SUPPLEMENT.
“Spenersche Zeitung,” of 1852, Feb. 4, No. 29.—The transactions in reference to the formation of the second Chamber have repeatedly been the subject of our communications. It is perhaps not equally well known, that at this moment the attention of higher circles is also directed to the formation of the Second Chamber. The present electoral law presents the right of suffrage as one to be exercised or not at the option of the voter, without a corresponding obligation on his part. A law compelling men to vote would seem to be equally inexpedient and impracticable. But by refraining from voting in any number, the voters repose the decision of the question in the hands of an unknown minority, who, by exercising their privilege, frequently bring about a state of things by which representation is given, not to the political views of the constituency, but to their very opposite. The principles had in view in fixing the reconstruction of the First Chamber, have, by force of logical inference, led to the proposals to alter the electoral law for the Second Chamber in this manner, that His Majesty, the King, shall appoint in each district, long before the election, a government candidate, who shall be the representative, unless the majority of the voters should at the election record their preference for another. The specific arguments in support of such a plan will appear to-morrow in connexion with its details.
148.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, February 12th, 1852.
It may interest you, dear friend, to see collected on one sheet all the efforts making by the Orleans dynasty to counteract the robbery. The Duchess of Orleans sends the paper by the Princess of Prussia.
Are you acquainted with a candidate for theological honors, named William S., of Dresden, disguised under the name of Wilfried von der Neun, who torments me by sending aphorisms in manuscript?
Yours,
A. v. Ht.
Be kind enough to return the enclosed at your early convenience.
149.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, March 23d, 1852.
One of the many inconveniences of old age is that of liability to attempts at conversion. Do you care to deposit this curious, good-natured letter among your psychological curiosities? (The man who is entirely convinced of Bernadotte’s salvation, circuitously informs me that Satan wields the baton of command in my heart, as in that of Goethe, that of the pious Kant, and that of Wieland.) And our parliament!! If necessary the cities must be expunged from the face of the earth—such is the desire of our diplomatist at the Diet.
With heartfelt attachment,
Yours,
A. Ht.
Tuesday, late at night.
The enclosed letter from August. Grau, of Montgomery County, Ohio, dated February 6, 1852, contains the following: “A gentleman who has travelled over a large portion of the earth, who, by the publication of so many excellent writings, has erected for himself so durable and so resplendent a monument on the field of literature and science, is not to be named by any German without the greatest esteem. When the names of great warriors who have spilt the blood of their fellow-men upon the battle-field shall be forgotten, your name will blaze for hundreds and thousands of years in the annals of history. But it is singular, at the same time, that the greatest naturalists, philosophers, and astronomers who have occupied the principal portion of their lives with new inventions, and with investigations into the elementary powers of nature, are often totally indifferent to their salvation or perdition in the world to come. Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, and Kant, were all distinguished characters and brilliant ideals, and in their walk and conversation were more or less observant of what are called the laws of morality, so as probably to abstain from cards, nine-pins, playhouses, and dancing, but their sphere of operations did not reach into eternity, and the fate of their fellow-men in the other world—their salvation—was of little interest to them.” After launching into further sanctified regrets at the scarcity of true godliness, and its absence even in princes and royal chaplains, the writer continues: “The last King of Prussia, and his truly royal Louise, had some knowledge of a state of regeneration, as well as the last King of Sweden, the former French Marshal Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte Corvo. A poor peasant was better able to enlighten him on the means of salvation than one of the first bishops of the Lutheran church. O, Sir Privy Councillor, while I do full justice to your unblemished life, your high character as a statesman, and your acquirements as a man of science; and while I rejoice that Berlin—ay, that Prussia may boast of such a man as your Excellency, yet my joy would turn into holy exultation if I should have the honor of seeing you a warm disciple of Him who died upon Golgotha. Without Him, Lord Chamberlain, with all our acquirements, with all our boasted knowledge, we are singularly unhappy.” Further on, the letter reads: “Goethe says, on a certain occasion, that during the whole course of his long life he had not spent four happy weeks. These are the words of a great man of science. If Christ has not taken up his residence in our hearts, who else can be there but Satan? One of them, surely, must be there—one must wield the baton of command. It is manifestly impossible at one and the same time to serve two masters! Worthy sir, my gracious Lord Chamberlain, I am penetrated with great esteem for you and your lofty merits; I love and revere you. I am not worthy to unlace your shoes. This is the unconstrained language of my heart; although I have occupied myself with acquiring the elements of seventeen different languages, and can even at this day read the writings of the New Testament in seven different tongues. But I have not only been firmly convinced of the truth of the Christian religion for thirty-one years, but experience the influence of the Holy Ghost from day to day, and almost from hour to hour.” The letter is subscribed, “Your Grace’s most devoted servant and brother in Christ, Augustus Grau.” Humboldt adds the remark: “An attempt at conversion, from the State of Ohio.”
150.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, March 13th, 1853.
The confusion of my lonely life, my dear friend of many years, at a time of such profound moral degradation, leaves me in a harassing uncertainty as to whether I have or have not sent you the seventh volume of my brother’s complete works. I am greatly ashamed, but I know that you have not yet learned to be angry with me. The article against Capodistrias, the demand for the surrender of Strasburg, sounds like the irony of fate upon our present humility....
With ancient love and reverence, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
The death of Leopold von Buch bows me deeply. A happy blending of the most noble, philanthropic sentiments, momentary impulses, and a little despotism of opinion; one of the few men who have a physiognomy. He has given a new form to his science; he was one of the greatest illustrations of our times; our friendship has endured sixty-three years, unruffled, although we often tilled the same field. I found him, in Freiberg, in 1791, where he had come to the Mining Academy before myself, although five years younger. His funeral appeared like a prelude to my own, C’est comme cela que je serai dimanche. And in what a condition do I leave the world—I who lived in 1789? But centuries are as seconds in the mighty development of advancing humanity. The swelling curve, however, has its little indentations, and it is irksome to be found in such an interval of decadence.
151.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, March 14th, 1853.
Hearty thanks for the comfort derived from the characteristic word of Fontenelle’s, hitherto unknown to me—but twenty years are too short to see anything better! Your Buelow von Dennewitz is great and good news to me! The treasure of the warm-blooded Leopold von Buch I return inclosed. May not Friedrich Schlegel’s astronomical vision be connected with conversations I had with him at Vienna on the certainty that we shall see the southern cross rise again in Germany, where it has already shone in historic ages? Let me remind you of a passage in my Kosmos (II. p. 333), which derives some interest for you from its reliable chronological date. “It was not more than 2900 years before our era that the cross became invisible in Northern Germany. The constellation had ascended as far as the tenth degree above the horizon. When it disappeared from the Baltic skies, the pyramid of Cheops had already stood five hundred years. The shepherd nation of the Hyksos invaded Egypt seven hundred years later. The past becomes apparently less remote when we can measure it by reference to memorable events.”
Persevere in your diligence upon Buelow von Dennewitz, who became very dear to me in Paris. Fond of music, he was very affable in the family of Lafayette, in the little chateau of Lagrange, at Paris—Lafayette’s country-seat, where Buelow was quartered.
Yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
I shall bring volume VI. myself.
