WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
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 164: 156. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
By Alexander von Humboldt
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

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.

156.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Thursday Night—from the 13th to
the 14th of April, 1854.

Receive, noble friend, my most heartfelt thanks, you and the amiable confidant of the “demons.”[62] The King is now invisible to me, on account of the spiritual preparations, and on Monday he goes to Potsdam for five or six days, on account of military affairs; but a very warm letter, written by me, will be in his hands to-morrow, at eight o’clock, in Charlottenburg.[63] Thus we have at least done our duty faithfully. I am fast becoming the responsible minister of the Conservatives; for three days ago I asked the fourth minimum of the red bird[64] for a man who has conserved his real estate for one hundred and fifty years, for Bouché, a gardener, an adopted son[65] from the Champagne. It is a great joy to me that my introduction, which has only the merit of liberal sentiment and faithfulness, has also pleased you in regard to form. As a sign of gratitude, I send you for your collection of autographs a document not unimportant on account of the political situation—June, 1848. The other papers, which contain the sublunar miserabilities of the disagreement,[66] which, alas! has become public, I beg you to return hereafter.

Everything noble is drawn down in the mud. I was compelled to write a few lines in answer. I live in a monotonous and sad mood—et mourant, avant le principe.

With old fidelity, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.

I shall certainly make my appearance on Monday in a wedding garment.