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!
47.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Friday, March 29th, 1840.
Decide, master of eloquence and euphony: I had it thus, “As far as humanity (civilisation) extended on earth!”
Now, it pleases me better to put: 1, “It has influenced rulers and nations equally, as far as civilization and commerce extend” (extend, not extended, which latter I abhor); or, 2, “As far as civilization and commerce ennobled mankind;” or, 3, “Made mankind susceptible;” or, 4, “United mankind.”
Would No. 4 (the last), not be the better? Perhaps you have an inspiration. Put clandestinely, to-night at Staegemann’s, a bit of paper in my hand. Perhaps the first conception is the best.
A. Ht.
“Humanity” I give up at any rate, having just read so many mockeries regarding it in the last volume of Campe’s dictionary.
“Sed quamquam, primo statim beatissimi sæculi ortu, Nerva Cæsar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem; augeatque quotidie felicitatem imperii Nerva Trajanus.” Tacitus in Agricola, cap. 3. Also, of the same old Nerva (noble and gifted with literary taste):
“Quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi Nervæ, et imperium Trajani, uberiorem securioremque materiam senectati seposui: rara temporum felicitas, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere licet.” Tacit. Hist. I. 1. I, of course, in order to avoid all detail, shall give only the numerical quotations, sic: Tacit. Vita Ag. c. 3 Hist. I. 1.
Ht.
48.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Tuesday Night, Oct. 27th, 1840.
If I have delayed so long in coming to you, my dear friend, both before and after my campaign to the North, it is only because there are impossibilities in life against which we battle in vain. Immediately after the festivities in this city I intended to hasten to you, but the uncertainty whether I should go to Paris (I refused, because then it would not have been honorable either to me or to the king, if Prussia did not dare to act independently!) the approaching departure of Bulow, the arrival of the sick General von Hedemann and his family, together with a rheumatic fever, which kept me in the house for six days, spoiled all my intentions. To-morrow morning, at 8 o’clock, I have to move over again to Sans Souci; but (I hope) only for some days. I, therefore, now take up my pen to chat with you. First my best thanks for your talented and noble treating of the rather mediocre “Erinnerungen von M. Arndt!” I certainly had observed his hostility towards you. The tone of your criticism is the noblest kind of revenge. The man, whom I never knew personally, was raised by the great events of his time and not by himself. Strange enough that the government attached to him in these latter days, in the evening of his life, an importance not arising merely from a simple love of justice.
Since you like everything individual, I shall answer your kindness with another very small one. I make you a present of a letter of Guizot, which he wrote to me to Koenigsberg, not without design. The underlining belongs to me, as you would guess yourself. I showed the letter to the King. It was written when the Belgian (the King of Belgium), Bulow, and Guizot had been in Windsor, and when his affairs looked promising, as they do now again, as Thiers at once shows himself so weak and yielding, and Palmerston so dogmatical and defying. But do not let the letter out of your hands.
For the news about the brothers Grimm I thank you most cordially. It is very important to me to keep “au courant” with the course of passing events. In the months during which I lived on the “historical hill,”[[24]] I moved uncontrolled in the same direction, though surrounded by conflicting elements.
Respecting the brothers Grimm, the King had given orders to others, not to me; but up to the return from Königsberg, nothing was done. I therefore addressed a memorial to the King on the actions in Königsberg of the Provincial Diet, and on the necessity of acting authoritatively in things which interest all hearts, in order to secure their affections—and therefore to bestow a professorship upon the brothers Grimm, Albrecht, and Dahlmann. There is little hope for Dahlmann. Albrecht received a call, but refused it, giving as a reason his gratitude to Saxony. It would have been a satisfaction to the seven professors, could Albrecht have become professor in Berlin.