Note by Varnhagen.—As a comfort for his eighty years, I had written to Humboldt that even these could be transformed into a comparative youth, as appeared by Fontenelle’s example, who, at the age of a hundred years, attempted to pick up a fan dropped by a lady, and, unable to do it as quickly as he wished, exclaimed, “Que n’ai je plus mes quatre vingt ans!” Of Friedrich Schlegel I had told him, that shortly before his death, he prophesied to Tieck, at Dresden, that, at no very remote period, though he could not exactly define it, a mighty change would take place in the heavens, the great constellations would leave their places, and combine to form an immense cross.
152.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, August 15th, 1853.
Separated from you, my dear intellectual friend, by the prolongation of my dreary sojourn at Potsdam, my first approach to you is to petition. You, you alone are my literary adviser, you who combine such depths of feeling with so wonderful a command of the harmonies of language. In my extreme old age, timidity in regard to my own powers increases in an almost morbid degree. A separate volume is to contain a selection of the sonnets of my brother, in which there is not always a perfect consonance between form and substance. I crave your permission to come to you to-morrow, Tuesday, at one o’clock, to read you a preface I have been compelled to write! By all means send a verbal assent by the bearer.
With indestructible friendship, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
153.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, August 31st, 1853.
For once in this gloomy time, when a fell simoom blows from the Pruth to the Tajo, I have had a real and a keen delight—your return, your encouraging message, and even the assistance I implored. Your superb letter finds me at the bon à tirer of a little, I hope unpretending, preface to the sonnets. As it will be unfortunately impossible to-morrow (on Friday the King arrives at Potsdam, when I must hand him a good many things, according to promise), I take the liberty of sending you my proof sheets this evening.
I beseech you to be severe in your treatment of these sheets, with which I have incorporated a remarkable fragment (in illustration of the ideas and frames of mind manifested in the “Letters to a Lady Friend”) and to note on a separate piece of paper what I ought to alter, and especially what I ought to substitute. I follow you implicitly.
I dislike the phrase on page 4, “Schoen errungene Himmelsgabe.”[[58]]
The pious fragment is an autograph, nearly illegible, and requiring some emendation in the construction of the sentences; thus on page 11: Perhaps you prefer the phrase “bei Anerkennung.” The phrase is heavy, even now.
On p. 14 you will not disapprove of “eben nicht,” in place of “haben nie gerade,” which is still more vernacular. The four lines stand there like a fallen aerolith. They must be preserved at all hazards, if only on account of their freedom.
Could not you help out page 13 below somewhat? Is the close of the phrase “voice of conscience—has laid” clear to you? It is not so to me. Perhaps a few words would make the sense clear.
Roma, the verses to me from Albano, and all the choruses and Pindarus will form another volume.
With old affection and profound esteem,
Yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
The saddest news of Arago’s family; swollen hands and feet, diabetes, and almost blindness! Forty years of life go with him!!
154.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, September 2d, 1853.
A thousand pardons for troubling you in suffering! I have adopted every suggestion, taken every hint. But I should like also to insert the reflection you made in regard to p. 6. Would you approve of the following interpolation: “A long sojourn at Rome, and perhaps a lively interest in certain epochs of Italian poetry, appear to have imbued my brother with a particular preference for a little lyric form, which, if melody is not to be sacrificed, closely fetters the thought, but which he handled with a freedom, the result of intention and confidence.” Or would you have it, “which he freely handled with the confidence of a clear intention,” or, “which he handled with a freedom of which he was perfectly conscious?” “When the poet, urged by his realistic and individual peculiarity, felt most keenly the desire of welding ideas into the flood of sentiment.”
Be good enough to return me your MS., which is a treasure of critical research.
Very thankfully, yours,
Humboldt.
Note by Varnhagen.—I selected “which he handled with a freedom of which he was perfectly conscious,” as most in accordance with the metaphor of the fetters, and as otherwise clearly indicative of the idea intended to be conveyed.
Varnhagen reports under date of September 9th, 1853, in his diary: “Humboldt had advised me of his coming; he came about half-past one o’clock, and remained till half-past two o’clock, a mere visit, nothing of business; he felt the necessity of unburdening himself of many things. First he vented his bitter and indignant scorn on the speeches of the King in Elbing and Hirschberg, and on the utter absence of vigor, which makes itself known in such disconnected ebullitions. Then he spoke with the utmost contempt of von Raumer, the Minister of Public Worship and Instruction, of his brutality and insolence, his hatred of all science, his pernicious activity. ‘The King,’ Humboldt said, ‘hates and despises all his ministers, but this one particularly, and speaks of him as of an ass; what particularly nettles him is, that Raumer opposes all the King’s wishes, and he keeps him in office nevertheless, as he keeps all of them, because he has them, and every change is a troublesome affair.’ The case of the brothers Schlagintweit was cited as an instance. The King wished to aid them in their voyage to the Himalaya Mountains; the minister refused; the King ordered him to hear the opinion of Humboldt, which was a most favorable one, but Raumer insisted upon his opinion, which, he said, was not changed by Humboldt. Then the King, who confessed himself to be powerless against his minister, wrote to Bunsen, who took the matter in hand, and the brothers Schlagintweit now receive English aid. And the very same King, who pretends to be so jealous of his prerogatives, permits them to be thus encroached upon? ‘Yes, sometimes he delights in playing the part of a constitutional monarch, absolves himself from all responsibility when the matter is a delicate one, answers demands made upon him by adverting to the difficulty of obtaining the signatures of his ministers, and even pretends to regard that “baggage, the state” as something with which he had little concern, accuses the ministers of forgetting him in their devotion to that “baggage, the state,” &c., &c.
“‘In the asking of small sums the King often experiences the greatest resistance, large ones he gets; he is refused three hundred thalers for a poor scientific man or artist, forty thousand thalers for buying something, they dare not refuse. What a mess of confusion and disaster! The King is quite satisfied that he is permitted to cook up church matters to his heart’s content, for these are considered separate from the state, no minister has a word in them.’ That I do not understand and it cannot be so, the ministers I believe have their hands in it too. ‘The meanest fellow of the whole concern is privy counsellor Niebuhr, a low, canting parasite, full of spite and venom.
“‘Garcia cannot sing here, he said some time ago, she is too red;[[59]] all representations, that her singing would not be red, were in vain. At last I told him to send to Bethania[[60]] for deaconesses to sing. He will be happy to see me under the sod.’”
On the 25th of September, Varnhagen narrates in his diary: “They say, on the presence of Humboldt in the High Ecclesiastical Council, that the priests had had in their midst their greatest adversary, who puts all of them to rout—the man of natural science, before whom all their mist and deceits flow into nothingness. ‘Abaellino is among you!’ one might have cried out.”
155.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Dec. 12th, 1853.
Again, my noble friend, you have shown your skill in giving me pleasure. After our departure from Potsdam, which transformed itself entirely into a Buddhistic “cold hell,” was prevented for a long time by the delicate health of the Queen, I at last moved over here on Saturday. You have shed renown upon the Prussian arms, and, what touches me in a more human manner, on the warrior of many-sided culture.[[61]] The gallery of your biographies stands in singular grandeur in our German literature. I am enraged by the treatment of my friend Arago in the last number of the “Quarterly Review” (September)—an ebullition of political party spirit, exactly as I was treated by the same journal from 1810–1818. A note at the end of the number for September says, with rare delicacy, that the article was written before his death was known; but it was known generally in London that he had become blind, and that he suffered infinitely from dropsy, one of the symptoms of which is to fill the mind with apprehensions.
