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?”