geology, Botany, and Natural History of that Colony, with a Dic- tionary and Grammar of the New Zealand Language." 2 vols. 8vo. London: Murray.— TR. f Then (183G) Prince Royal.— TR. £ Hansen's Tables of the Moon, published by the Royal Society of London. — TR. 110 Metternich should accept the Presidency,* pour mettre la societe en bonne odeur a Eome, ou elle passe pour Bunso-heretique. 9. A letter from the Duchess de Dino, now Duchess de Talleyrand. She has now been created Duchess of Sagan. 10, 11. Two more cheerful notes from the King. Le Seehund (seal) , a letter recommending a somewhat coarse Danish sea captain, who offered to carry Natural Philosophers round the world for 2,500 thalers apiece — rather dear. Nothing came of it. Le seigneur Cados, Ministre Secretaire d'Etat of the watchmaking Due de Normandie, who wrote to the Crown Prince to com- plain of the unbecoming manner in which he had been treated in the " State Gazette." 12. Brunei, the hero of the Tunnel. 13. A letter from Sir John Herschel, full of flattery. 14. M. de Balzac. 15. Sir Eobert Peel. I had received a. letter from Oxford, telling me that the first botanist in Europe, Eobert Brown, was suddenly plunged into great pecu- niary embarrassment, and that Peel would, at my request, procure for him one of the only four small pen- sions which Parliament voted for scientific men. I succeeded. 16. Madame Eecamier. I am sure you have already got several of her letters. 17. A nice letter from Prince Metternich, to be added to the mass you already possess of his. 18. The great American historian, Prescott. What I in my careless conceit destroy, is saved in your hands. I conjure you, my dear friend, to let nobody know that * Of the Archaeological Society in Eome. — TR. Ill I have given you these notes from the King, although they are unimportant. It would be very prejudicial to me just now. With unchanged esteem, yours, A, v. HUMBOLDT. Monday evening. LXXVIL J. W. T. TO HUMBOLDT. Ho f gen, near Solingen, March 2,1st, 1844. Your Excellency will not take it amiss that I ven- ture to address you. Some time since I read in a newspaper, that some one from Konigsberg had written to you about some secrets of Nature, namely, of taking photographs in the dark. From that I gather that your Excellency is a Natural Philosopher, and has ac- quaintances and friends who are also Philosophers. I, too, have made important discoveries in secrets of Nature ; and my present employments not permitting me to make further progress in them, I should like, for once, to speak to you about them. Perhaps we may be useful to each other. I will gladly make a journey to Berlin to see you. Will your Excellency please, in case my visit would not be disagreeable, to write to me as soon as possible, saying at what time I could best see you in Berlin. In hopes of receiving a favourable reply, I salute your Excellency with highest respect, and remain your most obedient, J. W. T, Gottfried H., merchant, Berlin, could give you some account about my position and character. 112 Note ly Humloldt. — The conjecture you formed some time since through reading a political paper, to this effect, that I was a Natural Philosopher, is certainly well founded. I have committed the crime of publishing several works on Natural Science, some as early as the year 1789. LXXVIII. THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR COUNT BRESSON TO HUMBOLDT. Berlin, 6 fevrier, 1839. Chere Excellence, — Je suis heureux de pouvoir vous envoy er aujourd'hui un article plus digne de vous que celui d'hier. Gardez ce numero des Debats. Je n'en fais pas collection. La remarque de Mr. M. Y. L. — sur le nescio quis Plutarchus est puerile. Du reste, son article est inspire par une juste appreciation de votre gloire qui est notre aussi et que nous revendiquons. Veuillez, chere Excellence, agreer mes affectueux et respectueux hommages. BRESSON. P.S. Je finissais ce billet quand celui que vous m'avez ecrit ce matin m'a ete remis. — Je le conser- verai toute ma vie, et parcequ'il est un vrai monument historique et pour ce titre precieux d'ami que vous daignez me donner. Helas ! oui, nous verrons bien des choses, si Dieu nous prete vie, mais qu'il fasse que nous ne revoyons plus celles qui ont deja passe sur notre siecle ! La coalition y travaille cependant de toutes ses forces en sapant le