With ancient gratitude and devotion, and admiration of your talents, your faithful
A. v. Humboldt.
Monday.
156.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Thursday Night—from the 13th to
the 14th of April, 1854.
Receive, noble friend, my most heartfelt thanks, you and the amiable confidant of the “demons.”[[62]] The King is now invisible to me, on account of the spiritual preparations, and on Monday he goes to Potsdam for five or six days, on account of military affairs; but a very warm letter, written by me, will be in his hands to-morrow, at eight o’clock, in Charlottenburg.[[63]] Thus we have at least done our duty faithfully. I am fast becoming the responsible minister of the Conservatives; for three days ago I asked the fourth minimum of the red bird[[64]] for a man who has conserved his real estate for one hundred and fifty years, for Bouché, a gardener, an adopted son[[65]] from the Champagne. It is a great joy to me that my introduction, which has only the merit of liberal sentiment and faithfulness, has also pleased you in regard to form. As a sign of gratitude, I send you for your collection of autographs a document not unimportant on account of the political situation—June, 1848. The other papers, which contain the sublunar miserabilities of the disagreement,[[66]] which, alas! has become public, I beg you to return hereafter.
Everything noble is drawn down in the mud. I was compelled to write a few lines in answer. I live in a monotonous and sad mood—et mourant, avant le principe.
With old fidelity, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
I shall certainly make my appearance on Monday in a wedding garment.
157.
ARAGO TO HUMBOLDT.
Paris, June 3d, 1848.
My Dear and Illustrious Friend:
My son has left for Berlin a few days ago, in the capacity of Minister Plenipotentiary. He quitted me animated with the best of sentiments, with the most decided ideas of peace and conciliation! And yet this day your Chargé d’Affaires waited upon our Minister of Foreign Affairs to represent to him the apprehensions which the mission of my son has excited in your cabinet and among the population of Berlin. This is my recompense for the efforts made since my arrival at power to maintain the accord of the two governments, in order to remove every pretext for war! Who can be made to believe that, animated with the sentiments which I publicly profess, I would have consented to entrust Emanuel with an important diplomatic mission, if he had been in discord with me, if he belonged to a hideous socialist sect, to communism, for, I am ashamed to say it, the accusations made have not stopped short of that? As to the rest, I appeal to the future; all such apprehensions will disappear as soon as Emanuel shall have entered upon his functions. Your Chargé d’Affaires will then regret the untimely protest addressed to M. Bastide.
I am very happy, my dear friend, to receive your welcome letter. Nothing in the world could be more agreeable than to hear of the continuance of your friendship. I am worthy of it, because of the price I set upon it. I have an abiding faith that my conduct, during the last three months (I had about said the last three centuries), has not caused me to lose in your esteem.
Ever yours, with heart and soul,
F. Arago.
158.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Friday, April 14th, 1854.
As the King held his churching on Thursday, I dined in Charlottenburg to-day, and can give you news agreeable to us, that the King, as he told me, had known of the day of honor[[67]] (not by Uhden!!)[[68]] and had prepared everything for it long ago. The ingredients of the spiritual or material feeding are buried in Cimmerian darkness.
Your faithful
Humboldt.
The Prince of Prussia knows nothing of the invitation for noce et festin.
159.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
My American connexions having entailed upon me the predilection of the Peace Society, I am molested by them with many of their writings and tracts. But the last number of the “Herald of Peace” is so remarkable on account of the political movement of the pietistic peace Quakers, that perhaps it will amuse you for one moment, my dear friend, to read for yourself the testimonies. Destroy the sheet!
The missive, at the same time, is intended for a sign of life, that is, of most intimate and faithful friendship for you in these sad times of weakness and folly. I have disentangled myself from the new “Stahl-Ranke” council, for reasons which are not those of old age; I resigned. I add an unkempt letter of poor Bunsen, which you must keep quite secret, and send it to me, if there is an opportunity, to my Berlin residence. First Heidelberg and afterwards Bonn, constantly vibrating between the perturbating recollections of two archbishops. With the dangerous tendency of the noble man for theological dispute, and for his newly-invented apostolic church, under the firm of Hippolytus, a residence in England, that is to say, in the country between London and Oxford (on account of the books), would be more favorable than Bonn. The Anglican High Church, intolerant though it be, is less inconvenient in a free country, than a ministerial church diet in Prussia. Moreover, in the interest of Bunsen’s scientific reputation, I look forward with dread to the impending productions, full of hypotheses on aboriginal nations, Egyptian, Indian, and excavated Assyrian Semitic, as also on the situation of Paradise, for which a map has been ordered at Kiepert’s. Maps on the creeds of nations can ascend from the ship-fastening myth at the ocean and the Himalaya mountains to the Ararat and to Aramea Kymbotas, even to the Mexican Coxcox, vagaries, not unknown to the Mormon bible. (See Supplement.)
The Weimar fancies are of a more exhilarating kind; controlling the climates by means of crystal palaces, which, at the same time, are taverns, and make superfluous Nicos and Madeira, and demand only a capital of one and a half millions of thalers, an undertaking in the deserted Potsdam town of barracks. And such a device, hatched in the brains of a well-informed man like Froriep.
In faithful friendship, yours,
A. Humboldt.
Potsdam, July 4th, 1854. In the age of crystal palaces.
It was but the other day, in glancing at a letter of Gneisenau’s, of 1818 (in the pointless biography of Stein,[[69]] p. 262) that I stumbled upon a passage, doubtless long familiar to you: “H. strives again for the centre, but there are wanting to him confidence, esteem, character, and courage.” Sheer personal hatred alone can have moved the vain Gneisenau to speak thus disreputably of my brother. I recollect, indeed, to have heard of him, that Gneisenau was hostile to him when he was dismissed. By-the-by, what was said by all parties in those times on political institutions looks to me now, and did so already in the years 1815–1818, as if I was reading a book of the thirteenth century on physical science; fear of provincial estates was alone praiseworthy—c’est de la bouillie pour les chats.
On this letter Varnhagen remarks in his diary, July 5th, 1854:—“I found a long letter from Humboldt, who communicated to me, accompanied by fine remarks, the latest number of the Herald of Peace, a letter of Bunsen—four closely-written quarto pages—and another by Robert Froriep, of Weimar. ‘The missive at the same time is intended for a sign of life, that is, of most intimate and faithful friendship for you in these sad times of weakness and folly.’ Farther: ‘I disengaged myself from the new “Stahl-Ranke” council, for reasons, which are not those of old age; I resigned.’ Then he speaks of Froriep’s plays of imagination, who wishes to build a crystal palace to control the climate in the ‘deserted town of barracks,’ Potsdam, with a loan of one and a half million of thalers! Finally, he blames Gneisenau’s misjudgment on Wilhelm von Humboldt, pronounced in a letter of 1818, which Pertz communicates in his ‘pointless Biography of Stein;’ and Humboldt rightly condemns the mean misjudgment of his brother.
