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.