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 174: 166. VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

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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.

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.