Transcriber’s Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

AN ENTERTAINING BIOGRAPHY.

JUST PUBLISHED.

THE LIFE TRAVELS AND BOOKS OF

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BAYARD TAYLOR.

One handsome 12mo. volume., uniform with “The Letters of Von Humboldt,” elegantly bound in muslin, with an original steel portrait. Price, $1.25.

Containing a full account of his Life from birth to death; a picturesque summary of his Travels and Adventures in the New World and Asia; biographical sketches of his relatives and literary associates; a complete résumé of his various works, with extracts from his most important ones; a lucid statement of his achievements in all departments of science, &c.

“The Life Travels and Books of Alexander von Humboldt has already gone into a fifth edition. * * * It is entertaining as a romance, and contains the cream of Humboldt’s books. * * * The plan of the work is excellent. The biography is combined with the wanderings of the old savant, and the essence of numerous volumes is here artistically condensed into one. A more readable and instructive book has not been lately issued.”—Philadelphia Daily Press.

⁂ Sold by all booksellers, and it will be sent by mail, postage free, on receipt of the price, $1.25, by

RUDD & CARLETON, Publishers,

No. 130 Grand Street, New York.

LETTERS
OF
Alexander von Humboldt
TO
Varnhagen von Ense.
From 1827 to 1858.
WITH
Extracts from Varnhagen’s Diaries, and Letters of Varnhagen and others to Humboldt.

Translated from the Second German Edition,

By FRIEDRICH KAPP.

NEW YORK:

Rudd & Carleton, 130 Grand Street,

LEIPZIG: F. A. BROCKHAUS.

M DCCC LX.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by

RUDD & CARLETON,

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

R. CRAIGHEAD,

Printer, Stereotyper, and Electrotyper,

Carlton Building,

81, 83, and 85 Centre Street.

“Your last favor doing me so much honor contains words about which I wish to prevent every mistake. ‘You are afraid to confess yourself the exclusive owner of my impieties.’ You may freely dispose of this sort of property after my not far distant departure from life. Truth is due to those only whom we deeply esteem—to you therefore.”

Alexander von Humboldt to Varnhagen.

Letter of December 7th, 1841.

Contents.

Preface.

The following letters of Humboldt furnish a contribution of the highest importance to the true, correct, and unveiled representation of his genius and character. That they should be delivered to publicity after his death was his desire and intent, which have found their positive impression in the words preceding this book as its motto. Never has he spoken out his mind more freely and sincerely, than in his communications with Varnhagen, his old and faithful friend, whom he esteemed and loved before all others. In him he placed an unlimited confidence; with him he deposited those letters received by him, which he desired to be saved for their importance, while he used to destroy nearly all others. He presumed that Varnhagen, the junior of the two, would survive him.

Varnhagen, however, died first and transmitted the duty—a doubly sacred one—to me, of publishing this memorable evidence of the life, the activity, and the genius of this great man. In the accomplishment of this charge it was a religious duty to leave every word unchanged as written down. I would have thought it an offence to Humboldt’s memory had I had the arrogance to make the slightest alterations of his words. For the same reason I did not think myself authorized to grant the request—however well-meaning it may have been—of the publisher, that I should make such alterations, nor could I accord the least influence to my own feelings or to personal regards. There was but one consideration to be obeyed—the eternal truth, for an adherence to which I am responsible to Humboldt’s memory, to History and Literature, and to the will of him who enjoined this duty upon me.

And therefore the legacy, intrusted to my hands, will appear full and complete, as it was received. The interest of Humboldt’s letters is sometimes pleasantly heightened by entries in Varnhagen’s diary—they will indicate the verbal sentiments of Humboldt in addition to those written by him. Of Varnhagen’s letters few only were preserved or could be found. In the little, however, which is known, the noble friendship, the constant, never-ceasing mental activity, the faithful fellowship in their mutual efforts in behalf of science and liberty, in all of which Humboldt and Varnhagen were so many years united, find a sufficient expression.

The letters of many other distinguished and celebrated persons, which are also added, will show Humboldt in his world-wide connexions, in his manifold relations to savans and authors, to statesmen and princes, all of whom approached him with reverence.

LUDMILLA ASSING.

Berlin, February, 1860.

Humboldt’s Letters.

1.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, September 25th, 1827.

My Honored Friend:

Allow me to present you with the best copy of my essay[^[1]] left me.

The end of it will, I hope, secure me your indulgence for the whole.

Tuesday.

A. v. HUMBOLDT.

2.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, November 1st, 1827.

You recollect having once uttered some affectionate words in acknowledgment of my endeavors to describe Nature vividly and truly (that is, with strict correctness as to what we do observe).

That your words have left agreeable impressions, you will perceive from this insignificant token of my gratitude.[^[2]]

I have altered nearly all “the Explanations,” and added “The Genius of Rhodes,” for which Schiller has shown some predilection.

With friendship and the highest consideration,

Yours,

A. HUMBOLDT.

Is it not strange, that Koreff has never acknowledged what we did for him here?

3.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, November 21, 1827.

Wednesday, at Night.

Trusting more to your friendship for me and to my memoranda, which always guide me in my lectures, than to the notes taken by the students, I send you herewith the entire fifth lecture, together with to-day’s recapitulation. I am sure, you will not find anything anti-philosophical therein. You may make whatever use you like of them—except a copy for publication—please send them back before Saturday. That the memoranda were made for my own use only, you will observe by the confusion in their composition—the desire, however, to be always frank, makes me forget any consideration which vanity could suggest.[^[3]]

A. HUMBOLDT.

4.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, April 15th, 1828.

Will you allow me to disturb you for some moments between 2 and 3 o’clock this afternoon, that I may ask your literary opinion? My book shall bear the title: “Sketch of a Physical Description of the World.”

I should like to embody in the title itself the occasion of these lectures, so as to make it understood at once that the book contains more and something else than the lectures. “From reminiscences of lectures in the years 1827 and 1828, by A. v. Humboldt,” is considered, I am told, ridiculous and pretending. I do not insist on it; but “Souvenirs d’un cours de Physique du monde,” or, “Souvenirs d’un voyage en Perse,” seemed simple enough. How shall I arrange the title of the book? “Sketch of the Physical World, elaborated from lectures by A. v. H.:” or, “Partly treated from Lectures?” All that seems rather awkward. Adverbs will not do for titles. What if I add in small type: “A part of this work has been the subject of lectures in the years 1827 and 1828?” This is, however, rather long and then the verb! “Occasioned by,” &c., would perhaps be better. I trust to your genius! You will help me out of this labyrinth, I am sure! With the sincerest attachment,

Your obedient,

A. HUMBOLDT.

Note by Varnhagen.—I had objected to the first herein mentioned title myself when I once dined at Prince August’s, and Humboldt had heard it from Beuth.

5.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, 3d of April, 1829.

I shall call and thank you and enjoy your being home again, and the good effects which the exercise of your new duties have everywhere had. And I will implore pardon of your gifted lady, so dear to me through the misfortunes that happened in my own family. It is never allowed to present a book to the King, not even by Prince Wittgenstein. It must go the usual way. But I will entreat Albrecht very, very fervently.[^[4]] I am quite exhausted and will be off in a week.

Friday.

A. Ht.

6.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, 26th of April, 1830.

I have just come home from Potsdam, and find your dear letter and your present, so very agreeable to me. The “Zinzendorf”[^[5]] will delight me very, very much. He is an individual physiognomy like Lavater and Cardanus. The recent pietism, which began to break out at Halle, made me smile. I rejoice that you will kindly accept my “Cri de Pétersbourg”—it is a parody recited at Court—the forced work of two nights; an essay to flatter without self-degradation, to say how things should be. As you and your high-gifted wife, my ancient and kind friend, rejoice in anything agreeable that happens to me, I wish to say that the King sends me to the Emperor to attend the meeting of the Potentates. I shall probably go with the Crown-Prince, who will meet the Empress at Fischbach.

Yours,

A. Ht.

Zinzendorf’s letters to the Saviour were rather more legible.[^[6]]

7.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, July 9th, 1830.

Please accept for yourself and your highminded and excellent lady my sincerest thanks for your new present, so agreeable to me.[^[7]] I was not personally acquainted with the man whose eccentricities you have so æsthetically described. He was one of those who shine by their personal appearance; their lives are of greater effect than their writings. A man who boasts that his recollections go back to the first year of his life (how differently the Margravine judged things, when she says: “J’étais un enfant très précoce—à deux ans je savais parler, à trois ans je marchais!”); a man who owns a guardian angel in a black cloak, like Cardanus—who makes love to old maids, without being drunk, only in order to convert the same to virtue and reading; a man, to whom the fate of German professors under German princes appears more tragical than that of the Greeks—such a man cannot but be admired—as a curiosity! The “Kirchen-Zeitung” will never inscribe his name in the list of “the faithful,” and the Schimmelmanns will hardly thank you, my most honored friend, that the work recalls the Danish-Holstein saturnalia of sentimental demagogism.

I am very much gratified that you will take “Hardenberg” in hand. It is a difficult but satisfactory task, if you be careful to separate the epochs, and provided his life be judged without party hatred, which seems to have subsided at last, with regard to Hegel in the Academy.

Thankfully yours,

A. Humboldt.

We find in Varnhagen’s diary the following entry referring to the above: “Alexander von Humboldt said to Gans, after the July revolution, when he heard him express very exalted hopes of the new government, ‘Believe me, dear friend, my wishes go as far as yours, but my hopes are very feeble. I have seen changes of government in France for forty years. They always fall by their own incapacity; the new ones give always the same promises, but they never keep them, and the march to ruin is renewed. I was personally acquainted with most of the men in power, some of them intimately; there were distinguished, well-meaning men among them; but they did not persevere; after a short time they were not better than their predecessors—nay, they became even greater rascals. Not one of all the governments there has kept the promises made to the people—not one of them has subordinated its own interest to the welfare of the country. And until this be done, no power can possibly take a lasting root in France. The nation has always been deceived, and will again be deceived; when it will punish the treason and the perjury of its rulers; for it is strong and mature enough to do this at the proper time.’”

8.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

Berlin, January 23d, 1833.

Certainly it was I who met your Excellency some time ago at the sunny hour of noon and who recognised you too late, as I was recognised too late by you. How I should have liked to run after you, but it would not do, the distance was already too great. I would have liked to have told you something concerning Mr. von Bulow at London, which I had just got from the best authority, and which I thought would be new to you, as it was to me. It was about the danger in which that bold ambassador was for some time, and which, according to a declaration of the King, had passed over. Since then your Excellency has heard it from other sources, and my information will be but stale.

Now we Prussians are also gratified at last by a general representation of the people, or, to speak more correctly, we had it a long time ago, only we did not know it! Bishop Eylert has lifted the veil from our eyes. He is the first to speak out the great truth, like a second Mirabeau, in clearness of thought and boldness of words. I can vividly imagine how the “Rittersaal,” nay, the whole palace, was shaken to its foundation, when he thundered that powerful truth to the assembly, that the representation of the whole people, of all the classes and interests, ought to be found in that solemn lodge of the Order of Knights! I bend my head in deep reverence to such a colossal boldness, to such a new unheard-of combination, by which other miserable institutions, until now regarded as national representations, as for instance Parliaments, Assemblies, Cortes, and the like, were annihilated and blown into nothingness! I have listened to the orator from the silent mouth of the official gazette only; but your Excellency was present without doubt at the solemnity and pitied me, to be sure, and will say, what in ancient times was said when a speech of Demosthenes was read: “Oh! had you heard it delivered by him!” And the smiling approval, the gracious satisfaction of the high audience, the amazement of all present at the wonderful discovery, how much the impression must have been heightened by all that!

Oh, our Protestant parsons are on the best road, they promise to leave behind their Catholic brethren as they were when in the most flourishing condition of their priesthood. Such hypocritical black coats make us the laughing-stock of the world. Representation of the people or no representation, may we have it, or may it be denied, I care little about it just now, but that such a scoundrel should assume to call the meeting of the Knights of an Order a national representation, is an attempt which should be rewarded by the lunatic asylum or the State prison. And there is not even a song, a street ballad, a caricature, to make merry of such a monstrosity—all is silent!

But as this is the time of sleep, I will go to bed and wish you and myself good night and sweet dreams.

With the highest respect, &c.,

V.

See A. v. Humboldt’s note to Rahel, Varhagen’s wife, of the 1st of February, 1833.

9.
HUMBOLDT TO RAHEL.

Berlin, February 1, 1833.

My speedy reply has no good foreboding, my dear friend. When anything is to be done in this country, it wants fourteen months’ maturing—after that there is hope. The inclosed letter, which, however, you are entreated not to leave in the hand of your lady friend, explains all. I was listened to in my words and letters kindly and promisingly. This morning, however, the drawings—those beautiful drawings—were sent back. The underlined word in the accompanying note might give some hope; but I like better to give myself up to illusions than to nourish them in others, and the firmness with which Beuth, who alone has to decide in the matter, sticks to his will, bars all prospects. That I have done my best in the matter, as you yourself have desired it, does not require further words—this should be a sort of historical faith with you. Please send me a word of comfort about my dear Varnhagen—the only brilliant star in the literary world of our country—that country in which, as the bishop with the drawn sword says, even the most eminent talents, as such, ought to have no distinction whatever! I do not wonder that such things are spoken out, but what depresses me is the vileness of the society in which we are here living, and which is not even aroused by such contemptible assertions. May both of you preserve your nobler selves.

A. Ht.

10.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, 3d of Feby., 1833.

I am eternally grateful and affected by your noble letter. Grace and euphony of language should always be joined to purity of character and gracefulness of manners.

My brother was here for two days, but almost always under the shock of the waves, dashing from the Court. Princes have the right to pray without ever being deprecated. He ordered me to tell you, dear friend, how very sensible he is to the flattering nature of your offer; but he is just now so much occupied with the publication of the quarto edition on the affinity of Asiatic languages with the Sanscrit, that he cannot accept what he considers, nevertheless, as highly important. He desires, in honor of the celebrity of the great departed one,[^[8]] that you should undertake the task. I am painfully concerned to hear that you enjoy, together with your ingenious friend, but a small bit of health, which you kindly lend each other—something of a mutual self-instruction, or Azais-compensation, which afflicts me very much. I have received a long letter of Mrs. Cotta. It seems she will assume the editorship of the Allgemeine Zeitung, an anti-salique enterprise altogether. Is it not strange, how, at certain epochs, a certain principle seems to penetrate all mankind? Resuscitation of reverence for the past, not-to-be-disturbed love of peace, distrust in the possibility of amelioration, hydrophobia against genius, religious compulsion for unity, mania-diplomatica for protocols.... Cardines rerum.

Note by Varnhagen.—I had replied in Rahel’s name, who was prevented by sickness, to the note of the 1st inst., directed to her, and in a postscript had expressed the desire Minister de Humboldt should write the critique of Faust, just then to be published for the Jahrbücher der Kritik.

11.
HUMBOLDT TO RAHEL.

Berlin, February 9th, 1853.

I have seen Beuth once more, to remind him of his ancient friendship with L. His opinion is, that it would be advantageous for the family to separate the architectural subjects from what belongs to landscape merely, and also to leave out the engravings. Only the architectural drawings were of any use to his institute, and if the family wanted the money, he would be enabled to purchase to the amount of some hundred Thalers (perhaps four to five hundred?). However uninviting such an offer may be, I thought it my duty, dear friend, to impart it to you. In case of acceptance, Beuth wishes to deal forthwith with some agent, who should come and see him in his house.

May the sun of gentle spring give you both warmth, cheerfulness, and vigor! The “Byzantine empire” (ours I mean) is seriously divided into two parties about “Bunsen’s Psalm Book,” and “Elsner’s Collection of Hymns!” The military power and the adjutants are in favor of the “Collection of Hymns.” As for myself, I have not yet made up my mind.

Saturday.

A. Ht.

12.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Saturday, March 9th, 1833.

To a mind like yours, noble friend, solitude and calm are necessary. You draw only upon yourself. Think, that I received the painful news[^[9]] only last night by Prince Carolath. You know what a warm-hearted, long-proved, and kind friend I lost in her, the honor of her sex! how amiable she was, when lately she instructed me to transact the little business with Beuth. So experienced in all the vicissitudes and illusions of life, and yet so cheerful, and so gentle! With such an intellect, so full of soul, and so true of heart! The world will appear to you a solitude for a long time, but the consciousness of having imparted to such a lovely woman, until her very last breath, all that genius, and heart, and gracefulness of intercourse like yours can afford, will be a balm to your wound, dear Varnhagen. I conjure you, take care of your health!

A. Humboldt.

13.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, December 3, 1833.

Pardon, a thousand pardons, for not sooner returning the classical studies of Friedrich Schlegel. I studied them diligently and I am convinced that many views of Grecian antiquity, which modern authors ascribe to themselves, are buried in writings dated from 1795 (a deucalionic time of yore!). Angelus Silesius, whom I have but now learned to appreciate, has also gratified me and my brother very much. There is a piety in the book, which breathes on the mind like the balmy air of spring, and the mysterious and hieroglyphical marks of your departed wife, render your gift doubly dear to me.

Spiker,[^[10]] very curiously mistook the genitive in the “astronomical observations of Alexander von Humboldt,” for my signature, when he informed the public of Oltmann’s death. I will pass it over, however, without correction.

With everlasting affection, yours,

A. Humboldt.

14.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, December 9, 1833.

I enclose you, most honored friend, some words of the lovely Duchess of Dessau. Anything honoring the memory of our departed lady friend must be dear to your heart.

A. v. Humboldt.

Sunday.

Dessau, December 1, 1833.

Accept my best thanks for the books you sent me. Each in its way interested me very much. I am sorry not to have been personally acquainted with Rahel. Her mind now lies so clearly before me, that I should have been happy to have been acquainted with her exterior appearance, that it might suggest to me the intellect within.

Friederike, Duchess at Anhalt.

Yet full of admiration for R. the book of all books. May I ask you, my honored friend, for Friedrich Schlegel’s works, third volume?

15.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, December 19, 1833.

I have been prevented by the irksome and noisy Court-life from inquiring personally after the dear health of my friend. I am sorry that I must request you, by the present note, to return me the letter of the Duchess of Dessau, containing the amiable words concerning our sainted friend.

A. v. Humboldt.

Tuesday.

16.

Berlin, Oct. 24, 1834.

I begin the printing of my work (the work of my life). I have the extravagant idea of describing in one and the same work the whole material world—all that we know to-day of celestial bodies and of life upon the earth—from the nebular stars to the mosses on the granite rocks—and to make this work instructive to the mind, and at the same time attractive, by its vivid language. Every great and sparkling idea must be noticed, side by side with its attendant facts. The work shall represent an epoch of the intellectual development of mankind in their knowledge of nature. The prolegomena are, for the most part, ready. They are my amended “discours d’ouverture” as they were delivered from memory, although immediately afterwards carefully written down; the picture of physical nature—incentives to the study of nature in the spirit of our age—these latter are threefold: 1. “Poesie descriptive” and vivid description of natural scenery in modern works of travels. 2. Landscape pictures, sensitive description of an exotic nature—when it originated, when it became a necessity and a pleasure to the mind; the reason why antiquity (too passionate) could not feel it. 3. Plants—grouping of them, according to the physiognomy of plants (no botanic gardens).—History of the physical description of the world. How the idea of the world—of the connexion of all the phenomena, became clear to the nations of the world in the course of centuries. These prolegomena are the most essential. They contain the general part of the work, which is followed by the special part, the particulars of which are arranged in systematic order. I send also a part of the tabular register; space of the universe; the whole physical astronomy; our globe, its interior, exterior; electro-magnetism of its interior; vulcanism, that is, the reaction of the interior of a planet upon its surface; organization of the masses; a concise geognosy; ocean; atmosphere; climate; organic matter; vegetable geography; animal geography; human races and languages; the physical organization of which (articulation of sounds) is controlled by the intellect, the product and manifestation of which is language. In the special part all numerical results, the most minute, as in “Laplace’s Exposition du Systéme du Monde.” As these particulars do not admit the same literary perfection of style as the general combinations of natural science, the simple facts are stated in short sentences, arranged in tabular order. The attentive reader will find condensed in a few pages all results on climate, magnetism of the earth, etc., which it would take years of application to learn by study. The intimate relations of the fundamental details, for the sake of literary harmony with the general plan, are effected by brief introductory remarks to each chapter. Otfried Mueller, in his ably written “Archæology,” has very successfully pursued the same method.

It was my wish that you, my dear friend, should get a clear perception of my undertaking from myself. I have not succeeded in concentrating the whole in one single volume, however magnificent the effect of such conciseness would have been. I hope, however, that two volumes will contain the whole. There will be no notes under the text, but at the end there will be notes appended, containing solid erudition, and minuteness of detail; these, however, may be left unread.

The work is not what is commonly called “Physical Description of the Earth.” It comprises heaven and earth—everything existing. I began to write it fifteen years ago in French, and called it “Essai sur la Physique du Monde.” In Germany I thought first of calling it “The Book of Nature;” a title already adopted in the middle age by Albertus Magnus. But all this is too vague. The title shall be “Kosmos,” Sketch of a Physical Description of the World, by A. v. H., enlarged outlines of his Lectures in 1827 and 1828. Cotta, Publisher.

I wanted to add the word Kosmos, and to force people to call the book by this name in order to avoid their calling it “Humboldt’s Physical Geography,” which would throw the thing in the class of Mittersacher’s writings. “Description of the World” (formed after History of the World) would, as a designation seldom used, always be confounded with “Description of the Earth.” I know that “Kosmos” sounds rather pretending, and the word is indeed not without a certain “Affetérie;” but this title says in one and the same striking word, “Heaven and Earth,” and is quite opposed to “Gaea,” the title of that rather imperfect description of the earth by Professor Zeune. My brother is also for the title “Kosmos.” I myself hesitated for a long time. Now, grant me a favor, my dear friend. I cannot prevail upon myself to send away the commencement of my manuscript without entreating you to cast a critical eye over it. You possess such an eminent talent for style, and you have at the same time so much genius and independence of judgment, that you do not quite discard the style of others because it differs from your own. Please read the “Discours,” and put in a little sheet on which you write—without giving any reasons.—“So ... I would better like, so ... instead of....” Do, however, not condemn without assisting me! and do also ease my mind as to the title.

With the utmost confidence, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Monday.

The principal faults of my style are an unhappy inclination to hyper-poetical forms, long constructions upon participles, and too much concentrating of manifold views and sentiments in one and the same period. I think, however, that these radical evils, founded in my individuality, are somewhat lessened by a grave simplicity and generalization, enabling me to contemplate my subject with a complete mastery of its details, if I may be permitted so much vanity. A book on nature should produce an impression like nature itself. I have been always careful, as in my “Views of Nature,” and in that work my manner is quite different from that of Forster and Chateaubriand. I have always endeavored to describe faithfully, to design correctly, and to be even scientifically true, without losing myself in the dry regions of knowledge.

17.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, October 28th, 1834.

You have encouraged and cheered me by your amiable letter, and your still more amiable solicitude. You have quite entered into the spirit of my efforts. But the expression of my affectionate confidence in you

Yours gratefully,

A. v. Humboldt.

I would there were in Germany as excellent a book of synonyms as the inclosed one, which, I am sure, you did not see before now. Abbé Delisle has advised me to use it, and indeed it spares much time; if a similar word is wanted, one finds it at once. I shall come and take the book back.