They certainly will at least hear in Hanover that the King has called the “Elbinger.” In respect to the brothers Grimm, the King insists upon his plan, that minister Eichhorn should offer to them a place in the Academy, with a pension to both, as they live like husband and wife. That the King wants these things to be arranged with tact, you may see from the negotiations with Tieck. For librarians, although excellent men, they are very unfit. Whether Wilhelm Grimm, as a correspondent of the Academy, lectures or not is also very irrelevant. The chief thing is to get them. Of “smuggling them in,” “a debasement,” “to think of them so late,”—dans un regne de cent jours—it is nonsense to talk! It does honor at least to the administration of Ladenberg, that I was able to propose Dahlmann in due form, and in flattering terms for the university of Breslau, where there was a vacancy. I have cleared the way as it was my duty to do, but the appointment itself is not in my hands. As soon as I return from Potsdam, I shall trouble minister Eichhorn, to settle this patriotic affair officially and at once. The interference of many in these things is injurious, although it can be pardoned where the interest is so natural. I know not, my dear friend, whether you will be able and willing to read these lines, the sense of which is more blameless than the style. I need not conjure you, the diplomatist, not to read my letter to the “child,”[[25]] but she ought to hear how these matters stand, respecting which I have neglected nothing.
A. Ht.
An inexpressible misfortune has happened in the death of the only son of my friend the astronomer, Bessel, only twenty-five years old, a young man of the most eminent mathematical talents. He died yesterday of nervous fever.
49.
GUIZOT TO HUMBOLDT.
London, August 24, 1840.
Monsieur le Baron:
It was very amiable indeed in you to have thought of sending me the two new volumes of your brother’s works. I thank you not only for this gift, in itself so very valuable, but also for your remembrance which is at least equally dear to me. I hope that notwithstanding all our affairs, for they are yours as well as mine, I shall manage to read something of this great work. I should like to employ my time in so complete and varied a manner as you occupy yours. Preserve a little of it for the advancement of a good and a wise policy, which though it already owes you much, still needs you.
I envy Baron von Bülow the pleasure of seeing you. I regret extremely losing his society in London. Conversation—genuine conversation—profound, pregnant, and free, is very scarce among us. His I shall miss very much. I should like to go some day to see you at your home, to visit your country, in which, beyond all others, human intellect acts the greatest part, and to see your new King, who is worthy, it is said, of such a country. In the meanwhile, Monsieur le Baron, pray preserve for me your old kindness and believe in the lasting sincerity of the sentiments which long ago I conceived for you.
Guizot.
Note of Humboldt.—Received at Königsberg during the festivals.
A. von Humboldt.
50.
ARAGO TO HUMBOLDT.
Paris, March 12th, 1841.
I must not, I will not, believe that you asked me seriously whether I should look forward to your journey to Paris with pleasure. Could it be that you ever doubted my invariable attachment? Be it known to you that I should consider the slightest doubt upon this point a most cruel offence. Beyond the immediate circle of my own family you are, without comparison, the person whom, of all others, I love the most dearly. But you must be resigned to the duties of this position, as you are of my friends the only one to whom I would look in my difficulties.
I am truly happy in the anticipation of spending some evenings with him to whom I am indebted for my taste in meteorology and physics. There will be a bed for you at the Observatory.
Poor Savary is in a lamentable state. The physician assures me that the disease of his lungs leaves no hope. What a calamity!
You will arrive at Paris at the opening of my course of astronomy. My new amphitheatre is got up with a profligate luxury.
I am charmed with the news of poor Sheiffer’s[[26]] recovery (is it true?). Your good heart has always secured you a numerous family.
Adieu, best of friends. My attachment to you will only cease with my life.
Fr. Arago.
Note of Humboldt.—I had asked whether he thought it possible that the difference of our political wishes [war with Germany] might disturb our intercourse.
Note of Humboldt.—To his highly gifted friend, Varnhagen von Ense, with the most earnest request to avoid all publication of this autograph before Arago’s death.
A. Humboldt.
51.
HUMBOLDT TO BETTINA VON ARNIM.
[A copy in Varnhagen’s handwriting.]
Saturday, November 21, 1840.
How could you doubt, most honored Madam, my being thankful for the news of the real situation of those noble men, who after so many undeserved sufferings, and after so long and so shameful a neglect, are at last to be placed in an independent position. I thought that, to have given them such a situation in Berlin, three thousand thalers would be a sufficient salary for both, and with this view I have continued my efforts. The King has adopted it as a principle never to issue an order in financial matters on his own account; like all princes, he has no standard by which to measure the wants of learned men. The superior intellects with whom we wish to surround ourselves have wants as prosaic as their inferiors. Whoever wishes to obtain the end must also be willing to employ the means, and especially in an affair which attracts every eye and which touches the honor of the country. The minister Eichhorn, upon whom everything now depends, is happy in the arrival of the two Grimms. He was formerly on the most friendly terms with Jacob Grimm. I called on the minister an hour ago in order to support my view of the matter. He declares that by-and-by he will arrange the affair in the best manner, but that we must confide in him, and allow him to act without obstruction.
