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Letters of Alexander von Humboldt to Varnhagen von Ense. / From 1827 to 1858. With extracts from Varnhagen's diaries, and letters of Varnhagen and others to Humboldt cover

Letters of Alexander von Humboldt to Varnhagen von Ense. / From 1827 to 1858. With extracts from Varnhagen's diaries, and letters of Varnhagen and others to Humboldt

Chapter 133: 127. MIGNET TO HUMBOLDT.
By Alexander von Humboldt
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Essays, Letters & SpeechesGerman LiteratureHistory - Modern (1750+)

About This Book

A curated correspondence collects letters from Alexander von Humboldt to his friend and confidant Varnhagen von Ense, supplemented by diary excerpts and letters from other contemporaries. The missives blend personal friendship with professional exchange, discussing scientific observations, lectures, manuscripts, travels, and reactions to peers and events. Editorial apparatus preserves original phrasing and provides contextual notes and extracts that illuminate relationships and chronology. The selection highlights the writer’s methods of observation, precise descriptive habits, and modes of intellectual collaboration. Together the documents form a compact portrait of an engaged scholar whose private reflections and public endeavors intersect across a wide range of topics.

127.
MIGNET TO HUMBOLDT.

Paris, July 1st, 1846.
Dear Baron, and most illustrious Colleague:

You will easily understand how happy and flattered I was at hearing, that the book “Antonio Perez and Philip II.” has interested you and obtained approval so distinguished as that of your King. The applause of a Prince, of so great genius and learning, who ranks among the most acute and most infallible of literary critics, could not be otherwise than of the greatest value to me. To make the book which was honored with this august approbation worthier of it, may I ask you, my dear and most illustrious colleague, to offer the work in the new form, more complete and more elaborate, which I have just given to it, to your sovereign? This is a respectful act of homage, which the King of Prussia, by the expression of his kind satisfaction, has encouraged me to render, and for which your goodness to me will obtain, I am very sure, a gracious reception.

I take also the liberty of sending to you, for your own library, a copy of this new edition. Documents, hitherto unknown and very curious, which have enabled me to exhibit the designs of Don John of Austria, the murder of Escovedo, and the disgrace of Perez, in their true light, make the first edition imperfect.

But I must hasten to speak of the first volume of Kosmos, which you sent me, and in which you have so admirably shown, if I may use one of your beautiful sentences, “the order of the universe and the magnificence of the order.” I read the book with the greatest pleasure and advantage. It is an exposition, full of the most absorbing grandeur, of the phenomena and laws of the universe, from those nebulous distances whence light comes to us only after a journey of two millions of years, to the revolutions which preceded the actual organization of our planet, and which enabled men to be born, to live, and to reign on its surface. To paint this great picture in its teeming variety and majestic harmony, one needs to be master, like yourself, of all sciences, to love nature earnestly, and to have studied her under every aspect. In addition he must unite a vivid imagination to an accurate and profound judgment. Finish quickly this charming work, for your own glory and for our instruction.

Accept, dear Baron, the assurance of my gratitude, my admiration, and my affectionate devotion.

Mignet.