“The letter of Bunsen is written in a very unconnected manner—Humboldt calls it an ‘unkempt’ one, which characterizes it admirably. Bunsen intends to live for the future in Bonn, but he complains that the university has deteriorated so much, particularly the theological faculty. Dorner and Rothe have been jostled out, and their places are held by the most mediocre and narrow-minded people to be found in all Germany, such as Lange and Steinmeyer; from Hengstenberg’s study, through Gerlach, all bends, he says, to ignorance and darkness, the present gloomy period of the most intellectual king of the century will come to be deplored even more grievously than the age of Woellner; every thing is imbued with the reactionary political character of the squirearchy; hypocrisy and real infidelity can grow out of this unholy system, and a most violent reaction must ensue; body-guards and policemen can enforce any political programme as long as it lasts; but the German never submits to the enthralment of the mind, and his curse will pursue through all the centuries those who have attempted it. Thus writes Bunsen! But he writes thus now as a deposed favorite! How was he, and for what did he work before? For the same ignorance and darkness. Quite like Radowitz, who also played the liberal at last!”
160.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, July 8th, 1854.
With emotions of gratitude I received the dear letter of your Excellency. Yet a sign of life, indeed, a sign of the most vigorous life! Whenever the question could arise how you felt and thought in this gloomy time, such a sheet would be the most decided answer, the most brilliant testimony, to a sentiment and activity which always kept on in the same direction, and never proved false. The letter from London—the epithet “unkempt” is singularly happy. I send back dutifully, as directed; how I should have liked to incorporate it with my collections! It is a remarkable sign of the present situation; many expressions in it strikingly significant. Had the writer but expressed himself thus before his last personal experience! The scientific renown which you believe in danger from the threatening deluge of writings seems to me to have stood from the first upon unsafe ground, upheld by external props, with which it must fall inevitably. Perhaps a political career will be open to him again, but certainly not through literary aid, for which, in part, this sudden literary taste seems intended. Silent rest would be far more useful. But this can hardly be expected in the place selected, where Catholic hatred is already alive, and nourishes and strengthens that political rancor which will continue in vigor, fed with fuel from here.
The late Prince Wittgenstein once congratulated me that I had not to sit in the Council of State, and that was the old Council, of which your Excellency also was a member! How much more must I congratulate you on your escape from the new one, of which Stahl and Ranke are members! To the latter, no one will dispute the part of the clown; to the first, every one will accord that of the sophist.
The words of Gneisenau, which Pertz alludes to in Stein’s Leben (v. 262), are so entirely inapplicable to William von Humboldt that one would be tempted to interpret the H. differently, if an acceptable conjecture could be found. I have myself, indeed, heard from Gneisenau’s lips expressions of dissatisfaction, but never such extravagant ones, which might be contradicted so easily and perfectly. What Gneisenau blamed chiefly in your brother was that he never tried, by the respect which he commanded and by the superiority of his mind, to unite all those of equal sentiment into a communion, by which much might have been undertaken and effected. But this reproach, if it be one, Gneisenau himself deserved as well, and received from his adherents! The book of Pertz is full of aspersions and incongruities, which, indeed, in most cases originate in Stein himself, but are confirmed by Pertz in blind partiality; he, while communicating everything, even in many cases things which do not belong to the subject, leaves out important documents without hesitation as soon as he finds them not entirely for the benefit of his hero. The same will take place when he writes the biography of Gneisenau, for which the hand of a tactician would seem to be the first desideratum.
The pious quaker-sheet was already known to me; one could hardly have thought such monstrosities practicable in the English language! But our time abounds in such. The psychographer takes the place of the moving table; they try to enforce my faith in the absurdity; I excuse myself, that at my time of life a man is a little backward, and that I have just arrived at table moving, but of that they do not want to hear any more. This reminds me of something, I will not suppress! It of course happens often, that remarks of your Excellency, in particular such made at the royal table, come to the ears of the public, and are repeated with zeal, and by this assume widely different forms; thus, quite recently, a reply to Herr Senfft von Pilsach, in which the original form seemed lost to a great extent, it would certainly be desirable if the latter were always authentically preserved.
With my repeated most heartfelt thanks, in most faithful reverence and submission, I remain immutably, your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
Some strong expressions in the London letter, as welcome to me as they were unexpected, remind me that Herr von Radowitz indulged in similar ones, and even had them printed (Gesammelte Schriften IV., 210, 256, 281); in the second passage he even goes so far as to reverse the motto, “Against democrats soldiers alone avail!”
161.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, July 9th, 1854.
Returning from the Russian Saint’s day celebrated in Sans Souci, I found your amiable letter. As I cannot refuse you anything, I add Hippolytus! Satisfy in return my curiosity. I believe that I never in my life spoke to Herr Senfft von Pilsach; I might meet him in the street or in society without knowing him. Notwithstanding all this I may have dined with him at the King’s. After what I heard of him I do not feel well affected towards him. Since I always sit opposite the King, I talk aloud only to him, but very freely, because I know that it will be reported, colored certainly according to the color of the reporter, and this the more especially in a country where anything like a gentle allusion by way of criticism is lost on account of the complete want of development of conversational language.
The judgment of Gneisenau is certainly on my brother. These often are ebullitions of the moment. Schiller writes to Koerner, when I arrived in Jena, “that I was by far more ingenious and gifted than my brother;” afterwards, in a time when he saw me daily and overwhelmed me with tenderness, he wrote to Koerner that “I was a man of narrow understanding, without poetry or soul, who, in spite of all my restless activity in my walk of study, never would accomplish anything great; that Herder’s works were diseases, discharged by his mental constitution.” (One thinks it is a passage of Zelter’s letters!) In an autograph of a collection at Augsburg, which they wanted to give to me, but which I sent back, my friend Prince S. writes to Koreff: “Alexander H. again accompanies the King to the Congress at Aachen only as a pointer!” Thus they play on the boards of the world for credulous posterity.
The Emperor Alexander had told the late King that my brother was doubtless bribed by the Jews to be of service to them in the Congress of Vienna, as Baron von Buelow was bribed in the Belgian affair by the French, according to the King of Hanover. In Schoening’s very interesting War of the Bavarian Succession, interesting by the correspondence with Prince Heinrich and the reflection cast on the present disputable state of things, there is mentioned on p. 294, a political project, which was unknown to me, the Austrian proposition to give Burgundy as a kingdom to the Bavarian dynasty in return for a cession of Bavaria. This title of King of Burgundy was the object of the ambition of the Duke of M. in 1815, though he would have contented himself with Lorraine and Alsatia. Napoleon also once had a momentary intention to make the Principe de la Paz, King of Baetica (Andalusia and Grenada) from recollections of “Télémaque,” and the King of Sardinia, Roi de Numidie, although the donor had not a foot of land in Africa to dispose of.
With warm friendship, always equally incorrect and illegible, your most faithful,
A. v. Humboldt.
Saturday Night.
Note by Varnhagen.—As early as the year 1743, Austria offered to the Emperor Charles VII. a kingdom not yet conquered, to be composed of Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche Comté, in return for Bavaria. See “Mem. de Noailles,” Tome vi.
162.
HUMBOLDT TO BETTINA VON ARNIM.
(Copied by Varnhagen.)
Berlin, July 8th, 1854.
