134.

Berlin, Jan. 18th, 1849.

If I appear slow, my dear Varnhagen, and rather laconic to-day in offering you my thanks for your friendly presents and your letter, and your congratulations, you will not ascribe it to a diminution of my true esteem and friendship. I have had but now the enjoyment of what you alone are entitled to call “A Plain Discourse.”[[55]]

How much more fearful, and at the same time hopeful, a turn events have taken. They only know how to oppose brute force to the impending danger, and are afraid themselves to pluck the proffered fruit.

Romuald’s “Vocation”[[56]] deserves, no doubt, the severest censure. What an abuse of his most eminent talents! We will talk about it as soon as I shall have done with the “Ordenstag[[57]]” and the annoyances of the Academy elections of my order. La petite piece side by side with the great world’s drama.

With the old attachment,

Yours,

A. v. Ht.

There never was nobler praise bestowed on the King than in “The Plain Discourse.”

The little work, “Plain Discourse to the Germans on the Duties of the Day. Berlin, 1848,” is from the pen of Varnhagen. A few months later, on the 10th of May, 1849, the author himself thus speaks of it in his diary: “I have been re-reading what I wrote in August last on Frederick William IV., and what I wrote in 1840, the day after he received the homage of his subjects. What strange sensations it provokes! Do what I will, awake or asleep, I cannot for a moment shake off the nightmare of consciousness of our political condition, although I know full well how ephemeral it is, how certain the retribution, and how bright the ultimate future. Arouse then, my country, arouse! Civil war is thy fate, but it is not thy choice. Go on thy way undaunted, and be the blood on the head of those who willed it not otherwise. At a time like this it is not the successes but the failures of the moment that are of profit to the people.”

This is the place to interpose another visit from Humboldt to Varnhagen. On the 12th of February, 1849, the latter wrote in his diary: “Humboldt called. He thinks it absurd in the ministers to talk of meeting the Chambers, when they cannot find men to make up their own number. Even Kuehlwetter disdains to join them. My opinion that the constitution imposed by the government is merely a husk concealing the germ of a new revolution, which will shortly burst forth, startled him a little; but he was much pleased with the notion that the King has been embroiled with the canon of logic for the last eight years past. He says the King was disposed to return to Canitz as Minister of Foreign Affairs! Eichhorn also vouchsafes his advice, and, like the lady of Privy Counsellor ——, talks of the Pietists as if he had never belonged to them.

“The ‘Staats Anzeiger’ publishes the Austrian note in regard to the German question. Austria will not withdraw, but will have a voice in the counsels of the empire, and will not tolerate a variety of things, such as popular sovereignty, or any leadership except its own. A fling at Prussia, a fling at Frankfort, and particularly at Gagern. There it is! Everything plays into the hands of the revolution!”

135.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, August 16th, 1849.

Whenever I enjoy the fancy of having written a few lines grateful to my ears, I always ask myself whether they would also please you, my valued friend. You know, or rather you do not know, that the Princess of Prussia has deposited a splendid album, with numerous autographs and painted initials, in those halls of the Chateau at Weimar which have been dedicated to Goethe, Schiller, and to Herder and Wieland, maligned by Schiller in his letters to Koerner. I have been compelled to write a preface, which Galuski has translated quite happily. The Grand-Duchess desired a French version for the benefit of foreign travellers who might open the album. Look upon this little memento of your friend with indulgence. There is blood on the horizon, and it makes me sad. I need not remind you of the friendship and esteem of

Yours,

A. v. Humboldt.

Sunday.

136.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, October 15th, 1849.

I hope, my dear friend, that my “Views of Nature,” enlarged, and, for two-thirds of it, almost re-written, are at last in your hands! It was owing to an unfortunate confusion, occasioned by my long absence from Berlin, that this my favorite work was so long in reaching my favorite reader. Perhaps you will derive a brief pleasure from contrasting the picture of the nocturnal din of the words with that of the stillness of high noon—vol. i., pp. 333 and 337; or from glancing at the golden visions of young Astorpileo, vol. ii., 352.

In love and friendship, yours,

In haste.

