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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 191: 183. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
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.

183.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Berlin, Sep. 24th, 1856.

Before I bury myself again for some days in Potsdam, a sacrifice to the Queen and to her solitude, I shall, dear friend, justify the Grand Duke and myself. The Grand Duke visited you, which honors him, not to consult you, but out of respect for your fine talents and your character, because he had, as he said, inherited the idea from his house, that one must see two men in Berlin, you and me. That we must both accept with gratitude as an inheritance from the old gentleman and the Imperial Highness, who is a worthy lady. He had not at all the idea to speak with you of what he seeks and never will find (equal inclination for science and poetry, history of geographical discoveries, art, painting, gems and sculpture, refined social manners, fluent French speaking and waiting, also reading aloud). That bantling is yet unborn. I said, j’aviserai, and quite casually I added, that I would ask your opinion. Only when taking leave, which he introduced officially by very far-fetched phrases on the “noble grey-haired youth,” he asked me whether it would be contrary to my wishes to submit the problem to you also. The visit had for its motive the manifestation of inherited reverence, and a desire to produce an effect, which must be connected with some self-denial at eight o’clock in the morning, on the day of departure. To vaccinate him with our excellent H., we might send the latter for four months to Paris and London; but would a mind like H.’s put up with it? J’en doute.

Most cordially, your
A. v. Humboldt.
Wednesday.

Gerlach intends to separate himself from the King, and to oust Reyher, whereby he would still remain quite near the King, ay, even nearer than at present, for the cause of little animosities (electricity from contact) would then disappear.