Book IV. goes to press on the 15th of July. Book V. must be ready (D. V.)
on the 24th of August.
Both the people and the country here please me. The land is enchantingly
beautiful, nay, fairy-like, and our house is in the best situation of all.
Fanny is almost more at home in Germany than I am, and the girls revel in
the German enjoyment of life. I count on your paying us a visit. Say a
good word for us to your mother, and persuade her to come with you to
visit us in Heidelberg. We should much like to make her acquaintance, and
tell her how dear you are to us all. Meyer is _proxenus Anglorum_ and
_Anglaram_, and does nothing. I hope to form here a little Academia
Nicorina. Shall I ever leave Heidelberg? God bless you. _Cura ut valeas._
Ever yours.
P. S. I have worked through Steinschneider’s sheet on the Semitic Roots in
Egyptian with great advantage, and have sent it to Dietrich. The analogy
of the consonants is unmistakable. Dietrich will certainly be able to fix
this. And now you must shake that small specimen Aricum out of your Dessau
conjuring sleeve. You need only skim the surface, it is not necessary to
dig deep where the gold lies in sight. But we must rub the German nose in
Veda butter, that they may find the right track.
We shall have a hard battle to fight at first in the Universities. Were
Egypt but firmly established as the primitive Asiatic settlement of the as
yet undivided Arian and Semitic families, we should have won the game for
the recognition of historical truth.
I hope the “Outlines” and “Egypt” will come over next week. Longman will
send them both to you; and also the copy of the Outlines for Aufrecht (to
whom I have written an ostensible letter such as he wished for). I wish
something could be found in Oxford for that delightful and clever man
Johannes Brandis. He would exert an excellent influence, and England would
be a good school for him. Will the Universities admit Dissenters to take a
degree?
[63.]