A. v. Humboldt.

Increase your collection of autographs by a very agreeable letter from the man who now lives in Brussels. The phrase “votre fortune morale” is used with great freedom. But the newspaper, all disfigured with bloodstains! What a, year, in which all the feelings of the heart run wild!

137.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.

(FROM THE FRENCH.)

Richmond, Sep. 17th, 1849.

My dear Baron:

I see by to-day’s papers that the 9th of September, 1769, gave you to the world, and that thus you have just celebrated your eightieth birth-day. Had I been near you I would have joined your friends in offering my good wishes; at the distance which separates us, I approach you alone. Let me say in a few words that I render thanks to the giver of the faculties which have rendered your name imperishable. To be born is of little account; to make life valuable is excellent. You are numbered among the richest, and you have made a noble use of your moral fortune. May God preserve you in safety and in health!

Receive, my dear Baron, with the expression of a congratulation of which you do not doubt the sincerity, that of my sentiments of devotion and friendship, of a date as ancient as all that has a place between us!

Metternich.

138.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, October 29th, 1849.

My dear Friend:

A German letter of the Duchess of Orleans, to whom I have sent all my writings for many years, and who is very fond of them. She writes a hand so cabalistic to my eyes, that I beg to avail myself of your diplomatic experience in decyphering, and to be favored with a legible copy. The purport appears to be of a political nature. It will not be without interest for you, and on this account I appeal all the more confidently to your good-nature.

Your faithful friend,

A. Humboldt.

139.
HELEN, DUCHESS OF ORLEANS, TO HUMBOLDT.

Your Excellency will accept my most heartfelt thanks for the token of the remembrance, so valued by me, which you devote to the hours we passed in times but recently gone by, which the course of events, however, seems already to have thrust back into antediluvian periods.

I see with joyous gratitude that the conversations in my red saloon in the Tuileries and in St. Cloud, ever present to myself, still live in your recollection also, and thank your Excellency for this constancy of sentiments, doubly precious at a time like this.

The kindness of my beloved cousin had already enabled me to refresh myself by the perusal of your latest work, which is hailed as a fountain of health by so many hearts smitten by the rude hand of fate, and minds stunned by the wild confusion of public events; and my son has also found nourishment in it to assuage his thirst of knowledge. Nevertheless, I thank you most cordially for the jewel you have sent, which receives additional value from being accompanied by your letter.

As you say, in words so mild and yet so truly appropriate, “Men are at present laboring at a fable convenue; they strive in part after what is unattainable, and in which they themselves do not believe!” But where will the light appear that is to lead them to the truth, and what events will yet be required to convince them of the impracticability of the most contradictory demands? I agree with your Excellency in thinking that the present tranquillity is destined to be of brief duration. I also do not see in it any real pacification, but only the apathy and indifference which enervates without convincing. Who can fathom the future? The riddle of the coming day remains concealed—how much more must we await in patience the developments of coming years? But courage and resignation must not be impaired by this uncertainty; on the contrary, our hearts should be steeled by it.

During my visit in England, the King asked many questions in regard to the health of your Excellency; the Queen also received with great interest such reports as I could give her. They hold in grateful remembrance your frequent visits in Paris. My children ask to be commended to your recollection, and I also hope to revive in it from time to time.

With heartfelt reverence and gratitude, your Excellency’s friend and admirer,

Helen.

Eisenach, Oct. 23, 1849.

140.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam, October 31st, 1849.

A thousand, thousand thanks for the interpretation, my dear friend. How the political tempests have ravaged even this handwriting, once so fine, or, at least, so distinct. The “beloved courier” I read “beloved cousin,” the Princess of Prussia, who first showed the Duchess the latest “Views.”

A little address delivered by me before the delegates from this city, in which I referred to the views of my brother, a Potsdamer by birth, on a political life which develops itself freely from within, has been printed by the “Spikersche Zeitung,” with numerous typographical errors. Inclosed is my own report, written immediately after delivery. I would have been pleased if the answer had been correctly given in the Constitutional and other truly liberal papers. With my old devotion and friendship,

Yours,

A. Ht.

Wednesday Night.