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.