18.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Sunday, 6 o’clock A. M.,

April 5th, 1855.

You, my dearest Varnhagen, who are not afraid of grief, but who trace its phases through the depths of sentiment, you should receive at this sorrowful time a few words expressing the love which both brothers feel for you. The release has not yet come. I left him last night at 11 o’clock, and I hasten to him again. The day, yesterday, was less distressing. A half lethargic condition, frequent, though not restless, slumber, and after each waking, words of love, of comfort; but always the clearness of the great intellect, which penetrates and distinguishes everything and examines its own condition. The voice was very feeble, hoarse, and thin, like a child’s—leeches were therefore applied to the throat. Full consciousness! “Think often of me,” he said the day before yesterday, “but always with cheerfulness! I was very happy; and this day also was a beautiful one for me; for ‘Love is above all.’ I will soon be with mother, and will have an insight into a higher order of things.” I have no shadow of hope. I never thought my old eyes had so many tears! It has lasted near eight days.[^[11]]

19.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, May 15th, 1835, Tuesday.

My time is, unfortunately, so much occupied by the many princely strangers, and I am so affected by the cold, though not at all bracing weather, that I can scarcely find leisure to thank you, dear friend, for the “Bollmann”[^[12]] and the biographical sketch of him, in which I recognised at once your pen, and also the “retouchings,” when the “Staats Zeitung” fell into my hands. One should not undertake to speak of distinguished men in such papers; it is a difficult task, even for a man of your genius, to keep the proper course between the family, the censor, and the cold, indifferent public.

The name of “Mundt” has recalled to me some remarkable pages of his “Madonna,” on the tendency of the Germans to sentimental lucubrations. There is much truth in these observations, and I thought to read my own sentence in them. So much, dear friend, on this world, to us, now unhappily deserted.

Always gratefully,

A. Humboldt.

I feel some sorrow, nevertheless, that you refuse to see the Grand-Duchess.

20.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, May 6th, 1835.

I send back the communicated sheets, as they might interrupt the series. I was personally acquainted with almost all those whom Bollmann describes so vividly and faithfully. One perceives how he rises as he enters into more important situations. What a strange course of life, “Médecin de Sauvetage!” I have now a better impression of him, thanks to you; for, without being capable of divining the true cause, I noticed some coolness towards Bollmann in Lafayette’s family, for some years past.

A. Ht.

21.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Saturday, 23d of May, 1835.

If the “Morgenblatt” of the 18th of May should fall into your hands, dear friend, please glance at a rather offensive article therein, entitled “Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Funeral.” My brother is said to have died abandoned by his family. I take but little notice of such misrepresentations. I should wish to know, however, is “that other thing” which my brother was “ignorant of, besides music, and which one dare not name”—is it God, or some lewdness? I do not know what it possibly can be! Please, dearest one, to find out how this assertion is explained by the public. The cause of my brother’s retiring from public life is also so world-known, that it is singular to intimate that one did not know whether it was by his own fault. I call with pleasure on your acuteness and affection. Supply my deficiency in the first.

Most thankfully yours,

A. Humboldt.

22.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, March 28th, 1836.

A mind like yours, my generous friend, understands, in its mildness and fortitude, how to discover some justification for everything. I do not fear, therefore, to appear this morning again before you as a petitioner, after a winter distracted by the dashing court-waves and festivities. You are the only one in this harmony-barren, genius-deserted city who possesses a harmony of style and a sense of moderation in the utterance of painful sentiments. May I beg you to cast a critical glance over the inclosed sheets?[^[13]] The variations played on the praise-chanting lyre for forty individuals were a tedious, style-spoiling necessity. It was arranged who should be invited to the great table. As for me, I think I came out not quite awkwardly, by some individual characteristics, and by a sort of graduation in my praise. Allow me to call to-day, about eleven o’clock, to receive the sheets, which are much wanted by the printer, together with your verbal remarks at the same time. I can alter, if necessary, sous votre dictée, at your home. It would be humane in you to receive me in bed.

Respectfully yours,

A. Humboldt.

Monday.

At eleven o’clock I shall be with you.

Varnhagen made, on the 11th of May, 1836, the following entry in his diary:

“Very early this morning, Alexander von Humboldt came to see me, and remained an hour and a half. The principal subject of our conversation was the French princes, who arrived here to-day. The embarrassment of the King is very great; he would like to show the greatest attention to the strangers, while at the same time he desires his attentions should have the appearance of insults at St. Petersburg. State Secretary Ancillon had not courage enough to advise the Crown-Prince for their coming here as a certainty. He trusted to chance to acquaint him with it. Our princes got into a violent passion, and complained bitterly of the unwelcome visit. The Princesses Augusta and Maria, who showed themselves pleased with it, had hard words to hear. It was said that there would be a demonstration in the theatre: some would applaud, and a greater number would hiss, it was hoped. At Treves, something of that sort had already happened, on their way through that city. No doubt, however, that our Princes, notwithstanding their ill-feelings, will behave very civilly, as the King has expressed his wishes in this respect too positively. The Queen of the Netherlands, who is just now here, and who was believed to be the most violently opposed to them, leads the way with a good example, and declares that she will receive the strangers. The Ambassador, Mr. Bresson, and Mr. von Humboldt, at first disapproved of this excursion. That it is carried out notwithstanding is owing to Prince von Metternich, who desiring to secure the influence of France in the Oriental affairs, and at the same time to preserve the friendship of Russia, puts Prussia in the foreground, whose conduct in receiving the French Princes will form a precedent which must necessarily be followed at Vienna. The thing is, indeed, an event of great importance, and must tell effectively on public opinion. It is a fact, and, as such, speaks to every one. Every one will say that our Court has not the principles it pretended to have, or that it is too weak to avow them openly, and is driven, therefore, to try hypocrisy. A bad thing either way!”

23.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, May 31st, 1836.

[Concerning the article in the Allgemeine Zeitung, against Raumer,[^[14]] written, it was said, by Major von Radowitz.]

The correspondent had, it seems, little to fear from the mendacious declaration of this “defloured.” In the general view on the shallowness and dough-facedness, of the great historian, I am of his opinion. Moreover reading Herr von Raumer’s books is like being “whipped,” and that I neither suffer nor pardon.

24.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Monday, April 24th, 1837.

It is very consoling, that both brothers in this intellectually desolated city (how brilliant it was when Rahel was in her zenith) live in the memory of the only one, to whom have remained good taste, refined manners, and gracefulness of style.

All my researches concerning the separate print of the essay were in vain to-day. I have not even the single volume of the Academical Proceedings of 1822, because at that time I lived in Paris. Yet, in a few days, I will bring you this one. I will then also show you a list of all the remaining works of my brother, which I have made with great care, and which you may perhaps increase. Cotta will print all of them; also, the eight hundred sonnets, and likewise the hitherto unprinted ecclesiastical poems from Spain. I make the preparations for this edition in a spirit of sincere piety that I may not die regretting its non-completion.

How could I ever suspect, dear friend, that you would let me become a Madame Sontag, at the house of the excellent Princess (as in the saloon of the Princess Belgiojoso), and make an exhibition of myself! I will read with pleasure in a small circle of twelve or fifteen persons, certainly not otherwise, because Berlin is a small illiterate town and more than malicious, in which people would find it ludicrous, if I, in addition to two alas! already so public theatres were to offer a third entertainment. But happily, I certainly am no Madame Sontag in Berlin, and the lecture can therefore well remain a secret de comédie. You are certainly sufficiently humane to understand all this, and not to blame me.

With all reverence, yours,

A. v. H.

25.
HUMBOLDT TO THE PRINCESS VON PUECKLER.

I arrived this very night from Potsdam, and I accept with pleasure the amiable offer of Madame la Princesse for to-morrow, Wednesday night, at eight o’clock precisely, for the spectacle lasts one hour. I feel some fear in fixing it for Thursday, considering the planetarian perturbations. Any persons selected by you will be agreeable to me. I would only beg Madame la Princesse not to invite Rauch, Gans, and Mr. and Mrs. Ruhle, because they have already been bored by this affair. Mr. de Varnhagen may add whomever he pleases. This tact in selecting only those who will have some indulgence in listening to me is unsurpassed.

Thousand respectful and affectionate devotions.

A. Humboldt.

Thursday, 2d May, 1837.

26.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

I came, dear friend, for two purposes: 1, to bring you the opinions of Minister Kamptz (casus in terminis, only twenty-five copies printed), which you, perhaps, had not seen before, and which has elicited a vehement reply from Herr von Oertzen, the Minister of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, burned in the Lord. Read (p. 30 and 32), how one can whitewash a person. I would beg of you not to laugh at me, when you are invited to-morrow to a lecture at the Princess’s. I can assure you there is less vanity, from which, by the bye, I am not at all free, than weakness of character and good-nature in it. Thus, I believed that I owed this satisfaction to the Princess; the daughter also pressed me, and she showed me a harmless list of ten persons. If you will propose or bring with you one or more persons, it will be agreeable to me; only bring no one who has heard me already. Your friends are mine; from yours I may expect indulgence. I insist upon it, that a man is not without merit, who after spending his life with cyphers and stones, has put himself to the trouble of learning to write German.

Yours,

A. Ht.

I hope also to procure for you the vehement “opus” of the Strelitz Minister, which is by far more spirited than might be expected.

Varnhagen remarks in his Diary, under May 3d: In the evening, at the Princess of Pueckler’s, the long-promised lecture by Herr von Humboldt. The lecture was very fine, and made an excellent impression. I had a conversation with General von Ruble on Humboldt’s genius. He totally agreed with me, saying, “When he shall have died, then only shall we understand well what we have possessed in him.”

Herr von Humboldt was with me yesterday, and brought me the little note of Minister Kamptz, of which twenty-five copies only were printed, “Casus in terminus,” in which he puts the best face on the French change of rulers, and in which he justifies the Mecklenburg marriage. So much in contrast with his old principles, that I could exclaim: “If he could only cut himself in two, he certainly would put one half in prison.” There is still no opposition wanting against the marriage. Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz has formally intrigued against it, and tried to form in the Mecklenburg and Prussian dynasty an alliance, a covenant and obligation, against all marriages with the house of Orleans. There was even talk of a formal protest. All this is the most vehement opposition to the expressed views of the King. Duke Charles is now really sick from annoyance and trouble, not only in this but also in other things.

27.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, May 10th, 1837.

At last, my dear friend, I can send you the volume of the Academical Proceedings, which contains the important treatise on history. I shall soon exchange this borrowed volume for another, which you may keep. It seems that there never were separate copies made of this essay. You disappeared so quickly after the last performance, that I fear very much your appearance on that fated day was only a sacrifice to me. I move eternally like a pendulum between Potsdam and Berlin. To-morrow again to Potsdam, where we expect, on the 16th, the amiable Princess,[^[15]] who has set at variance the whole hellenic camp, and whom they will now be happy to find “by far not beautiful enough.”

Most gratefully yours,

M. Humboldt.

Wednesday.

I knew long ago that General Bugeaud did not speak French. I now see that his real language is Mongol. What a Timurid proclamation of the “armée civilisatrice.”

The essay of thy brother is one of his most perfect works as to style. “God governs the world (p. 317); the task of history is to trace these eternal mysterious destinies.” This is the essence of his production. I have sometimes discussed with my brother, not to say quarrelled about that. This result certainly is analogous to the oldest ideas of mankind, expressed in every language. My brother’s treatise is a commentary developing, explaining, praising, this dim perception. In the same manner the physiologist creates so-called vital powers, in order to explain organic phenomena, because his knowledge of physical powers, which act in what they call lifeless nature, does not suffice to explain the play of living organisms. Are vital powers demonstrated by this? I know that you will be angry with me, because you divine that the fundamental idea of this wonderful treatise is not entirely satisfactory to me.

28.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Wednesday, May 17th, 1837.

You have prepared for me, my highly esteemed friend, a delightful pleasure. I hope that these remarks upon the composition of history will hereafter form a part of your miscellaneous writings! The mind certainly becomes dizzy in contemplating the abundance of material which springs copiously from every fresh source. You point out how this material may be moulded by a man of genius. In the approaching millennium everything will be simplified—the individual life of nations is preserved, in spite of warlike expeditions over continents. Since the great epoch of Columbus and Gama, who made one part, one side of this planet known to the other, that fluctuating element, the ocean, has established the omnipresence of one kind of civilization (that of Western Europe). Its influence breaks through the rigid barriers of continents, and establishes new customs, new faith, new wants of life even in the most unorganised parts of the earth. The South Sea Islands are already Protestant parishes;—a floating battery, a single vessel of war, changes the fate of Chili....

Princess Helene, by her charming grace and intellectual superiority, also yesterday made many conquests over the raw and obstinate material which had opposed her. It was ludicrous to see how some persons tried to appear serious, dignified, and—silly. That she leaves in good spirits for her new country, I am much rejoiced. Would that she passed the Rhine with less retinue! Her mother is good and refined, but of retired habits; but some other members of her suite had better remain on this side of the river. Fortunately, people in the great French world are entirely free from the paltry gossip and fault-finding that rule in Berlin and Potsdam, where they subsist for months, in thoughtlessness, upon the self-created phantasy of a weak imagination.

I made Privy Councillor Mueller, who knows how to estimate you and your genius, participate in my joy. But he also, as a jurist, strayed away to the first sheet, No. 63 (Criticisms on the Provincial Law, by Goetze). Will you not, dear friend, send me, for Mueller, the commencement of that criticism?

Most gratefully yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

29.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Monday, May 30th, 1837.

You can, my revered friend, dispose entirely of the volume of the Academy until I shall procure you a copy for yourself. I am particularly pleased with the communication to the ingenious Gans. The historical studies of Hegel will interest me particularly, because, until now I nourished a wild prejudice against the idea that each nation individually is bound to represent an idea. In order that the prediction of the philosopher may be fulfilled I shall nevertheless read it attentively, and gladly abandon my prejudice.

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

30.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Saturday, July 1st, 1837.

To-morrow to Tegel,[^[16]] and on Monday I depart for the eternal spring,[^[17]] at which the sight of the Prince of Warsaw will not lessen my sadness; I cannot, therefore, thank you personally. Sophie Charlotte[^[18]] and Hegel’s Philosophy of History will accompany me, and both will delight me greatly. My soul rather turns to you. I shall certainly find a torrent of ideas in that Hegel, whom his editor, Gans, in so masterly a manner has not deprived of his great individuality; but a man who is as I am, like an insect, inseparable from the earth and its natural variations, feels himself uneasy and constrained at an abstract assertion of totally unfounded facts and views on America and the Indian world. At the same time I appreciate what is grand in the conception of Hegel.

With you all is profound and subdued, and you possess what is wanting in the other, unceasing grace and freshness of language.

A. Humboldt.

I have badly arranged my life; I do every thing for becoming prematurely stupid. I would gladly abandon “the European beef,” which Hegel’s phantasy presents as so much better than the American, and I could almost wish to live near the weak inanimate crocodiles (which, alas! measure 25 feet). Pp. 442–444, are certainly made more palatable to me by our noble friend.

31.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, October 4th, 1837.

You delight sometimes in arresting fleeting events, and in preserving what the winds usually carry away. I therefore send you, dear friend, the little speech, which the papers have published in such a mutilated form. The sense of it will please you, although its neglected style might be better. Political Hanover I found, as you supposed; and private conversations with King Ernest, which at the same time express wrath and fear, confirm the view. Leist of Stade with his report, which lasted five hours, has lately done harm by his flattery.

Yours,

A. Ht.

Stieglitz, Wilhelm’s oldest friend, and who once saved his life in the Leine river (my brother cried out to him, with unexampled stoicism; “I die, but it does not matter,”) was to me a serious apparition of a ghost. The effect of his spirit upon me is uncomfortable.

32.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Sunday, October 22d, 1837.

Six o’clock, A. M.

I find after a week’s residence in Potsdam, which has very much discouraged me, your amiable souvenir. Receive, revered friend, this very evening, my warmest thanks; you have praised me for my most cherished aim, which is, that I may not become a fossil, as long as I move, and cling to the belief, “that nature has put her curse upon stagnancy and inertia.” Youth is the symbol of progress, and those, who rule now (the Berlin world’s elephants) sont des momies en service extraordinaire.

Good night,

A. Humboldt.

33.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Tuesday, November 7th, 1837.

The commencement of my letter is weak, the end of it more reasonable. But you should not lose the dramatic effect of the whole.

What you ask, my dear friend, is very perilous, for the question is not about my feelings, but about a family who anxiously interpret. The more striking and spirited your delineation is, particularly p. 10–15, (“He started from ideas.”... “That which many deny to him entirely.”)... it impresses me uncomfortably, the more because it is in so short an essay, and because it would appear less harsh in the description of a whole life which was, in a literary and political point of view, not unimportant. But this more complete description is impossible now; therefore, my wish is incessantly to secure his renown by the publication of his literary works. To leave out anything, or to alter anything in this fine essay of yours, would rob it both of its charm and vigor. You have written the whole in the noblest mood; but there are points (Reineke Fuchs, the relation to Frau von Humboldt), which it is not pleasant to allude to just now. Since you only demand of me to enumerate individual impressions, I will give you these. Often they are merely doubts. P. 5: “Foreign to abstract thinking.” The term “Conservative philosophy” points, I believe, to Kant, to whom he adhered most. He just believed that metaphysics, ante-Hegelian, had been the chief study of his youth. I only wished a more decided expression. P. 6: “In the proper sense not productive.” Philosophy of language according to entirely new views, genius of antiquity, treating of history, deep understanding of poetry—in all these branches he produced nothing that was not of importance. P. 8: “Style all ice;” make it somewhat milder. You do it yourself (p. 30), where the word “warms.” P. 13: “Thus the call is soon decided, and the name is Mephistopheles or Reineke.” One would wish the two significant names left out, since all is said before in the happiest, liveliest style. “Mephistopheles” reminds one of Duke Charles.

P. 14. The question about tender feeling, and the saying of Talleyrand, which I did not know before, and which can have a sense only by secondary relations of political irresolution, are not agreeable. “C’était un des hommes d’état dont l’Europe, de mon temps n’en a pas compté trois ou quatre,” was an expression heard from Talleyrand.

P. 15. “What many denied to him entirely,” very ingenious and fine. Old Princess Louise said of you: “You are most to fear when defending.”

P. 18. My brother often narrated that Stieglitz saved him; but those words, which would have sounded vain-glorious coming from his lips, I only just now learned from Stieglitz. They are very characteristic and true. Therefore, I wished only an explaining word, to prevent misunderstanding.

P. 23. That he admired Rahel infinitely, is very, very true!

P. 28. “Constitutional principles.” If you ever make use of these sheets, my dear, please add, at any rate: “Although he afterwards, in other essays, pressed in the most distinct manner the necessity of a general representative constitution.” This limitation is necessary. I myself had in my hands his plan for a constitution, and for the mode of election, and he died with these ideas.

P. 31. In place of “avarice,” say too great economy.

I read once more, with more peace of mind. I consider this your best effort.

Pp. 6, 7, 10–12! 13–20, 24–27, 30!! all—almost all; and you have treated with infinite consideration those things which you yourself, here and there, hardly approved of.

“Il n’y a rien de maudit,” said the great painter, Gérard, “que de consulter la famille sur la ressemblance du défunt. Il y a de quoi se prendre, telle est leur exigeance! Ils auraient fait bon marché du parent vivant.” Thus you will speak of me. I now ask myself, at the close, whether I am not depriving the brother whom I loved so tenderly and so watchfully, of a great renown, by asking you in the beginning not to print your article?

Certainly I would deprive him of renown, for who will ever write of him so very truly and eloquently. Therefore, what I wish to sacrifice, what I dare to beg, is so trifling, so easy to change with, your versatility of style! It refers to the few lines, which I underlined, pp. 13 and 14, Rahel’s opinion, pp. 14 and 15, not included; for she always is mild and just and charming.

Take my warmest, most heartfelt thanks, my revered friend! Do not answer me. I shall call on you to-morrow morning, about twelve o’clock.

Yours,

A. Humboldt.

34.

Berlin, June 9th, 1838.

I am very happy, revered friend, that I can offer to you as a present the only volumes of the great Russian poet hitherto published. Shall I come to you to-morrow, Sunday, at one o’clock, that my eyes may see the beautiful eyes which have enticed you (for our literary benefit) into the Slavonian lingual labyrinth?

I called twice at Mr. K.’s; but, as he was not in, I left cards. Moreover, I wrote him a tender letter, with offers for Petersburg (concerning his journey to Geneva)—but I have not heard a word from him since. Such conduct in a young man, who without me would still sit in Orenburg as a Cossack clerk, is difficult to understand.

Most gratefully yours,

A. Ht.

Saturday.

Do not answer, if you permit me to come.

35.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, August 3d, 1838.

You are for me, my dearest friend, the standard of refinement as well as my authority in matters of elevated taste. I have written two articles (not heretofore published) for Cotta’s “New Quarterly,” with which his advisers are very much delighted, viz.: a natural description of the Plateau of Bogota, and on the fluctuations in the production of coin since the middle age. He sends me for them (they fill four printed sheets) an exchange for fifty fredericksdor’s, or more than twelve fredericksdor’s per sheet. I have a mind (although very much in need of money) to return one half the sum. Before carrying out, however, the resolution, I thought it best to ask, what at the present time may be considered as a maximum of an author’s payment for such articles? Is it six, eight, or ten fredericksdor’s? I would then return only in proportion. It may be of some importance hereafter to me. Excuse the prosaic question, and send me some word of answer one of these days. I am going to the Island to-day.

Ht.

In Varnhagen’s Diary is the following entry, dated August 9th, 1838. Humboldt told me in a long visit the news of Toeplitz. The King of Prussia and the Emperor of Russia have both avoided meeting each other alone, each of them fearing the embarrassment of a tête-à-tête. The Emperor spoke on several occasions quite contemptuously of the present French Government, and still worse of the King Louis Philippe himself. Prince Metternich’s conduct was frivolous, light-minded, and without fear for the present; he is not alarmed, though haunted by the gloomy thought that at Louis Philippe’s death things must take a new turn, and that then war will become inevitable. Does he think to make people believe this, I ask? With Metternich one always ought to examine first, how far an opinion adapts itself to the position of the moment.

Under date of April 9th, 1839, Varnhagen wrote in his Diary: “Humboldt called quite unexpectedly and made the greatest excuses for not having called on me before. And then he opened his newsbag and recited a thousand stories from Paris and Berlin—at least for two hours. Things in France bear a very gloomy aspect, he thinks; and he has lately written about it to Prince Metternich. The crisis in France is yet a latent one—but to-morrow it may burst forth, and how needful it would then be, and, in this event, how necessary, that Germany should be strong and united, and the farces at Cologne and Hanover be settled!”

Under 19th of April, 1839, Varnhagen says in his diary: “I saw Humboldt to-day, who told me many things, and showed me a beautiful portrait of Arago, which pleased me very much. He talked much about the difficulties between Russia and England, as to their interests in the East Indies and in Persia, and repeated what he had heard about it from the Russian Emperor himself. The Czar was in a great passion against the English, and thought it highly important to oppose their supremacy in Asia. Humboldt agrees with me that the English have nothing serious to fear for the next fifty years from Russia in the Indies, but that fear and jealousy may engender a quarrel in Europe prior to any conflict in the East, although conflicting parties will certainly think twice before allowing it to come to that pass.”

