It was, my dear friend, in expectation of the inclosed that I did not
sooner return an answer and my thanks for your affectionate and detailed
letter. I wish you would take advantage of my communication to put
yourself in correspondence with Benfey. He is well disposed towards you,
and has openly spoken of you as “the apostle of German science in
England.”
And then he stands _infinitely_ higher than the present learned men of his
department. He would also be very glad if you would offer yourself to him
for communications suitable for his Oriental Journal from England, to
which he always has an eye. (Keep this copy, perhaps Jowett may read it.)
Humboldt’s letter says in reality two things:—
1. He does not approve of the sharply defined difference between nomadic
and agricultural languages; the occupations may change, yet the language
remains the same as before. That is against _you_. The good old man does
not consider that the language will or can become another without
perishing in the root.
2. He does not agree in opposing one language to all others as
_inorganic_. This is against _me_. But _first_, this one language is still
almost the half of the human race, and _secondly_, I have said nothing
which his brother has not said as strongly. It is only said as a sign of
life, and that “my praise and my admiration may appear honest.”
In the fifth volume of my “Egypt” I call the languages sentence-languages
and word-languages; that is without metaphor, and cannot be misunderstood.
The distinction itself is _right_. For _organic_ is (as Kant has already
defined it) an unity in parts. A granite mountain is not more thoroughly
granite than a square inch of granite, but a man without hands or head is
no man.
I am delighted to hear that your Veda gets on. If you would only not allow
yourself to be frightened from the attempt to let others work for you in
mere handicraft. Even young men have not time for everything. You have now
fixed your impress on the work, and any one with the _will_ and with the
necessary knowledge of the tools, could not go far wrong under your eye. I
should so like to see you free for other work. _Only do not leave Oxford.
Spartam quam nactus es orna._ You would not like Germany, and Germany
could offer you no sphere of activity that could be compared ever so
distantly with your present position. I have often said to you, Nature and
England will not allow themselves to be changed from _without_, and
therein consists exactly their worth in the divine plan of development;
but they often alter themselves rapidly from within. Besides, the reform
is gone too far to be smothered. Just now the Dons and other Philisters
can do what they like, for the _people_ has its eyes on other things. But
the war makes the classes who are pressing forwards more powerful than
ever.
The old method of government is bankrupt forever. So do not be
low-spirited, my dear M., or impatient. It is not so much the fault of
England, as of yourself, that you do not feel settled and at home. You
have now as good a position as a young man of intellect, and with a future
before him, could possibly have anywhere, either in England or in Germany.
Make a home for yourself. Since I saw your remarkable mother, I have been
convinced that, unlike most mothers, she would not stand in the way of
your domestic happiness, even were it contrary to her own views, but that
she must be the best addition to your household for any wife who was
worthy of you. Oxford is London, and better than London; and London is the
world, and is _German_. How gladly would Pauli, that honest, noble German
soul, stay, if he had but an occupation. The subjection of the mind by the
government here becomes more vexatious, more apparent, more diabolical.
_One_ form of tyranny is that of Augustus, the more thorough, because so
sly. They will not succeed in the end, but meanwhile it is horrible to
witness. More firmly than ever I settle myself down here in Heidelberg,
and will take the whole house, and say, “You must leave me my cottage
standing, and my hearth, whose glow you envy me.” _We_ are now on the
point of binding ourselves, without binding ourselves; and the prudent man
in P(aris) pretends not to observe it—just like the devil, when a soul is
making some additional conditions.
Still, it is possible that the desire to aid in the councils of Vienna at
any price may carry us so far that we may join in the march against Poland
and Finland. After all, the rivers flow according to the laws of
gravitation.