pouvoir royal. C'est un acces de demence qui rappelle 1791. Ce sont des Girondins en herbe que nous aurions aimes, et ils 113 seraient les premieres victimes englouties sous 1'edifice qu'ils ebranlent. Est-il done necessaire de faire un grand effort de raison pour voir clairement que le Eoi est le ciment de toutes choses, qu'il nous tient suspendus sur le chaos, et que lui de moins ou lui de plus, la situation change de fond en comble ? En conscience, le danger vient-il de lui aujourd'hui? et un ordre de choses si peniblement acquis, si laborieusement etabli, sera-t-il sacrifie a la rancune de quelques homines, ou a quel- ques vaines theories inapplicables en France, bonnes tout an plus en Angleterre, ou elles sont consacrees par les ages, et, ce qui ne vaut mieux encore, adminis- trees par les seules classes eclairees et superieures? D., qui est un bon esprit, m'e'crit qu'il a foi dans Tissue de la crise mimsterielle. M. Mole a modifie sa re- solution de ne plus reprendre les affaires ; il les re- prendra si on lui assure 36 ou 40 voix de majorite. La reunion Jacqueminot, qui rend de grands services, y travaille. Yoici les adieux, les derniers, de M. de Talleyrand a Fontainebleau le 2 juin 1837 : Adieu, mon cher Bresson ; restez a Berlin aussi longtems que possible ; vous etes bien ; ne cherchez pas le mieux. II y aura bien du mouvement dans le monde ; vous etes jeune ; vous le verrez. Je vous cite ces paroles parcequ'elles rentrent dans 1'esprit de votre billet, dont je vous remercie encore et qui devient pour moi titre de famille. B. Note by Humloldt. — Lettre du Comte Bresson, Ministre de France a Berlin. Je Tai conserve e a cause de quelques mots de M. de I 114 Talleyrand. J' avals ecrit a M. Bresson que la position en France est des plus graves, que je crois encore a la paix, parceque a cote de la sagesse des gouvernans, il y a de la medecine expectante, de la mollesse, et de la prudence timoree. Que ces choses ne peuvent cependant agir que pour un terns limite, et que ceux quisontjeunes, comme lui, verront en action ce qui court aujourd'hui comme velleites nationales a racines profonds. LXXIX. ARAGO TO HUMBOLDT. Paris, 19 aout, 1834. Mon cher ami, — Les termes me manquent pour te dire combien je suis peinede t'avoir donne un moment d'ennui. Persuade-toi done, une fois pour toutes, que quelque puissent etre envers toi mes torts, apparents ou reels, je n'aurai jamais celui d'oublier combien tuas toujours ete bon pour moi ; Tamitie que je t'ai vouee ne le cede pas a celle que tu me montres et dont je suis a la fois heureux et fier ! J'aurais bien voulu, a Foc- casion de ton aim able dedicace t'en donner un te- moignage public ; mais diverses circonstances de ma position actuellement si difficile et si compliquee, y ont mis obstacle. Ce n'est, au reste, je Tespere, que partie remise. J'apprends avec chagrin que tu n'es pas content de ta sante. La mienne est detestable et je m'en inquiete peu. Tout ce que je vois journellement dans ce bas monde, de bassesse, de servilite, d'ignobles passions, me fait envisager avec sang froid les evenemens dont les homines se preoccupent le plus. La seule nouvelle qui pourrait aujourd'hui me tirer de mon spleen, serait celle — ^de ton voyage a Paris. Pourquoi n'ai-je pas 115 trouve dans tes lettres un seul mot d'espoir, meme pour un avenir eloigne ? Le monde scientifique est ici dans un calme plat ! c'est veritablement a s'en desoler. Je pars apres- demain pour 1'Angleterre avec Mr. Pentland. En rap- porterai-je des idees plus consolantes ? Notre observatoire est devenu a la fois elegant et tres-commode. Le Bureau a decide qu'il fallait nom- mer un directeur. J'ai ete choisi a Tunanimite. J'au- rai sous mes ordres quatre ou cinq jeunes gens avec le titre d'eleves et 2000 francs d'appointement. Sous ce rapport nous allons enfin sortir de 1'orniere. Adieu, mon cher, mon excellent ami. Mathieu, qui n'est pas encore entierement gueri d'un cruel mal d'yeux, me charge, ainsi que sa femme, de le rappeler a ton souvenir. Tout a toi pour la vie, F. ARAGO. LXXX. POUR NOTES OF FRIEDRICH WILHELM THE FOURTH TO HUMBOLDT. i. 23rd December, 1836. Evening. The quasi nameless number has to expect the mildest of all punishments ; for, without doubt, i. e. quite certainly, the sentence will be mitigated to six months, and three years' incapacity for public employ- ment. Some