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.