Chapter IV (4)

To what purpose, most gracious baroness, did the Eternal shower down upon you, from the horn of plenty that he so sparingly opens upon this miserable, sinful earth, the bountiful gift of genius and the more precious adornment of a noble heart, if you believe the absurd gossip uttered “about those from whom I am separating myself!” What you call your prophetic vision could not alarm me, because the same double sight has fallen to my lot! Not a syllable of your book has the King read or desired to have read to him, as I hear from others; I rarely attend in the evening, and have not read to him for years. But how, my honored friend, am I to gain his ear in this matter, when I never pronounce the words Cathedral, Orchestra, Theatre, or Concert Room, and never have heard of the existence of a Central University Cathedral Building Association at Bonn, or of a Board of Managers of the Berlin Association? Such things are undoubtedly desirable; but even if those who are now called influential would advocate them by word of mouth, their intercession would not even receive attention; success is only to be hoped for from an official exposé of the project, addressed immediately to the King himself, with the autograph signature of the managers, with specific and distinct requests. The decision rests exclusively with the cabinet, and to be discussed there, a full and explicit petition to the King is necessary. This is doubly important at a time so eventful as the present, when the King never remains longer than a few weeks at Sans Souci. Painter Rattis’ Titian, political insinuations, and great unknown personages, are all subjects of which I receive the first intimation from your kind letter. It will be my study to repel the insinuations, although, on account of my well-known opinions, these “_essais de blanchir_” will be but a feeble support. Among the many painful impressions you so sedulously cultivate in the midst of your glowing love of the true, the free, the noble, and the good, it gives me great delight to direct your attention to two special matters of gratification—your Goethe monument is a fixed fact, and the great man’s grandson, whom I regard and esteem, has succeeded in obtaining a recognition of the value of his services, and a less constrained position in the Roman embassy.

With unalterable devotion and friendship,
I remain your Old Man of the Hills,
A. V. HT.

163.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _July 10th, 1854_.

Such a rough “Hind Pomeranian!”[70] direct answer, dear friend, you could certainly not expect from me! I have no idea of the question about the animation of pinewood at the King’s table, where everybody believes in it as in the Persian host seen in the air at the Eichsfeld. The “drama” of the “Kreuz Zeitung,” like everything emanating from this bad party, sick with mental poverty, bears the stamp of cowardly malice! You are not to be pitied, for you possess a treasure in the power of animating recollections of the great period of 1813. I have always kept at a respectful distance from the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, which is edited with spirit and address. Two parties may hate the same thing without hating it from the same motives. The present Liberals there think themselves justified in _barking_, but not _biting_, after the fashion of the Berlin muzzles, “because, without the rescuer[71] they would all have been drenched in blood.” _Credat Judæus Apella!_

Your faithful,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

Monday.—At another funeral![72]

A workman, unknown to me, addressed me at the funeral of Benjamin Constant: “N’est-ce pas, mon bon Monsieur, vous n’avez rien de si beau en Prusse, mais ce sera bien plus beau quand nous enterrerons M. de la Fayette.”

164.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _July 29th, 1854_.

In Spain, the virtuous rebels, like the virtuous order of St. John on the Wilhelmsplatz, have raised the cry of “Long live chastity!”—“Viva el pudor” (Isabella)! “Viva la moralidad” (disinterested Christina)! But, will you, dear friend, think it possible (July, 1854!) that the Minister of Public Worship and Instruction, though hitherto without success, is also shouting “Viva el pudor!” He has quite officially demanded a royal order for the imprisonment in the arsenal of the wanton group[73] which so wantonly disport themselves on the bridge; all this without fear from the press, since the new press law, promulgated by the Diet at Frankfort, only resembles the ingenious Berlin muzzles, not yet exhibited in the Muenchen Crystal Palace, which prevent authors from biting only, but not from barking.

The third cry, “Viva la libertad!” has succeeded in the Peninsula, after all, in spite of the disavowals of good society.

Your faithful
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

AT NIGHT.

165.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _July 31st, 1854_.

Alas! no! I was in error thinking that the monument for Weimar was definitely bought, only that the enlargement of it, desired by our excellent lady friend, was given up. In the circles with which I am acquainted we cannot hope for an active participation. The expression, “Is not art itself a vestment?” is fine and felicitous.

Most gratefully yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

Monday, waiting for the train to leave.

In the United States there has, it is true, arisen a great love for me, but the whole there presents to my mind the sad spectacle of liberty reduced to a mere mechanism in the element of utility, exercising little ennobling or elevating influence upon mind and soul, which, after all, should be the aim of political liberty. Hence indifference on the subject of slavery. But the United States are a Cartesian vortex, carrying everything with them, grading everything to the level of monotony.

166.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

BERLIN, _January 8th, 1855_.

I have to thank your Excellency most heartily that, in dispensing bounties, you always think with favor also of me! No one shall surpass me in anxiety to receive, in estimation of the gift, and in gratitude for the noble donor! This preface, at once temperate in form, rich in substance, and elegiac in tone, is the worthiest and most lasting monument of the prince,[74] of whom I hear on every side accounts which make one mourn his loss in the prime of life. I shall try to procure his work which is so highly recommended by your Excellency.

