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 48: 46.

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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.

46.

April 13th, 1840.

The Crown-Prince has expressly charged me to offer you, dear friend, his thanks for such an interesting communication. Count Alvensleben was present. Every one considered the letter a gratifying testimonial to you and to your description of the Congress, and praised it for the noble simplicity in which one of the most remarkable events is recited. “Et tout cela prouve que ma fille est muette,” and that a talent like yours (in advising, in describing, and in knowledge of mankind) is allowed to be idle, so that after your death, as after my brother’s, people will express their astonishment at your not having been employed in time.

A. Ht.

I am quite “turned Quaker.” Mrs. Fry and William Allan—little sermons in the penitentiaries (the most horrible ones which the Quakeress has ever seen), and little tracts against brandy-drinking!