consolation, therefore, you may send as a Christmas present to the very faithful city of Crefeld. Perhaps ! ! ? ! ! I may succeed in effecting a full pardon of the [prisoners in] this category. — It is indeed revolt- ing and horrible to let the poor boy languish for so i 2 116 long in that disgusting hole. — And such parents. — If those parents were fools and rogues, even then it would HAIIDLY be excusable. — Shall we meet to-night ? FR. W. Cherissime Humboldt, vous connaissez tons les pre- tendants a toutes les couronnes — lisez, de grace, la lettre ci-jointe et faites-moi connaitre le seigneur Cados, ses pere et mere et aieux, ainsi que ses droits a la cou- ronne de France, que je tacherai alors a lui procurer. FREDERIC GUILLAUME. B. 21 fevr. 1839. Pr. royal. III. An Episode from the Marriage of Figaro. II y manque quelque chose- — Quoi ? — Le cachet. Do you perceive the delicate allusion, my dearest friend? Your seal must help me out of nearly as great an embarrassment as the one above alluded to did the Countess Almaviva. The Prince will other- wise perceive that I have read all the flattering things that you, alas ! have said about me. Pour vous divertir, I include my letter. Vale. B. 23 March, 1840. FR. W. Note by Humboldt. — Autographe du Prince-Royal de Prusse. Le Prince-Royal offrait au Prince Metternich la place de President de 1'Institut Archeologique de Rome. J'avais du donner au Prince- Royal une lettre qu'il voulait inclure, comme elle contenait quelques eloges il a desire qu'elle fut cachetee. HUMBOLDT. 117 J'ai eu 1'honnetete etla maladresse de ne pas copier la lettre du Koi au Prince Metternich. IV. Je vous communique la depeche ci-jointe de Co- penhague pour vous avertir de la nouvelle seccatura qui vous attend d'un phoque du Sund qui vient vous demander conseil et assistance pour tourner autour de notre globe. La presente n'etant a d'autres fins, je prie Dieu, monsieur le Baron de Humboldt, qu'il vous ait en sa sainte et digne garde. Donne en notre chateau de Potsdam 29 avril 1849 (1843 ?) vers minuit. ©Sign. FREDERIC GUILLAUME. Note ly Varnhagen. — Everything exactly as above — as a joke ! LXXXI. KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HUMBOLDT. Copenhagm, ce 3 mai, 1843. Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt ! — La lettre que vous m'avez adressee le jour avant votre depart de Paris a eveille mon attention au sujet des tables lu- naires qu'on doit aux travaux du Professeur Hansen, et je me suis adresse a notre celebre astronome Schu- macher pour apprendre ce qui restait encore a faire pour completer cet ouvrage important. Suivant ses indices il a ete facile de trouver moyen de continuer ces travaux, les comparaisons des observations, et moyennant les secours necessaires et alloues Schu- macher espere de voir publier ces tables de la lune 118 avant le terme de deux annees. — On trouvera sans doute la recompense des soins qu'on consacre aux sciences dans leur avancement meme, mais 1'appro- bation des savants distingues donne une veritable satisfaction, dont on jouit doublement lorsque ces suffrages nous viennent d'une voix qui vaut bien d'autres. Jaloux de meriter toujours votre appro- bation, Monsieur le Baron, je desire etre guide par vos lumieres, et je serai charme toutefois que vous voudrez m'adresser vos observations scientifiques. C'est avec la plus haute consideration que j'ai le plaisir de me dire, Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt, votre tout affectionne CHRISTIAN E. LXXXII. JOHN HERSCHEL TO HUMBOLDT, ?, 21st Dec. 1843. Hawkhorst, Kent. My dear Baron, — It is now a considerable time since I received your valued and most interesting work on Central Asia, which I should have long ago acknow- ledged, but that I was unwilling and indeed unable in proper terms to thank you for so flattering and pleasing a mark of your attention, till I had made myself at least in some degree acquainted with the contents. This, however, the continued pressure of occupations which leave me little time and liberty for reading has not yet allowed me to do otherwise than partially — and, in fact, it is a work of such close research that I despair of ever being able fully to master all its details. In consequence, I have hitherto limited myself chiefly 119 to the Climatological researches in the third volume, and especially to the memoir