The gloomy cover of mist which veils the light of day, corresponds with the sentiments by which I at least feel myself weighed down. I have not succeeded in becoming cheerful for some days.

With the warmest wishes for you, in faithful reverence and most grateful submission, immutably

Your Excellency’s most obedient,
VARNHAGEN VON ENSE.

167.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _April 26th, 1855_.

REVERED FRIEND—A strange missionary experiment, enveloped in a somewhat idyllic ghost story, political and religious, in a style of singular “finish” and bombast, which I cannot refrain from showing to you. I take it to be the work of a male author.

The saturnalia of despotism and of flatteries, the wanton festival of _oblivion_ (as if there was no history of 1813 and ’14), is now played out among the free insular people, a kind of monkey comedy. There is only this consolation which uplifts my spirit, that out of all this something will arise, which both parties do not at all intend. That is, _le principe_, which outlives us all. I am so cruel as to include you too. To my brother, Wilhelm, the Kassel book seems to have done good up there. In old attachment and reverence,

Your faithful
A. HUMBOLDT.

WEDNESDAY.

Be good enough to return the ghost story, by all means.

NOTE BY VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT’S LETTER OF APRIL 26TH, 1855.—A “stranger
is emboldened to transmit words of power to the spirit.” “They are
given to her with the order to repeat them.” In case Humboldt should
answer, he is requested to send the letter with the chiffre A. W.,
to the store on the left of the house, at No. 120 Linden Street, and
receive further details. A wanderer is described as sitting down to
rest. Brother Wilhelm appears to brother Alexander and exhorts him
to think of the kingdom of heaven, and how splendid it is up there,
how misty on earth. As a token of identity, he reminds him of the
eighteenth warm birth-day, “where they swore to love each other,” an
oath which reaches beyond the portals of death, and which he now
fulfils. It is a bombastic farrago, frequently repeating the word
“finish,” which strikes the reader as eminently inappropriate.

Of the above-named direction Humboldt observes: “That it is the boarding-school of Frau von Wenkstern and Widow Poppe.”

168.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _August 9th, 1855_.

I had already heard with sorrow from the gifted Princess von Wittgenstein, that you, noble friend, suffered more than usually. Receive me with indulgence on Saturday, about 10 o’clock, in spite of my long absence, and of my inconvenient trilogy, Berlin, Tegel, and Potsdam. I shall then also bring you a few lines of thanks to your cousin, the Imperial Brazilian Chargé d’Affaires in Madrid. His history, founded upon archival monuments, seems to become of great importance; but what a strange missive without adding the first pages, and notes also without a beginning.[75] I doubt of my ever catching those commencements in my cosmic disorder. As I spent almost an hour alone with the Prince of Prussia yesterday, I shall be able to tell you something not uninteresting, although not at all decisive. The Prince, whom I take to be veracious, assures me of having always asserted, faithful to his principles, that war would probably have been avoided, if Prussia and Austria had from the first co-operated actively with the Western powers against Russia. They answered in St. Petersburg that the Emperor would not have yielded, but this the Prince doubted....

With old attachment, yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

THURSDAY.

You will explain to me orally the mythological name of Sorocaba.[76]