Under date of May 25, 1839, Varnhagen wrote in his diary:

“I met Humboldt ‘unter den Linden:’ we had a long talk together. He told me that the death of Gans had been the object of the meanest slander at court by all except the King, who never speaks ill of the dead, and the Crown-Prince, who had even uttered a word of sorrow. The other princes were delighted, and the Princess of Liegnitz showed herself very ill-natured.”

36.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Monday, June 3d, 1839.

The book which you lent me, dear friend, is delightful,[^[19]] as everything must be called which characterizes the individuality of men. My brother’s letters are excellent indeed. His opinion of the State Chancellor does much credit to his character, and the conclusion, which seems to take away something from the praise bestowed on him, is full of a deep political meaning. He alludes to some other result of greater magnitude, which the development of the world-wide events in question might have produced.

What pleases me most is the acknowledgment of your talents, of your power of writing; the praise of the high-mindedness exhibited in Rahel’s letters (to the few who can appreciate them). Adam Mueller’s aristocratic fancies and coarsely but naturally sensual princess,[^[20]] a little lewd—no doubt from being hunchbacked—afford the most striking contrast of political and human filth. “To save the country,” says Gentz, in his Primary Political Position, “means to restore to the nobility of Prussia their ancient privileges, to liberate all the noblemen from taxes, so that they may spontaneously, after some negotiation, offer their ‘don gratuit’ to the monarch. To enable them to do this the peasant must be indissolubly bound to the soil.” How charmed “the Montmorencys of the Ackermark” must have been to see what, until then, was uselessly concealed in their miserable souls, expressed in refined language by a talented writer, and moulded into such systematical dogmas. This narrow spirit of caste knows neither place nor time. Like a threatening spectre it will reappear when I shall be no more. I frequently ask myself whether Adam Mueller could not, at the present time, again canvass for votes among the “cross-bearers,” who, like Homerian heroes, take their repose stretched on their bags in the wool market? Benjamin Constant has exquisitely pictured this aristocratic idea of self-importance in the parable of the Shipwrecked. He cries, “Grand Dieu, je ne suis pas assez indiscret pour vous prier de nous sauver tous! Sauvez-moi tout seul!”

If you have a moment’s leisure, please read in the 3d volume of my “History of the Geography of the Middle Ages,” what I have said of the natural views and the style of Christopher Columbus, vol. iii. p. 232. This dream, p. 316, was the object of a lecture at Chateaubriand’s and Madame Récamier’s, and had a good effect, as the utterance of sentiment always will have, on the barren fields of minute erudition. I hope to offer you shortly the five volumes that have already been printed. The negligence of the publisher prevents my doing so now.

A. Ht.

On the 9th of June, 1839, Varnhagen writes in his diary: “Humboldt agrees with me in the assertion made by me at different times, that too much cannot be inferred from the silence of the historians. He refers to three highly important and undeniable facts, which are not mentioned by those whose first duty it should have been to record them. In the archives of Barcelona, no vestige of the triumphal entry held there by Columbus; in Marco Polo, no mention of the Chinese wall; in the archives of Portugal, nothing of the travels of Amerigo Vespucci, in the service of that crown.” (History of the Geography of the New Continent, part iv., p. 160, sq.)

37.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Friday, Sept. 13th, 1839.

Mr. Piaget has made a very favorable impression on me. In my opinion, he would be most useful as “Professeur de Litterature ou d’Histoire” at the “College Français.” A pedantic examination, however, stands in his way. I will try my best with Mr. von Werther. I have, however, some fear that the rather illiterate-looking mustaches, and the long, straight, South Sea hair, will be found a little odd in that quarter.

Ever with the same attachment,

A. v. Humboldt.

Is it not remarkable that the Neufchatel Councillors in the cabinet, have tried to dissuade Mr. Piaget—“par jalousie de métier?”

38.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, 29th Dec., 1839.

It is kind in you, and very humane, dear friend, sending me that little pamphlet,[^[21]] which otherwise would certainly have escaped my attention. The praise which you bestow on it is of great weight, as you understand so well sketching a life-portrait and adorning it gracefully, without discoloring its characteristic traits. Kries is one of my earliest friends. We were students together in Heyne’s Seminary.[^[22]] I will return the print very soon.

In great haste,

A. Humboldt.

39.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Wednesday Afternoon, Feb. 26th, 1840.

I deem myself unfortunate, dear friend, in having missed you. I have been suffering from a miserable little boil on my foot, and went to-day (for the first time) to my neighbor, Leopold von Buch. Best thanks for Sesenheim.[^[23]] You certainly were right in snatching the little work from oblivion, a work which possesses a German character in the highest degree, and derives a tender interest from your preface. There is in this little work a nice appreciation of what must ever be important and sacred to a German in his literature. The author searches Sesenheim and Drusenheim as others do the Troade. The proper names, alas! are less poetic. The passages (p. 12 and 13), are written in a charming style; afterwards the philologist becomes heavy and doubtful about what he only half examined; doubtful, as if he had superficially read an old code. Whether the sisters of Friederike, “of whom one has not to care at all” (p. 48), whether the Catholic clergyman who, according to some, caused, and according to others, did not cause, and then did cause her fall, will rejoice at all this, I do not dare myself to decide. About the Troade and the Skamander, they never could exactly determine, and Helen had to suffer much from Hellenic gossip.

In old friendship most gratefully,

Yours,

A. v. Hdt.

40.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Monday, March 9th, 1840.

The Crown-Prince, to whom I brought, this morning, your thoughtful “Lebensbuch,” has ordered me to express to you, revered friend, his “most friendly thanks.” It reminded him, at the same time, of your “Sophie Charlotte,” your “Seydlitz,” your always delightful language, and your skill in portraying difficult relations of life. The liberal passage on Grimm I read to him. It pleased him much, and brought on a conversation on Hanover. He expressed himself very sensibly in regard to it. “The King of Hanover does not understand how to treat Germans: he does not know how to win them, by availing himself of their loyal emotions. On the day when the news of the final election in Göttingen arrived in Hanover, I would have sent an aide-de-camp or a civil officer to Göttingen, to thank the professors, and ask them whether they would like to have the whole seven professors reappointed.” These are words flowing from a noble soul. Of your article on Niebuhr, I do not speak to the Crown-Prince, though I entirely agree with you regarding it.

With old attachment,

Yours,

A. v. Hdt.

41.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Wednesday, March 18th, 1840.

An insipid polemical book of Mr. Gretsch, against Melgunoff, and against the book of Koenig, which is entirely unknown to me, full of Siberia, strangulation, secret funds, and Russian patriotism—an insufferable rehash! Will you read it, my dear friend? For you alone understand it entirely. The book might almost reconcile me with Mr. Melgunoff, against whom I have felt some anger. I have, it is true, neither a recollection of him nor of my conversation with him; but he must have strangely interpreted and translated into his own language, what I said to him, when he represents me as condemning one whose great talents and delightful style and manners I praise everywhere. How is it credible that I could have spoken unfavorably of you in the only conversation I ever had with a man who brought me a letter from your own hand? Who recognises in me such careless, Orinoco manners?

Marheineke also has made a campaign in the “Kritische-Blätter,” more against Savigny than against Stahl. There is a good deal of acrimony in the air, and the black coats are not merciful. The conclusion of the philippic is very eloquent, in the climax from the rationalists, viâ St. Hegel, to Galilee. It is a pity that the preceding twelve pages are so indifferently written—in the most mediocre style.

Goerres and Schelling understand coloring better. I thus feel only interested in what is dramatic and in the talents exhibited, or not exhibited, therein. Caesaropapacy, territorial system, nay, even “the authority of a distinctly positive doctrine, and marked physiognomy,” for which Marheineke (p. 41) has a tendency, are abominations, and are mere carnival buffoonery to me. Both parties are mere compressing machines of different kinds, and a philosophically proved Christian dogmatism of “marked physiognomy,” this seems to me the most offensive of all strait-waistcoats.

Raumer (Carl) has published “Crusades”—crusades against the geognosts. The Saracens are Leopold von Buch (your newly converted one), and myself.

A. Ht.

And Sintenis at Magdeburg and the State’s Council at Neufchatel, “who have prohibited the deluge!” And all that in the year 1840! Three comets are not enough!

I received a letter from the Marquis Clanricarde, at St. Petersburg, on the 5th of March, stating, “that nothing was heard for four or five weeks from the expedition to Chiwa. It is purely an attack upon the Khan, whom they propose to dethrone, and to put his brother in the place.” You see that he wishes to appear very tranquil! What meek politics!

42.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.

Vienna, 29th of March, 1840.

My dear Baron—Though I do not doubt that the Crown-Prince, to whom I had the honor of replying to-day, will inform you of my declaration, I refer you to my letter to his Royal Highness. You will see that I have placed myself at his disposal, with a reservation, however, prescribed by my ignorance of archæology. To my ignorance upon this point must be added my ignorance upon another—I mean the duties of the Presidency. I desire to state, at all events, what I think of the relations of a single member with any scientific association. There are three sorts of men—some are true savans; the number of these is small: others are friends of science in general, or of some branch of it; these are more numerous: the third class—the largest of all—comprises the narrow-minded, the barren in spirit, the “viveurs,” to whom, though often they are very good fellows, art and science are quite superfluous. I enrol myself in the second of these classes. My brethren and I can be of some service to mental cultivation, provided we do not meddle too much with details. When I feel that I can do a good work, I consider it my duty to devote myself to it. In the present case, however, I can only throw my good-will into the scale.

My confession of faith is set forth in the explanations given to the August Protector; and to what I took the liberty of stating to him, I also take the liberty of referring you.

It is so long, my dear Baron, since you paid us a visit, that when you feel inclined to judge for yourself, you will be more than gratified by the real progress we have made in the departments of which you are the acknowledged master. The place of Jaeger, whose loss was greatly to be regretted, is well filled by Endlicher—a man of eminent genius; Baumgarten and Ettinghausen, are savans of great distinction. The Polytechnic School goes on admirably and is training up savans, and thoroughly educated mechanicians. Roesel is the best optician of our time, and the young Voigtlander follows in his footsteps.

The establishment of Baron Charles Huegel has opened a new and vast field to botany. The arts and sciences advance quite to one’s liking; all that is wanted is a supervisor like yourself.

You complain, my dear Baron, at finding yourself the oldest of the foreign members of the Institute; this indeed is a dreary lot, but it is inevitable and quite natural—provided one does not commit the folly of going off before the others. I have the same feeling—and that in a field which is certainly the greatest of all fields. Of all the Kings and the Ministers of State in office, between the year 1813 and the year 1815, the King of Prussia and myself are the only survivors! And yet the time does not embrace more than a quarter of a century—so true is it that twenty-five years are quite an historical epoch. Let us not lose courage at such trifles, but go on as if they were nothing at all.

My sincerest homage, dear Baron.

Metternich.

43.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Thursday, April 9th, 1840.

Here are two Salamanders. The black (black bordered) king of Denmark is not only a Norwegian constitutional, but also a mineralogical king, who has written pretty good memoirs on Vesuvius. The predecessor having been an astronomical king, who proposed prize questions on comets, presented great men like General Mueffling and myself with chronometers, and died of a comet on the night of the discovery of Galli’s comet, the Danish astronomers were, probably, rather anxious for their heavenly pursuits under the reign of such an earthly (or rather subterranean) monarch. I was called upon to remind the King of his old predilection for me. I therefore resorted to the pretext, never before made use of by me, of congratulating him on his accession to the throne. This is the cause of the black drama. The letter is plain and sensible.

A. Ht.

Please read in Mr. Quinet’s the passage on Goethe and Bettina, and return the venom to me.

44.
KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HUMBOLDT.

Copenhagen, the 13th January, 1840.

Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt:

Of all the letters received on the occasion of my accession to the throne, none has afforded me so sensible a pleasure as that which you addressed me under the date of the 17th of December last.

Your remembrance is of the highest value to me, and I recall with the greatest interest, Monsieur le Baron, our conversations many years ago at Paris. Since that time you have enriched science by new discoveries. Siberia, explored by you, as you before explored America, offers to natural science new views for which, Monsieur le Baron, it is entirely indebted to you. Really—I shall be happy at some future day to converse with you on these new researches.

The natural sciences are constantly presenting fresh interest, and I shall certainly not neglect to do everything that depends upon me for their advancement.

The astronomical and geodesical labors of your distinguished friend Schumacher, certainly deserve my patronage. He has acquired a European name as a savan, and I appreciate his rare merits. As to the magnetic observations after the method of Gauss—I am occupied in amplifying them here at Copenhagen, where an observatory, established since 1834 near the Polytechnic School, is about to be removed to a more suitable place on the outskirts of the city. It will be provided with two different “emplacements,” one for “observations on declination,” and another for experiments in “inclination.” The establishment will be under the superintendence of the celebrated Oersted.

I esteem myself happy, my dear Baron, in being able to speak to you of the advancement of natural science in my own country, and you must consider it a proof that I shall not neglect any occasion of justifying the good opinion you entertain of my interest in the sciences and in everything which can tend to the enlightenment and happiness of my subjects.

I hope, Monsieur le Baron, that you will frequently find leisure to communicate with me, and I shall endeavor, upon my own part, to cultivate relations so agreeable to myself.

The Queen charges me with her compliments to you, and I embrace the occasion of assuring you of my highest consideration, Monsieur le Baron Humboldt.

Your most affectionate,

Christian.

45.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Saturday, April 11th, 1840.

The Crown-Prince would like very much to see that interesting letter of Prince Metternich to you. Could not you send it to me before half-past seven o’clock to-night, my dear friend?

A. Ht.

In regard to the said letter, Varnhagen says in his diary, under date of April 2d, 1840: “When returning home, found a letter from Prince Metternich—a long one, under his own hand. He declares my picture of the Congress of Vienna to be a perfectly faithful one, a few points excepted, which ought to be corrected. He himself corrects, in detail, the description of the effect of the news at Vienna, that Napoleon had left Elba. It is a letter of historical value.”

Under date of the 5th of the same month, Varnhagen mentions again the Metternich letter. “In the afternoon,” he says, “Humboldt called. He had heard of the letter from Wittgenstein, who had spoken of it to Count Orloff and others, as a most remarkable production. Humboldt also was astonished and delighted. He showed me a letter which Prince Metternich had addressed him, as to the position of several naturalists at Vienna, and the presidency of the Archæological Society at Rome. Humboldt tells me of dark tendencies of the Westphalian nobility, which the Crown-Prince favors. They think of establishing a great Catholic seminary for young noblemen—a proper nursery for Jesuits.” On Humboldt’s remarking that the Crown-Prince, perhaps, out of absence of mind, had not reflected on the important consequence of the King’s illness, Minister von Rochow made the following reply: “Oh, certainly he has thought of it! And he has prepared various things, which he means then to propose. But to his views and commands in ecclesiastical matters I should be highly opposed.”

46.

April 13th, 1840.

The Crown-Prince has expressly charged me to offer you, dear friend, his thanks for such an interesting communication. Count Alvensleben was present. Every one considered the letter a gratifying testimonial to you and to your description of the Congress, and praised it for the noble simplicity in which one of the most remarkable events is recited. “Et tout cela prouve que ma fille est muette,” and that a talent like yours (in advising, in describing, and in knowledge of mankind) is allowed to be idle, so that after your death, as after my brother’s, people will express their astonishment at your not having been employed in time.

A. Ht.

I am quite “turned Quaker.” Mrs. Fry and William Allan—little sermons in the penitentiaries (the most horrible ones which the Quakeress has ever seen), and little tracts against brandy-drinking!

47.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Friday, March 29th, 1840.

Decide, master of eloquence and euphony: I had it thus, “As far as humanity (civilisation) extended on earth!”

Now, it pleases me better to put: 1, “It has influenced rulers and nations equally, as far as civilization and commerce extend” (extend, not extended, which latter I abhor); or, 2, “As far as civilization and commerce ennobled mankind;” or, 3, “Made mankind susceptible;” or, 4, “United mankind.”

Would No. 4 (the last), not be the better? Perhaps you have an inspiration. Put clandestinely, to-night at Staegemann’s, a bit of paper in my hand. Perhaps the first conception is the best.

A. Ht.

“Humanity” I give up at any rate, having just read so many mockeries regarding it in the last volume of Campe’s dictionary.

“Sed quamquam, primo statim beatissimi sæculi ortu, Nerva Cæsar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem; augeatque quotidie felicitatem imperii Nerva Trajanus.” Tacitus in Agricola, cap. 3. Also, of the same old Nerva (noble and gifted with literary taste):

“Quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi Nervæ, et imperium Trajani, uberiorem securioremque materiam senectati seposui: rara temporum felicitas, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere licet.” Tacit. Hist. I. 1. I, of course, in order to avoid all detail, shall give only the numerical quotations, sic: Tacit. Vita Ag. c. 3 Hist. I. 1.

Ht.

48.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Tuesday Night, Oct. 27th, 1840.

If I have delayed so long in coming to you, my dear friend, both before and after my campaign to the North, it is only because there are impossibilities in life against which we battle in vain. Immediately after the festivities in this city I intended to hasten to you, but the uncertainty whether I should go to Paris (I refused, because then it would not have been honorable either to me or to the king, if Prussia did not dare to act independently!) the approaching departure of Bulow, the arrival of the sick General von Hedemann and his family, together with a rheumatic fever, which kept me in the house for six days, spoiled all my intentions. To-morrow morning, at 8 o’clock, I have to move over again to Sans Souci; but (I hope) only for some days. I, therefore, now take up my pen to chat with you. First my best thanks for your talented and noble treating of the rather mediocre “Erinnerungen von M. Arndt!” I certainly had observed his hostility towards you. The tone of your criticism is the noblest kind of revenge. The man, whom I never knew personally, was raised by the great events of his time and not by himself. Strange enough that the government attached to him in these latter days, in the evening of his life, an importance not arising merely from a simple love of justice.

Since you like everything individual, I shall answer your kindness with another very small one. I make you a present of a letter of Guizot, which he wrote to me to Koenigsberg, not without design. The underlining belongs to me, as you would guess yourself. I showed the letter to the King. It was written when the Belgian (the King of Belgium), Bulow, and Guizot had been in Windsor, and when his affairs looked promising, as they do now again, as Thiers at once shows himself so weak and yielding, and Palmerston so dogmatical and defying. But do not let the letter out of your hands.

For the news about the brothers Grimm I thank you most cordially. It is very important to me to keep “au courant” with the course of passing events. In the months during which I lived on the “historical hill,”[^[24]] I moved uncontrolled in the same direction, though surrounded by conflicting elements.

Respecting the brothers Grimm, the King had given orders to others, not to me; but up to the return from Königsberg, nothing was done. I therefore addressed a memorial to the King on the actions in Königsberg of the Provincial Diet, and on the necessity of acting authoritatively in things which interest all hearts, in order to secure their affections—and therefore to bestow a professorship upon the brothers Grimm, Albrecht, and Dahlmann. There is little hope for Dahlmann. Albrecht received a call, but refused it, giving as a reason his gratitude to Saxony. It would have been a satisfaction to the seven professors, could Albrecht have become professor in Berlin.

They certainly will at least hear in Hanover that the King has called the “Elbinger.” In respect to the brothers Grimm, the King insists upon his plan, that minister Eichhorn should offer to them a place in the Academy, with a pension to both, as they live like husband and wife. That the King wants these things to be arranged with tact, you may see from the negotiations with Tieck. For librarians, although excellent men, they are very unfit. Whether Wilhelm Grimm, as a correspondent of the Academy, lectures or not is also very irrelevant. The chief thing is to get them. Of “smuggling them in,” “a debasement,” “to think of them so late,”—dans un regne de cent jours—it is nonsense to talk! It does honor at least to the administration of Ladenberg, that I was able to propose Dahlmann in due form, and in flattering terms for the university of Breslau, where there was a vacancy. I have cleared the way as it was my duty to do, but the appointment itself is not in my hands. As soon as I return from Potsdam, I shall trouble minister Eichhorn, to settle this patriotic affair officially and at once. The interference of many in these things is injurious, although it can be pardoned where the interest is so natural. I know not, my dear friend, whether you will be able and willing to read these lines, the sense of which is more blameless than the style. I need not conjure you, the diplomatist, not to read my letter to the “child,”[^[25]] but she ought to hear how these matters stand, respecting which I have neglected nothing.

A. Ht.

An inexpressible misfortune has happened in the death of the only son of my friend the astronomer, Bessel, only twenty-five years old, a young man of the most eminent mathematical talents. He died yesterday of nervous fever.

49.
GUIZOT TO HUMBOLDT.

London, August 24, 1840.

Monsieur le Baron:

It was very amiable indeed in you to have thought of sending me the two new volumes of your brother’s works. I thank you not only for this gift, in itself so very valuable, but also for your remembrance which is at least equally dear to me. I hope that notwithstanding all our affairs, for they are yours as well as mine, I shall manage to read something of this great work. I should like to employ my time in so complete and varied a manner as you occupy yours. Preserve a little of it for the advancement of a good and a wise policy, which though it already owes you much, still needs you.

I envy Baron von Bülow the pleasure of seeing you. I regret extremely losing his society in London. Conversation—genuine conversation—profound, pregnant, and free, is very scarce among us. His I shall miss very much. I should like to go some day to see you at your home, to visit your country, in which, beyond all others, human intellect acts the greatest part, and to see your new King, who is worthy, it is said, of such a country. In the meanwhile, Monsieur le Baron, pray preserve for me your old kindness and believe in the lasting sincerity of the sentiments which long ago I conceived for you.

Guizot.

Note of Humboldt.—Received at Königsberg during the festivals.

A. von Humboldt.

50.
ARAGO TO HUMBOLDT.

Paris, March 12th, 1841.

I must not, I will not, believe that you asked me seriously whether I should look forward to your journey to Paris with pleasure. Could it be that you ever doubted my invariable attachment? Be it known to you that I should consider the slightest doubt upon this point a most cruel offence. Beyond the immediate circle of my own family you are, without comparison, the person whom, of all others, I love the most dearly. But you must be resigned to the duties of this position, as you are of my friends the only one to whom I would look in my difficulties.

I am truly happy in the anticipation of spending some evenings with him to whom I am indebted for my taste in meteorology and physics. There will be a bed for you at the Observatory.

Poor Savary is in a lamentable state. The physician assures me that the disease of his lungs leaves no hope. What a calamity!

You will arrive at Paris at the opening of my course of astronomy. My new amphitheatre is got up with a profligate luxury.

I am charmed with the news of poor Sheiffer’s[^[26]] recovery (is it true?). Your good heart has always secured you a numerous family.

Adieu, best of friends. My attachment to you will only cease with my life.

Fr. Arago.

Note of Humboldt.—I had asked whether he thought it possible that the difference of our political wishes [war with Germany] might disturb our intercourse.

Note of Humboldt.—To his highly gifted friend, Varnhagen von Ense, with the most earnest request to avoid all publication of this autograph before Arago’s death.

A. Humboldt.

51.
HUMBOLDT TO BETTINA VON ARNIM.

[A copy in Varnhagen’s handwriting.]

Saturday, November 21, 1840.