Receive, gracious Madam, the expression of my veneration and of my sentiments of gratitude.
A. Humboldt.
52.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, August 22d, 1841.
Your letter has done me an immense deal of good. I see that we feel ourselves both equally attracted to each other, and that you attributed my long, and to me very gloomy, seclusion, only to the distracted state of my life, and to the application of my faculties, to an aim which they never can reach. Towards the close of a much troubled life which has but imperfectly realized its aspirations, it is a happiness to remain secure in, and to possess the esteem of those to whose mind and intellect and wishes we are irresistibly drawn. I shall personally thank you, and this very afternoon apply for Mr. L. to the Princess of Prussia, and beg her Imperial Highness to assist me with all earnestness. With old veneration and love, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
At the request of the King I took the opportunity of reading to him Schelling’s discourse on nature and art. (Philosoph. Werke, tome 1st, 1809.) The passages concerning Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and about the possibility of a resuscitation of the arts, are the most pleasing in our language. This lecture produced on the King the effect of a beautiful song. But the bird is now sixty-seven years old, and goes from one golden cage to another.
Varnhagen says in his diary, under date of April 28, 1841: “Humboldt came and remained more than an hour and a half; I found him looking ill, but lively, cheerful, and more communicative than ever. He praises the King for his disposition and his intentions, but thinks that he is no man of action, and that whenever he acts, he does it by starts, without system or method. Whether it be from kindness or timidity, at all events, he often does not dare to do what he most wishes and could do quite easily; thus he expects impatiently that the minister Von Werther will resign, and asks of Humboldt, whether the minister has given no intimation of it.”
On the 30th April, 1841, Varnhagen says: “Humboldt has a great many enemies, as well amongst the savans as at court, who are constantly seeking an opportunity to malign him, but the moment he is praised all vituperation ceases—for it is all vituperation. It is seldom that anybody is able to maintain it. Some time ago a gentleman said to me, that he did not know what to think of Humboldt, and that he could not come to a conclusion concerning him. I answered: ‘Think always the best of him, believe him always capable of the best action, and you always will be nearest the truth.’ Another said, same day, sneeringly: ‘Humboldt was a great man before he came to Berlin, where he became an ordinary one.’ Moritz Robert remarked that Rahel had already said several times: ‘Nothing holds its ground in Berlin, everything has a downward tendency; indeed, if the Pope himself came to Berlin, he would not continue long to be Pope, he would sink into the ‘commonplace,’ down perhaps to the standard of a groom.’ What Rahel said is true, and I remember that she said so, but had made no note of it. This peculiarity of Berlin ought to be examined closer; it indicates a strong stratum of undeveloped greatness, and may, when positively brought forth to a point, bring the highest honor on Berlin; but if allowed to act negatively, it will, of course, become a shame to this city. ‘The Berliners are such a daring race of men,’ said Goethe, once. That is much the same definition.”
53.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Saturday, April 24th, 1841.
A disappointment, dear friend, not to have found you. Correct this title-page for me; I have to send it away. As it is necessary to state, “that this is not the lecture of 1828,” I thought of having the long sentence printed on the title-page, in small type, like an aphorism. It may look strange after the name, but I hope you will be able to approve of it.
Ht.
“Kosmos. Sketch of a Physical Description of the World, by A. von Humboldt. From Sketches and Lectures delivered in the years 1827 and 1828, enlarged and corrected according to the latest researches.
“‘Naturæ vero rerum vis atque majestas sin omnibus momentis fide caret, si quis modo partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo.’—Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. 7. c. 1. Stuttgart.”
54.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Wednesday, April 28th, 1841.