Varnhagen narrates in his diary, under date of August 11th, 1855:—“About 1 o’clock Humboldt came, looking well, quite vigorous, in fresh and lively spirits; when he made a worse impression a short time ago, as Dirichlet thought, it was the effect of sickness, and is passed now. First, he spoke of the book of my cousin, which he praised, for which he thanks him (in a letter). The expression Sorocaba I cannot explain to him. Humboldt was but recently made a knight of the great Brazilian order, on account of an arbitration between Brazil and Venezuela, respecting a large tract of land. ‘Formerly they intended, in Rio de Janeiro, to arrest me as a dangerous spy, and to send me back to Europe, the order drawn up for the purpose is still shown there as a curiosity; now they make me an arbitrator! I, of course, decided for Brazil, because I wanted the large order; the Republic of Venezuela has none to confer!’ These words, spoken in the gayest irony, I interrupted with the exclamation, ‘How times change!’ ‘Yes; the order of arrest, and then the insignia of the great order!’ ‘Oh, no,’ I replied, ‘I did not think of this personal affair, but of the historical; formerly the pope was the general arbitrator!’ Humboldt saw the last volumes of the life of Stein on my table, and expressed his displeasure on the external arrangement, the meagreness of the text, and the unsifted character of this book; he thought that the gold snuff-box, with brilliants, which the King had already sent to Pertz for these volumes, was entirely too much. Injustice, crying and mean, perpetrated by Stein against old Prince Wittgenstein. Pertz, too, he said, was unjust to Wittgenstein. Stein had not at all been a firm character, no one had changed views and judgments more easily. (Beyme said the same thing, and adduced instances of it.) His early liberal ideas on national economy, civil institutions, commerce, and trades, were a product of the times, which he afterwards entirely renounced and disputed when the current of opinion set in that direction. He surrendered his former sentiments so shamefully that his former friend, Kunth, who remained faithful to them, but also wished to avoid committing Stein, burned more than three hundred of Stein’s letters, because, as he thought, they would bring nothing but disgrace on the revered man, and would show him in the greatest contradiction with himself. Of the Prince of Prussia, Humboldt said that he had told every one in St. Petersburg, as well as here, that the war would have been avoided if Prussia had from the first acted resolutely. The Emperor Nicholas would have yielded. The imperial family he represented as harmonious, including the Grand Duke Constantine, who did not seem so dangerous to him as usually described. The Emperor’s mother used to say they were all mere children, and that she must remain with them in order to keep them together. The war was severely felt, business at a standstill, the country drained of men, the armies not very numerous; Poland, the Baltic countries, and Finland but weakly garrisoned; the greater part of their forces was in the Crimea; the losses immense and irreparable. Gortschakoff reports that the daily combats cost him 180–200 men—a frightful number for a month; that Nesselrode contemplates a renewal of negotiations, but before that heavy blows would first be dealt on one side or on the other. Sebastopol itself was by no means considered out of danger. The Prince has gone from here to Erdmannsdorf to the King; thence he hastens on to Baden. The King has Lieutenant-General von Gerlach, with him in Erdmannsdorf, among others, also Radowitz, in case he is not ‘already tired of him, as happens so easily.’ Humboldt talks of Radowitz decidedly as of a Jesuit, calls him Ignatius, mocks him, and jests on him a long time. ‘The great destinies of Italy’ leave the King very indifferent; but a colored pane of glass, a quaint device on an old monument, a family name, enlist his greatest interest, occupy, and amuse him; and for such trifles Radowitz was the right man! The same is the case with Bunsen, with whom the King corresponds on theological and patristic curiosities. He has asked him to write articles in the papers against the Bishop of Mainz; but Bunsen makes the condition to be allowed to refer in his articles to the command of the King, since otherwise they would possess neither influence nor effect. Humboldt thinks Bunsen would not resist a call hither, even if it was not official, but only a personal one by the King. The Duke of Coburg-Gotha desires an enlargement of his territory and a higher title—that of a ‘King of Ostphalia’ is already proposed. The King jestingly calls him by that title already. He counts upon England and France, and willingly flatters and accommodates Bonaparte, who would meet with little difficulty in being the recognised Protector of a new Rhenish Confederation. So much for Germany and Teutonism. It is betrayed most assiduously by its sworn defenders. Finally, Humboldt added: ‘When a man has the misfortune to be compelled to live among such wretches as this Gerlach, Raumer, and the rest who have crept into this Court.’... He went from me to the Koethener Strasse to look at a picture, and left me much excited. I could not keep in mind and write down one-tenth of all he said.”

Varnhagen adds, on the 12th of August, Humboldt said of the situation of Prussia, it reminded him of a trial he once heard in Paris; the lawyer had to ask damages for a box on the ear, and had exclaimed triumphantly at the close: “Au fond nous n’avons pas reçu le soufflet, nous n’avons eu que le geste!”

169.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _January 13th, 1856_.

Smile, dear friend (you are fully justified!) at the strange lines of Princess Lieven, and at my troublesome inquiry. Madame de Quitzow, who has not written to me for twenty-five years, wants to know, whether the Emperor Paul, in the epoch of his political insanity, had made the proposition through Kotzebue, that the ministers for foreign affairs should measure swords personally instead of the armies. I was at that time (1799 and 1800) in the deltas of South America, and was entirely ignorant of the anecdote which the Russian Princess now, as it appears to me, so occidental in her predilections, desires to corroborate. The obscure researches I have made would seem to lead to the result that the duel was to be waged not by the ministers but by the monarchs themselves. I pray you, noble friend, to write me a few lines on what your excellent memory supplies, and still more I pray you to tell me consoling words about your health at the return of the injurious cold weather. Bunsen writes me that he expects a fourth edition of his letters. Does the great reading demand for this excellent or rather useful book indicate that the German public is less chloroformed against action than we had supposed? _Dubito._ The German landlord of a (dicunt) very dirty hotel, which glories in my name in California for many years—beside a more cleanly one of “Jenny Lind,”—sends me German California papers from time to time. In a discourse on the moral and intellectual state of the English, the French, and the Germans, the editor recently said: “We Germans are a nation of thinkers, deeply occupied with the world of ideas, we also have the _great advantage_ before the members of other nations who live here, that we care little or not at all about civil or political affairs.” Thus we boast on the shores of the Pacific, buy the “Zeichen der Zeit,” but hardly 5 per cent of us go to the primary elections. It is inconvenient, we think. With old love and reverence,

Yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

Was not the young Tyrolese very amiable poet Adolf Pichler (properly speaking a geologist by trade) with you? I do not believe in peace during this quite ... or at least uncomfortable humiliating ... ...[77] year, though certainly in useless diplomatic transactions.

