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.