To what purpose, most gracious baroness, did the Eternal shower down upon you, from the horn of plenty that he so sparingly opens upon this miserable, sinful earth, the bountiful gift of genius and the more precious adornment of a noble heart, if you believe the absurd gossip uttered “about those from whom I am separating myself!” What you call your prophetic vision could not alarm me, because the same double sight has fallen to my lot! Not a syllable of your book has the King read or desired to have read to him, as I hear from others; I rarely attend in the evening, and have not read to him for years. But how, my honored friend, am I to gain his ear in this matter, when I never pronounce the words Cathedral, Orchestra, Theatre, or Concert Room, and never have heard of the existence of a Central University Cathedral Building Association at Bonn, or of a Board of Managers of the Berlin Association? Such things are undoubtedly desirable; but even if those who are now called influential would advocate them by word of mouth, their intercession would not even receive attention; success is only to be hoped for from an official exposé of the project, addressed immediately to the King himself, with the autograph signature of the managers, with specific and distinct requests. The decision rests exclusively with the cabinet, and to be discussed there, a full and explicit petition to the King is necessary. This is doubly important at a time so eventful as the present, when the King never remains longer than a few weeks at Sans Souci. Painter Rattis’ Titian, political insinuations, and great unknown personages, are all subjects of which I receive the first intimation from your kind letter. It will be my study to repel the insinuations, although, on account of my well-known opinions, these “essais de blanchir” will be but a feeble support. Among the many painful impressions you so sedulously cultivate in the midst of your glowing love of the true, the free, the noble, and the good, it gives me great delight to direct your attention to two special matters of gratification—your Goethe monument is a fixed fact, and the great man’s grandson, whom I regard and esteem, has succeeded in obtaining a recognition of the value of his services, and a less constrained position in the Roman embassy.
With unalterable devotion and friendship,
I remain your Old Man of the Hills,
A. v. Ht.
163.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, July 10th, 1854.
Such a rough “Hind Pomeranian!”[[70]] direct answer, dear friend, you could certainly not expect from me! I have no idea of the question about the animation of pinewood at the King’s table, where everybody believes in it as in the Persian host seen in the air at the Eichsfeld. The “drama” of the “Kreuz Zeitung,” like everything emanating from this bad party, sick with mental poverty, bears the stamp of cowardly malice! You are not to be pitied, for you possess a treasure in the power of animating recollections of the great period of 1813. I have always kept at a respectful distance from the Revue des Deux Mondes, which is edited with spirit and address. Two parties may hate the same thing without hating it from the same motives. The present Liberals there think themselves justified in barking, but not biting, after the fashion of the Berlin muzzles, “because, without the rescuer[[71]] they would all have been drenched in blood.” Credat Judæus Apella!
Your faithful,
A. v. Humboldt.
Monday.—At another funeral![[72]]
A workman, unknown to me, addressed me at the funeral of Benjamin Constant: “N’est-ce pas, mon bon Monsieur, vous n’avez rien de si beau en Prusse, mais ce sera bien plus beau quand nous enterrerons M. de la Fayette.”
164.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, July 29th, 1854.
In Spain, the virtuous rebels, like the virtuous order of St. John on the Wilhelmsplatz, have raised the cry of “Long live chastity!”—“Viva el pudor” (Isabella)! “Viva la moralidad” (disinterested Christina)! But, will you, dear friend, think it possible (July, 1854!) that the Minister of Public Worship and Instruction, though hitherto without success, is also shouting “Viva el pudor!” He has quite officially demanded a royal order for the imprisonment in the arsenal of the wanton group[[73]] which so wantonly disport themselves on the bridge; all this without fear from the press, since the new press law, promulgated by the Diet at Frankfort, only resembles the ingenious Berlin muzzles, not yet exhibited in the Muenchen Crystal Palace, which prevent authors from biting only, but not from barking.
The third cry, “Viva la libertad!” has succeeded in the Peninsula, after all, in spite of the disavowals of good society.
Your faithful
A. v. Humboldt.
At Night.
165.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, July 31st, 1854.
Alas! no! I was in error thinking that the monument for Weimar was definitely bought, only that the enlargement of it, desired by our excellent lady friend, was given up. In the circles with which I am acquainted we cannot hope for an active participation. The expression, “Is not art itself a vestment?” is fine and felicitous.
Most gratefully yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Monday, waiting for the train to leave.
In the United States there has, it is true, arisen a great love for me, but the whole there presents to my mind the sad spectacle of liberty reduced to a mere mechanism in the element of utility, exercising little ennobling or elevating influence upon mind and soul, which, after all, should be the aim of political liberty. Hence indifference on the subject of slavery. But the United States are a Cartesian vortex, carrying everything with them, grading everything to the level of monotony.
166.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, January 8th, 1855.
I have to thank your Excellency most heartily that, in dispensing bounties, you always think with favor also of me! No one shall surpass me in anxiety to receive, in estimation of the gift, and in gratitude for the noble donor! This preface, at once temperate in form, rich in substance, and elegiac in tone, is the worthiest and most lasting monument of the prince,[[74]] of whom I hear on every side accounts which make one mourn his loss in the prime of life. I shall try to procure his work which is so highly recommended by your Excellency.
The gloomy cover of mist which veils the light of day, corresponds with the sentiments by which I at least feel myself weighed down. I have not succeeded in becoming cheerful for some days.
With the warmest wishes for you, in faithful reverence and most grateful submission, immutably
Your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
167.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, April 26th, 1855.
Revered Friend—A strange missionary experiment, enveloped in a somewhat idyllic ghost story, political and religious, in a style of singular “finish” and bombast, which I cannot refrain from showing to you. I take it to be the work of a male author.
The saturnalia of despotism and of flatteries, the wanton festival of oblivion (as if there was no history of 1813 and ’14), is now played out among the free insular people, a kind of monkey comedy. There is only this consolation which uplifts my spirit, that out of all this something will arise, which both parties do not at all intend. That is, le principe, which outlives us all. I am so cruel as to include you too. To my brother, Wilhelm, the Kassel book seems to have done good up there. In old attachment and reverence,
Your faithful
A. Humboldt.
Wednesday.
Be good enough to return the ghost story, by all means.
Note by Varnhagen to Humboldt’s Letter of April 26th, 1855.—A “stranger is emboldened to transmit words of power to the spirit.” “They are given to her with the order to repeat them.” In case Humboldt should answer, he is requested to send the letter with the chiffre A. W., to the store on the left of the house, at No. 120 Linden Street, and receive further details. A wanderer is described as sitting down to rest. Brother Wilhelm appears to brother Alexander and exhorts him to think of the kingdom of heaven, and how splendid it is up there, how misty on earth. As a token of identity, he reminds him of the eighteenth warm birth-day, “where they swore to love each other,” an oath which reaches beyond the portals of death, and which he now fulfils. It is a bombastic farrago, frequently repeating the word “finish,” which strikes the reader as eminently inappropriate.
Of the above-named direction Humboldt observes: “That it is the boarding-school of Frau von Wenkstern and Widow Poppe.”
168.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, August 9th, 1855.
I had already heard with sorrow from the gifted Princess von Wittgenstein, that you, noble friend, suffered more than usually. Receive me with indulgence on Saturday, about 10 o’clock, in spite of my long absence, and of my inconvenient trilogy, Berlin, Tegel, and Potsdam. I shall then also bring you a few lines of thanks to your cousin, the Imperial Brazilian Chargé d’Affaires in Madrid. His history, founded upon archival monuments, seems to become of great importance; but what a strange missive without adding the first pages, and notes also without a beginning.[[75]] I doubt of my ever catching those commencements in my cosmic disorder. As I spent almost an hour alone with the Prince of Prussia yesterday, I shall be able to tell you something not uninteresting, although not at all decisive. The Prince, whom I take to be veracious, assures me of having always asserted, faithful to his principles, that war would probably have been avoided, if Prussia and Austria had from the first co-operated actively with the Western powers against Russia. They answered in St. Petersburg that the Emperor would not have yielded, but this the Prince doubted....