NOTE BY VARNHAGEN.—In the third line stands “Madame de Quitzow,”
clearly a mistake instead of “Madame de Lieven.” What may have been
the reason that that name, here entirely without meaning, should
have protruded itself, cannot be guessed.

LATER NOTE BY VARNHAGEN.—The Princess Lieven is closely connected with
the late Minister Guizot, they even say secretly married to him.
Guizot, pronounced German easily sounds Quitzow, a well-known name
in the Mark. Humboldt, always inclined to jesting, and particularly
here, may have given her this surname—perhaps current already at the
court—with full intention. [This is quite right.]

170.
THE PRINCESS LIEVEN TO HUMBOLDT.

PARIS, _January 8th, 1856_.

You have not forgotten me, my dear Baron. I know that by two kind messages which Baron Brockhausen brought me from you. I have charged him to testify my lively gratitude; but I now prefer to express it myself. On this occasion, it serves me as the passport to a question which I take the liberty of addressing you.

Can you, who know everything, remember the following fact? In 1799 or 1800, the Emperor Paul took it into his head to propose a combat on a tilted field, where England, Russia, Austria, and I know not what other power, should adjust their differences by the persons of their Prime Ministers, Pitt, Thugut, etc. The task of drawing up this invitation was assigned to Kotzebue, and the article inserted in the “Hamburg Gazette.” This is my very distinct recollection. I have not dreamed any part of it. Could you complete the tradition? I can meet with no one who remembers it. I have thought you might be able to sustain my memory, and I hope so still, for I am suspected of having lost my wits.

Paul I. was not such a fool, after all. Do you not consider the follies of our time much greater? What a chaos? And for what?...

My dear Baron, I live here in a little intimate circle of old friends, who are your friends also, and who hold you in affectionate remembrance. What a pleasure we should have in seeing you here, and together forgetting the troubles of the hour! O that men and things were worth more at this day! Is this an old woman’s commission with which I trouble you?

Adieu, my dear Baron. I ask your recollection and regard, and promise a bountiful return.

Ever yours,
THE PRINCESS LIEVEN.

171.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

BERLIN, _January 27th, 1856_.

With joyful thanks I profit by your Excellency’s goodness in sending me the copy of your beautiful response to the deputies of the city of Berlin. Were it not presumption to praise, where praise has already become a habit and a superfluity, I should say that the speech is as full of sterling merit as of noble intention. The brightest passage, to my mind, is the (I hesitate whether to call it felicitous or masterly) allusion to the King, in terms so dignified and delicate, so warm and graceful; and every pure heart must at once acknowledge, that in this connexion the remark was singularly appropriate and beautiful. In your Excellency’s last favor, the expression, “Madame de Quitzow,” at first puzzled me a good deal. But I may boast of having solved the riddle by the power of the head—as the Jews say, where we speak of cudgelling our brains—and am constrained to acknowledge that the little sally is not only a good joke, but proportionably a mild measure of punishment. The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar desired to see me; but I found myself chained down to my rheumatic complaint.

With faithful reverence and most grateful devotion, unalterably your Excellency’s most obedient,

VARNHAGEN VON ENSE.

172.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _January 28th, 1856_.

My far from dormant ambition has been abundantly gratified by the grateful praise bestowed by the great master of our language (to avoid the expression rhetorician), upon my manner of speaking of the King, and my relations with him. In praising that with which the party praised is but scantily supplied, we point him to the honorable road, and justify ourselves before the people. A man of the woods, who is supposed to have been tamed at court, is in need of such justification. Madame Quitzow, whom I could not sooner obtain from the King, I now repose in your hands, as your own. Our former minister, General Thiele, was firmly persuaded that the Guizots of the neighborhood of Montpellier were disguised remnants, softened in pronunciation, Frenchified and Protestantized, of the emigrated Quitzows[78] from Langkloder. And your poor excellent Dora, who pities all your friends for the sufferings she knows so well how to alleviate! Give her my kindest regards.

Your faithful
A. HUMBOLDT.

AT NIGHT.

The Grand Duke, whom you escaped, sends much love. He has curious theories, probably imbibed somewhere or other (Bœotia was near to ancient Attica), and misunderstood. There are two classes of sculptors, the one inferior, to which Rauch inclines, and which works _inward from without_, while the better (represented by Rietschel) works _outward from within_. But what an exposure. Philarète Chasles in the “Journal des Debats!” I wrote to Paris: “Vulgaire dans les idées comme dans les formes des langage, indigne d’un litterateur du Collége de France.”

173.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _Thursday, Feb. 7th, 1856_.

As it would be impossible that you, dear friend, should not have seen the new book by Montalembert (the friend and companion of the Abbé Lammenais on his journey to Rome), I hope to give you a little pleasure by offering you the King’s copy for a few days (five or six). The only thing racy in it is the conclusion, levelled at the present state of affairs in France, p. 284 to 298. I wish it were possible to have the whole of it translated and published in Germany.