How could you doubt, most honored Madam, my being thankful for the news of the real situation of those noble men, who after so many undeserved sufferings, and after so long and so shameful a neglect, are at last to be placed in an independent position. I thought that, to have given them such a situation in Berlin, three thousand thalers would be a sufficient salary for both, and with this view I have continued my efforts. The King has adopted it as a principle never to issue an order in financial matters on his own account; like all princes, he has no standard by which to measure the wants of learned men. The superior intellects with whom we wish to surround ourselves have wants as prosaic as their inferiors. Whoever wishes to obtain the end must also be willing to employ the means, and especially in an affair which attracts every eye and which touches the honor of the country. The minister Eichhorn, upon whom everything now depends, is happy in the arrival of the two Grimms. He was formerly on the most friendly terms with Jacob Grimm. I called on the minister an hour ago in order to support my view of the matter. He declares that by-and-by he will arrange the affair in the best manner, but that we must confide in him, and allow him to act without obstruction.

Receive, gracious Madam, the expression of my veneration and of my sentiments of gratitude.

A. Humboldt.

52.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, August 22d, 1841.

Your letter has done me an immense deal of good. I see that we feel ourselves both equally attracted to each other, and that you attributed my long, and to me very gloomy, seclusion, only to the distracted state of my life, and to the application of my faculties, to an aim which they never can reach. Towards the close of a much troubled life which has but imperfectly realized its aspirations, it is a happiness to remain secure in, and to possess the esteem of those to whose mind and intellect and wishes we are irresistibly drawn. I shall personally thank you, and this very afternoon apply for Mr. L. to the Princess of Prussia, and beg her Imperial Highness to assist me with all earnestness. With old veneration and love, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

At the request of the King I took the opportunity of reading to him Schelling’s discourse on nature and art. (Philosoph. Werke, tome 1st, 1809.) The passages concerning Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and about the possibility of a resuscitation of the arts, are the most pleasing in our language. This lecture produced on the King the effect of a beautiful song. But the bird is now sixty-seven years old, and goes from one golden cage to another.

Varnhagen says in his diary, under date of April 28, 1841: “Humboldt came and remained more than an hour and a half; I found him looking ill, but lively, cheerful, and more communicative than ever. He praises the King for his disposition and his intentions, but thinks that he is no man of action, and that whenever he acts, he does it by starts, without system or method. Whether it be from kindness or timidity, at all events, he often does not dare to do what he most wishes and could do quite easily; thus he expects impatiently that the minister Von Werther will resign, and asks of Humboldt, whether the minister has given no intimation of it.”

On the 30th April, 1841, Varnhagen says: “Humboldt has a great many enemies, as well amongst the savans as at court, who are constantly seeking an opportunity to malign him, but the moment he is praised all vituperation ceases—for it is all vituperation. It is seldom that anybody is able to maintain it. Some time ago a gentleman said to me, that he did not know what to think of Humboldt, and that he could not come to a conclusion concerning him. I answered: ‘Think always the best of him, believe him always capable of the best action, and you always will be nearest the truth.’ Another said, same day, sneeringly: ‘Humboldt was a great man before he came to Berlin, where he became an ordinary one.’ Moritz Robert remarked that Rahel had already said several times: ‘Nothing holds its ground in Berlin, everything has a downward tendency; indeed, if the Pope himself came to Berlin, he would not continue long to be Pope, he would sink into the ‘commonplace,’ down perhaps to the standard of a groom.’ What Rahel said is true, and I remember that she said so, but had made no note of it. This peculiarity of Berlin ought to be examined closer; it indicates a strong stratum of undeveloped greatness, and may, when positively brought forth to a point, bring the highest honor on Berlin; but if allowed to act negatively, it will, of course, become a shame to this city. ‘The Berliners are such a daring race of men,’ said Goethe, once. That is much the same definition.”

53.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Saturday, April 24th, 1841.

A disappointment, dear friend, not to have found you. Correct this title-page for me; I have to send it away. As it is necessary to state, “that this is not the lecture of 1828,” I thought of having the long sentence printed on the title-page, in small type, like an aphorism. It may look strange after the name, but I hope you will be able to approve of it.

Ht.

“Kosmos. Sketch of a Physical Description of the World, by A. von Humboldt. From Sketches and Lectures delivered in the years 1827 and 1828, enlarged and corrected according to the latest researches.

“‘Naturæ vero rerum vis atque majestas sin omnibus momentis fide caret, si quis modo partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo.’—Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. 7. c. 1. Stuttgart.”

54.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Wednesday, April 28th, 1841.

Be very kind and indulgent in reading my work. I am anxious that you should get a complete idea of the composition of it. In A, I have made large corrections. Notice especially p. 37 and the notes; Schelling’s name, pp. 37 and 68; Hegel, p. 66. The positive declaration at p. 64, that it is not the creator of Natural Philosophy whom I accuse, will, I hope, make my biting severity at the “gay Saturnalia,” le bal en masque of the craziest of all natural philosophers, seem more pardonable to him. “Il faut avoir le courage d’imprimer. Ce que l’on a dit et écrit depuis trente ans.” It has been a lamentable period, in which Germany has sunk far below England and France. Chemistry, without so much as wetting one’s fingers.

The diamond is a pebble arrived at consciousness. Granite is ether. Carus.

The side of the moon turned towards the earth is of a different convexity from the reverse. The cause of it: the moon fain would stretch out her loving arms—she cannot, but gazes at the earth, and protrudes her lower jaw.

The granite blocks on the rocks are the convulsions of nature.

It is well known that the forests are the hair of the earth-animal. The swelling equatorial region is the belly of Nature.

America is a female figure, long, slender, watery and freezing at 48°. The degrees of latitude are the years woman gets old at, 48 years. The East is oxygen, the West hydrogen; it rains when clouds from the East are mixed with clouds from the West.—Schelling.

Petrifactions in rocks are not the remains of former living beings. They are the first attempts of nature at making animals and plants. In Siberia some dogs lived for years on such an experiment—a stinking elephant at the mouth of the Lena.

These are the Saturnalia! Cast your eye particularly on the notes, en masse, of which I inclose a few. P. 40–49; p. 55–57.

I wish to give to the work the greatest generality and breadth of views, a lively and, if possible, graceful style, and to replace all technical terms with well-chosen, graphic, and descriptive language.

Correct freely, my friend; I gladly follow where I can. Some not very common erudition I intend to banish to the notes. This book should be the reflex of my own self, of my life, of my own very old person. This freedom of treatment enables me to proceed more aphoristically. More will be suggested than elaborated. Much will be well understood by those only who know thoroughly one special branch of natural history; but I think my style is such as to confuse no one, not even the superficial. My real aim is to hover over those results which are known in 1841. Mens agitat molem, may the mind still be there!

That such a work cannot be finished by one born in the comet-year, 1769, is as clear as daylight. The separate fragments will appear in parts of twelve to fifteen sheets each, so that those who may see me buried will possess in each fragment some one subject complete. Thus of the “Prolegomena,” there will be No. 1–4; My “incentive,” descriptive poetry, which you have not yet seen, is a chief feature of the work on which I rely a good deal.—No. 5. The history of man’s conception of the world, which is quite finished, will form the entire second book. Plain scientific description will always be intermingled with the oratorical, like nature itself. The glittering stars fill us with joy and inspiration, yet in the canopy of heaven all bodies revolve in mathematical figures. It is essential to preserve a dignified style, so that the impression of nature’s greatness will not be wanting. I hope you will not find fault with my quoting (C) in a note the passage from Shakespeare which is but little known.

All the notes are to be printed in very small type at the end of each chapter, never at the bottom of the page. I had said that a knowledge of nature is not absolutely necessary to enjoy it, but that it increases the enjoyment. Pardon this hasty writing. I leave to-morrow morning with the King for Potsdam, to stay there six or seven days. With thanks and friendship, your illegible

A. v. Humboldt.

55.
HUMBOLDT TO SPIKER.
(C.)

[Biron speaks to the King of Navarre.]

“These earthly godfathers of heaven’s lights,

That gave a name to every fixed star,

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.”

Shakespeare, Love’s Labor Lost. Act I. Scene 1.

Be so kind as to send me back this page. I make use of your fine translation in a note which is now being printed in my Kosmos. You will permit me to say: “according to Spiker’s translation.” It will give me pleasure to do so. Shall I excite the ire of the Marquis August von Schlegel or of Tieck Acorombonus? Please tell me whether they have also translated that passage? Many kind regards.

Ht.

Note of Varnhagen.—Unfortunately Spiker’s translation is bad in every respect.

56.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Monday Night, May 3, 1841.

I am afraid, my dear friend, that I shall be obliged to go to Potsdam again on Thursday, and thence to Paris on the 10th or 12th. I am to send Cotta more copy before I go. Let me not be suspended so long between condemnation and indulgence. Pray send me a few words with the parcel.

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

57.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Tuesday, May 4th, 1841.

My Dear Friend:—Even after deducting the kind expressions written expressly for my tranquillity, there still remains more than enough in your letter of to-day to comfort me. The penance,[^[27]] therefore, which I assign you is to receive me to-morrow morning at 11 o’clock, for a few moments, to accept my thanks. The “schmeichle mich” must be a clerical error; as for me I am unconscious of it. The false use of the accusative case at p. 44, you will have to show me. It cannot be “Einsicht in den Zusammenhang?” because it is looking into. I shall expunge Mr. Spiker. I had a presentiment of the end, and would rather even omit the English as well, which, after all, is rather a praise of ignorance, than indicative of the increase of enjoyment to be derived from science.

I see that you give me full liberty concerning the “Saturnalia.” Speaking of the Dane, you say: “I only mention, I do not object.”

I did not wish to mention Steffens, however much he might deserve a reproach for his utter barrenness in experimental science, and for his vain and criminal idleness. “Saturnalia” I call that merry but short farce, of which lately I gave you some specimens, but which are not from Steffens; they are by some of his worshippers several degrees lower down. Were Steffens a poor savan, oppressed by the powerful, I would be more careful; but as you are an amateur of autographs, I will give you one from which you will see how northern kings believe that there exists in Berlin a Steffensian philosophy, which is consoling to the theologians, et qui n’est pas celle de Hegel! Steffens will believe that he is included among those deep and powerful thinkers, whose advice has been disregarded. Besides the dangerous passage is immediately followed by another: “Abuse of youthful talents; for serious minds, devoted equally to philosophy and to observation, have kept aloof from those Saturnalia.” Such a sentence is a défense, a fort detaché, and Steffens certainly thinks that he, too, devoted himself to observation, when he once descended into a mine at Freiburg. By softening anything I should spoil the whole, and we ought in writing to show the same courage as in speaking, but should do both in the same easy and cheerful manner.

Did you find out from Steffens’s tiresome biography, with which I was bored at Sans Souci, how his pietism and aristocracy is explained by the twofold inoculation of his old grandparents, performed by an archbishop and a king,—ce sont des heritages!

A. v. Humboldt.

58.
KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HUMBOLDT.

Monsieur le Baron—I am doubly obliged to the illustrious counsellor Dieffenbach for his attention in presenting me with a copy of his work on the cure of strabism and stammering, since it was the cause of your dear letter of the 9th February. Introduced by you, Monsieur le Baron, any one is sure of success. In the present case, the reputation and the works of the author could have dispensed with all further recommendation; but you only do justice to the great services which Counsellor Dieffenbach has rendered to mankind, and I hasten to acknowledge them by bestowing my Danebrog Order on that distinguished savan. My letter to him on this subject will be remitted by the Envoy Count de Reventlau, and I shall particularly recommend to Chevalier Dieffenbach any Danish surgeons going to Berlin to learn the art upon which he has thrown so much light.

The bearer of the present, whom I beg leave to recommend to your protection, is the theological candidate, Bornemann—a young man of talent and knowledge, whom I send to Berlin to study Philosophy under the guidance of my countryman, Steffens—not precisely that of Hegel, who has disciples enough in our University; but that philosophy which may assist in rectifying the sometimes rather extravagant doctrines of our modern thinkers. Steffens is kept at Berlin by a sacred tie, the gratitude he owes to the King; but I desire that his genius and his knowledge may not be lost to us, and that this young scholar may profit by his light before it ceases to shine, and to enlighten all those coming in contact with my illustrious countryman, who, in my opinion, is in himself worth an entire academic faculty.

I follow with the greatest interest, founded on sincere friendship and on the mutual relations of our respective positions, which I fully appreciate, all that your excellent King does and projects for the happiness of his subjects, for German nationality, and for the preservation of peace. May his efforts be blessed by the Almighty; his people will then enjoy an increased and steady prosperity, which will materially contribute to the welfare of their neighbors.

The King has shown more kindness to my son than I can thank him for. I look forward to a most happy future for him, based on his marriage with the amiable Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

I appreciate the good wishes which you address me on this occasion, and remain, with the highest consideration, Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt,

Your affectionate

Christian R.

59.

Berlin, May 17th, 1841.

[Written at Varnhagen’s. With the preface to Wilhelm von Humboldt’s works.]

I am very sorry not to be enabled amid the annoyances of to-morrow’s departure (first to Potsdam, then to Paris, until October) to bid you farewell. I appeal to you once more as the source, until Rückert’s arrival, the only source of good taste, of pure language, and of a delicate appreciation of the appropriate sense. Tell me with all indulgence what I ought to strike out from the enclosed preface, but give me also your advice wherever you find fault. I wrote the two pages at night in a gloomy frame of mind. They show perhaps a too sentimental disposition to praise.

Page 1, line 2, “yet” because it happens during my life time. Line 10, “The highly gifted souls,” perhaps displeasing. Should it be men?

A. v. Humboldt.

On the 21st of November, Varnhagen wrote down the following about Humboldt:

“I read to-day the dispatches which Al. von Humboldt addressed to the King from Paris in the year 1835. They are not like Humboldt! Any body else could have written such dispatches—nay, what is still worse, nobody could have written them otherwise! Thus it is, however, with political business—it consists of mere trifles, not at all important in themselves, but becoming important because everybody has agreed to consider them so. Thus the established hypocrisy of forms, presumptions, and exaggerations drown the truth. I looked into myself and confessed that were I engaged in such affairs, I, too, would follow in the beaten track; and yet people wonder that in England and France editors of newspapers become ministers, as if it were not infinitely more easy to write the usual dispatches than good newspaper articles.”

60.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Friday, 3d December, 1841.

Of all that I have had to thank you for, dear friend, I like Hormayr’s manly letter best. Le style est tout l’homme. He is not like the people who surround us, the better ones of whom lose themselves in reticences, temporizations, in trimming, excitements, and irresolution. His belief in Muenster’s liberalism is perhaps only a misconception of Muenster’s motives. No doubt Count Muenster has nobly contributed to the liberation of Germany—but assuredly he never did it in order to open the path to “that light” which, even to-day, is feared like a spectre. “Bruno” (Bauer) has found me out to be a preadamite convert! When I was a boy the court preachers reasoned in this way: I was confirmed by one of them, who told me that the biographies of the Evangelists were finally manufactured out of memoranda made by themselves during their lifetime. Many years ago I wrote: All positive religions contain three distinct parts—First, a code of morals, very pure and nearly the same in all—next, a geological dream—and thirdly, a myth or historical novellette; which last becomes the most important of all. I enclose the pamphlet of Baron Seckendorf. He also calls for a “representation,” namely the “re puro,” the incarnation of the people, all explained in philosophical terms. It must be acceptable, for without being assured of this he would not have dared to publish it. Such people must not be left in doubt about our real opinions. I told him (he is vice-president) that I would read his essay attentively, although our political principles on popular constitutions differed very much.

The political atmosphere is to me thick, dark, and foreboding.

With the same old attachment, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

On the 2d of December, the day before the above letter, Varnhagen wrote in his diary: “Humboldt called yesterday. Talked about Paris. How he finds things here. He thinks seriously of retiring. He knows that his name alone is of any value to the King, and that his active usefulness has long been superseded by that of others. Thiers told him, in Paris, that France is much talked about as being revolutionary; but he thought Prussia was pretty well agitated, too. A letter from Guizot to Humboldt spoke much in praise of the King; and when Humboldt read it to him, and came to the word ‘success,’ the King interrupted him with the words, ‘Ah me! there is not much of that; on that point we had best be silent.’ And really Humboldt thinks the public feeling here dreadfully changed for the worse. The King has enemies, and in the highest circles! Minister Eichhorn is generally hated, and makes but a poor figure at court. There seems scarcely a doubt that Bunsen will be Ambassador to England. Count Stolberg is almost the only one who speaks openly against Bunsen. Humboldt sneers at Bunsen’s little tract, ‘The Week of Meditation.’”

The 3d of December, 1841, Varnhagen observes: “I just received a note from Humboldt, inclosing a pamphlet of President Seckendorf’s, which also calls for a ‘representation’—the ‘re puro,’ an incarnation of the people. Humboldt observes: ‘Must be acceptable, for without such an assurance he would not have dared to publish it.’ He concludes with significant melancholy: ‘The atmosphere to me is gloomy and foreboding. It is hard to be Humboldt, and to be obliged to confess this, at the summit of honor, and in the fulness of glory.’ Indeed, he has but little pleasure, and his satirical humor alone can make life here at all supportable to him!”

61.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Monday Night, Dec. 7th, 1841.

I have not the leisure, dear friend, to thank you as I ought to do for your spirited and historically thorough biography of Schwerin.[^[28]] A deep penetration into the individuality of this great man pervades the whole. Simplicity is the essential, vital element of description. A hasty word of advice to ride off, and the winning of the battle by himself alone,[^[29]] were constant stumbling-blocks in the path of this hero during his life. His end, the standard in his hand, amid the bloody massacre of thirteen thousand unsympathizing men, is a striking conclusion to the life of the old soldier, who, like Columbus, was at the same time great and unromantically avaricious. What does much honor to your talent as historian, and what is probably overlooked by many is, that you do not allow Schwerin’s death to interrupt the narrative of the strife of battle. I will bring you the “Collected Works” myself, and beg the second volume of Hormayr’s exquisitely spicy production. Your last favor, doing me so much honor, contains words about which I wish to prevent every mistake. “You are afraid to enjoy the exclusive possession of my impieties.” You may freely dispose of this sort of property after my not far distant departure from life. Truth is due to those only whom we deeply esteem—to you, therefore.

A. Ht.

On the 18th December, 1841, Varnhagen writes in his diary: “I heard to-day the quite incredulous, mysteriously-whispered story, that the King would go to England for the baptism of the Prince of Wales; that it had been agreed upon quite secretly, and that this flattering communication had contributed a great deal to make Bunsen’s appointment as Ambassador agreeable to the Court of St. James. The latter part of the story makes me suspect the truth of the whole. This is by no means the real diplomatic state of things. Should, however, the journey have been decided upon, or even only be under discussion, there can be no doubt that Bunsen had a hand in it; and then important events would result therefrom, and very dangerous events, too, in my opinion. A near alliance with England would in itself be hazardous; but to enter into close connexion with the Anglican Church and the Tories, sure ruin! And all Prussia, all Germany, all Europe would take it for granted that such a connexion was really established, even if it were not; and the supposition alone would damage us in a thousand ways; the king would lose more in the loyal attachment of his subjects than he can now afford. I hope the whole story will turn out a fable. Humboldt says the spirit of discontent, which he calls the howling mania, has largely increased here. When he left, a few were howling; but now they all howl. His sharp and witty remarks are really refreshing in our spiritless society.”

Before his departure for England Humboldt called on Varnhagen to take leave. On this occasion the following entry was made in the diary, on the 14th of January, 1842: “Humboldt called to take leave,—he starts to-morrow night. He came from Count Maltzan’s of whose life but little hope is left to-day. ‘His death will bring Canitz here—not Buelow’, said Humboldt dolefully. I comforted him with the suggestion, that Canitz too might be dropped, ‘And whose turn would it then be?’ ‘Bunsen’s.’ ‘That would be too frightful! But as it is, he accompanies the King on his return. That is already decided upon.’ Humboldt dislikes Canitz and cannot understand how I am not more afraid of him—of this arch-aristocratic, utterly bigoted—(and consequently preposterous, nay, stupid)—fanatically anti-French Canitz, with his malicious and vulgar sneers. ‘But then you are a Tory yourself!’ he added. ‘As to that,’ I replied, ‘that is still somewhat doubtful—but as for Canitz, he is honest, strict, and straightforward; he will do much, and as for the rest, business and circumstances will control him.’”

After Humboldt’s return, Varnhagen writes on the 24th of February, in his diary: “Humboldt gave me some very interesting descriptions of England. At court the greatest magnificence; the mode of living, however, plain and easy; conversation unrestrained; the tone very pleasant and cheerful, even between gentlemen and ladies of adverse parties. Peel pleases him as little as ever; looks like a Dutchman; is more vain than ambitious, and narrow in his views. Lord Aberdeen is invincibly taciturn, without being able to convince people that his taciturnity covers anything worth saying. Bunsen has shown the greatest want of tact; every one is against him, except the King, who likes him better than ever.” The whole visit of the King was an intrigue of Bunsen, and was so understood even by Englishmen.

“Our affairs here are the subject of much conjecture. As minister of foreign affairs the pious Arnim will, for the present, be recalled from Brussels; at some later day Canitz will be appointed,—or Bunsen, say I. Count Alvensleben is to go to Vienna; Radowitz first to Carlsruhe, until the embassy to the German Diet become vacant. Perhaps there is hardly courage enough as yet to take Bunsen and remove Buelow. Every month, however, every week must improve the courage, and then both these appointments will be done. There is no hope that Maltzan can recover; the better days have again been followed by the worse, and light gives way to renewed darkness. Sad state of things.”

62.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Monday, 28th February, 1842.

I am anxious to hear a few words about your health, dear friend.

I have succeeded in procuring a pension of three hundred thalers, a miserable sum, but it is only a beginning, for the impoverished but talented poet Freiligrath at Darmstadt, involving no obligation on his part, and allowing him to live out of the country. Can you lend me his poems?

A. Ht.

Note by Varnhagen.—On Tuesday Humboldt wrote me with the feuilleton of the Journal des Debats, in which Philarète Chasles, in the most vulgar manner, abuses the literature of Germany, and sneers at the most distinguished German authors.

And this miserable fellow has been appointed under Guizot’s ministry Professeur des Langues du Nord (litt. anglaise, allemande) au College de France.

You need not return the silly, spiteful trash.

A. Ht.

63.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, 16th March, 1842.

Be comforted about the mishap. The King purchases Italian, but, under no circumstances whatever, French pictures. The portrait of Cherubini is, indeed, very fine, and if I remember aright, I saw it in Cherubini’s own house. As the author is not dead, and Ingres very rich, I cannot conceive how the portrait can be for sale? You can tell the sprightly “Child”[^[30]] that you sent me the feuilleton.

In the last number of the Journal des Débats there is a strong and very fine article against the abominable Jew Bill, with which we are threatened, and against which I have already protested in very impressive words.

Ever grateful, yours,

A. Ht.

Wednesday.

It was intended in the preamble of the law to speak of “the miracle which God performed in preserving the Jewish race amid other nations;” “of the will of God to keep the Jewish race separated.” I have replied thereto, that the bill is a violation of all the principles of a wise policy of unity; that it is a dangerous arrogance in short-sighted man to dare interpret the primeval decrees of God. The history of the dark ages ought to teach us what abnormities such doctrines lead to.

I live in apparent outward luxury, and in the enjoyment of the fanciful predilection of a generous Monarch, yet in a moral and mental seclusion, such as can only arise from the monotonous dulness of a country (a real steppe) which, though it is not wanting in erudition, is torn asunder by the opposing influences of similar “poles,” and becomes more and more contracted in its Eastern proclivities. May you be content with him, who, though standing alone, has the courage to avow his own opinions.

64.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, March 21st, 1842.

