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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 186: 178. VARNHAGEN 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.

178.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

Berlin, September 13th, 1856.

The great influence of the name of your Excellency in the United States, as in America in general, is a gratifying sign of the improvement of those countries in civilization, and a sure pledge of the ultimate triumph of the philanthropic principles which you have consistently advocated through the course of a long and eventful life. I thank you heartily for the letter of M. v. Gerolt, and its printed inclosure, which will be a valuable addition to my collections. At this moment, it is true, the chances of Fremont are a little doubtful; nevertheless the latest accounts represent the zeal of his supporters as very great and by no means hopeless.

Our domestic events—domestic in their origin though the scene be laid abroad—it would be more agreeable to pass in silence, as it is difficult to find the proper expression with which to characterize them, and impracticable to make use of those expressions when found. The most consoling observation to be made is that of unanimous condemnation on all hands, where there are no private ends to gain. For the veritable Prussian of the good old school such things as Jade, Neufchatel, and even Zollern, are at all times nothing but distractions, having no legitimate concern with the core of the Prussian state. In regard to Neufchatel, I fear that a momentary favorable nod of France is over valued, and will lead to inextricable entanglements; Reynard[82] is apt to incite his friends to dangerous adventures; the escape from them is their affair, and he takes a malicious pleasure in looking on.

The other day Lady Bettina von Arnim contributed to my collections near a thousand autographs. One of the most valuable is a letter from your Excellency to Ludwig Achim von Arnim, on petrifactions; it is not dated, but I refer it to the third decade of the present century.

I well know on what day I write these lines. It precedes the day more widely and more enthusiastically celebrated than any other. May it please your Excellency to accept the modest tribute of my warm good wishes with kind favor! In faithful reverence and grateful devotion,

Your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.