Most gratefully yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

How is our excellent Dora doing? I had a patriarchal time yesterday until seven o’clock, at Potsdam, at a christening of a child of a very handsome and accomplished daughter of my Siberian waiting-man’s, Seifert, who,[79] a traveller named Moellhausen, who, at Baron Gerolt’s and my recommendation, accompanied the great exploring expedition of Captain Whipple, of San Luis, San Francisco, and Panama, in the capacity of topographer and draughtsman for the American Government. It is about a year since the King appointed young Moellhausen custodian of the palace library at Potsdam.

An excellent article by Laboulaye, on the domestic Institution, and the flagitious Pierce’s extension of the outrage upon territory, hitherto free, met my eye yesterday in the “Journal des Débats,” of the 5th of February, I believe!

Keep the very commonplace verses “Oh, Gentle Jlm.”

174.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

BERLIN, _March 14th, 1856_.

Your Excellency’s kind and precious gift come into the seclusion forced upon me by the rude relapse of winter, brighter and more enlivening than the sunbeams which accompany them! Receive my repeated thanks and the assurance that I know how to appreciate every one of them, and most of all the beneficent intention, which remember me so well, and gladden my heart so cheerily! The pencil lines of the dying Heine are a valued keepsake, and shall be continued to be devoutly treasured in the envelope superscribed by your Excellency. The boon of to-day, the significant combination of Archimedes and Franklin in reference to their tombstones, I have also read with the warmest appreciation.

I see that you do not dread the wind or the weather, and that, fortunately, you need not dread them, when a duty of honor is to be performed. The present time imposes curious tasks upon us! The death of a chief of police in a duel is probably unprecedented in the communities of modern Europe. The summoning of a Minister of Foreign Affairs to Paris, to attend at the close of important negotiations, with a box of writing sand from the Mark,[80] has also a fabulous aspect. However, Allah is great!

In the most faithful reverence and most grateful devotion, I remain immutably

Your Excellency’s most obedient,
VARNHAGEN VON ENSE.

175.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _April 14th, 1856_.

I could not but speak, being the Nestor of Prussian mining officials, and prone to boast of my calling. My reliance upon your _indulgence_, dear and worthy friend, is so great, that I am emboldened to send even _you_ a copy of these unimportant lines. Count B. deserved this praise. Free from opinion of any kind, he is useful to the art of mining, and still occupies himself with scientific pursuits since he has resigned the direction.

With unshaken constancy, yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

NOTE BY VARNHAGEN.—Enclosed was the address delivered at the fiftieth
anniversary of the entrance into the royal miners of his Excellency
the Actual Privy Councillor and Captain of Miners, Count Beust.
April 9th, 1856.

176.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _September 11th, 1856_.

Knowing the warm interest you take, my dear friend, in the slavery question, and in what concerns myself, I send you the last letter of Gerolt, which was very long in coming, but which will certainly command your attention. Most unfortunately Buchanan will be the next President, and not Fremont, the traveller of great acquirements, who has four times travelled the land route to San Francisco, surveying the country over which he passed, to whom it is owing that California did become a free State. Do _not_ return the letter, nor the enclosure. On the heels of this African absurdity comes another folly, of a more serious cast, though richly fraught with ridicule, not royalistic so much as aristocratically Bernese, and spiced with a little railroad speculation as to whether the route by the way of Neufchatel or that by way of Chaux de Fonds is to be preferred! And the heroic Count,[81] who executes the coup d’état à la Napoleon, whence did he derive his inspiration? From Berlin, while we have a minister at the Diet, whom at this day we pretend never to have recognised. How are these things to be reconciled? We shall have a similar fate with our three ultramarine possessions, the Jade, the Zollern, discovered by Columbus Stillfried, and Neufchatel. I feel for the Constantinopolitan Pourtalès, who finds himself involved in an awkward conflict between his dynasty (the Prussian earldom) and his official liberalism. It is fortunate that the mouth of the English Parliament is still closed.

Your faithful
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

177.
THE PRUSSIAN MINISTER RESIDENT, VON GEROLT, TO HUMBOLDT.

NEW YORK, _August 25th, 1856_.

MY MOST DEAR AND HONORED PATRON!

Since my last letter to your Excellency, of the 8th inst., I was made happy by your favor of the 27th of July, from which I learn, with the most sincere regret, of your temporary indisposition. For the information it contains I return your Excellency my most hearty thanks, and hasten to comply with your wish by sending two extracts from papers published here (the “New York Herald” and the “Courrier des Etats Unis”), containing your publication on the subject of slavery in Cuba, as well as the excuse published by Mr. Thrasher, which is, it must be confessed, exceedingly lame.

The affair has excited great attention here, and could not but be welcome to the opponents of slavery, who have made Fremont their candidate.

Some days ago, his German supporters, many thousands in number, held a mass meeting in his support, and honored him with a splendid torchlight procession in the evening.

The slavery question is becoming more alarming from day to day. While the House of Representatives refuse to appropriate moneys for the support of the army, news is daily coming in from Kansas of bloody conflicts between the free-soilers and the slaveholders. It is hoped, however, that after the presidential election (in November), domestic peace will be restored.

