126.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
BERLIN, _December 6th, 1846_.
There will be perhaps some delay, my dear friend, in your receiving the
“Cinq jours de Berlin,” in which I am spoken of by the Berliners (who
are introduced as speaking themselves), as a tolerably pleasant tattler,
but in which I am alluded to rather unkindly, as to my moral character.
If all my speeches lack consistency, I apprehend for the durability of
the system of the world, the Kosmos. Mr. Barrière will probably have
called on you the sixth day, and you will have suggested all that to
him. The paper contains some excellent things, Cracoviana, about the
vote of Prussia and Mr. de Kanitz.
I send you for your autograph collection a flattering letter of Mignet,
and a letter of mine, written in 1801, at Carthagena, in South America,
at a turning point in my life, and addressed to “Citizen” Baudin, who,
on board of the Perron, made a voyage round the world. This letter was
written at a time when probably people in Europe had ceased to be
addressed any more as “citizens.” Baudin, instead of doubling Cape Horn,
and receiving me at Lima, went round the Cape of Good Hope to Australia.
Your old friend,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.