With old attachment, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Thursday.
You will explain to me orally the mythological name of Sorocaba.[[76]]
Varnhagen narrates in his diary, under date of August 11th, 1855:—“About 1 o’clock Humboldt came, looking well, quite vigorous, in fresh and lively spirits; when he made a worse impression a short time ago, as Dirichlet thought, it was the effect of sickness, and is passed now. First, he spoke of the book of my cousin, which he praised, for which he thanks him (in a letter). The expression Sorocaba I cannot explain to him. Humboldt was but recently made a knight of the great Brazilian order, on account of an arbitration between Brazil and Venezuela, respecting a large tract of land. ‘Formerly they intended, in Rio de Janeiro, to arrest me as a dangerous spy, and to send me back to Europe, the order drawn up for the purpose is still shown there as a curiosity; now they make me an arbitrator! I, of course, decided for Brazil, because I wanted the large order; the Republic of Venezuela has none to confer!’ These words, spoken in the gayest irony, I interrupted with the exclamation, ‘How times change!’ ‘Yes; the order of arrest, and then the insignia of the great order!’ ‘Oh, no,’ I replied, ‘I did not think of this personal affair, but of the historical; formerly the pope was the general arbitrator!’ Humboldt saw the last volumes of the life of Stein on my table, and expressed his displeasure on the external arrangement, the meagreness of the text, and the unsifted character of this book; he thought that the gold snuff-box, with brilliants, which the King had already sent to Pertz for these volumes, was entirely too much. Injustice, crying and mean, perpetrated by Stein against old Prince Wittgenstein. Pertz, too, he said, was unjust to Wittgenstein. Stein had not at all been a firm character, no one had changed views and judgments more easily. (Beyme said the same thing, and adduced instances of it.) His early liberal ideas on national economy, civil institutions, commerce, and trades, were a product of the times, which he afterwards entirely renounced and disputed when the current of opinion set in that direction. He surrendered his former sentiments so shamefully that his former friend, Kunth, who remained faithful to them, but also wished to avoid committing Stein, burned more than three hundred of Stein’s letters, because, as he thought, they would bring nothing but disgrace on the revered man, and would show him in the greatest contradiction with himself. Of the Prince of Prussia, Humboldt said that he had told every one in St. Petersburg, as well as here, that the war would have been avoided if Prussia had from the first acted resolutely. The Emperor Nicholas would have yielded. The imperial family he represented as harmonious, including the Grand Duke Constantine, who did not seem so dangerous to him as usually described. The Emperor’s mother used to say they were all mere children, and that she must remain with them in order to keep them together. The war was severely felt, business at a standstill, the country drained of men, the armies not very numerous; Poland, the Baltic countries, and Finland but weakly garrisoned; the greater part of their forces was in the Crimea; the losses immense and irreparable. Gortschakoff reports that the daily combats cost him 180–200 men—a frightful number for a month; that Nesselrode contemplates a renewal of negotiations, but before that heavy blows would first be dealt on one side or on the other. Sebastopol itself was by no means considered out of danger. The Prince has gone from here to Erdmannsdorf to the King; thence he hastens on to Baden. The King has Lieutenant-General von Gerlach, with him in Erdmannsdorf, among others, also Radowitz, in case he is not ‘already tired of him, as happens so easily.’ Humboldt talks of Radowitz decidedly as of a Jesuit, calls him Ignatius, mocks him, and jests on him a long time. ‘The great destinies of Italy’ leave the King very indifferent; but a colored pane of glass, a quaint device on an old monument, a family name, enlist his greatest interest, occupy, and amuse him; and for such trifles Radowitz was the right man! The same is the case with Bunsen, with whom the King corresponds on theological and patristic curiosities. He has asked him to write articles in the papers against the Bishop of Mainz; but Bunsen makes the condition to be allowed to refer in his articles to the command of the King, since otherwise they would possess neither influence nor effect. Humboldt thinks Bunsen would not resist a call hither, even if it was not official, but only a personal one by the King. The Duke of Coburg-Gotha desires an enlargement of his territory and a higher title—that of a ‘King of Ostphalia’ is already proposed. The King jestingly calls him by that title already. He counts upon England and France, and willingly flatters and accommodates Bonaparte, who would meet with little difficulty in being the recognised Protector of a new Rhenish Confederation. So much for Germany and Teutonism. It is betrayed most assiduously by its sworn defenders. Finally, Humboldt added: ‘When a man has the misfortune to be compelled to live among such wretches as this Gerlach, Raumer, and the rest who have crept into this Court.’... He went from me to the Koethener Strasse to look at a picture, and left me much excited. I could not keep in mind and write down one-tenth of all he said.”
Varnhagen adds, on the 12th of August, Humboldt said of the situation of Prussia, it reminded him of a trial he once heard in Paris; the lawyer had to ask damages for a box on the ear, and had exclaimed triumphantly at the close: “Au fond nous n’avons pas reçu le soufflet, nous n’avons eu que le geste!”
169.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, January 13th, 1856.
Smile, dear friend (you are fully justified!) at the strange lines of Princess Lieven, and at my troublesome inquiry. Madame de Quitzow, who has not written to me for twenty-five years, wants to know, whether the Emperor Paul, in the epoch of his political insanity, had made the proposition through Kotzebue, that the ministers for foreign affairs should measure swords personally instead of the armies. I was at that time (1799 and 1800) in the deltas of South America, and was entirely ignorant of the anecdote which the Russian Princess now, as it appears to me, so occidental in her predilections, desires to corroborate. The obscure researches I have made would seem to lead to the result that the duel was to be waged not by the ministers but by the monarchs themselves. I pray you, noble friend, to write me a few lines on what your excellent memory supplies, and still more I pray you to tell me consoling words about your health at the return of the injurious cold weather. Bunsen writes me that he expects a fourth edition of his letters. Does the great reading demand for this excellent or rather useful book indicate that the German public is less chloroformed against action than we had supposed? Dubito. The German landlord of a (dicunt) very dirty hotel, which glories in my name in California for many years—beside a more cleanly one of “Jenny Lind,”—sends me German California papers from time to time. In a discourse on the moral and intellectual state of the English, the French, and the Germans, the editor recently said: “We Germans are a nation of thinkers, deeply occupied with the world of ideas, we also have the great advantage before the members of other nations who live here, that we care little or not at all about civil or political affairs.” Thus we boast on the shores of the Pacific, buy the “Zeichen der Zeit,” but hardly 5 per cent of us go to the primary elections. It is inconvenient, we think. With old love and reverence,
Yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Was not the young Tyrolese very amiable poet Adolf Pichler (properly speaking a geologist by trade) with you? I do not believe in peace during this quite ... or at least uncomfortable humiliating ... ...[[77]] year, though certainly in useless diplomatic transactions.
Note by Varnhagen.—In the third line stands “Madame de Quitzow,” clearly a mistake instead of “Madame de Lieven.” What may have been the reason that that name, here entirely without meaning, should have protruded itself, cannot be guessed.
Later Note by Varnhagen.—The Princess Lieven is closely connected with the late Minister Guizot, they even say secretly married to him. Guizot, pronounced German easily sounds Quitzow, a well-known name in the Mark. Humboldt, always inclined to jesting, and particularly here, may have given her this surname—perhaps current already at the court—with full intention. [This is quite right.]