on the causes of the flexures of the Isothermal lines which I have read with the greatest interest, and which appears to me to contain by far the most complete and masterly coup d'oeil of that important subject which I have ever met with. In reading this and other parts of your works on this subject and of the " Physique du Griobe" in all its departments, that which strikes me with astonishment is, the perfect familiarity and freshness of recollection of every detail which seems to confer on you in some degree the attribute of ubiquity on the surface of this our planet — so vividly present does the picture of its various regions seem to be in your imagination and so completely do you succeed in making it so to that of your readers. The account of the Auriferous and Platiniferous deposits in the Ural and the zone in 56 lat. has also very much interested me, as well as the curious facts respecting the distribution of the Grecian germs in those regions. I could not forbear translating and sending to the " Athenaeum" (the best of our literary and scientific periodicals) the singular account of the " monstre" of Taschkow Targanka — (citing of course your work as the source of the history)— in vol. iii., p. 597. The idea of availing ourselves of the information contained in the works of Chinese geographers for the purpose of improving our geographical knowledge of Central Asia, appears to me as happy as it is likely to prove fertile — especially now that the literature of that singular country is becoming more accessible daily by the importation of Chinese books. What you have 120 stated respecting the magnetic chariots and hodometers of the Emperor Tching-wang, if you can entirely rely on your authority, gives a far higher idea of the ancient civilization of China than any other fact which has yet been produced. In a word, I must congratulate you on the appear- ance of this work as on another great achievement ; and if, as fame reports, it is only the forerunner of another, on the early discovery of America — it is only another proof that your funds are inexhaustible ! May you have many years of health and strength granted you to pour them forth, and may each suc- ceeding contribution to our knowledge afford yourself as much delight in its production as it is sure to do your readers in its perusal. Miss Gibson writes word that you have more than once inquired of her when my Cape observations will appear. No one can regret more than myself the delay which has taken place ; but it has been unavoid- able, as I have had every part of the reduction to execute myself, and the construction of the various catalogues, charts, and minute details of every kind consume a world of time quite disproportionate to their apparent extent. However I have great hopes of being able to get a considerable portion in the course of the next year into the printer's hands. Some of the Nebulae are already in process of engraving. Per- haps the subject which has given me most trouble is that of the photometric estimation of the magnitudes of Southern stars, and their comparison with the Northern ones. A curious fact respecting one of them, 7 Argus, has been communicated to me from a correspondent in India, Mr. Mackay ; viz., that it has again made 121 a further great and sudden step forward in the scale of magnitude (you may perhaps remember that in 1837-8 it suddenly increased from 2*1 m. to equal a Centauri). In March 1843, according to Mr. Mackay, it was equal to Canopus. " a Crucis," he says, " looked quite dim beside it." When I first observed it at the Cape it was very decidedly inferior to « Crucis. Believe me, my dear Sir, ever yours most truly, J. F. W. HERSCHEL. I must not forget to wish you a " merry Christmas and many happy returns of the season," in English fashion. LXXXIII. BALZAC TO HUMBOLDT. Berlin, Hotel deltussie, 1843. Monsieur le Baron, — Serais -je assez heureux en allant lundi a Potsdam par le train d'onze heures, d'avoir 1'honneur de vous y rencontrer, et de vous presenter mes respects ? Je ne fais que passer par Berlin, vous me pardonnerez done de prendre la liberte de vous indiquer ainsi le temps de ma visite ; mais, n'est-ce pas d'ailleurs vous prouver a quel point je tiens a aj outer quelques nouveaux souvenirs a ceux du salon de Grerard. Si je n'ai pas le bonheur de vous trouver, ce petit mot vous dira du moins que je voulais me rappeler a vous, autrement que par une carte. Aussi, veuillez, Monsieur le Baron, agreer 1'expression de la respec- tueuse admiration d. v. t. h. et t. o. s. DE BALZAC. 