The unwholesome climate in Washington has driven me out for a few days, as the heat was intolerable last month, and now the fever and ague begins.

I am going to Albany to-day, to attend the meeting of naturalists to which I have been invited. I expect to meet a number of savans of distinction there, and to report the details to your Excellency hereafter.

Mr. Heine is very much delighted with the expression of your Excellency in his favor.

Mr. C—— and the _beau monde_ have retreated to the mountains and the sea-baths long ago, and I shall not see him for three or four weeks to come.

Mr. Fillmore would be the best President; but he appears to have little hope of succeeding against Fremont and Buchanan; and the Knownothings have lost all credit.

My poor wife and children are counting the hours which must elapse before my return, and I am not less anxious to find all that is dear to me again in the country of my home, next year, at the close of the Congress.

The approaching departure of the mail for England compels me to close this letter, which I do with the most heartfelt wishes for your Excellency’s continued well-being.

With immutable reverence and affection, I remain your Excellency’s most devoted

GEROLT.

178.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

BERLIN, _September 13th, 1856_.

The great influence of the name of your Excellency in the United States, as in America in general, is a gratifying sign of the improvement of those countries in civilization, and a sure pledge of the ultimate triumph of the philanthropic principles which you have consistently advocated through the course of a long and eventful life. I thank you heartily for the letter of M. v. Gerolt, and its printed inclosure, which will be a valuable addition to my collections. At this moment, it is true, the chances of Fremont are a little doubtful; nevertheless the latest accounts represent the zeal of his supporters as very great and by no means hopeless.

Our domestic events—domestic in their origin though the scene be laid abroad—it would be more agreeable to pass in silence, as it is difficult to find the proper expression with which to characterize them, and impracticable to make use of those expressions when found. The most consoling observation to be made is that of unanimous condemnation on all hands, where there are no private ends to gain. For the veritable Prussian of the good old school such things as Jade, Neufchatel, and even Zollern, are at all times nothing but distractions, having no legitimate concern with the core of the Prussian state. In regard to Neufchatel, I fear that a momentary favorable nod of France is over valued, and will lead to inextricable entanglements; Reynard[82] is apt to incite his friends to dangerous adventures; the escape from them is their affair, and he takes a malicious pleasure in looking on.

The other day Lady Bettina von Arnim contributed to my collections near a thousand autographs. One of the most valuable is a letter from your Excellency to Ludwig Achim von Arnim, on petrifactions; it is not dated, but I refer it to the third decade of the present century.

I well know on what day I write these lines. It precedes the day more widely and more enthusiastically celebrated than any other. May it please your Excellency to accept the modest tribute of my warm good wishes with kind favor! In faithful reverence and grateful devotion,

Your Excellency’s most obedient,
VARNHAGEN VON ENSE.

179.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _September 22d, 1856_.

The Grand Duke of Weimar, who has just left, commissions me to beg of you as a particular favor, the permission for him to visit you to-morrow (on Tuesday) between nine and eleven o’clock. He is determined to see you in person.

A. V. HUMBOLDT.

MONDAY.

180.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _Sept. 23d, 1856_.

CHER ET _introuvable_ AMI!

How the improbable can become real! How royal huntsmen and royal coachmen cannot find you, cannot look for your direction in the prosaic directory. I send this direction at this moment to the Grand Duke, who has the anguish of having detained my revered friend. May he be more fortunate in a new attempt. The enclosed sheet is a Berlin curiosity for your archives.

Faithfully yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

TUESDAY, 2 O’CLOCK.

181.
(ENCLOSED.)
GRAND DUKE CHARLES ALEXANDER OF SAXE-WEIMAR TO HUMBOLDT.

AT THE CHATEAU OF BERLIN,
_Tuesday Morning_.

Had I had the skill of the Marquis of St. Germain, of whom, if I am not mistaken, it is told that one fine morning he departed through four gates at one and the same time, I could not have been more desirous to find M. von Varnhagen than I was. Nevertheless, it was all in vain. No one could tell me where he lived, and it was of no use to take the measure of the “_Maurenstrasse_.” Nature having made me the most obstinate of all Grand Dukes, I still persist in my intention to see the invisible, and hasten to attain that consummation by requesting your Excellency to tell me where M. de Varnhagen actually _does_ live. Pardon my repeated importunities; but in conscience I know of no route which could be shorter or more direct. I remain, with the inextinguishable attachment of the most devoted admiration and veneration for your Excellency,

CHARLES ALEXANDER.

182.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

BERLIN, _September 24th, 1856_.