Be very kind and indulgent in reading my work. I am anxious that you should get a complete idea of the composition of it. In A, I have made large corrections. Notice especially p. 37 and the notes; Schelling’s name, pp. 37 and 68; Hegel, p. 66. The positive declaration at p. 64, that it is not the creator of Natural Philosophy whom I accuse, will, I hope, make my biting severity at the “gay Saturnalia,” le bal en masque of the craziest of all natural philosophers, seem more pardonable to him. “Il faut avoir le courage d’imprimer. Ce que l’on a dit et écrit depuis trente ans.” It has been a lamentable period, in which Germany has sunk far below England and France. Chemistry, without so much as wetting one’s fingers.
The diamond is a pebble arrived at consciousness. Granite is ether. Carus.
The side of the moon turned towards the earth is of a different convexity from the reverse. The cause of it: the moon fain would stretch out her loving arms—she cannot, but gazes at the earth, and protrudes her lower jaw.
The granite blocks on the rocks are the convulsions of nature.
It is well known that the forests are the hair of the earth-animal. The swelling equatorial region is the belly of Nature.
America is a female figure, long, slender, watery and freezing at 48°. The degrees of latitude are the years woman gets old at, 48 years. The East is oxygen, the West hydrogen; it rains when clouds from the East are mixed with clouds from the West.—Schelling.
Petrifactions in rocks are not the remains of former living beings. They are the first attempts of nature at making animals and plants. In Siberia some dogs lived for years on such an experiment—a stinking elephant at the mouth of the Lena.
These are the Saturnalia! Cast your eye particularly on the notes, en masse, of which I inclose a few. P. 40–49; p. 55–57.
I wish to give to the work the greatest generality and breadth of views, a lively and, if possible, graceful style, and to replace all technical terms with well-chosen, graphic, and descriptive language.
Correct freely, my friend; I gladly follow where I can. Some not very common erudition I intend to banish to the notes. This book should be the reflex of my own self, of my life, of my own very old person. This freedom of treatment enables me to proceed more aphoristically. More will be suggested than elaborated. Much will be well understood by those only who know thoroughly one special branch of natural history; but I think my style is such as to confuse no one, not even the superficial. My real aim is to hover over those results which are known in 1841. Mens agitat molem, may the mind still be there!
That such a work cannot be finished by one born in the comet-year, 1769, is as clear as daylight. The separate fragments will appear in parts of twelve to fifteen sheets each, so that those who may see me buried will possess in each fragment some one subject complete. Thus of the “Prolegomena,” there will be No. 1–4; My “incentive,” descriptive poetry, which you have not yet seen, is a chief feature of the work on which I rely a good deal.—No. 5. The history of man’s conception of the world, which is quite finished, will form the entire second book. Plain scientific description will always be intermingled with the oratorical, like nature itself. The glittering stars fill us with joy and inspiration, yet in the canopy of heaven all bodies revolve in mathematical figures. It is essential to preserve a dignified style, so that the impression of nature’s greatness will not be wanting. I hope you will not find fault with my quoting (C) in a note the passage from Shakespeare which is but little known.
All the notes are to be printed in very small type at the end of each chapter, never at the bottom of the page. I had said that a knowledge of nature is not absolutely necessary to enjoy it, but that it increases the enjoyment. Pardon this hasty writing. I leave to-morrow morning with the King for Potsdam, to stay there six or seven days. With thanks and friendship, your illegible
A. v. Humboldt.
55.
HUMBOLDT TO SPIKER.
(C.)
[Biron speaks to the King of Navarre.]
“These earthly godfathers of heaven’s lights,
That gave a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their shining nights,
Than those that walk, and wot not what they are,
Too much to know, is to know nought but fame;
And every godfather can give a name.”
Shakespeare, Love’s Labor Lost. Act I. Scene 1.
Be so kind as to send me back this page. I make use of your fine translation in a note which is now being printed in my Kosmos. You will permit me to say: “according to Spiker’s translation.” It will give me pleasure to do so. Shall I excite the ire of the Marquis August von Schlegel or of Tieck Acorombonus? Please tell me whether they have also translated that passage? Many kind regards.
Ht.
Note of Varnhagen.—Unfortunately Spiker’s translation is bad in every respect.
56.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Monday Night, May 3, 1841.
I am afraid, my dear friend, that I shall be obliged to go to Potsdam again on Thursday, and thence to Paris on the 10th or 12th. I am to send Cotta more copy before I go. Let me not be suspended so long between condemnation and indulgence. Pray send me a few words with the parcel.
Yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
57.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Tuesday, May 4th, 1841.
My Dear Friend:—Even after deducting the kind expressions written expressly for my tranquillity, there still remains more than enough in your letter of to-day to comfort me. The penance,[[27]] therefore, which I assign you is to receive me to-morrow morning at 11 o’clock, for a few moments, to accept my thanks. The “schmeichle mich” must be a clerical error; as for me I am unconscious of it. The false use of the accusative case at p. 44, you will have to show me. It cannot be “Einsicht in den Zusammenhang?” because it is looking into. I shall expunge Mr. Spiker. I had a presentiment of the end, and would rather even omit the English as well, which, after all, is rather a praise of ignorance, than indicative of the increase of enjoyment to be derived from science.
I see that you give me full liberty concerning the “Saturnalia.” Speaking of the Dane, you say: “I only mention, I do not object.”
I did not wish to mention Steffens, however much he might deserve a reproach for his utter barrenness in experimental science, and for his vain and criminal idleness. “Saturnalia” I call that merry but short farce, of which lately I gave you some specimens, but which are not from Steffens; they are by some of his worshippers several degrees lower down. Were Steffens a poor savan, oppressed by the powerful, I would be more careful; but as you are an amateur of autographs, I will give you one from which you will see how northern kings believe that there exists in Berlin a Steffensian philosophy, which is consoling to the theologians, et qui n’est pas celle de Hegel! Steffens will believe that he is included among those deep and powerful thinkers, whose advice has been disregarded. Besides the dangerous passage is immediately followed by another: “Abuse of youthful talents; for serious minds, devoted equally to philosophy and to observation, have kept aloof from those Saturnalia.” Such a sentence is a défense, a fort detaché, and Steffens certainly thinks that he, too, devoted himself to observation, when he once descended into a mine at Freiburg. By softening anything I should spoil the whole, and we ought in writing to show the same courage as in speaking, but should do both in the same easy and cheerful manner.
Did you find out from Steffens’s tiresome biography, with which I was bored at Sans Souci, how his pietism and aristocracy is explained by the twofold inoculation of his old grandparents, performed by an archbishop and a king,—ce sont des heritages!
A. v. Humboldt.
58.
KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HUMBOLDT.
Monsieur le Baron—I am doubly obliged to the illustrious counsellor Dieffenbach for his attention in presenting me with a copy of his work on the cure of strabism and stammering, since it was the cause of your dear letter of the 9th February. Introduced by you, Monsieur le Baron, any one is sure of success. In the present case, the reputation and the works of the author could have dispensed with all further recommendation; but you only do justice to the great services which Counsellor Dieffenbach has rendered to mankind, and I hasten to acknowledge them by bestowing my Danebrog Order on that distinguished savan. My letter to him on this subject will be remitted by the Envoy Count de Reventlau, and I shall particularly recommend to Chevalier Dieffenbach any Danish surgeons going to Berlin to learn the art upon which he has thrown so much light.
The bearer of the present, whom I beg leave to recommend to your protection, is the theological candidate, Bornemann—a young man of talent and knowledge, whom I send to Berlin to study Philosophy under the guidance of my countryman, Steffens—not precisely that of Hegel, who has disciples enough in our University; but that philosophy which may assist in rectifying the sometimes rather extravagant doctrines of our modern thinkers. Steffens is kept at Berlin by a sacred tie, the gratitude he owes to the King; but I desire that his genius and his knowledge may not be lost to us, and that this young scholar may profit by his light before it ceases to shine, and to enlighten all those coming in contact with my illustrious countryman, who, in my opinion, is in himself worth an entire academic faculty.
I follow with the greatest interest, founded on sincere friendship and on the mutual relations of our respective positions, which I fully appreciate, all that your excellent King does and projects for the happiness of his subjects, for German nationality, and for the preservation of peace. May his efforts be blessed by the Almighty; his people will then enjoy an increased and steady prosperity, which will materially contribute to the welfare of their neighbors.
The King has shown more kindness to my son than I can thank him for. I look forward to a most happy future for him, based on his marriage with the amiable Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
I appreciate the good wishes which you address me on this occasion, and remain, with the highest consideration, Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt,
Your affectionate
Christian R.