BERLIN, _Nov. 1846_.
129.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
SUNDAY, _Feb. 21st, 1847_.
I do not recollect showing you a very beautiful letter of my brother, on
the death of Schiller, dated “Rome, 1805.” It was discovered but lately,
and will be published in the next volume of his works. I inclose a very
amiable letter from Prince Metternich, received this week, also a stiff
and unmeaning one from Prince Albert. Prince Metternich has published,
at his own cost, a splendid description of his mineralogical collection
at Koenigswart, having probably in view his election to the Presidency
of the new Academy instead of Kolowrat. At the special request of Prince
Albert I left a copy of Kosmos on his desk at Stolzenfels. He had the
civility not to thank me. The “blackbird”[51] has improved his
politeness in the present instance, and besides, he makes me talk of
“roving oceans of light” and “sidereal terraces”—a Coburg version of my
text, _quite English_—from Windsor, where terraces abound. In Kosmos I
speak once of the “starry carpet,” page 159, in explaining the open
spaces between the stars. He presents me a work upon “Mexican
Monuments,” a copy of which I myself had purchased two years ago. A
splendid edition of Lord Byron would have been in better taste. It is
also strange that he does not mention “Queen Victoria.” Possibly my
“Book of Nature” is not sufficiently Christian for her Majesty. You see
that I am a severe critic of “princely epistles.”
Please return Metternich and Albert soon, as I have not yet replied to
them; also Wilhelm’s letter at your leisure—it is the only copy I have.
I gave the original to Schlesier, who was very anxious to possess
something from my brother’s hand.
With old attachment, yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.
130.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.
VIENNA, _February, 1847_.