YOUR EXCELLENCY:

You have had not a little trouble on my account lately, which I lament with shame. Most of all I regret having missed your kind visit, which is always an honor as well as a good fortune. That the Grand Duke could not find me yesterday, although he drove up and down the Maurenstrasse, and made several inquiries, would be incomprehensible if the servants of a Court were not a very peculiar fraternity. It is nearly thirty years that I have resided in the largest house in the street, which the Grand Duke himself has entered in visiting Prince Wilhelm of Baden. To-day, however, he arrived punctually at eight o’clock, was very pleasant and affable, spoke with a good deal of frankness and much cordiality, and mentioned your Excellency with great esteem and gratitude. His real errand did not appear until his visit came to a close; in referring him to me, your Excellency has done me great honor, but you have also involved me in no inconsiderable perplexity. The affair is of great importance, and may lay the foundation for the happiness of a worthy man; the wish itself is creditable to the Grand Duke, and it will give me great pleasure in any way to subserve his noble purpose. I shall take it into consideration, and, if a result is attainable, shall respectfully submit it to your Excellency. At the first blush, I named young H., which, however, led to nothing, the Grand Duke doubting the extent of his acquaintance with the French language. The visit lasted nearly an hour, and much that was said was remarkable; my share in the conversation must have been unpleasant, at least the physical part of it, which is entirely ruined and quite unintelligible from coughing, influenza, and rheumatic compression of the chest.

With the best wishes for your Excellency’s welfare, I remain in profound reverence and gratitude,

Your obedient
VARNHAGEN VON ENSE.

183.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _Sep. 24th, 1856_.

Before I bury myself again for some days in Potsdam, a sacrifice to the Queen and to her solitude, I shall, dear friend, justify the Grand Duke and myself. The Grand Duke visited you, which honors him, not to consult you, but out of respect for your fine talents and your character, because he had, as he said, inherited the idea from his house, that one must see two men in Berlin, you and me. That we must both accept with gratitude as an inheritance from the _old gentleman_ and the Imperial Highness, who is a worthy lady. He had not at all the idea to speak with you of what he seeks and never will find (equal inclination for science and poetry, history of geographical discoveries, art, painting, gems and sculpture, refined social manners, fluent French speaking and waiting, also reading aloud). That bantling is yet unborn. I said, _j’aviserai_, and quite casually I added, that I would ask your opinion. Only when taking leave, which he introduced officially by very far-fetched phrases on the “noble grey-haired youth,” he asked me whether it would be contrary to my wishes to submit the problem to you also. The visit had for its motive the manifestation of inherited reverence, and a desire to produce an effect, which must be connected with some self-denial at eight o’clock in the morning, on the day of departure. To vaccinate him with our excellent H., we might send the latter for four months to Paris and London; but would a mind like H.’s put up with it? _J’en doute_.

Most cordially, your
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

WEDNESDAY.

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.

THURSDAY.

187.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _November 21st, 1856_.

I yesterday prayed, dear friend, that you should make me the pleasure of your visit on Saturday. I pray to-day that you will not come; I hear with sorrow that you suffer much. The great picture of Hildebrandt remains yet a long time in my house. Every later day will also be useful to me. I only beg of you that you will kindly announce to me the day, beforehand, on which I may expect you. Choose the twelfth hour, under any circumstances, because I am sure to be free then. I also am in a condition in which I desire to _run out of my skin_.[85] As an old man, I suffer as from musquito bites; and moreover, a hyper-christian, Mr. Foster (living at Brussels), consults me from time to time, whether I believe that the souls of the lower animals, such as bed-bugs and musquitoes, are included in the scheme of salvation, and destined to go to heaven. So they threaten me up there too, where I shall find the animal souls, well known to me from the Orinoco, chanting a hymn of praise.

In old friendship, yours,
A. V. HUMBOLDT.

FRIDAY.

And the disgraceful party which sells negro children, and distributes canes of honor, as the Russian Emperor does swords of honor, and Graefe’s noses of honor,—who prove that all white workmen should rather be slaves than free—have succeeded. What a crime!

Nov. 22d, 1856.—Varnhagen writes in his diary:—“I started at half-past 12 o’clock, and drove to Humboldt in the pouring rain. He was rejoiced at my coming, and soon led me to an adjoining room, where hung Hildebrandt’s great aquarelle picture, in a frame; an excellent picture, indeed, in the rich variety of which the sitting figure of Humboldt predominates. Now came the question about the inscription to be chosen for it. I had rightly expected that he did not so much expect propositions from me, as my approval of those chosen by him already. Contrary to my expectation, no short sentence, but a longer speech, a rhetorical composition, which happily compares the searching traveller with the returned man of science. Some alterations were approved in the beginning, but disapproved again in the end. Hildebrandt gave the picture not to Herr von Humboldt, but to his valet Seiffert. It is to be engraved. We looked at the rooms, in three of them; his apparatus of study is strewn about; all three warmed to 19 degrees Réaumur, an intolerable temperature for me. A library hall not warmed. Pictures painted by Madame Gaggiotti, whose talents he praised highly; he wondered and rejoiced that I knew her too. He complained of itching; I said it was a well-known complaint, pruritus. “Senilis,” he immediately added. In a box he had a living chameleon, which he showed me, and of which he said, that it was the only animal which was able to direct one of its eyes upwards, and at the same time the other downwards; that our parsons only were able to do the same, with one eye directed to heaven and the other to the good things of this world. We talked of Neufchatel too; he said that the King was full of good hopes, and counted upon Louis Bonaparte; that Manteuffel did not see things in such a favorable light, but made merry of them. The Russian Chancellor, Graf von Nesselrode, said to Humboldt on his last visit, that the present constitution and position of Switzerland made the best impression on him, and were such as to win esteem and favor for the republic.”

