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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 96: 90. 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.

90.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

2d September, 1844.

If Dr. Prutz, at Halle, in his obnoxious “Moritz,” had said nothing more than what he puts in the mouth of the clown (page 40), who, speaking of the people, “One should give them two morsels, so that they may wag their tails and crawl back into their cold kennels;” and at page 53, the poetically fine lines “I conjure you, ye future monarchs,” one would understand how that wonderful drama, in which Moritz contrives to plunge all his friends into the water that he may have the pleasure simply of fishing them out, dead or alive, but at any rate, cold and wet, could produce an excitement at the present time.[40] Peruse the manuscript, dear friend, and send it back to-morrow, Tuesday, before two o’clock. The steps which I intend taking will, however, be unsuccessful. The proceeds of its representation might, with propriety, be given to the inundated, and thus the police might become a hydraulic power, or even a drying machine.

Yours,
A. Ht.
Monday.