WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
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 86: IV.
By Alexander von Humboldt
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

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.

80.
FOUR NOTES OF FREDERICK WILLIAM THE FOURTH TO HUMBOLDT.

I.

23d December, 1836 (at Night).

The quasi nameless number[39] may expect the mildest of sentences. It will, doubtless, be commuted to six months, and three years’ incapacity to hold office. You may therefore send some comfort, at least as a Christmas present, to the faithful Crefeld. Perhaps!!?!! I shall succeed in procuring the full pardon of this list. It is, however, revolting and horrible to let the poor boy languish so long in a loathsome hole. Leaving the respectability of his parents out of the question, had they been fools or knaves, it could scarcely be excused. Shall we see each other to-night?

Fr. W.

II.

Cherissime Humboldt, you are acquainted with all the pretenders to all the crowns. Please read the inclosed letter, and inform me who the Seigneur Cados may be—who were his father, mother, and ancestors, and also what are his titles to the crown of France, which I shall certainly try to procure for him?

Frederic Guillaume, Pr. Royal.
B. 21 Feb., 1839.

III.

Episode from “The Marriage of Figaro.”

Il y manque quelque chose.

Quoi?—

Le cachet.

Don’t overlook the nice allusion, dearest friend! Your seal must help me out of nearly as great a difficulty as that of Countess Almaviva; otherwise the Prince would perceive that I have read all the flattering things which you have so ill-advisedly! said of me. Pour vous divertir, I inclose my letter. Vale.

Fr. W.
B., 23 March, 1840.

(In Humboldt’s handwriting.)—Autograph of the Prince Royal of Prussia.—The Prince offered to Prince Metternich the chair as President of the Archæological Institute at Rome. I was called upon to write a letter to Prince Metternich, which the Prince Royal wanted to inclose in his own. As it contained some praises of the Prince, he desired to have it sealed.

Humboldt.

I was honest and stupid enough not to take a copy of the letter of the King to Prince Metternich.

IV.

I communicate you the inclosed despatch from Copenhagen, to inform you of the new “Seccatura,” which will wait upon you in the shape of a sea-dog of the Sound, to ask your advice, and assistance as to a voyage around the globe. This letter having no further object, I pray God, Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt, to keep you in his holy and especial care.

Given at our Palace at Potsdam, 29th April, 1849 (1843?), near midnight.

Signed,
Frederic Guillaume.
Note of Varnhagen.—Every word exactly as above—to be understood as a joke.