122 LXXXIV. SIE EGBERT PEEL TO HTJMBOLDT. Whitehall, 4th Sept., 1843. Dear Baron de Humboldt, — I was most flattered by your kind attention in transmitting for my acceptance your most interesting work on Central Asia. It will be much prized by me, as well on account of its intrinsic value as a token of your personal regard and esteem- There is no privilege of official power, the exercise of which gives me greater satisfaction, than that of occasionally bestowing a mark of Eoyal favour and public gratitude on men distinguished by scientific attainments and by services rendered to the cause of knowledge. From the very limited means which Parliament has placed at the disposal of this Court, it has been my good fortune to be enabled to recognise the merit of Mr. Eobert Brown. I have just conveyed to him the intimation that Her Majesty has been pleased to confer upon him for his life a pension on the Civil List of two hundred pounds per annum, in recognition of his eminent acquirements as a botanist and of the value of his contributions to the store of botanical knowledge. Believe me, dear Baron de Humboldt, with sincere esteem, Very faithfully yours, EGBERT PEEL. 123 LXXXV. METTERNICH TO HTIMBOLDT. Vienne, Octolre, 1843. • Mon clier Baron ! — Vous avez bien voulu m'envoyer un exemplaire de votre " Asie Centrale ;" je 1'appelle la votre car les decouvertes appartiennent de droit a ceux qui les font, et qu'etre 1'auteur d'une decouverte vaut souvent mieux que d'etre le possesseur de Fobjet sur lequel elle parte ! J'ai commence la lecture de 1'ouv- rage que je compte au nombre de ceux que je traite, comme des esprits autrement faits que le mien traitent les productions futiles, a savoir comme une grande ressource. Tel est en toute verite le cas ; j'ai souvent besoin de me distraire des soins de mon travail de fabrique ; alors je cherche de nouveaux elements de vie et de force dans des productions serieuses. Un livre comme vous savez en faire, est pour moi une source feconde d' elements pareils ; aussi mon but est toujours atteint ; j'apprends et j'aime a apprendre, — et je ne me depite pas par tout ce que vous savez ! Ce que dans vos ouvrages il y a d5 admirable c'est la methode ; vous savez tracer une ligne pour ne plus jamais la perdre de vue. Aussi arrivez vous, ce qui n'est pas reserve a tous ceux qui se mettent en route. Vous m'enverrez les volumes complets, et je les attends avec un vif sentiment de reconnaissance. Veuillez agreer, mon cher Baron, Tassurance de mes sentiments de consideration distingues et%d'attachement deja fort ancien. METTERNICH. 124 LXXXVI. PRESCOTT TO HUMBOLDT. Boston, Dec. 23rd, 1843. Sir, — A book on which I have been engaged for some years, the " History of the Conquest of Mexico," is now published in this country, as it was some few weeks since in England ; and I have the pleasure to request your acceptance of a copy, which will be sent by way of Hamburg, through the house of Grossler, by the first packet, which sails for that port from ISTew York in January. Although the main subject of the work is the Conquest by the Spaniards, I have devoted half a volume to a view of the Aztec civilization ; and as in this shadowy field I have been very often guided by the light of your researches, I feel especially in- debted to you, and am most desirous that the manner in which my own investigation is conducted may receive your approbation. It will indeed be one of the best and most satisfactory results of my labours. As I have been supplied with a large body of unpub- lished and original documents for the Peruvian con- quest, I shall occupy myself with this immediately. But I feel a great want at the outset of your friendly hand to aid me. For although your great work, the " Atlas Pittoresque," sheds much light on scattered points, yet as your " Voyage aux Regions Equinox- iales" stops short of Peru, I shall have to grope my way along through the greater part without the master's hand which in the " Nouvelle Espagne r> led me on so securely. The Peruvian subject will, I think, occupy less time and space than the Mexican, and when it is finished I 125 propose to devote