188.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _November 30th, 1856_.

ESTEEMED FRIEND:

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.

SUNDAY.

What men believe and disbelieve does not generally become a subject of contention until after they have been officially buried and bepreached by Sydow.[86]

The “Spenersche Zeitung,” besides discussing Neufchatel and the evacuation of the Danubian principalities, contains a daily health return about five little silkworms of Fintelmann, the court gardener. How all things diminish in importance! I have often written letters dated from the hill of Sans Souci, which formerly was historical. Now the Peacock’s Island becomes historical by the still life of two caterpillars. Thus the world moves. It must be remembered that when the Angora goats made illustrious the administration of Richelieu in France, the _Moniteur_ contained the announcement: “Le moral des chèvres s’améliore de jour en jour.”

189.
CHARLES ALEXANDER, GRAND DUKE OF SAXE-WEIMAR, TO HUMBOLDT.

WEIMAR, _November 29th, 1856_.

As I fortunately have the honor to be known, truly known to your Excellency, I may flatter myself that you will not estimate my gratitude for your services and those of M. de Varnhagen, by the length of time which has elapsed since the day I received your letter of the 31st, and the present time. My sincere thanks shall here receive a place. They have been delayed by the very nature of the transaction. Such could not but be the effect, for in an affair of that kind it is impossible to form a sudden resolution, and accordingly I now write for the sole purpose of not appearing ungrateful, and because, on the other hand, it is necessary to secure the possibility of forming a fixed resolve. To do this I must have time and freedom of election. Both are secured by the kindness of yourself and M. Varnhagen, for you join in proposing to send the young man so as to enable me in the first place to make his acquaintance. The question arises, when can this be done? for I do not care to begin by calling * * * here with the trombone of an appointment. Nothing remains, therefore, but to beg your Excellency to make inquiries at what time the gentleman would be at leisure and inclined to undertake a journey to the bank of the Jlm. Having asked this question, I would pause above all things, in order to proceed to the expression of my thanks for the important news you have the goodness to communicate. If I add the question, whether your Excellency will kindly send me the map for an admiring inspection, and if you should possibly find this question wonderfully troublesome, I take refuge under the shelter of your goodness to me, which has often made me proud, and to-day, perhaps, indiscreet. Yet I am proud of your goodness, which is ever coupled with truth, and in the latter I put my trust, that you will decisively reject my petition, if it troubles you, to whom, in reverence, I remain the most grateful scholar,

CHARLES ALEXANDER.

190.
JOBARD TO HUMBOLDT.

BRUSSELS, _November 26th, 1856_.

MONSIEUR LE BARON:

Perhaps you will not be displeased to learn the rôle you have been made to play in the unfortunate debate of our religious politics.

The old Minister Dechamps, who sat on your right at the dinner of the Baron of Arhim, and who was so much astonished at hearing you say that you were as much of a Republican as your friend Arago, having associated your name with those of the illustrious believers who profess the Catholic faith, a liberal journal this morning answered him as follows:—

“M. Dechamps, in the last homily delivered by him in the Chamber, cited the name of M. de Humboldt to prove that science could well be made subservient to the creed. It must be admitted, as Mr. Devaux showed, that the example could not have been worse chosen. M. de Humboldt is one of those rationalists, pure and simple, against whom M. Dechamps has already written so many letters. If M. Humboldt had taught in Belgium he would most certainly have been pursued in pastoral letters, and discharged by M. Dechamps, if M. Dechamps had been the Minister. Nevertheless, it is thus that history is written, and thus that the most important questions of our intellectual and moral future are appreciated!”

Here is another unmixed and undisguised political opinion:—

“As often and so sure as you base your church upon human obtuseness, the gates of the mind will not prevail against it, because there will always be consummate fools, old fools, and little fools, to uphold and repair it. Pure reason has not the same chance.”

Yours, ever devotedly,
JOBARD.

191.
LINES BY VARNHAGEN ON HILDEBRANDT’S PAINTING OF HUMBOLDT’S APARTMENTS,
AND THE MOTTO ATTACHED.

(TRANSLATED BY CHARLES GOEPP, ESQ., AT EASTON, PA.)

This was the latest, the peaceful home, where the mighty explorer, Early ascender of summits, reposed on the heights of his glory. Hall of the Castle of Knowledge, the limner has deftly restored thee! Lofty and light, rich hung with trophies of noble endeavor; Treasures of nature and art, and of love, and the weapons of science. While in the midst sits, earnestly glad, thoughtfully commanding All the profusion around, himself thy sovereign, breathing Speech and significant life into every shape of the picture; Plying the wonderful shuttle of thought, until it produces, Painting and painted at once, fresh images, brighter and brighter.[87] VARNHAGEN VON ENSE.

BERLIN, _December 1st, 1856_.

192.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

BERLIN, _December 3d, 1856_.