170.
THE PRINCESS LIEVEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Paris, January 8th, 1856.
You have not forgotten me, my dear Baron. I know that by two kind messages which Baron Brockhausen brought me from you. I have charged him to testify my lively gratitude; but I now prefer to express it myself. On this occasion, it serves me as the passport to a question which I take the liberty of addressing you.
Can you, who know everything, remember the following fact? In 1799 or 1800, the Emperor Paul took it into his head to propose a combat on a tilted field, where England, Russia, Austria, and I know not what other power, should adjust their differences by the persons of their Prime Ministers, Pitt, Thugut, etc. The task of drawing up this invitation was assigned to Kotzebue, and the article inserted in the “Hamburg Gazette.” This is my very distinct recollection. I have not dreamed any part of it. Could you complete the tradition? I can meet with no one who remembers it. I have thought you might be able to sustain my memory, and I hope so still, for I am suspected of having lost my wits.
Paul I. was not such a fool, after all. Do you not consider the follies of our time much greater? What a chaos? And for what?...
My dear Baron, I live here in a little intimate circle of old friends, who are your friends also, and who hold you in affectionate remembrance. What a pleasure we should have in seeing you here, and together forgetting the troubles of the hour! O that men and things were worth more at this day! Is this an old woman’s commission with which I trouble you?
Adieu, my dear Baron. I ask your recollection and regard, and promise a bountiful return.
Ever yours,
The Princess Lieven.
171.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, January 27th, 1856.
With joyful thanks I profit by your Excellency’s goodness in sending me the copy of your beautiful response to the deputies of the city of Berlin. Were it not presumption to praise, where praise has already become a habit and a superfluity, I should say that the speech is as full of sterling merit as of noble intention. The brightest passage, to my mind, is the (I hesitate whether to call it felicitous or masterly) allusion to the King, in terms so dignified and delicate, so warm and graceful; and every pure heart must at once acknowledge, that in this connexion the remark was singularly appropriate and beautiful. In your Excellency’s last favor, the expression, “Madame de Quitzow,” at first puzzled me a good deal. But I may boast of having solved the riddle by the power of the head—as the Jews say, where we speak of cudgelling our brains—and am constrained to acknowledge that the little sally is not only a good joke, but proportionably a mild measure of punishment. The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar desired to see me; but I found myself chained down to my rheumatic complaint.
With faithful reverence and most grateful devotion, unalterably your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
172.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, January 28th, 1856.
My far from dormant ambition has been abundantly gratified by the grateful praise bestowed by the great master of our language (to avoid the expression rhetorician), upon my manner of speaking of the King, and my relations with him. In praising that with which the party praised is but scantily supplied, we point him to the honorable road, and justify ourselves before the people. A man of the woods, who is supposed to have been tamed at court, is in need of such justification. Madame Quitzow, whom I could not sooner obtain from the King, I now repose in your hands, as your own. Our former minister, General Thiele, was firmly persuaded that the Guizots of the neighborhood of Montpellier were disguised remnants, softened in pronunciation, Frenchified and Protestantized, of the emigrated Quitzows[[78]] from Langkloder. And your poor excellent Dora, who pities all your friends for the sufferings she knows so well how to alleviate! Give her my kindest regards.
Your faithful
A. Humboldt.
At Night.
The Grand Duke, whom you escaped, sends much love. He has curious theories, probably imbibed somewhere or other (Bœotia was near to ancient Attica), and misunderstood. There are two classes of sculptors, the one inferior, to which Rauch inclines, and which works inward from without, while the better (represented by Rietschel) works outward from within. But what an exposure. Philarète Chasles in the “Journal des Debats!” I wrote to Paris: “Vulgaire dans les idées comme dans les formes des langage, indigne d’un litterateur du Collége de France.”
173.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Thursday, Feb. 7th, 1856.
As it would be impossible that you, dear friend, should not have seen the new book by Montalembert (the friend and companion of the Abbé Lammenais on his journey to Rome), I hope to give you a little pleasure by offering you the King’s copy for a few days (five or six). The only thing racy in it is the conclusion, levelled at the present state of affairs in France, p. 284 to 298. I wish it were possible to have the whole of it translated and published in Germany.
Most gratefully yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
How is our excellent Dora doing? I had a patriarchal time yesterday until seven o’clock, at Potsdam, at a christening of a child of a very handsome and accomplished daughter of my Siberian waiting-man’s, Seifert, who,[[79]] a traveller named Moellhausen, who, at Baron Gerolt’s and my recommendation, accompanied the great exploring expedition of Captain Whipple, of San Luis, San Francisco, and Panama, in the capacity of topographer and draughtsman for the American Government. It is about a year since the King appointed young Moellhausen custodian of the palace library at Potsdam.
An excellent article by Laboulaye, on the domestic Institution, and the flagitious Pierce’s extension of the outrage upon territory, hitherto free, met my eye yesterday in the “Journal des Débats,” of the 5th of February, I believe!
Keep the very commonplace verses “Oh, Gentle Jlm.”
174.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, March 14th, 1856.
Your Excellency’s kind and precious gift come into the seclusion forced upon me by the rude relapse of winter, brighter and more enlivening than the sunbeams which accompany them! Receive my repeated thanks and the assurance that I know how to appreciate every one of them, and most of all the beneficent intention, which remember me so well, and gladden my heart so cheerily! The pencil lines of the dying Heine are a valued keepsake, and shall be continued to be devoutly treasured in the envelope superscribed by your Excellency. The boon of to-day, the significant combination of Archimedes and Franklin in reference to their tombstones, I have also read with the warmest appreciation.
I see that you do not dread the wind or the weather, and that, fortunately, you need not dread them, when a duty of honor is to be performed. The present time imposes curious tasks upon us! The death of a chief of police in a duel is probably unprecedented in the communities of modern Europe. The summoning of a Minister of Foreign Affairs to Paris, to attend at the close of important negotiations, with a box of writing sand from the Mark,[[80]] has also a fabulous aspect. However, Allah is great!
In the most faithful reverence and most grateful devotion, I remain immutably
Your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
175.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, April 14th, 1856.
I could not but speak, being the Nestor of Prussian mining officials, and prone to boast of my calling. My reliance upon your indulgence, dear and worthy friend, is so great, that I am emboldened to send even you a copy of these unimportant lines. Count B. deserved this praise. Free from opinion of any kind, he is useful to the art of mining, and still occupies himself with scientific pursuits since he has resigned the direction.
With unshaken constancy, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Note by Varnhagen.—Enclosed was the address delivered at the fiftieth anniversary of the entrance into the royal miners of his Excellency the Actual Privy Councillor and Captain of Miners, Count Beust. April 9th, 1856.
176.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, September 11th, 1856.