My dear friend, so happily restored to me! It is a source of infinite joy to me to learn, from your exquisite letter, that the really very delightful society at the Princess’s has benefited you physically, and, therefore, as I should say in my criminal materialism, mentally also. Such a society, blown together chiefly from the same fashionable world of Berlin (somewhat flat and stale), immediately takes a new shape in the house of Princess Pueckler. It is like the spirit which should breathe life into the state; the material seems ennobled.

I still retain your “Christliche Glaubenslehre,”[^[31]] I who long ago, in Potsdam, was so delighted with Strauss’s Life of the Saviour. One learns from it, not only what he does not believe, which is less new to me, but rather what kind of things have been believed and taught by those black coats (parsons) who know how to enslave mankind anew, yea, who are putting on the armor of their former adversaries. I shall gladly copy the passage concerning Spinoza. Will not the late date of the second volume of the “Glaubenslehre” (1841) he urged against it by these men who pretend to teach from ancient manuscript? It would seem to me a better plan to have published the wonderfully conflicting chronology with some remarks on the new faith in the whole “roman historique” of the apostolic collectors of myths. He who teaches so publicly has to subject himself to the publicity arising from the defence of those who differ from him in creed. A private statement, clothed in the mild language of complaint, makes the subsequent public one very difficult, and elicits only patronizing smiles and a denial. It is not the mishap of Spinoza, but this degradation of the noblest intellectual faculties in the service of the narrow doctrines of dark ages, that is really painful to me. The man[^[32]] himself had certainly nothing attractive for me, but I had a kind of predilection for him, because everything enthrals and enraptures me, in which, as in his lecture on Art, the gentle breath of imagination warms and enlivens the harmony of language. Now we are separated. In his last speech, not the one on art, amid the glare of torchlight, he spoke of his departure like a well-paid artist who had just accomplished a musical tour—probably only a sentimental figure of speech to frighten his listeners.

Now for an answer to enquiries for the biography, of which, after all, I think with some fear, not on account of its political contents, but on account of family considerations. I rely on your promise. The man certainly cannot want to afflict so many!

Wilhelm was born in Potsdam, because his father was Royal Chamberlain, and at the same time acting Chamberlain to the Princess Elizabeth of Prussia. He left Potsdam when the Princess was sent to Stettin. My father remained in high favor with the Prince of Prussia, who visited him frequently at Tegel. This explains to you the passage in the English despatch, running thus (I believe very early in 1775? Raumer’s Beitraege zur neuern Geschichte, vol. v., p. 297):—“Hertzberg, Schulenburg could form a ministry, but those have the greatest chance of success, who, although not of the same kind, are considered favorites of the Prince. Among the first of these stands Herr von Humboldt, formerly an official in the allied army, a man of sense and fine character; Herr von Hordt, an enterprising genius....” The expression “official” is a strange mistake. My father was major and aide-de-camp to Duke Ferdinand, of Brunswick: after long service in the Finkenstein dragoons, he was frequently sent to Frederick II., during the gloomiest period of the Seven Years’ War; thus Frederick II. writes in his letters on the Wedel disaster:—“I told Humboldt everything that can be told at such a distance.”—(Manuscript letters quite recently bought by the King in Eastern Prussia.)

My family comes from Northern Pomerania. My brother and I were for a long time the last of our name. My mother’s maiden name was Colomb, cousin of the Princess Bluecher, and therefore niece of the old President in Aurich (Ostfriesland). She was first married to a Baron von Holwede. From this marriage sprung my step-brother Holwede, formerly in the regiment of gensdarmes. To my mother belongs the merit of having procured for us, at the instigation of old privy-councillor Kunth, a thorough education. Wilhelm, for the first years, was educated by our tutor Campe. The foundation of his profound attainments in Grecian lore was laid by Loeffler, the author of a liberal book on the New Platonism of the Fathers of the Church; he then was a chaplain in the army, and afterwards chief ecclesiastical counsellor at Gotha. Fischer, of the Graue Kloster, instructed Wilhelm in Greek for many years; he had, what is little known, a profound knowledge of Greek, besides that of mathematics. That Engel, Reitemeier, Dohm, and Klein lectured to us for a long time on philosophy, jurisprudence, and political science, is known to you. When at the University of Frankfurt (for six months) we lived with Loeffler, who was Professor there. In Goettingen, both of us were members (for one year) of the Philological Seminary of Heyne.

To my father belonged Tegel (formerly a hunting chateau of the great Elector, and it was consequently only a leasehold property. Wilhelm first possessed the place in fee-simple, as a manor; therefore Schinkel added to it four towers, in order to preserve the old tower erected under the great Elector). Besides this, he owned Ringenwalde, near Soldin, in the Neumark. Ringenwalde afterwards belonged to me, then to the Counts Reeden and Achim Arnim. Wilhelm, at the time of his death, possessed Tegel, Burgoerner, and Auleben (acquired by his wife, as the fiefdom of the Dacheroeden family had been abolished), Hadersleben, in the Magdeburg country, and Castle Ottmachau, in Silesia, the dotation given to him after the Paris peace.

The Sonnet I., 394, refers to a second child, I believe, which Frau von Humboldt lost when at Rome. One was buried in Paris.

I conjure you do not mention to the author anything as coming from me. He would inevitably state it in the preface, and then I should become responsible for a great many things which I dread.

Pardon the stercoran-like[^[33]] loquacity.

A. Ht.

Note by Varnhagen.—He probably had just read of the Stercoranists in Strauss’s “Glaubenslehre.” Hence this allusion.

65.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Thursday, 31st March, 1842.

On my return from Potsdam with the King I received the “Loa-Tseu,” a work with a peculiar flavor of ante-Herodotian antiquity. Your note accompanying the Chinese philosopher impresses me painfully. I find that you have not yet received the courage arising from a consciousness of restored physical strength. That the vigor of your intellect never suffered is shown in each of your letters. I think I have not lost any of them. About a week ago I wrote you a long one of four pages about that “Christianly-dogmatising philosopher,” and my reply to the inquiries of the “Biographer,” who pestered me with his pietistic curiosity. Did that letter come to hand safely? It contained also much chit-chat on my brother’s first erudition. You don’t make any mention of my talkativeness. I trust it will not be a source of trouble to me. We have succeeded with Buelow. He may be here next Saturday. It may be the beginning of something good; or the end of it—le bouquet—the stage effect of foot-lights. I met with Tholuk and Bekedorff yesterday at Potsdam at dinner. No other occasion would have favored me with their apparition. With constant devotion yours,

A. Ht.

66.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, April 6th, 1842.

Since the inquisitorial sentence against Bruno (Bauer) has been so presumptuously published, I deem it my duty to retain your Strauss no longer. I return you that remarkable book, which caused me to indulge in much meditation. Accept my best thanks. The method of the author is excellent; it makes us acquainted with the whole history of the faith of our time, particularly so with the jesuitical trick of so many people who declare publicly their belief in and their adherence to all the dogmas of the Christian mythology, after the fashion of Schleiermacher, and after having “drained the chalice,” are followed to the grave by a solemn cortege of court equipages, although in fact they had always discarded the orthodox belief and substituted for it pseudo-philosophical interpretations.

What displeases me very much in Strauss is his frivolous manner of speaking of natural sciences, which makes him accept without hesitation the formation of organism from inorganisms, and which enables him to easily believe in the origin of man as springing from the primitive sod of Chaldea. That he seems to think very little of the blue regions on the other side of the grave I might cheerfully forgive him; the more so, as we are the more agreeably and willingly surprised when we expect little. As for you, you fortunate man, it could have caused no surprise. How purely Spanish and revolting in the present inquisitorial formula was the sentence that “The culprit would admit himself.” Neque aliud aut qui eadem saevitia usi sunt, nisi dedecus sibi atque reges illis gloriam peperere.

I send you a copy of “Don Juan.” It shows beauty of language, also a rich imagination. I am anxious to hear how you are pleased with it.

The constitutional Roi des Landes[^[34]] repeatedly said yesterday at dinner in the presence of forty people: The professors of Goettingen had talked of their patriotism in an address to him. Professors, he said, have no country at all. Professors, prostitutes, and dancers may be had every where for money; they go to the highest bidder. What a shame to call such a fellow a German Prince!

With faithful attachment, yours,

A. Ht.

Wednesday Night.

67.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, April 7th, 1842.

Our unknown friend is very amiable. I have lost all apprehension. You have a balm for every wound. I will show you, with pleasure, the few lines, which fell, as it was intended they should, into the King’s hands on the following morning. I chose that circuitous way, because it enabled me to write more freely, and to openly show my dissatisfaction. The thing is now in a better way, but it is not yet irrevocably dismissed. I must entreat you, therefore, most fervently, not to give the lines in question out of your hand. They would irrevocably be inserted in the papers, and that would seriously injure my efforts in a good and important cause.

The King sent for me at a very early hour; and his thanking me very cordially for my frank exposition does him much honor.

I did not go to Potsdam to-day, because I wished to advocate in the full board of the Academy the election of Mr. Riess, the Jewish philosopher, as a member. His election is very honorable to the Academy. There were only three black balls.

To-morrow I shall be with the King till Sunday. I will try to hunt up some interesting autograph—something poetical (by Wilhelm von Humboldt)—for Stuttgart. All that I possess are unfortunately but copies.

Take care of your health, dear friend, it is not firmly restored.

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Thursday Night.

68.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, June 24th, 1842.

Your kind remembrance, honored and gifted friend, was very beneficial to me—the more so, as I have returned from Sans Souci rather unwell, affected by a cold; and as I am involved in all the miseries of moving into a detestable house in the Siberian ward of the city, the Oranienburger Strasse, I have not even an inkstand on my table.

At present, nothing more than my best thanks. I have told Marheineke myself how dear he is to me. A thunderstorm, in the form of a cabinet order, suddenly growling through the papers, and exhibiting a few flashes of censorial absurdities, would be preferable to that impracticable law, the assigning of a Grand Inquisitor to the liberty of the press. We have so much to say to each other, I hope to see you yet before your departure. Think only of the enlivening presence of four Crown-Princes and throne-successors—one lame in the knees, and pale; the other a drunken Icelander; the third blind, and politically raving; and the last capricious and infirm in intellect. And this is the approaching generation of the monarchical world.

Yours,

A. Ht.

I accompany the King to the Rhine. That I had no mind to become a mere color-stand at Petersburg will be understood by you. The Chancellor has always the pleasure of being the subject of vulgar recrimination on the part of those who are either not invited or refused admittance to the banquet. What an excitement glass beads, peacock plumes, and ribbons can stir up among men![^[35]]....

Note by Varnhagen.—Marheineke’s article on the Anglican church in the “Jahrbuecher fuer wissenschaftliche Kritik,” with a couple of censorial blunders.

On the 26th June, 1842, Varnhagen writes in his diary about the new order:—“Humboldt tells me much about the foundation of the new order. The King had at first composed a list, in which he had written the names with Sanscrit letters. This list was referred for advice to Humboldt, Eichhorn, Savigny, Thiele; then it was altered many times; new names were added and others stricken out—the indecision lasted six weeks. Originally the King had decided for forty-six members, to correspond with the number of years embraced by the reign of Frederick the Great. Afterwards he thought of adopting forty, but was afraid of doing so, on account of the ‘plaisanteries’ about the number ‘quarante’ in the French Academy; at last he limited the number to thirty. All was managed by the King in his own way. Arago was originally placed on the list by the King. He insisted upon Metternich as his particular choice. Rumohr was abandoned. Steffens was, in the opinion of the King, not deserving ‘enough—neither as philosopher nor as a naturalist.’ Liszt was decidedly favored by the King, and no objections could prevail. Spontini was thought of, but Savigny and the cabinet counsellor, Mueller, succeeded in displacing him. Moore was objected to as having written satirical verses on Prussia. ‘That is not at all my business,’ said the King. Melloni was opposed as being a Carbonaro, and having been at the head of a revolutionary Junta. ‘I do not care the least about that,’ said the King. ‘I would confer the order on O’Connell, if he possessed such scientific merits.’ The King proposed Raumer and Ranke. Eichhorn and Savigny assented only to Ranke, and thereupon both were dropped. Notwithstanding the view taken in Melloni’s, Moore’s, and Arago’s cases, Schlosser the historian was rejected on account of his political views(?). Metternich had railed at the ‘bishopric of Jerusalem.’ Now to insure the new order against the same fate, he was to be nominated a member of it—this is deemed the ‘secret motive,’ in Humboldt’s opinion. And for Metternich’s sake Uwaroff was left out, for with him the other would not have been the sole representative of his species. Link was weighed, but found wanting.”

On the 27th June, 1842, Varnhagen makes the following addition to his notes of yesterday: “Humboldt told me he had informed the King in advance of the intention of the Academy of Sciences to elect Mr. Riess, a Jew, one of their members, and that the King had replied he would confirm the election unhesitatingly. ‘I will hope,’ he added, ‘your brother has not committed the folly of writing in the by-laws a clause against Jews becoming members of the Academy?’ Minister Eichhorn knew that the King would not create any difficulty in the matter, but he himself disliked it, and he thought it likely that Thiele, Rochow, Stollberg, and others, would also be displeased at it; therefore he left the application of the Academy, to have their election confirmed by the King, unattended to for six weeks, and then wrote a letter, by which he inquired of the Academy, whether they were aware that Riess was a Jew? The Academy, indignant at this inquiry, replied unanimously, that they were only ruled by the by-laws, in concurrence with which the election had taken place, and they therefore repudiated the minister’s inquiry as inappropriate and impertinent. Eichhorn pocketed the insult, and reported the application to the King, who at once confirmed the election; feeling, however, a little disinclined to approve, at the present day, what Frederick the Great had refused. Frederick the Great had declined to confirm the election of Moses Mendelssohn, out of regard, as it is believed, for the Empress Catherine of Russia, who was a member of the Academy, and who was presumed to be averse to such a colleague.”

On the 30th of August, 1842, Varnhagen remarks in his diary: “Humboldt tells me miserable things of Eichhorn. Talks also much of the King, his amiability, good humor, jocoseness. He thinks, however, he will not relinquish his favorite views, even when he seems to abandon them. The King was more satisfied with Count Maltzan than with any one else of his ministers; he placed full confidence in him—believed him capable of anything. We had a dispute about the signification of the word ‘ingenious,’ and how far it could be applied to the King. Humboldt thinks the King intends going to Greece, and to extend his journey to Jerusalem. It was to be feared, however, that the parsons would at last get control of him, and destroy his cheerfulness. Humboldt goes to Eu on business, with the King of France; then to Paris. Will be back at Berlin in December.”

Varnhagen speaks of a call made by Humboldt after his return from Paris, in his diary of the 18th March, 1843, as follows: “Humboldt came to see me; he looks much older since I last saw him, but his spirit and courage are fresh. In Paris he was happy and gay; here his spirits sank at once. Things here were going on miserably, he says; the old beaten track—treating matters of dangerous character in a spirit of childish frivolity. And besides that, he is overrun with applications and requests; every one wishes to secure his influence! ‘Influence!’ said he; ’nobody has any! Even Bunsen and Radowitz, the King’s favorites, have none. All that they are capable of is to anticipate the weak fancies of the King, and obey them. Should they attempt anything beyond this, their overthrow is certain. The King acts just as he pleases. He follows the impulses of his early received and firmly rooted impressions, and the advice which he may now and then think worthy of hearing, is nothing at all to him. He speaks contemptuously of Eichhorn and Savigny, as hypocritical menials, who receive the word of command from Thiele, from Gerlach, and from Hengstenberg. The King has relinquished nothing whatever of his cherished designs, and may, at any time, come out again with them, as with his designs regarding the Jews’ observance of the Sabbath, the Anglican ordination of the bishops, and the new institutions of nobility, etc. He has projects which it would take a hundred years to accomplish. He contemplates immense constructions, outlaying of parks, enterprises in matters of art. There is already the question of going to Athens; in the background a pilgrimage to Jerusalem may be looming; triumphant promenades à la Napoleon; peaceable ones to London, to St. Petersburg, to the Orient; conquered scholars and artists, instead of countries. Love of art and imagination upon the throne, fanaticism and deceit all round, and hypocritical exaggeration in matters unworthy of attention. And with all this, the man is really ingenious, is really amiable, and inspired by the best intentions. What will come out of all this at last?”

69.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, April 3d, 1842.

If I have appeared slow in thanking you, my dear friend, for your delightful present, it is because all my leisure time at Potsdam was absorbed by the perusal of your biography, beginning with your early youth and terminating with your description of the Congress of Vienna. To have had such a development as yours is a gratifying advantage. It is instructive to follow the career of men like you and to behold them acting before our eyes.

How unjust we once were in our opinions of the men who undertook to rearrange Europe at that great Congress—I mean to say how much more did we then exact in our unjust views, while at present, on comparing the members of that Congress with the mediocre creatures of to-day, they appear great in our recollection. In their place we have now court-philosophers, missionary-devoted ladies of state ministers, court theologians, and sensation preachers......

Minister Buelow complains that you never came to see him en famille between the hours of 8 and 9. He will hold his public reception to-morrow, Tuesday evening, and you would be an ornament to his circle. He never sends letters of invitation to those who know how welcome they are to him.

A. v. Humboldt.

Monday.

70.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Tuesday, June 13th, 1843.

Excuse me, dear friend, for being prevented by the absence of Reimer, by my own eternal distractions and pendulum-like movements, as well as by some little preparations for an excursion to Pomerania, from sending you the two new volumes of Wilhelm’s works. I know that you are little pleased with the commentary on Hermann and Dorothea. It would have been preferable, to be sure, had he extended it into a pamphlet on epics; but you perceive even in the Kawi book how that great genius always deduced general law from special instances. The sonnets are full of grave pathos and depth of sentiment. I shall call to embrace you, and to ask you the surest way of sending a copy to Mr. Thomas Carlyle? A. seems unreliable, and Buelow’s despatches cannot be overloaded. I shall thank Mr. Carriere personally. The “fossil” minister, I am told, has given evidence of his vitality by an amiable letter to you! My life is also described “dans les biographies redigées par un homme de rien,” in which I am pictured as a socially-malicious beast. Such things will not kill, nor will they improve a man either.

Always faithfully yours,

A. v. Ht.

71.

Berlin, June 26th, 1843.

I am sure, dear friend, to afford you some enjoyment by communicating to you (to you alone) a fragment of a new volume by Eckermann. Remarkable adoration of youthful vigor as the divine source of productiveness. This is simply the adoration of an old man. Napoleonic worship unrestrained by moral considerations. I most fervently entreat you, not to show the sheet to our child, also not to talk with Brockhaus about what Eckermann has confided to me. It might possibly damage him, and he is already unfortunate. I am confident the two last volumes will have come to your hands through Buschmann. The weather was very favorable for our journey north. Such journeys are the best means to deceive princes regarding public opinion. I have made a little speech, out of a window, to the young men upon “The intellectual ties”—which independent of “space” beget a just interpretation of liberal ideas, and an unfading confidence in the advancement of humanity. You may read the speech in the Staats Zeitung, as I wrote it down after delivery, a necessary precaution, as my daily increasing friends would have perverted it. I read a part of “Custine” to the King. He is infinitely ingenious and magnificent in style. I have read but two volumes, and of these I prefer the first, which portrays a modern greatness of tragical events in a masterly manner.

With devotion, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Please send me back Eckermann.

72.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Tuesday, June 27th, 1843.

I am afraid, my dear friend, that you might come to Tegel next Thursday and find nobody at home. Buelow will take leave of the King to-night and expects to start to-morrow—Wednesday—for Schlangenbad. His wife and two oldest daughters are going with him. I write this in view of the impossibility of my embracing you before your departure. The torchlight procession at Düsseldorf could shed light on many a thing. I enclose the little speech for you, as you like to preserve everything concerning your friends.

Yours,

A. Ht.

73.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Sans Souci, August 27th, 1843.

How could I be, my dear friend, otherwise than alive to the duty of thanking you at once for your precious gift, and for the affectionate souvenir of one whose life is gradually vanishing? I know nothing more graceful in composition, in sympathy of conception, in elegance of language, and in appropriate scenic surroundings, than your “Lebensbilder,” which serve at the same time as correct commentaries upon all the valuable literature of our time. How generous you are when you mention me, and even my most insignificant words! I have often followed you through the three volumes, over those beaten, but still delightful paths; but nothing pleases me more in this “sylva sylvarum” than your dignified and just remarks on the historical blunder as to the “truly Germanic” distinction of political classes, ii., p. 256–272.

You will observe that my political “ire” is still the same; that I am always very much attached to this life, having learned from you that, according to Kant’s doctrine, there is not much to boast of after our dissolution. “The budding twig starting up in the regions of northern empires” (I am satirical now) has been but poorly acclimated; and I have little time to spare, having already waited fifty-three years.... The Germans will yet have to write many more books on liberty.

The card-playing man—ii., p. 157—will again cause some excitement in the environs of my “hill.” I believe I have discovered some “moderation,” which, however, one does not like to mention. The words, “that miserable fellow,” are no longer heard. You see how much I love to read your writings—and not through fear.

A. v. H.

We have not yet talked of Custine’s book. The first volume is an eloquent and sprightly description (of dramatic scenes), and is the best done. What a startling effect such a book must have, even on those who detest justifying themselves. “Il y a des longueurs de déclamations,”—something of rhetorical blackening, which is tiresome. I find the publication of the hypertragical letter (of Princess Trubetzkoi) very wrong. Were it not for the irritation necessarily caused by the publication of this letter, we might have looked for some salvation from a new petition. What justification is there for risking so much, even for murder? I am also disgusted by the worship of those literary trifles by Mad. de Girardin and Mad. Gay. Such worship could, perhaps, be allowed in a beautiful Grand-Duchess.

That the “Saint-Simonism” was invented by a Prussian business-man, amuses me very much. As it concerns Königsberg, I will keep it secret.

74.
HUMBOLDT TO THE PRINCE OF PRUSSIA.

Berlin, Dec. 29, 1843.

Your Royal Highness:

I have the honor, most humbly, to inform you that the box containing the universal siderial clock of the inventors, D. and H. v. A——, together with your gracious orders, has duly been delivered to me. I shall do in the matter what will be agreeable to you. The two officers, in a letter dated Temesvar, 13th of December, gave me notice of the arrival of the instruments, naively adding “That I should try to procure for the inventors some military decoration from His Majesty the King ‘the universal physician,’ of all arts and sciences.”

To obtain, however, such a “universal panacea,” from the “universal physician,” the gentlemen must address his majesty a few words themselves. The so-called universal siderial clocks had much reputation in the middle ages; in the present state of astronomy, however, they are never used in observatories, where the astronomer makes the calculations himself. Such graphic inventions in that line cannot therefore be recommended as deserving reward unless the inventors address themselves in person to the monarch. These rules are observed even when books are presented, which meet with no acknowledgment unless accompanied by a letter.

Under these circumstances I hope that your Royal Highness will approve of my writing to Lieutenant H. v. A., thanking him for his confidence, and requesting him, for his own sake and that of his friend, to write some letters to his majesty the King, in which he may refer to me. To secure the delivery of the letter at Temesvar your Royal Highness will gracefully be pleased to direct it under your seal to the ambassador, General von Canitz. I shall have the box opened at the observatory in the presence of Professor Encke, and charge him, as is usual in such cases, to make a report for the private cabinet. Although the word “ingenious” cannot be applied to instruments the construction of which is not strictly original, I will nevertheless try to obtain, through my representations, a small dose of “the universal panacea.”

