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

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.