myself to a history of the Eeign of Philip the Second. For this last I have been long amassing materials, and a learned Spaniard has explored for me the various collections, public and private, in England, Belgium, France, and is now at work for me in Spain. In Ranke's Excellent history, " Fiirsten und Volker von Siid-Europa," I find an enumeration of several important MSS., chiefly Venetian relations, of which I am very desirous to obtain copies. They are for the most part in the royal library of Berlin, and some few in that of Grotha. I have written to our minister, Mr. Wheaton, to request him to make some arrangements, if he can, for my effecting this. The liberal principles on which literary institutions are conducted in Prussia, and the facilities given to men of letters, together with the known courtesy of the German character, lead me to anticipate no obstacles to the execution of my desires. Should there be any, however, you will confer great favour on me by giving your countenance to my applications. I trust this will not appear too presumptuous a request on my part. Although I have not the honour of being personally known to you, yet the kind mes- sages I have received from you, and lately through Professor Tellkampf, convince me that my former pub- lication was not unwelcome to you, and that you may feel an interest in my future historical labours. I pray you, my dear sir, to accept the assurances of the very high respect, with which I have the honour to be Your obedient servant, WM. H. PRESCOTT. 126 LXXXVII. MADAME DE RECAMIER, TO HUMBOLDT. Paris, 28juillet, 1843. Je n'ai pas d' expression, monsieur, pour vous dire combien je suis touchee de votre lettre, vous m'avez epargne le saisissement d'apprendre par les journaux une nouvelle aussi douleureuse qu'imprevue. — Quoi- que bien souffrante et bien affligee, je ne veux pas perdre un moment pour vous en remercier. — Vous savez, monsieur, qu'il y avait bien des annees que je n'avais vu le Prince Auguste, mais je recevais con- stamment la preuve de son souvenir. — C'est a 1'epoque la plus triste de sa vie que je 1'avais connu chez Madame de Stael, ou il avait rencontre tant de nobles sympathies ; helas, de la reunion si brillante et si agi- tee du chateau de Coppet il ne restait que lui ; il ne me reste plus a present des souvenirs de ma jeunesse et de tout ce passe de ma vie, que le beau tableau de Corinne, dont le sentiment le plus noble et le plus touchant avait orne ma retraite. Je n'ai pas le cou- rage, monsieur, de prolonger cette lettre et de re- pondre aux details si interessants qui terminent la votre, permettez-moi de ne vous parler aujourd'hui que de ma douleur, de ma reconnaissance et de mon admiration. J. EECAMIER. LXXXVIII. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 81 st August, 1844. I send you some few things which I know will give you pleasure to have in your hands. 127 a. Bettina in her persecution. b. Two copies of my very short Speech. c. Two letters from Spontini, with incomprehensible allusions to Prince Wittgenstein, Count Eedern, hatred of Meyerbeer, and a serious answer from myself. d. A letter from Gray Lussac, at the time he was dangerously wounded by an explosion. e. A letter from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, doing credit to his heart. Always yours, with the highest respect. Saturday night. A. V. HuMBOLDT. LXXXIX. LEOPOLD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, TO HUMBOLDT. Florence, ce 20 juillet, 1844. Tres cher Comte, — Le Professeur de Botanique Philippe Parlatore se rend a Berlin. II m'est impossi- ble de le laisser partir sans le charger d'une lettre pour vous, cher comte, qui exprime mes remerciments pour les recommandations que vous m'avez faites pour que le Toscane put s'enrichir de plusieurs hommes illustres. Vous le pere et protecteur de toutes les sciences na- turelles connaissiez Monsieur Parlatore et un jugement porte par vous suffisait : il est a Florence, dirige le Jardin du Musee et preside a Therbier central qui doit a lui son existence. Un autre Physicien nous a ete recommande par vous, le Professeur Matteucci ; il est un investigateur de la nature, espion heureux, il mene la Science, fabrique les instruments pour Tinterroger, et est maintenant sur le chemin d'importantes decou- 128 vertes, il fait aussi un petit voyage pour se remettre