In deepest devotion, I remain

Your Royal Highness’s

most humble servant,

A. v. Humboldt.

75.

Monday, Jan. 1st, 1844.

I am in haste to tell you, as the Potsdam train is about starting, dear friend, in spite of your incognito, that the King, previous to the soap bubbling, lead melting, and to the angelic chorus in the cathedral, and the entrance of the watchman,[^[36]] received and enjoyed very much the charming gift. It is a group full of grace and sweetness of composition; it is heaven reflected in earthly love. The King instantly guessed it to be the work of those young fairies, Bettina’s cygnets, and would like to offer his thanks.

A. v. Ht.

Privatissime.—I expressed some doubts about that hieroglyph distinguishing the male swan from the female. The King thinks me, however, quite “arrière” as to the changes which art-life has made in modern education.

Note by Varnhagen.—Bettina von Arnim had given me a delicate and beautifully executed drawing, representing a naked girl and a naked lad standing under a tree, in the foliage of which a nightingale is singing, which she requested me to send anonymously to Mr. v. Humboldt, asking him to present it also anonymously to the King as a New Year’s present. The nakedness of the male figure might indeed appear rather shocking, although it would have been pardonable in one like Bettina, but that the King could suppose it the work of her daughters is rather too strong, unless by this pretence he meant to convey a rallying correction to Bettina.

On the 1st of April, 1844, Varnhagen wrote in his diary: “After a long interruption, a visit from Humboldt at last. He told me all that occupies his mind. He is striving to do what he can, but this is not much, and after all, the man of seventy-four years is but a man of seventy-four. He himself refers significantly to his advanced age. His manifold duties are a heavy charge upon him, although he is reluctant to abandon them. The Court and its society are to him like a tavern of habitual resort, where one is wont to pass one’s evening, and to drink one’s glass. The King, says he, busies himself with nothing but his whims, and these have, for the most part, a spiritual, nay, an ecclesiastical, tendency—worshipping, building churches, concocting missions. He cares very little about earthly affairs. It seems immaterial to him whether Louis Philippe’s death causes a crisis; what may happen after Metternich’s death, or how Russia behaves with us. To all this he is indifferent; he scarcely thinks of it. Whoever has secured his favor and nourishes his fancies plays a sure game. Bunsen, Radowitz, and Canitz stand highest in his favor. Stollberg comes only in the second rank. Besides, there exists the greatest carelessness and distraction. Rueckert had congratulated the Queen upon her recovery, in some very beautiful stanzas. They were found delightful; but the propriety of acknowledging such an offering by a word of thanks was overlooked, until at last it occurred to the Queen. Rueckert was then sent for, but had been gone some three weeks. Schelling is received scarcely once a year by the King. Having secured him, he cares but little for him. Steffens, too, whom he likes, is seldom invited. Reumont belongs to the exceptions; he secures a small share of the favoritism of Bunsen and Count Bruehl. There is much sneering at ... about his dancing, &c. Humboldt said once, he was green, if not quite yellow, whereupon the King answered: ‘At ... every one had that complexion.’ Bunsen has not grown much wiser: he proposed to the King to purchase California, to send missionaries there, &c. He strongly supports the schemes of Madame von Helfert; he had a mind to send his own son with her, and to contribute £12,000 of his own means for the establishment of settlements in the East Indies (!), with the view, of course, to open a field for missionaries; he withdrew, however, his offers when he saw that the King’s co-operation was doubtful. In the meantime Mrs. Helfert could not obtain more than ten thousand thalers from the King. Minister Rother succeeded in frustrating her plot; he could not help, however, sending two agents to examine and to report on the state of the possessions of Mrs. Helfert in the East Indies. It was also attempted to induce the King to take part in the colonization of Texas—always in connexion, of course, with religious interests. Humboldt had written previously to Bunsen, in strong terms, advising him to warn Eichhorn, and to point out to him the hatred which his actions awakened, and which also reflected upon the King. When he met Bunsen here he expressed himself in the same way, arguing in forcible but fruitless language. Bunsen, who talked with him with great interest on Egypt for two hours, did not answer a word, but rose and went away. Humboldt believes him vain enough to accept a ministry. It seems to me that Humboldt is much too familiar with Bunsen, and shows him too much friendship. The Queen, says Humboldt, has no Catholic tendencies; on the contrary, she is an arch-Protestant, and even more of a fanatic than the King himself, whom she is constantly urging in this direction. She would have more influence if she better understood the management of matters.

“In the evening Humboldt sent me the work: ‘Russie, Allemagne et France,’ par M. Fournier, Paris, 1844, with a very amiable letter, inclosing eighteen precious autographs by Arago, Metternich, Peel, Stanley, Récamier, Balzac, Prescott, Brunel, Herschel, Bresson, Helene d’Orleans, Duchesse de Dino, and four confidential good-humored notes of the King. A brilliant present!”

76.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, April 1st, 1844.

I have a mind, my noble friend, to impart some enjoyment to you to-night by a few insignificant gifts, accompanying the horrible Ruthenic venom beneath enclosed.[^[37]] I know that I am personally flattered in all the inclosed letters with the exception of that from Solingen; but this cannot prevent my offering what may be interesting to you. You will find the following letter from

1. Lord Stanley, the present minister, to whom I had recommended the cousin of our Dieffenbach, the author of a highly commendable journey to New Zealand. This traveller was implicated in the rebellion at Frankfort, wherefore it was difficult to get him an engagement in Germany. If travelling were still a business of mine I could not desire a better companion.

2. The “Presumption” from Solingen.

3. A very interesting letter of Count Bresson, the ambassador of France, dated Feb. 6, 1839.

4. A very amiable letter from Arago, when I had dedicated him the “Examen de l’histoire de la géographie du 15 Siècle.” I don’t recollect having given you anything else of Arago.

5. A note written by the King, at a time when he assisted me in obtaining the pardon of young “demagogues.” The note refers to the prosecution of young Hoeninghaus, for whom my efforts were successful. The letter of the Crown-Prince shows a noble indignation against Kamptz and his accomplices.

6. A letter of the Duchess of Orleans.

7. A letter of the King of Denmark. Simultaneously with Arago I had recommended Hansen, the great lunar calculator at Gotha, to the King. Our petition was granted. Arago received also a very amiable autograph from “Christianus Rex,” once constitutional King in Norway.

8. Another note of the Crown-Prince, good-humored and witty. He wished very much to have Metternich accept the Presidency, pour mettre la société en bonne odeur à Rome ou elle passe pour Bunsohérétique.

9. A letter of the Duchess de Dino, now Duchesse de Talleyrand. She has been created Duchess of Sagan lately.

10, 11. Two good-humored letters more of the King. Le Seehund, the recommendation of a rather rough Danish sea captain, who declared his willingness to take two naturalists around the globe at the rate of 2500 rixthalers a head (a little high). The plan was a failure. Le Seigneur Cados, ministre Sécretaire d’Etat of the watchmaking Duc de Normandie, who addressed to the Crown-Prince a complaint about the indecent manner in which he was treated by the Staats Zeitung.

12. From Brunel, the hero of the tunnel.

13. A letter of Sir John Herschel, full of flattering expressions.

14. Mr. de Balzac.

15. Sir Robert Peel. Somebody had written me, from Oxford, that Robert Brown, the first botanist of Europe, had got suddenly into money difficulties, and that Peel, on my intercession, would grant him one of the four only pensions accorded to savans by Parliament. I recommended him and was successful.

16. Mad. Récamier. I am sure you have already several letters from her.

17. A letter from Prince Metternich, to be added to the number of those which you have already from him.

18. The illustrious American historian, Prescott. In your hands all will be safe, even what I myself would destroy from wantonness. I entreat you, dear friend, not to tell anybody that I gave you the King’s notes, however insignificant they are. It would injure me.

With old veneration, yours,

A. von Humboldt.

Monday Evening.

77.
J. W. T. TO HUMBOLDT.

Höfgen, near Solingen, March 12th, 1844.

Your Excellency will not be offended at the liberty I take of writing you. Some time ago I read in the newspapers that somebody of Koenigsberg is said to have written you about secrets of nature, referring to photographs taken in the dark. I presume, therefore, that your Excellency is a naturalist and has friends who are likewise so. As I also have made important discoveries in secrets of nature, which my present business will not allow me to pursue, I wish to have an opportunity of speaking with you about them. Perhaps we can be useful to each other. I am perfectly willing to make the journey to Berlin, in order to see you. May it please your Excellency to write me as soon as possible at what time I can call on you at Berlin, if you have no objection to my visit.

In hope that you will favor me with an answer, I am, with due respect,

Your Excellency’s most obedient,

J. W. T.

Mr. Gottfried H., merchant at Berlin, can give you information, if required, as to my standing and character.

Note of Humboldt.—The presumption of the writer, arising from the perusal of a newspaper, that I might be a naturalist, is a fact. I am guilty of having published some books on Natural History as early as 1789.

78.
COUNT BRESSON, FRENCH AMBASSADOR, TO HUMBOLDT.

Berlin, February 6th, 1839.

Dear Excellency,—I am happy to be able to send you to-day an article worthier of you than that of yesterday. Keep this number “Des Débats.” I do not file them.

The remark of Mr. M. V. L—— on the “Nescio quis Plutarchus” is puerile. Besides, excepting this, his article is inspired by a just appreciation of your glory, which is ours as well, and which we claim as such.

Pray, dear Excellency, receive my affectionate and respectful homage.

Bresson.

P. S.—I had just finished this note when yours of this morning reached me. I shall keep it all my life, as well for its being a true historical monument, as for the precious title of friend which you deign to give me. It is true, alas! we shall see, if God grants us life, a great many things; but may it be His will that we shall never see again events like those which have already swept over our country, by sapping the power of the King. Yet the Coalition works in this direction with all its might. It is a fit of madness which reminds me of 1791. These plotters are Girondists in embryo, whom we would have loved; and they will be the first to be buried under the ruins of the edifice which they are undermining.

Does it, then, require a great effort of reasoning to perceive that the King is the cementer of all things, that he keeps us out of chaos, and that upon his living or dying the state of affairs wholly depends? Let us ask conscientiously, does our danger to-day come from him? Shall an order of things, acquired with so much trouble, established with so much labor—shall it be sacrificed to the renown of a few men, or to the vain theories inapplicable to France, serviceable at the best only in England, where they are consecrated by age, and, what is still better, administered by the enlightened upper classes. D., who is a man of sound intellect, writes me that he believes in the happy issue of the ministerial crisis. Mr. Molé has changed his determination not to resume office; he will do so if there is a majority of thirty-six or forty votes secured to him. The Jacqueminot party, which is rendering great service, is working for this.

Here are the adieux, the last ones of Mr. de Talleyrand at Fontainebleau, on the 2d of June, 1838: “Adieu, my dear Bresson, stay at Berlin as long as you can; you are well off there; do not try to be better off. There will be much commotion in the world; you are young; you will see it.” I quote these words for you, because they agree with the spirit of your note, for which I thank you once more, and which will become a family title to me.

Note by Humboldt.—Letter of Count Bresson, French Ambassador at Berlin.—I kept it on account of the few words of Talleyrand. I had written to Mr. Bresson that the situation of France was very serious, that I still believed in peace, because, besides the wisdom of the rulers, there was an expectant treatment of want of energy and timid prudence. That these things, however, could act only for a limited time, and that those who were young, like him, would see in action what was now spreading its deep roots, as the unconscious and inarticulate desires of the nations.

79.
ARAGO TO HUMBOLDT.

Paris, August 19th, 1834.

My dear Friend—I cannot find words to tell you[^[38]] how sorry I am at having caused you a moment’s annoyance. Be persuaded, then, once for all, that whatever wrongs, real or apparent, you may have experienced at my hands, you will never suffer that of my forgetting how good you have always been to me. The friendship which makes me so happy and proud, and which I have shown to you, shall never be surpassed by yours for me. I wanted, on the occasion of your kindly dedication, to give a public evidence of my friendship, but various circumstances arising out of my position, just now so very difficult and complicated, prevented. I hope, however, that it is only delayed.

I am sorry to learn that your health is not satisfactory. Mine is very bad; but I care little about it. All that I daily see in this vile world of meanness, servility, and low passion, makes me look with indifference on the events with which men are mostly pre-occupied. The only news that could at present cure me of my spleen, would be that you were coming to Paris. Why have I not found a single word of hope in your letter—even for a distant future?

The scientific world here is in a dead calm. Everything has a desponding look. I am going to-morrow to England with Mr. Pentland. Shall I come back with more comforting notions?

Our observatory is elegant, and very commodious. The Ministry decided that a director must be appointed, and I was chosen unanimously. I have under my orders four or five youths, who have the title of assistants, and a salary of 2,000 francs. Under this arrangement, we shall try to achieve something out of the beaten track.

Adieu, my dear and excellent friend. Mathieu, who has not yet entirely recovered from a severe disease in his eyes, charges me, as does his wife also, to recommend him to your remembrance.

Always yours through life,

Arago.

80.
FOUR NOTES OF FREDERICK WILLIAM THE FOURTH TO HUMBOLDT.

I.

23d December, 1836 (at Night).

The quasi nameless number[^[39]] may expect the mildest of sentences. It will, doubtless, be commuted to six months, and three years’ incapacity to hold office. You may therefore send some comfort, at least as a Christmas present, to the faithful Crefeld. Perhaps!!?!! I shall succeed in procuring the full pardon of this list. It is, however, revolting and horrible to let the poor boy languish so long in a loathsome hole. Leaving the respectability of his parents out of the question, had they been fools or knaves, it could scarcely be excused. Shall we see each other to-night?

Fr. W.

II.

Cherissime Humboldt, you are acquainted with all the pretenders to all the crowns. Please read the inclosed letter, and inform me who the Seigneur Cados may be—who were his father, mother, and ancestors, and also what are his titles to the crown of France, which I shall certainly try to procure for him?

Frederic Guillaume, Pr. Royal.

B. 21 Feb., 1839.

III.

Episode from “The Marriage of Figaro.”

Il y manque quelque chose.

Quoi?—

Le cachet.

Don’t overlook the nice allusion, dearest friend! Your seal must help me out of nearly as great a difficulty as that of Countess Almaviva; otherwise the Prince would perceive that I have read all the flattering things which you have so ill-advisedly! said of me. Pour vous divertir, I inclose my letter. Vale.

Fr. W.

B., 23 March, 1840.

(In Humboldt’s handwriting.)—Autograph of the Prince Royal of Prussia.—The Prince offered to Prince Metternich the chair as President of the Archæological Institute at Rome. I was called upon to write a letter to Prince Metternich, which the Prince Royal wanted to inclose in his own. As it contained some praises of the Prince, he desired to have it sealed.

Humboldt.

I was honest and stupid enough not to take a copy of the letter of the King to Prince Metternich.

IV.

I communicate you the inclosed despatch from Copenhagen, to inform you of the new “Seccatura,” which will wait upon you in the shape of a sea-dog of the Sound, to ask your advice, and assistance as to a voyage around the globe. This letter having no further object, I pray God, Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt, to keep you in his holy and especial care.

Given at our Palace at Potsdam, 29th April, 1849 (1843?), near midnight.

Signed,

Frederic Guillaume.

Note of Varnhagen.—Every word exactly as above—to be understood as a joke.

81.
KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HUMBOLDT.

Copenhagen, May 3d, 1843.

Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt:

The letter which you addressed me the day before you left Paris has called my attention to the lunar tables, for which science is indebted to the labors of Professor Hansen. I have applied to our illustrious astronomer Schumacher, in order to learn what will be still necessary to complete this important subject. By following his advice it was easy to procure everything necessary for the continuation of the labors, the comparing of the observations, and when the necessary expenses are once apportioned and allowed, Schumacher expects to be enabled to publish the lunar tables before the expiration of two years. A recompense for efforts devoted to the sciences will no doubt be found in the advancement of science itself; but the approbation of distinguished savans gives us a veritable satisfaction, and we rejoice the more in it when it comes from a man so far superior to others. Always anxious to deserve your approbation, Monsieur le Baron, I wish to be guided by your intelligence, and I shall be happy to be acquainted with the results of your scientific observations, whenever you please to address them to me.

With the highest consideration, I am, Monsieur le Baron, your well-affectionate,

Christian R.

82.
JOHN HERSCHEL TO HUMBOLDT.

Collingwood, 21st Dec. 1843.

Hawkhurst, 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 acknowledged, 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 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 appear to me to contain by far the most complete and masterly coup-d’œil of that important subject which I have ever met with. In reading this and other parts of your work on this subject, and of the “Physique du globe” 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 “Athenæum” (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 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 appearance 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 succeeding 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 enquired 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 unavoidable, 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 disproportioned 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 nebulæ are already in course of engraving. Perhaps the subject which has given me most trouble is that of the photometric estimation of the magnitudes of Southern stars and their companions 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 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 α Centauri). In March, 1843, according to Mr. Mackay, it was equal to Canopus. “α Crucis,” he says, “looked quite dim beside it.” When I first observed it at the Cape it was very decidedly inferior to α 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.

83.
BALZAC TO HUMBOLDT.

Berlin, Hotel de la Russie, 1843.

Monsieur Le Baron:—May I hope on my arrival in Potsdam, next Monday, by the 11 o’clock train, to have the honor of seeing you, for the purpose of presenting my respects.

I am merely passing through this city, and you will therefore excuse the liberty I take in announcing the time of my visit. May I hope that you will receive it as a proof of my ardent desire to add some new recollections to those of the “Salon de Gérard.”

Should I be so unfortunate as to miss seeing you, this little note will assure you at least of my desire to recall your remembrance of me otherwise than by a card. Be kind enough, then, Monsieur le Baron, to accept the assurance of my most respectful admiration of

Your most humble and obedient Servant,

de Balzac.

84.
ROBERT PEEL TO HUMBOLDT.

Whitehall, Sept. 4th, 1843.

Dear Baron de Humboldt:

I was much 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 Royal favor 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. Robert 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,

Robert Peel.

85.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.

Vienna, October, 1843.

My Dear Baron:

You were kind enough to present me a copy of your “Asie Centrale.” I call it your because discoveries lawfully belong to those who make them, and because it is often better to make a discovery than to become the possessor of its results.

I have begun the perusal of the work, which is among those to which I look for mental relaxation, just as minds differently constituted from mine are apt to have recourse to light and futile productions. This is really the case. I often feel the necessity of some relief from my monotonous duties, and it is then that I seek fresh elements of life and vigor in works of profound learning. A book, therefore, like yours, is to me a source of the richest enjoyment. I learn, and I love to learn, and I feel no jealousy of your great erudition.

What I most admire in your work is “the method.” You understand tracing a line without ever losing sight of it, and therefore you arrive safely at the end—which is not always the good fortune of those who start well enough upon the road. Please send me the volumes complete—I shall receive them with gratitude.

I pray you, dear Baron, accept the assurance of my highest consideration and old attachment,

Metternich.

86.
PRESCOTT TO HUMBOLDT.

Boston, Dec. 23d, 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 sails for that purpose from New 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 civilisation; and as in this shadowy field I have been very often guided by the light of your researches, I feel especially indebted 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 labors.

As I have been supplied with a large body of unpublished and original documents for the Peruvian conquest, 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 régions equinoxiales 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, 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 propose to devote myself to a history of the Reign 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: “Fürsten und Völker von Süd-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 Gotha. 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 favor 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 honor of being personally known to you, yet the kind messages I have received from you, and lately through Professor Tellkampf, convince me that my former publication 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 assurance of the very high respect with which I have the honor to be

Your very obedient servant,

Wm. H. Prescott.

87.
MADAME DE RÉCAMIER TO HUMBOLDT.

Paris, July 28th, 1843.

I find no words, dear Sir, to tell you how deeply your letter has affected me. You have spared me the horror of suddenly learning through the papers the painful and unexpected news. Although very much afflicted and suffering I will not lose a moment in expressing my thanks. You are aware, dear Sir, that I had not seen for many years the Prince Augustus. I received, however, continually, evidences of his remembrance. It was at the most unhappy time of his life that I made his acquaintance at Madame de Staël’s, where he encountered so much generous sympathy. Alas! of that brilliant and spirited circle at the Chateau Coppet, he was the only survivor. There now remains to me no other souvenir of my youth and my past than the beautiful “tableau de Corinne,” the noble and affecting sentiments of which have cheered and adorned my retirement. I have not the courage, Sir, to prolong this letter, and to answer the interesting details with which yours concludes. Allow me to speak to-day only of my sorrow, of my gratitude, and my admiration.

J. Récamier.

88.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

August 31st, 1844.

I trust that the following autographs will prove welcome to you:—(A) Bettina under the indictment; (B) two copies of my very brief speech; (C) two letters of Spontini, with strange allusions to Prince Wittgenstein, Count Redern, full of hatred against Meyerbeer, together with my earnest reply to it; (D) a letter of Gay-Lussac, when he was so dangerously injured by an explosion; (E) a very humane letter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Always respectfully yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Saturday Night.

89.
LEOPOLD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, TO HUMBOLDT.

Florence, July 20th, 1844.

Dearest Count:

The Professor of Botany, Philip Parlatore, is about to leave for Berlin, and I cannot resist charging him with a letter to you, dear Count, expressive of my thanks for the recommendations whereby you have enriched Tuscany with several illustrious men.

You (the father and patron of natural science) knew Mr. Parlatore, and your good opinion was sufficient to secure him the appointment at Florence, where he is now the Botanic Director of the Museum, and President of the Botanic Central Institute, which owes its existence to him.

Another professor of physics was recommended by you, Professor Matteucci. He is a true investigator of nature. Not only leading science, he constructs instruments for its interrogation, and is on the road to important discoveries. He is now on a little excursion to recuperate his strength after his too fatiguing labors. I do not know that he will be fortunate enough to meet you, for whom he feels so much veneration and gratitude. Our University of Pisa has brought together all that is distinguished in physical science—and the fruits are maturing.

At Florence the practical studies in the grand hospital contribute greatly towards keeping medicine and surgery in the legitimate direction of natural science, supported by observation and experience. The congress of the “Amateurs of Science in Italy” will also produce desirable results. Such meetings, politically inoffensive as they always are, make science accessible to a great many persons, and establish useful connexions between men of great merit who might otherwise remain unacquainted.

We were told some time ago that you intended descending into Italy. This would have afforded us the utmost happiness, and you would have been received as the true protector of natural science.

Believe me always yours,

Leopold.

90.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

2d September, 1844.

If Dr. Prutz, at Halle, in his obnoxious “Moritz,” had said nothing more than what he puts in the mouth of the clown (page 40), who, speaking of the people, “One should give them two morsels, so that they may wag their tails and crawl back into their cold kennels;” and at page 53, the poetically fine lines “I conjure you, ye future monarchs,” one would understand how that wonderful drama, in which Moritz contrives to plunge all his friends into the water that he may have the pleasure simply of fishing them out, dead or alive, but at any rate, cold and wet, could produce an excitement at the present time.[^[40]] Peruse the manuscript, dear friend, and send it back to-morrow, Tuesday, before two o’clock. The steps which I intend taking will, however, be unsuccessful. The proceeds of its representation might, with propriety, be given to the inundated, and thus the police might become a hydraulic power, or even a drying machine.

Yours,

A. Ht.

Monday.

91.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, September 6th, 1844.

