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 141: 135. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

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.

135.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, August 16th, 1849.

Whenever I enjoy the fancy of having written a few lines grateful to my ears, I always ask myself whether they would also please you, my valued friend. You know, or rather you do not know, that the Princess of Prussia has deposited a splendid album, with numerous autographs and painted initials, in those halls of the Chateau at Weimar which have been dedicated to Goethe, Schiller, and to Herder and Wieland, maligned by Schiller in his letters to Koerner. I have been compelled to write a preface, which Galuski has translated quite happily. The Grand-Duchess desired a French version for the benefit of foreign travellers who might open the album. Look upon this little memento of your friend with indulgence. There is blood on the horizon, and it makes me sad. I need not remind you of the friendship and esteem of

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Sunday.