124.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
POTSDAM, _November 14th, 1846_.
What a splendid reception, my dear friend, have you given the fifth
volume of my brother! Pardon me if, in the excessive bustle of the last
few days upon the cold “historic hill,” I have not written some
commendatory remarks. I also deplore the omissions to which you are kind
enough to make me attentive. Perhaps they could be supplied in the next
volume. It was supposed that the letters must be printed in the form in
which my brother had prepared them for publication, and in which they
were offered for sale. I believe no nation on earth can produce an
instance of such a life devoted exclusively to the increase of the
wealth of ideas! How inexpressibly I rejoice in the mere prospect of
once more beholding a master-piece of your accurate, life-like, and
withal delicate representations of social and diplomatic occurrences!
With unalterable attachment,
Your grateful
A. HUMBOLDT.
While it was not entirely wise in a monarch who is great in history to
have yielded, under the influence of the atmosphere of Versailles, to
the temptation of offsetting the memory of the barricades with a
spectacle à la Louis XIV., throwing great difficulties in the way of the
successor, and attaining nothing of value, the conduct of Palmerston,
and of Albert and Victoria, on the other hand, is likewise clumsily
ill-mannered. Meantime, the sober Americans are establishing a universal
empire in the West, which already threatens the trade of China.
My MS. “On the Textile Fabrics of the Ancients,” pp. 106 and 113,
appears also to have been lost among the papers of the lamented Wolf.
The effect of the religious music, particularly on p. 323, contains much
that is finely expressed.
In the year 1846 we find the following remark in Varnhagen’s diary: “The
conversation turned upon the capacity of one of the younger princes,
which was declared to be inferior. Humboldt was of a different opinion.
‘I do not agree with you,’ he said; ‘the young prince spoke to me the
other day, finding me in waiting in the apartments of his mother, and
asked, “Who are you?” “Humboldt is my name,” said I. “And what are you?”
“A chamberlain to his Majesty the King.” “Is that all?” said the prince,
curtly, turning on his heel. Is not that a proof of intelligence?’”
125.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
BERLIN, _November 28th, 1846_.
I do not answer to-day, my dear friend, in regard to your splendid
Memoirs. How everything succeeds in your hands! To-day I recommend you
an able Frenchman, M. Galuski, who knows Germany better than we do, the
author of an essay on A. W. Schlegel. He will stay but a few days.
Preserve the autograph of Barante.[50]