At this moment I receive a letter from a _pupil_, deserving of moderate
praise for clearness of thought and diction. I shall not write before
having first come to see you, my dear friend. The last fifteen lines of
the letter are utterly illegible and unintelligible to me. I had written
to him about the laying of the telegraph cable between Ireland and
Newfoundland, but had not made him any offer. I cannot read what is
underscored! Keep my pupil’s letter by all means, including the
information that I am the subject of discussion in the Belgian Chambers,
as a materialist and republican, who ought to be discharged! Where the
dinner of the Baron d’Arhim (Arnim) took place, I cannot guess. I may
have said, that I was as liberal as Arago, but certainly not that I was
a Republican. Deposit M. Jobard in your archives, my friend,
Your faithful,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.