I understand as well as you do, my dear friend, that the speech[^[41]] in question must necessarily have produced a great sensation and excitement in our “north,” as well as under the sluggish Pole. He really excels in flowery eloquence. The figures which he presents are hardly new; but a certain delicacy of expression, and a nice perception of the “harmonious” in oratory, cannot be denied him. There is really something noble in the passion for speaking, upon every occasion, to thousands of people. His generosity in sheltering “high officials under the veil of the royal purple” will be but indifferently acknowledged. Does he, by this course, deliver over to our assaults those small fry who obscure the day? I am sorry that such a highly gifted prince, acting under the most benevolent incentives, and preserving the full vigor of his mind, which constantly urges him to action, is, in spite of his good intentions, absolutely deceived as to the direction in which the state is impelled. When Parry, with a number of Esquimaux dogs, had started for the North Pole, dogs and sledge were continually driven forward. When, however, the sun broke through the mist, so that the latitude could be taken, it was ascertained that the expedition had unwittingly been carried backward several degrees. A floating field of ice, drifting in a southerly current, was the surface on which they seemed to advance. Our ministers are the drifting, icy surface. And may not the current be “the dogmatische Missions-Philosophie?”

A. v. Ht.

It is now certain that the Empress (of Russia) will not come. The King will, on the 15th, be in Sans Souci.

92.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Sept. 13th, 1844.

I must be in a few moments at the Stettin depôt to meet the King, who arrives at 9 o’clock. Thence I go for a few days to Sans Souci, where I shall, unfortunately, celebrate my seventy-fifth birth-day. I say unfortunately, because in 1789 I believed that the world would have solved more problems than it has done. It is true that I have seen a great deal; but very little, indeed, in proportion to my exactions.

I have no time to-day to write you about your charming description of your sojourn in Paris in 1810. My good sense led me at once to that page, from which I could inhale the perfume of your friendship. I have learned that I have not yet grown insensible to praise. What a magnificently anti-Scythian spirit the University of Breslau has evinced! How inventive men become under political oppression! Nothing but rope-ladders, loop-holes, disguises to get out into the open air. And when once there, how really German they are in their speculations, as to whether they have improved their position. It is with them as with the Prince—“Tell me whether I am amusing myself.”

Yours,

A. v. Ht.

We insert here an entry in Varnhagen’s diary, dated June 26, 1844, reciting two sharp repartees of Humboldt. At the Royal table at Sans Souci, some time ago, Humboldt shot two well-directed arrows from his bow. The conversation turned on some Russian ordinance, and Humboldt, in speaking of it, mentioned repeatedly the Minister of Public Instruction. “You have mistaken, sir,” said the King. “It was not the Minister of Public Instruction who acted in this matter, but the Minister of Enlightenment.” Humboldt, not in the least discountenanced, hastened to reply, “Very well, Sire; then it was not the Minister of Public Instruction, but of its opposite,” and continued his conversation in his usual way.

The following anecdote is still neater: General Leopold von Gerlach, who is fond of badinage, attempted an attack upon Humboldt some time ago, saying to him, “Your Excellency frequently goes to church, ‘now-a-days,’ do you not?” He hoped to perplex him with the question. Humboldt, however, coolly replied, “Your ‘now-a-days’ is very kind of you. You allude, undoubtedly, to my adopting the only road which, at present, could lead to my promotion.” The bantering hypocrite was dumb.

An entry of a later date (26th December, 1848), speaks of the animosities to which Humboldt was subjected in still stronger terms. “Humboldt has called; he remained longer than an hour. He assures me that were it not for his position at Court, he would not be suffered to remain in the country, but would be expelled, so strong is the hatred of the ultras and bigots against him. It can hardly be described; however, they endeavor to discredit him with the King. In other parts of Germany they would still less endure him, were he once divested of the prestige of his position.”

93.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, September 19th, 1844.

Can you command courage enough, dear friend, to devote a few moments to a conversation on the present state of French literature? I take the liberty to introduce Mr. Jousserandot of Franche Comté, a French novel-writer. He possesses much beard and much good-natured vivacity. He is the son of a wealthy physician, and was recommended me from Paris. Excuse the importunity, but you must sometimes take your share of the annoyance of being gazed at.

A. v. Humboldt.

Thursday.

94.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Tuesday, June 3d, 1845.

One o’clock, A. M.

All the mysteries were solved to-night, dearest friend. I received this afternoon from the department of Foreign Affairs, where they were stored up, fourteen parcels pell-mell, misdirected there from Paris and dating from December to May. The first thing we perceived was your handwriting; the parcel was duly directed and contained, well secured under your seal, your important political letter and a parcel for Comtesse d’Agoult, which I remit with the present. I am quite innocent of what has happened.

In the Rhine and Moselle Gazette, No. 122 of the 29th of May, I am judged guilty of Voltairianism, denial of all revelations, of conspiring with Marheineke, Bruno Bauer, Feuerbach, nay even of the expedition against Luzerne—ipsissimis verbis—and all that on account of my Kosmos, page 381. The King had already been told that my book was the work of a demagogue and an infidel. Whereupon the King wrote me, that he could but say what Alfons said to Tasso:

“And so I hold it in my hand at last

And call it mine, if I may use that word!”

This is poetical and very civil.

With the sincerest gratitude, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

95.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN

Berlin, Wednesday, June 4th, 1845.

I recognised at once from the gracefulness of style the guardian spirit of my feeble literary efforts. I had not yet seen the precious sheet, containing, in addition, the interpretations by Neander. I avail myself of the last moment before breaking up, to write you a preliminary word of sincerest thanks for one of the most interesting life sketches—for which we are indebted to your brilliant and vivifying pen. You have represented with dignity and magnificence a subject, which popular enthusiasm out of mere perverseness has repeatedly degraded in burlesque prose. Your exquisite art of purifying is highly gratifying.

If Süssmilch will graciously permit, I shall try to accomplish my Kosmos. It is, however, true after all, that at the gates of many a temple of science (History of the World, Geology, Mechanics of the Heavens) black spectres menacingly defend the entrance.

Indeed Madame von Hormayr is a very charming lady.

With constant devotion and love, yours,

A. Humboldt.

96.

Berlin, June 16th, 1845.

I avail myself of the few moments allotted me before going to the railroad station, dear friend, to thank you heartily for your characteristic biography of “Hans von Held.” I have read but one half of it, and that immediately after having read your “Life of Bluecher.” It is, therefore, but natural that I was filled with admiration. How fortunate you are in coloring all the details of military life in the one, and in describing the civil efforts of a people struggling for liberty, in the other book. The fatalistic word “fortunate,” however, is out of place here, because the secret of such successes lies in the clearness of intellect and the intensity of your feelings. The whole world, as it is at present, is reflected in your “Held.” Zerboni’s letter on the bloody tragedy in the streets of Breslau, is as eloquently written as it is heart-rending. Such things, however, can’t deter our dull, fanatical, white-livered Polignacs. They will attempt to confirm the first deed of violence and brutality by subsequent ones more systematically devised—and all this under the reign of such a King! I am very angry and deeply affected.

A. v. Humboldt.

Monday Morning.

As I shall have no time for reading during my hasty journey, I have left the instructive book for a few days to Buelow’s, at Tegel.

97.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Thursday, September 4th, 1845.

I avail myself of the first moments of my return from Potsdam to joyfully congratulate you on the good effect of the waters on your health. On account of the domestic misfortunes of my family, my participation in the dull and rain-spoiled Court festivities at Bruehl and Stolzenfels was a hard trial for me. I will acquaint Madame von Buelow to-morrow with your hearty sympathy. Buelow’s recovery progresses rapidly. Except some weakness of memory, which, however, does not appear for whole days, no change of mind is perceptible; relaxation, however, retirement, and tranquillity of mind are still necessary. Always conscious of what he owes to his character he resigns. You know, my noble friend, that he demanded his dismissal when Itzstein was violently expelled from Prussia. Public affairs are now in a much worse condition. Buelow’s retirement from office is a sad event; but the current of affairs in Northern Germany is too strong to be arrested by the effort of one individual.

Please inform Professor Fichte that although I am already an unworthy Doctor of Philosophy, I will gratefully accept anything which may be offered me from Wurtemberg’s high-spirited Universities.

Yours affectionately,

A. v. Humboldt.

I enclose to your safe-keeping a beautiful letter of Prince Metternich, on whom I had called on the Johannisberg; a letter from Lord Stanley, the Minister; and two letters from Jules Janin and Spontini; also a book for the Countess of Stolberg.

98.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.

Vienna, June 21st, 1845.

My dear Baron:

Enclosed you will find my vote for the future colleague. I expect that you will not look for my assistance beyond the sphere of my principles; but my principles are so strongly influenced by a recommendation from you, that the request and the grant are but one. I have perused your Kosmos and have treated it as is my habit with rich collections. The impression made on me by the work will be best described by the avowal that it caused in my mind two conflicting, or if you like better, two mutually neutralizing sentiments—one of satisfaction at knowing so much, and one of regret at my great ignorance. These sentiments, however, sink into nothingness when compared with the admiration of that knowledge which alone can have enabled you to accomplish that gigantic enterprise. Knowledge alone, however, would not suffice—and hence I am led to acknowledge the full merit of the author—his great power of representation and his method! You have applied and dignified in your work the old word discipline, in its relation to science. Would to God, that the true meaning of this word could, in political society, also recover its eternal rights. If my own impressions are of but little value, it is different with those of the men of science. Their judgment is overflowing with admiration, and I agree with them in the conviction, that you alone of all living men could achieve the task, and that the word Kosmos is the true and appropriate title of your work.

I told you, that I have perused the first volume of your work, I am now studying it, and I wish to thank you for the really delightful hours, which you have opened to me. I call all these hours delightful which I can snatch from the uninviting field of political disturbances, and devote to the natural sciences.

Accept, dear Humboldt, the renewed assurance of my sincere and well-known consideration.

Metternich.

99.
JULES JANIN TO HUMBOLDT.

Star Hotel at Bonn,

Sunday Evening, August 10th, 1845.

Dear Sir,—I beg and entreat you to do an impossible thing for me. You are the kindest friend of the literary men of my country, and you have always been the most indulgent of men to me. Please listen, therefore, to my request. I left Paris a week ago for the express purpose of transmitting to the “Journal des Débats” a faithful record of the journey of her Majesty the Queen of England along the banks of the Rhine. Before leaving, I had the honor of paying my respects to the King at Neuilly, and of securing his approval of my design. Monsieur Guizot also strongly encouraged me by saying, that hospitality required that an honest and conscientious writer should follow the royal party, and faithfully chronicle these wonderful rambles, which are now interesting and delighting the whole of Europe.

Monsieur Guizot gave me, at the same time, letters of introduction and instructions, of which I am proud. The letters are all honorable to me, and my instructions are worthy of the man who gave them.

Now, dear sir, assist me. What I wish is, not a presentation to his Majesty, your King, but an admission into the royal circle. Unobserved by all, I myself shall see everything, and thus be able to fulfil the mission with which I have been honored.

You see that it is the imperious passion, the passion of a feuilletonist, which actuates me. It is true I have no title. But, if one be necessary, you can say that I am the Lieutenant-Colonel of a Legion (militia), that I shall appear in a brilliant uniform; and further, that it is but proper that the writers whom the King invites to his table, and whom he so greatly honors on so momentous an occasion, should furnish a report of its chief features, as an authority to which future historians of the time may refer.

I am writing, dear sir, under the best auspices—under the auspices of Mr. Meyerbeer. You will make him very happy, I am sure, and with him the whole “Journal des Débats,” which is so much devoted to you, and, in addition, your very humble servant, myself.

I shall await with great impatience, but with the most perfect submission, your kind reply.

I am sure that, in any event, you will have done all that you honorably could do, to secure me this favor.

Please accept, Monsieur le Baron, the humble homage of my devotion and of my profound respect.

Jules Janin.

100.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, 26th of September, 1845.

(To his dear friend, the Privy Councillor von Varnhagen.)

Kings and Republics.

Por lo que desio la conversacion de los Reyes desio la conversacion de ellos dentro de los limites permitidos. Un grave consejero dixò al Rey Don Phelipe II., viendo que iva en diversas ocasiones al poder absoluto: Señor, reconoced á Dios en la tierra como en el cielo, por que ne se cause de las monarquías, suave govierno si los Reyes suavemente usan de él.—Cartas de Antonio Perez, p. 545.

At the time of the insurrection of the Netherlands there had already been raised the question, “Whether the Kings were going off.” I translate the passage from Antonio Perez for you. He says: It is because I desire the preservation of monarchs that I advise them to remain in the limits prescribed for them. A wise Counsellor said to the King Philip II., being aware of his tendency to absolute power: “Sire, recognise the supremacy of God on earth as well as in Heaven, so that God may not become tired of monarchies—a very excellent sort of government, if it be used with moderation.”

El Dios de cielo es delicado mucho en suffrir compañero en ninguna cosa y se pica del abuso del poder humano. Si Dios se causa de las monarchias, dara otra forma al mundo.

The God of Heaven is very jealous about admitting a co-partner in anything whatsoever: He is offended by every abuse of human power. Should God once be tired of monarchies, he will give another form to the political world.

A. Humboldt.

101.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, October 2d, 1845.

The curious little note containing the prophecy “that God would become tired of kings,” was lying for many days on my desk, awaiting my delivering it to you, in person, my dearest friend. Whenever anything worth reading falls into my hands during the late hours of my solitary study in the chateau here, I always think of you. As I have hitherto been prevented by my efforts to arrange the manner of Buelow’s discharge from calling on you, I have thought best to send you, dear friend, the little sheet, under envelope. My reason for quoting this prophecy is, the general state of public affairs, which provokes my highest indignation. Every day discloses something worse. The future looks gloomy and menacing, the greatest carelessness prevails.

I have just returned from Tegel, where the Buelows would be very happy to see you. They beg especially that you will gratify them next winter by frequent calls at their town residence.

In the “Westminster Review” a certain Dr. Cross says, the style of Kosmos is lengthened, and very indifferent; the frequent reflection on sentiment was deemed very superfluous by English savans—such a book did not contain any thing new. Then follows the denunciation of Atheism, although “creation” and the “created world” are never lost sight of in the book. And did I not, only eight months ago, in the French translation, say, in the plainest terms:—It is this necessity of things, this occult but permanent connexion, this periodical return in the progress, development of formation, phenomena, and events, which constitute Nature submissive to a controlling power. Physics, as the name itself implies, can only deduce the phenomena of the physical world from the properties of matter; the highest aim of experimental science is therefore to ascend to the existence of the laws, and progressively to generalise the same. Whatever lies beyond is no object for physical demonstration, it belongs to another order of more elevated speculations. Immanuel Kant, one of the few philosophers whom no one has yet accused of impiety, has, with rare sagacity, indicated the limits of physical explanation in his renowned Essai sur la Théorie et la Construction des Cieux. Koenigsberg, 1755.

The conduct of the aldermen is very praiseworthy. It is a pleasure, and a miracle at the same time, to encounter such a degree of public spirit among men differing so much in intellect and culture of mind. It is hatred concentrated against the same object, but it only appears so on the outside.

I confess that I am wrong to have not yet answered so excellent a man as the author of “The Religious Poetry of the Jews in Spain.” I first wanted to read the book, and the terror of having reached the age of seventy-six years on the 14th of September, has plunged me so deeply in my “Kosmos,” that duties otherwise sacred to me have been neglected. I shall call personally on Mr. Sachs, and beg you to excuse me to him in advance; as to justifying myself, that is out of the question.

Most respectfully, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

The sketch on Hormayr, which, in a political view, stops very singularly at 1808, is very interesting. What a mass of writings! one hundred and fifty volumes.

102.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, October 2d, 1845.

I would not like, my dear friend, that a friend of Thiers, whom he has warmly recommended to me, should leave Berlin without having had the pleasure of seeing you. Mr. Thomas, one of the editors of the “Revue des deux Mondes,” is the author of a most remarkable work on the ancient provincial constitutions of France, compiled from archives. I recommend him to your indulgence.

Yours, in great haste,

A. v. Humboldt.

103.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Nov. 30th, 1845.

All gifts, tendered through a hand like yours, are of double value to me, my dear friend. I have immediately replied to that high-gifted lady, the Countess. You are quite right in saying that her beautiful poetry evinces an admirable familiarity of the mind with the subject.

I deem it more delicate to write to Baron Hormayr rather than to his lady. May I beg to enclose my little note, provided you approve its form? I have long had a predilection for this liberal-minded man. His literary activity is astounding. I shall have the pleasure of calling on Mr. Sachs to-day. I shall also present his book to the King myself; this is, however, a time in which no impression is permanent. All things dissolve into mere visions, which will, however, reappear, ominous and deformed, by being joined to old fancies. I am much afraid of the consequence produced by incentives, from which I had hoped to produce happier results. How has it happened that Kosmos is so popular beyond expectation? It seems to me that it must be attributed to the imagination of the reader, which invests it with additional features, or to the pliability of our (German) language which renders it so easy to describe every object intelligibly, and to picture it in words.

I will come and thank you, my generous friend, for the light you have thrown on the moral and intellectual merits of Voltaire.[^[42]] Your revelations are delightful; but “Duncker-Freitag,” the recruiting officer, the sentinel, and the humorously excited suspicion of what was attempted at night with Madame Denis, are and will always produce an uneasiness.

With old attachment, yours,

A. v. Ht.

Sunday.

I shall not forget Mr. Breul the merchant. Minister Buelow was very sorry that you missed him. You will be very agreeable to him and Lady Buelow any evening from half-past seven to nine o’clock.

104.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN

Thursday, January 15th, 1846.

Mr. Milnes, and what he may have said of the King, “who showed him no personal civilities,” interest me but little; but it will afford me great joy if my earnest intercession for Prutz be at last useful to him. This miserable trifle is the only thing that I can secure in my position. I shall die, however, in the conscientious belief, that to my last moment I never abandoned one devoted to the same principles as myself. Your approbation is highly valuable to me, my dear friend!

The “Quarterly Review” says I had a prolix style, and am never able to write one page of “vivid expression.”

With faithful attachment, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Please excuse, like a philosopher, the writing on this mutilated sheet. I am in such a hurry that I have mistaken the address.

105.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, January 25th, 1846.

After an official feeding, at court, of the “knights of the peace,” whose unworthy chancellor I am—after some sorrowful hours at Buelow’s, whose state becomes every day more precarious—after a ball at the Chateau, from which I am just returned, I cannot seek repose without sending you my preliminary thanks for your ecclesiastical gifts. I am delighted at the review of a poetical period, the precursor of a nobler one—or, to speak more correctly, of one more pregnant with life. I will, however, turn away from the long “Ode of Grief,” from “The Blue and the Black Eyes,” from “Besser’s Merry Wig,” and recur with new pleasure to your “Zinzendorf.” This is a grand, well-executed life-sketch, a figure towering above all other things, which, in a different direction, attract the interest of our time. Your “Zinzendorf” was also constantly admired by my brother. How much the interest is enhanced by all that we see or rather expect to see! But where, among the intellectual “glaciers” of the present time, are those who could compare themselves with Zinzendorf, Lavater, and Stilling?...

Most gratefully yours,

A. Humboldt.

Saturday Night.

I told Ranke to-day, very frankly, how much I was disgusted at what he presumptuously did at a meeting of the Academy, when I was not present, against Preuss, a much nobler character than he is. Have you not received yet the journals, in which I am immoderately praised and reproved (“North-British Review” and “Quarterly Review”)? In Germany, my prose is frequently blamed as being too poetical; but the “Quarterly Review” finds it languishing, lifeless, and “not a vivid description.” How differently different nations feel!

106.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, February 7th, 1846.

Yesterday afternoon poor Buelow was released from his sufferings. Thursday night, at eleven o’clock, on going to bed, he fell lifeless into the arms of his servant. An apoplexy! He closed his eyes never to open them again. In the morning a hundred and forty pulses were counted; bleeding had no effect. His end was, as lately his life was, unconscious. The family is deeply affected; the event, however, is beneficial. His excellent wife would have been sacrificed. Next Tuesday morning we will carry him, without pageantry, to Tegel, and bury him under the column of the “Statue of Hope.” Under the pressure of business, caused by this event, and in the midst of letters which I have still to write to Guizot, Metternich, and Aberdeen, I can only briefly reply to the heartfelt letter of Madame von Arnim. I have but little hope, that the old folks now reigning at Weimar will appoint either Prutz or Fallersleben. I had formerly thought of Guhrauer, for whom you will also have some predilection to be sure. You know how happy I would have been if Prutz were appointed. I am not personally acquainted with Fallersleben. The whole passage, however, in the “Wochenstube,”[^[43]] alluding to the King and to me, must be changed. It is based on a false rumor. I never have shown the book to the King, and I never applied to the King to quash the indictment, as he is always rather irritated against Prutz, on account of the old cousin from Kulmbach.[^[44]] It was Minister Bodelschwingh who showed it to the King. On this Minister Prutz had personally made a very favorable impression, which it was easy to improve. Prutz had applied to have the indictment quashed, and besides he would hardly have been found guilty on all the counts. It was thought advisable, as he made the first advances to the Government, not to rebut him. The passage “that our King should be asked,” must also be discarded, as it would give offence to the Grand-Duchess, who likes to show her independence of Prussia at every opportunity. So she protected, not long ago, the Chancellor Mueller, when the Court of Weimar was diplomatically reproached for allowing a journal here prohibited to be read in a reading-room at Weimar. The Court of Weimar replied with dignity. But that Prutz or Fallersleben could be appointed seems highly improbable to me. Credat Judæus Apella. Excuse to-day my confused writing, dear friend!

Yours,

A. v. Ht.

Saturday.

107.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Feb. 20th, 1846.

Do you guess, my dear friend, who sent me this strange article? Do you guess anything from the seal and the name on the envelope, “M.?” Is that the author, and to what journal may the article belong? Profound, of enlarged political views, it certainly is not. The passage on p. 8 is underscored by the author himself, and it contains a contradiction! Prussia is to have unity in an American confederacy. His remarks, p. 3, on Frederick II. and on his works, and on “Kant a guillotine,” p. 5, are as Minister Thiele would write them. I am indignant at both. The author knows all the news, all the names, all the gossip, of the “Eckensheher,”[^[45]] and is touched by the liberalism of Bodelschwingh, p. 14, who still defends every day the expulsion of the Baden Representatives. He does not dare to name Eichhorn with censure. The last line only is grand and fine.

With unalterable devotion,

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Friday.

108.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, March 29th, 1846.

I have only time to tell you, that I shall certainly be in Sans Souci from June to September, and to thank you, noble friend, from my heart, for the kind manner in which you allude to the Agamemnon of my brother. To choose maliciously 16 verses out of 1700!! I once complained that they would not perform the drama in a royal palace in my brother’s translation! As the Staats Zeitung is seen every evening by the King, they thought it well to malign the production there. The very next day I answered in the Spenersche Zeitung mildly, because the well-informed but unpoetical Dr. Franz is now seeking an increase of his pension. I myself took care that the King did not see my answer; at least, he did not talk to me about it. Send back the little sheet. I am at work, not without success, I believe, at the Kosmos, but in a sad mood respecting the public cause. Your news from England is very interesting.

With the most cordial friendship,

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Sunday.

109.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, March 30th, 1846.

