Gerlach intends to separate himself from the King, and to oust Reyher,
whereby he would still remain quite near the King, ay, even nearer than
at present, for the cause of little animosities (electricity from
contact) would then disappear.
184.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
POTSDAM, _November 9th, 1856_.
I forgot to inform you, my revered friend, that I fulfilled punctually
your wish to send to Weimar the letter you addressed me, and to
recommend urgently the proposed “Private Secretary,” and all this a few
days after I knew your intention.
A German letter from Prince Metternich, expressing sentiments full of
graceful language, will interest you. I present you the letter for your
archival collection. The occasion was a moulding in plaster and copy,
partly by the Prince’s own hand, of an old Egyptian column of granite,
which he had received twenty-five years ago from Mehemed Ali. The old
Prince gave me this copy, three-fourths of a foot in height, to decipher
the long inscription in Demotic writing. This has been done by Dr.
Brugsch, the talented young Egyptologist, author of a Demotic Grammar,
universally admired in other countries. Dr. Brugsch, who had the first
edition of his Grammar printed in Latin, when he was still in the first
class of August’s Gymnasium[83] (the second edition is written in
French), has found a good deal of very remarkable astronomy in the
inscription; and in order to give pleasure to the old Prince, Brugsch
has published the whole under the name of “Stele. Metternich,” in the
“Journal for the Orient,” and in the “Athenée.” Brugsch was in Egypt for
two years, at the expense of the King; he is the son of a poor sergeant,
and is familiar with Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, and Persian.
Pardon my horrid writing, illegible, and in wild, incorrect style.
The letter of the maccaroni King[84] to Louis Philippe, in the
“Spenersche Zeitung,” will not have escaped you, I hope. _Non v’a
bisogno_—entirely as Rochow-Seiffart (in his first manner) to the
Elbingers:—“It is not at all necessary that my people think; I think for
them; the people, who have betrayed me so often, submit to my power.”
Your faithful
A. HUMBOLDT.
185.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.
KOENIGSWART, _October 14th, 1856_.
MY OLD FRIEND!—I received gratefully the information on the stele which
Herr Brugsch calls by my name, and I beg of you to hand over to the
learned investigator the words you find inclosed. After my return to
Vienna, I shall avail myself of the interpretation, already so
instructive, of the monument, to point out the way to archæologists in
which they may obtain copies, by an advertisement. I did not doubt that
I could not do better than to address you for light on the scientific
value of the present of Mehemed Ali, which for many years slept in my
multifarious collections, and of which I was quite ignorant. May you and
Herr Brugsch receive my most sincere thanks.
I have had the good fortune to find the King in excellent health, and in
the usual kind disposition towards myself. Great recollections in long
lives are a fine bond between man and man, the power of which is well
tried when it has resisted the storms of time. It is more than half a
century since my first intercourse with the young heir-apparent. What
vicissitudes have occupied this long interval is matter of history. That
they have never deprived me of the confidence of the two kings, father
and son, is with me a source of pride—that is to say, of a sensation
which the term peace of mind and heart would better characterize than
the unsafe word that has escaped my pen.
You, three years my senior, have just celebrated your eighty-seventh
birth-day. That you and I have understood “the art of living,” we may
confess. That we shall do well to cultivate it still longer, is not to
be denied.
With sincere friendship and esteem,
METTERNICH.
186.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
BERLIN, _November 20th, 1856_.
I want your literary aid, my noble friend. Our great landscape painter,
Hildebrandt, who was in Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and
recently at the North Cape, has executed an admirable aquarelle picture
of my “Interior Household,” in order to replace a smaller one sold in
many hundreds of copies in America. “La renommée, fruit d’une longue
patience de vivre, augmente avec l’imbécilité.” I am compelled to make
an inscription to this picture of mine, with my own hand. This is no
easy task. I pray that you will visit me on Saturday, at one o’clock, if
it is possible to you. You shall guide me.
Your most grateful
A. V. HUMBOLDT.