I send you again some autographs of little import, ten in number, of Villemain, Bessel, Victor Hugo, Rueckert (of whom you have plenty of autographs), Manzoni (full of praise for me, but in bad style), Thiers, Widow of Lucien Bonaparte, three billets de matin of the Duchesse d’Orleans. I add to these fugitive sheets a letter from me to the King, which I beseech and implore you not to show to any one, and to send back to-morrow, because I might have use for it. You shall have the letter afterwards. It sometimes happens that the King, instead of a billet de matin, writes his answer on my letter. This happened yesterday. The ministers who would gladly permit the “Turnen,[^[46]]” throw suspicion on Prof. Massmann, whom the King likes very much, and whom he wants to keep here. My letter will show you at least, that I openly say, how the tide of evil is bearing down all things before it, and how we are depriving ourselves of the means of action.

With my old attachment, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

110.
HUMBOLDT TO FRIEDRICH WILHELM IV.

As early as eight o’clock this morning I sent to the Koethener Strasse, to have an interview with Professor Massmann, after the confiding communications of your Majesty, concerning the decision of his situation. He has just gone, leaving me again with an excellent impression of his solidity, clear perceptions, and enthusiastic vigor for influencing our youth (the indelible, primæval, self-restoring institution of mankind). To be afraid of every enthusiastic energy is to take from the life of a State its nourishing, preserving power. Professor M. did not see Minister von Bodelschwingh for two years, but the Minister then treated him very kindly, and Massmann desires very much, without intruding, to give a candid answer to every question. In view of the noble and frank character of Minister von Bodelschwingh I have great hopes of the result of such a conversation, and therefore I have to beg of your Majesty, most submissively, to communicate to me, whether, according to the orders of your Majesty, the Minister will send for Professor M., or whether he may go to the Minister on his own account, not called for, but animated by some words of your Majesty. I wonder how it could be forgotten how much Massmann has done for the poetry of the Hohenstaufen times, and how talented a lecturer he was at the University. I find praised in Gervinus Geschichte der Deutschen Litteratur: Massmann’s Denkmaeler Deutscher Sprache, 1828; his Gedichte des Zwoelften Jahrhunderts, his Legenden and Ritterliche Poesie. How could a man be dangerous to youth whom the King of Bavaria appointed for the education of his princes, and by whom above all others the Crown-Prince declares himself to have been animated with the love of culture and intellectual freedom, and the true appreciation of his impending kingly duties? We live not in a sad, but in an earnest time. All action and energy are paralysed, if backbiting is permitted to deprive us of our most useful men. Enthusiastically attached to your person, to the splendor of your reign, and to the glory of our country, it makes me sad to see the most noble purposes in danger of being misunderstood. No doubt there are very honorable men who, from pure love of your Majesty, would like to see me also under the column at Tegel, or at least on the other side of the Rhine.

In grateful submission,

Your Royal Majesty’s most faithful

Humboldt.

Berlin, March 29, 1846.

The King wrote on the fly-leaf:

My warmest thanks, dearest Humboldt. M. Bodelschwingh will send for Massmann.

In all haste, as ever.

Your faithful

F. W.

Alexander v. Humboldt, Present.

111.
BESSEL TO HUMBOLDT.

Koenigsberg, Feb. 12th, 1846.

I hear with great regret that your Excellency has to mourn the loss of Herr von Buelow. Although I had not the pleasure of knowing the late Baron personally, I was not unacquainted with the true affection of the uncle for his nephew, and I heard frequent mention of the enthusiastic manner in which it was reciprocated. Moreover, I knew his repute as that of a noble, talented, clear-sighted man. Would that I could indite words of consolation, such as I heard them, at the time of my great loss!—but it is not given to every one to speak them. That time heals our bleeding wounds, the wounds which at first seemed mortal, I myself have experienced; that death after a short suffering is preferable to death after a long one, is a truth which impresses itself often on my mind!

The chancellor, Herr von Wegnern, communicated to me on the 27th ult. the letter which he received from your Excellency. This letter contains the first news I received since Nov. 7th, of last year, respecting the portrait by which our most gracious monarch intended to gratify a poor invalid: that your letter was extremely gratifying and consoling to me, is natural. It created the first ray of hope; it has unceasingly occupied me; it even gave rise to some kind of superstition, and I attributed my good health the whole month of December to the vivid hopes it had raised. This prospect of the restoration of my health, I thought, gave me hope of being able to indulge for a longer period in the pleasure which the dear picture of the “most highly revered one, affords me. I, however, do not indulge in the hope of this restoration,” since I find my own experience as frequently opposed to as in harmony with that of others, and the result of my reflections on this obscure subject, is simply this, that it is one of the innumerable questions, which are beyond the veil that separates us both from the great secrets of our own nature, and from those which nature in general interposes between first causes and perceptible phenomena. I did, however, excuse the rising superstition by recalling the indisputable truth, that vivid agreeable effects on the mind or soul react upon the body; but why did the reaction not endure in my case? Be this as it may, it is a fact that the portrait of the King always moved before my eyes during my restless nights; I hoped every day would bring me news of it. I perfectly understand that a care for the well-being of millions of subjects, equally dear to the heart of the monarch, rules the ruler himself and compels him to abandon, under the pressure of the moment, the arrangement of a succession of innumerable interests centring in him; I also fully understand that the King, although he is no more unmindful of the honors he intends bestowing than of those he has already awarded, has not been able to fix the exact moment of conferring the intended benefit upon me. I also know beyond all doubt, that I am standing upon a mine which may at any time explode, and that to-day has no power over to-morrow. I have, therefore, thought best to conceal entirely within my own breast the hope of possessing the dearest of pictures, and to betray nothing, even to my wife and daughters, until further news of the actual approach of the hoped-for object shall render me as secure in the certainty as the case permits. I have the utmost horror against the propagation of anything the truth of which maybe subjected to doubts by succeeding events; knowing from sad experience that it may not be sustained by the next moment, for which falsehood and misrepresentation are greedily lying in wait. I fear that the premature spreading of such news, moreover, may imply a sort of coercion (sit venia verbo) on the King. These reflections imposed profound silence on me. But when the letter of your Excellency to Herr von Wegnern spread the news without my co-operation, and when the realization of my hopes seemed near, this compulsory silence terminated, and I actually revelled in the idea of its possession. Next day, the 28th of January, I put down on paper the testamentary provision, which disposes of the picture after my death. I consider it the common property of our country, not only on account of its fundamental object, that of alleviating the sufferings of the sick man, but also for other reasons. I therefore do not leave it to my family; but in consequence of long and careful considerations, up to January 27th, to my native town of Minden, so that the highest military and civil functionaries of the province, together with the Mayor of the town, may decide further on the place and manner of its keeping. Moreover, on the 28th of January, I entered upon the execution of other plans relative to the fulfilment of my hopes, which entertained me in various ways during these last months. In order to receive the portrait of the “most highly revered” in a becoming manner, it is necessary to put the place where I shall keep it into the best state at my command. I have, therefore, condemned the present furniture and ornaments of my two rooms, and ordered new ones, as luxurious and tasteful (for a professor, of course) as I could decide upon. The directions for their manufacture were sent immediately, and with the opening of the navigation in spring I shall have everything I want. I shall blame no one who thinks me foolish in prosecuting plans for embellishing my residence at a moment when my leaving it for ever seems so highly probable. But if I delayed, the prospect of the arrival of the royal portrait would depress, instead of elevating me joyfully, as it does now, above much suffering. If I enjoy the sight of the picture even one day only, I shall pass through a fleeting, indeed, but beautiful “frontier scenery”—from this life into the other! One thing yet I shall add before I cease annoying your Excellency, by narrating the consequences following the invaluable expected gift of the most high Master. Mr. Chancellor von Wegnern has asked Professor Simson to express to me his wish to insert a notice of the picture in the papers. But I opposed it, partly for reasons stated above, and partly because such a notice would certainly be more appropriate after the receipt of the picture. In case I should be unable to write any more after its arrival, Simson knows what are to be the contents of the notice according to my wish.

Could I but once behold the fine appearance now presented of the comet of Biela! At our place, on the 11th of January, Wichmann could observe nothing, perhaps, or probably on account of the little clearness of the sky at that time; but on the 15th he saw distinctly both heads of the comet. On the following day he described to me orally what he had seen; but I did not get a clear idea of it, and was, on the contrary, of opinion, that what he called a second head of the comet, is an accumulation of nebulæ, as other comets too had shown at a greater or smaller distance from the real head. I asked of him to make for me, when it appeared again, a diagram of it, as accurate as possible. The state of the sky and the position of the comet, which was often very low, delayed the making of a diagram and measurement till the 26th of January. Since that time the second head of the comet has been traced as faithfully as possible. Our observations are the earliest of those known; since, they have directed their attention to it everywhere, and have measured it; there will become known, in spite of the bad season, a fine series of observations, which may, as I hope, permit us to draw reliable conclusions. As now developed, forces of polarity, I believe, must be recognised in it. The further developments will, I hope, enable us to advance beyond superficial conjectures like these.

The observations of the new planet can be made here so excellently by the heliometer, which is quite invaluable for this purpose, that their accuracy far surpasses that of the best meridian observations; of course its greatest usefulness will only be attained when the stars of comparison are equally well determined in their position. To this determination, then, the power of the meridian observations is directed about the planet itself. Dr. Busch, following my counsel, does not trouble himself. I have also requested Encke and Schuhmacher to assist in determining the positions of the stars. The former has already received from here a series of excellent observations, as a foundation for his calculation of the orbit, and he will soon receive the continuation of them. It is very fortunate that I have arranged my extensive investigations on the exact reduction of observations by my heliometer, and that these are published in the first volume of my “Astronomische Untersuchungen.” Without them, Wichmann would be unable to reduce them with exactness, as I can do nothing now, and the observations of the planet would thereby lose much of their interest, which exists only in the first period of observation, and therefore only when the observations are calculated immediately. I hope, that by proceeding on this basis, Encke’s calculations will acquire certainty, which will prove itself up to a few seconds at the reappearance of the planet.

At last an end of this!

In accustomed reverence to the end of life,

Your Excellency’s most obedient

F. W. Bessel.

Note by Humboldt.—The last letter but one which I received from the great and noble man.

112.
VICTOR HUGO TO HUMBOLDT.

March 20th, 1845.

You have been kind enough, my Lord Baron, and illustrious colleague, to promise your acceptance of a copy of “Notre Dame de Paris,” and the further good office of offering it in my name to your august Sovereign, my sympathy with and admiration for whom are well known to you. To “Notre Dame de Paris” I add my solemn discourse before the Academy. It would make me happy to think that it gave you a little pleasure to receive this mark of my high and profound regard.

Yours,

Victor Hugo.

113.
FRIEDRICH RUECKERT TO HUMBOLDT.

Berlin, March, 1846.

I had the misfortune of twice missing your Excellency when I called to give you my thanks for your great kindness, and at the same time to bid you a hearty farewell, as to-morrow I hasten to my rustic solitude. May God grant you many felicitous hours for the happy completion of your great work, for which I now am more heartily anxious than for any work of my own. For it is the monument of honor for Germany, her representative work before the nations of Europe; and I, as a German, feel proud that you did not write it in French. I would also ask your leave to introduce to you my eldest son, who is private tutor at the university of Jena; now, he may try his luck himself with you, as bearer of this letter. Finally, I beg of you that you will speak in my behalf with their Majesties, whom it was not my fortune to see this winter. May I yet be permitted to work something worthy of their approbation and of yours; but may you also be persuaded that it is not for me to appear in person before the public of the capital, but to shape my thoughts in the solitude and quiet of rural life, whither I am now permitted to withdraw, grateful for the highest favor of his Majesty, and with the purest reverence for you.

Rueckert.

114.
ALEXANDER MANZONI TO HUMBOLDT.

(FROM THE FRENCH.)

Milan, Dec. 6th, 1844.

Monsieur le Baron:

I would not have hesitated to express my confidence in an august and perfect goodness; but, instead of a becoming confidence, it would have been an unpardonable presumption on my part to have dared to foresee under what ingeniously amiable form this goodness would deign to manifest itself. I have thus a second time acquired the precious right (I had almost been made to forget that it is a sacred duty), to beg your Excellency to lay at the feet of your noble sovereign the humble tribute of a gratitude which has become, if possible, more lively and more grateful. And at the risk of appearing indiscreet, I cannot refrain from availing myself of this opportunity to renew the respectful homage of the devotion which, as a dweller on this earth, and under this title, nihil humani a me alienum putans, I have long entertained. This homage would cease to be pure, and would thus lose its unique value if it involved the slightest sacrifice of my Catholic conscience, that is to say, of that which is the soul of my conscience. But, thank God, such is not the case; for, amid the character and the sign of the high destiny which I salute from afar, with a respectful joy, it is my privilege to admire and to love the development of the most excellent work of justice, which is the liberty of doing good.

My admiration for you, M. le Baron, if even it did not content itself with being the simple echo of so great a reputation, ought not to surprise you; for if, as I am daily told, there is not a learned man who has not something to learn from you, there are few unlearned men whom you have not taught something. In this connexion, and at the risk of abusing your indulgence, I cannot conceal from you my hope to have a memento of Humboldt—a memento less precious, no doubt, than those which I owe to his good-will, but which will also have its value. My fellow-citizen, Count Alexander Lito Modignani, in a journey made by him, entirely under your guidance, in North America, sought out, in the mountain of Quindia, the magnificent Ceroxylus at the season of the ripeness of their fruit, possessed himself of one, and was kind enough, on his return, to divide with me the seeds he gathered from it. Planted last spring, not one has yet sprung up; but on visiting them lately, I found them entirely sound, and in two of them a trace of vegetation was perceptible at the base. I should be happy, and even a little proud, to possess a memento, and that, I believe, a very rare one, of a people at once ancient and new, whom you have subjected to the victorious sway of science.

It is with the most profound respect, and, permit me to add, with that affection always so naturally entertained for a great man, and which it gives such pleasure to express, that I have the honor to be your Excellency’s most humble and most obedient servant,

Alexander Manzoni.

Note by Humboldt.—Written to A. Humboldt on the occasion of a refusal to accept the class of peace of the order pour le merite. I had been commissioned to write to him, that it was not to interfere with his liberty in any degree, that he was never to wear the cross, but that a name so great and so beautiful as his must needs continue to grace the list of the knights.

115.
THIERS TO HUMBOLDT.

(FROM THE FRENCH.)

Paris, August, 1845.

Sir,—I take the liberty of introducing a young Frenchman, full of talents, of acquirements, and of thirst for knowledge. He desires to become acquainted with Germany, and Berlin in particular. I thought I could not direct him better than to the illustrious who does the honors of Berlin to strangers. Permit me to recommend him in a very special manner. Mr. Thomas is my particular friend, and the friend of all your friends of Paris. Be pleased to receive in advance all my thanks for the reception you will kindly accord him, and to receive the assurance of my attachment and of my high consideration.

A. Thiers.

116.
THE PRINCESS OF CANINO, LUCIEN BONAPARTE’S WIDOW, TO HUMBOLDT.

Paris, May, 1845.

I send you, M. le Baron, a copy of my refutation of M. Thiers, in regard to the passages of that historian which assail the memory of my husband. The esteem which you bore him, as well as that of your dear brother and your estimable sister-in-law, both, to me, of sweet and noble memory, leads me to hope that you will receive with interest this token of all the sentiments I possess for you, M. le Baron, and in which I beg you to believe me. Yours affectionately,

The Princess of Canino,

Widow Bonaparte Lucien.

117.
DUCHESS HELENE D’ORLEANS TO HUMBOLDT.

Tuileries, Feb. 12th, 1845.

I will not longer hold the treasure intrusted to my keeping, which was a source of great joy to me. Receive once more my sincerest thanks for this communication, and let me hope soon to find new material for thanks. You see, selfishness is unpardonably predominant in my character.

Your Excellency’s affectionate

Helene.

118.
DUCHESS HELENE D’ORLEANS TO HUMBOLDT.

Neuilly, May 12th, 1845.

Your Excellency must suffer me often to claim your services; but to-day I come to ask something great of you. I wish for myself and for my cousin of Weimar the instructive pleasure of visiting Versailles in your society; our plan is to go there on Thursday. For the evening, the King invites you for dinner and theatre in Trianon. If you have the courage to share our altered pilgrimage, I invite your Excellency to be here in Neuilly, Thursday, half-past 11, to accompany us on our journey. But if other occupations should prevent you from going, I ask an open confession.

I beg your Excellency to receive the expression of my sincerest esteem,

Helene.

119.
DUCHESS HELENE D’ORLEANS TO HUMBOLDT.

Winter of 1845.

I had not the satisfaction to bid adieu to your Excellency, and to repeat to you my thanks for your excellent work; permit me to do it now in writing, whilst I send to you the lines for my beloved cousin, and receive once more the expression of the most heartfelt wish to greet again your Excellency, after a short interval, on French soil.

With most sincere esteem, your Excellency’s affectionate

Helene.

120.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, April 22d, 1846.

It has afforded me a great relief being permitted to read before you, and while very much of the warm and friendly praises expressed by you are of course to be ascribed to the kindness of heart which prompts you to give pleasure to an old man, still there is a large margin for the unalloyed gratification of my love of approbation. The main object of my efforts is that of composition in the precise sense of the word, the command of large masses of matter compounded with care and with an accurate knowledge of details. The management of our beautiful, pliant, harmonious, and drastic tongue is but a secondary consideration. I shall certainly find an opportunity of availing myself of your excellent advice for Flemming and Mad. de Sevigné. Seneca also, though I consider him a little bombastic (Quaest. natur.) I have taken home with me for perusal.

Now for the special purpose of these lines. The King said to me on going to bed yesterday, “Let Bettina know that she may make her mind easy in regard to the leading person.[^[47]] No one ever thought of giving him up to the Russians.” “You should write her to that effect yourself,” said I. “Yes, I hope to do so,” was the answer. He spoke very kindly of Bettina.

With my old attachment, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Wednesday.

How sad is this eighth attack upon the King! Strange that ministers and cabinet councillors are never shot at! Such events are the more unpleasant, the more the probabilities or improbabilities of their recurrence baffle all attempts at calculation.

121.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, May 18th, 1846.

I send you, dear friend, to be added to your collection, a very remarkable letter from Prince Metternich, with a semi-theological conclusion, full of mind and rhetorical fervor, with a slight dread of pantheism at the close of the letter.

With unaltered friendship, yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

122.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.

(From the French.)

Vienna, May 10, 1846.

My dear Baron—Inclosed is my vote.[^[48]] I give it in good conscience, and absolve you from the crime of that electioneering to which the world is addicted. The King and his Chancellor are the sound appreciators of scientific merit, and I know how to designate the place which belongs to me in the avenue of science, and which, to my great regret, is far from the sanctuary.

What I have just told you, my dear Baron, is neither gasconade nor an excess of modesty; it is the unvarnished history of my life. You do not know this history, and I will relate it to you in a few words.

At the age at which life takes its direction, I contracted an inclination for the exact and natural sciences which I would permit myself to describe as irresistible, and a disgust for practical life which I would call unconquerable, if I had not overcome both this disgust and this inclination. It is fate that disposes of individuals, and their qualities as well as their defects decide upon their careers. Fate has separated me from the object of my choice, and has thrust me upon the road I should not have chosen. Once started, I submitted without losing sight of the goal of my wishes, and the result was that what I should have wished to regard as the aim of my life has become only the solace of it. The King has set the mark of a learned man upon me. I know to whom this is to be attributed. If it is a question of the heart, the King is not mistaken.

What you tell me of the forthcoming second volume of Cosmos, makes me look forward to the study of it with impatience; you are not to be read, you must be studied, and the place of a pupil suits me exactly. No one is more called upon than I am to do justice to your remark relative to the influence exercised by Christianity on the natural sciences,[^[49]] as upon mankind in general and hence upon all science, for that remark has long since dawned upon my mind. It is correct in all respects, and its generating cause is simple as are all other truths, those which are, as well as those which are not understood, for the latter circumstance has no effect on the substance of a truth. Error leads to error, as truth is the guide to truth. As long as the mind remained in error in the sphere of thought which is the most elevated of all those attainable by the human mind, this deplorable state of things could not fail to react upon every quarter of the moral compass upon all intellectual and social questions, and to oppose to their development in the right direction, an insurmountable obstacle. The good news once told, the position could not but change. It was not by bestowing divine honor on effects that they could be traced to the fountain head of truth; the investigation continued to be confined to the abstract speculations of the philosophers, and to the rhapsodies of poets. The cause once laid bare, the hearts of men were comforted, and their minds opened to conviction. Nevertheless, the latter still remained for a long time shrouded in the mists of pagan scepticism, until at last scholastic philosophy was unhorsed by experimental science. Do you admit the force of my reasoning? If you do, I have no doubt you will share my fears that true scientific progress is in danger of being checked by too ambitious spirits, who desire to rise from the effects to the cause, and who finding the approach cut off by the impassable barriers which God has set upon human intelligence, and finding themselves unable to advance, roll back upon themselves, and relapse into the stupidity of paganism, in seeking the cause in the effect!

The world, my dear Baron, is in a dangerous position. The social body is in fermentation. You would do me a great favor if you could teach me the nature of this fermentation, whether it is spirituous, acid, or putrid? I greatly fear that the verdict will be for the last-named of these kinds, and it is not I who could teach you that these products are hardly beneficial.

Be pleased to accept the thanks of my household for your friendly memento, and the assurance of the continuance of my old attachment.

Metternich.

123.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, May 30th, 1846.

Perhaps, my dear friend, it will not be without some interest to you to possess a copy of the poem of the Crown-Prince of Bavaria. The language is less crude than that of Walhalla; and some passages show a good deal of feeling, if but little poetical fervor.

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Saturday.

124.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, November 14th, 1846.

What a splendid reception, my dear friend, have you given the fifth volume of my brother! Pardon me if, in the excessive bustle of the last few days upon the cold “historic hill,” I have not written some commendatory remarks. I also deplore the omissions to which you are kind enough to make me attentive. Perhaps they could be supplied in the next volume. It was supposed that the letters must be printed in the form in which my brother had prepared them for publication, and in which they were offered for sale. I believe no nation on earth can produce an instance of such a life devoted exclusively to the increase of the wealth of ideas! How inexpressibly I rejoice in the mere prospect of once more beholding a master-piece of your accurate, life-like, and withal delicate representations of social and diplomatic occurrences!

With unalterable attachment,

Your grateful

A. Humboldt.

While it was not entirely wise in a monarch who is great in history to have yielded, under the influence of the atmosphere of Versailles, to the temptation of offsetting the memory of the barricades with a spectacle à la Louis XIV., throwing great difficulties in the way of the successor, and attaining nothing of value, the conduct of Palmerston, and of Albert and Victoria, on the other hand, is likewise clumsily ill-mannered. Meantime, the sober Americans are establishing a universal empire in the West, which already threatens the trade of China.

My MS. “On the Textile Fabrics of the Ancients,” pp. 106 and 113, appears also to have been lost among the papers of the lamented Wolf. The effect of the religious music, particularly on p. 323, contains much that is finely expressed.

In the year 1846 we find the following remark in Varnhagen’s diary: “The conversation turned upon the capacity of one of the younger princes, which was declared to be inferior. Humboldt was of a different opinion. ‘I do not agree with you,’ he said; ‘the young prince spoke to me the other day, finding me in waiting in the apartments of his mother, and asked, “Who are you?” “Humboldt is my name,” said I. “And what are you?” “A chamberlain to his Majesty the King.” “Is that all?” said the prince, curtly, turning on his heel. Is not that a proof of intelligence?’”

125.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, November 28th, 1846.