Knowing the warm interest you take, my dear friend, in the slavery question, and in what concerns myself, I send you the last letter of Gerolt, which was very long in coming, but which will certainly command your attention. Most unfortunately Buchanan will be the next President, and not Fremont, the traveller of great acquirements, who has four times travelled the land route to San Francisco, surveying the country over which he passed, to whom it is owing that California did become a free State. Do not return the letter, nor the enclosure. On the heels of this African absurdity comes another folly, of a more serious cast, though richly fraught with ridicule, not royalistic so much as aristocratically Bernese, and spiced with a little railroad speculation as to whether the route by the way of Neufchatel or that by way of Chaux de Fonds is to be preferred! And the heroic Count,[[81]] who executes the coup d’état à la Napoleon, whence did he derive his inspiration? From Berlin, while we have a minister at the Diet, whom at this day we pretend never to have recognised. How are these things to be reconciled? We shall have a similar fate with our three ultramarine possessions, the Jade, the Zollern, discovered by Columbus Stillfried, and Neufchatel. I feel for the Constantinopolitan Pourtalès, who finds himself involved in an awkward conflict between his dynasty (the Prussian earldom) and his official liberalism. It is fortunate that the mouth of the English Parliament is still closed.
Your faithful
A. v. Humboldt.
177.
THE PRUSSIAN MINISTER RESIDENT, VON GEROLT, TO HUMBOLDT.
New York, August 25th, 1856.
My most dear and Honored Patron!
Since my last letter to your Excellency, of the 8th inst., I was made happy by your favor of the 27th of July, from which I learn, with the most sincere regret, of your temporary indisposition. For the information it contains I return your Excellency my most hearty thanks, and hasten to comply with your wish by sending two extracts from papers published here (the “New York Herald” and the “Courrier des Etats Unis”), containing your publication on the subject of slavery in Cuba, as well as the excuse published by Mr. Thrasher, which is, it must be confessed, exceedingly lame.
The affair has excited great attention here, and could not but be welcome to the opponents of slavery, who have made Fremont their candidate.
Some days ago, his German supporters, many thousands in number, held a mass meeting in his support, and honored him with a splendid torchlight procession in the evening.
The slavery question is becoming more alarming from day to day. While the House of Representatives refuse to appropriate moneys for the support of the army, news is daily coming in from Kansas of bloody conflicts between the free-soilers and the slaveholders. It is hoped, however, that after the presidential election (in November), domestic peace will be restored.
The unwholesome climate in Washington has driven me out for a few days, as the heat was intolerable last month, and now the fever and ague begins.
I am going to Albany to-day, to attend the meeting of naturalists to which I have been invited. I expect to meet a number of savans of distinction there, and to report the details to your Excellency hereafter.
Mr. Heine is very much delighted with the expression of your Excellency in his favor.
Mr. C—— and the beau monde have retreated to the mountains and the sea-baths long ago, and I shall not see him for three or four weeks to come.
Mr. Fillmore would be the best President; but he appears to have little hope of succeeding against Fremont and Buchanan; and the Knownothings have lost all credit.
My poor wife and children are counting the hours which must elapse before my return, and I am not less anxious to find all that is dear to me again in the country of my home, next year, at the close of the Congress.
The approaching departure of the mail for England compels me to close this letter, which I do with the most heartfelt wishes for your Excellency’s continued well-being.
With immutable reverence and affection, I remain your Excellency’s most devoted
Gerolt.
178.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, September 13th, 1856.
The great influence of the name of your Excellency in the United States, as in America in general, is a gratifying sign of the improvement of those countries in civilization, and a sure pledge of the ultimate triumph of the philanthropic principles which you have consistently advocated through the course of a long and eventful life. I thank you heartily for the letter of M. v. Gerolt, and its printed inclosure, which will be a valuable addition to my collections. At this moment, it is true, the chances of Fremont are a little doubtful; nevertheless the latest accounts represent the zeal of his supporters as very great and by no means hopeless.
Our domestic events—domestic in their origin though the scene be laid abroad—it would be more agreeable to pass in silence, as it is difficult to find the proper expression with which to characterize them, and impracticable to make use of those expressions when found. The most consoling observation to be made is that of unanimous condemnation on all hands, where there are no private ends to gain. For the veritable Prussian of the good old school such things as Jade, Neufchatel, and even Zollern, are at all times nothing but distractions, having no legitimate concern with the core of the Prussian state. In regard to Neufchatel, I fear that a momentary favorable nod of France is over valued, and will lead to inextricable entanglements; Reynard[[82]] is apt to incite his friends to dangerous adventures; the escape from them is their affair, and he takes a malicious pleasure in looking on.
The other day Lady Bettina von Arnim contributed to my collections near a thousand autographs. One of the most valuable is a letter from your Excellency to Ludwig Achim von Arnim, on petrifactions; it is not dated, but I refer it to the third decade of the present century.
I well know on what day I write these lines. It precedes the day more widely and more enthusiastically celebrated than any other. May it please your Excellency to accept the modest tribute of my warm good wishes with kind favor! In faithful reverence and grateful devotion,
Your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
179.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, September 22d, 1856.
The Grand Duke of Weimar, who has just left, commissions me to beg of you as a particular favor, the permission for him to visit you to-morrow (on Tuesday) between nine and eleven o’clock. He is determined to see you in person.
A. v. Humboldt.
Monday.
180.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Sept. 23d, 1856.
Cher et introuvable AMI!
How the improbable can become real! How royal huntsmen and royal coachmen cannot find you, cannot look for your direction in the prosaic directory. I send this direction at this moment to the Grand Duke, who has the anguish of having detained my revered friend. May he be more fortunate in a new attempt. The enclosed sheet is a Berlin curiosity for your archives.
Faithfully yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Tuesday, 2 o’clock.
181.
(ENCLOSED.)
GRAND DUKE CHARLES ALEXANDER OF SAXE-WEIMAR TO HUMBOLDT.
At the Chateau of Berlin,
Tuesday Morning.
Had I had the skill of the Marquis of St. Germain, of whom, if I am not mistaken, it is told that one fine morning he departed through four gates at one and the same time, I could not have been more desirous to find M. von Varnhagen than I was. Nevertheless, it was all in vain. No one could tell me where he lived, and it was of no use to take the measure of the “Maurenstrasse.” Nature having made me the most obstinate of all Grand Dukes, I still persist in my intention to see the invisible, and hasten to attain that consummation by requesting your Excellency to tell me where M. de Varnhagen actually does live. Pardon my repeated importunities; but in conscience I know of no route which could be shorter or more direct. I remain, with the inextinguishable attachment of the most devoted admiration and veneration for your Excellency,
Charles Alexander.
182.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, September 24th, 1856.
Your Excellency:
You have had not a little trouble on my account lately, which I lament with shame. Most of all I regret having missed your kind visit, which is always an honor as well as a good fortune. That the Grand Duke could not find me yesterday, although he drove up and down the Maurenstrasse, and made several inquiries, would be incomprehensible if the servants of a Court were not a very peculiar fraternity. It is nearly thirty years that I have resided in the largest house in the street, which the Grand Duke himself has entered in visiting Prince Wilhelm of Baden. To-day, however, he arrived punctually at eight o’clock, was very pleasant and affable, spoke with a good deal of frankness and much cordiality, and mentioned your Excellency with great esteem and gratitude. His real errand did not appear until his visit came to a close; in referring him to me, your Excellency has done me great honor, but you have also involved me in no inconsiderable perplexity. The affair is of great importance, and may lay the foundation for the happiness of a worthy man; the wish itself is creditable to the Grand Duke, and it will give me great pleasure in any way to subserve his noble purpose. I shall take it into consideration, and, if a result is attainable, shall respectfully submit it to your Excellency. At the first blush, I named young H., which, however, led to nothing, the Grand Duke doubting the extent of his acquaintance with the French language. The visit lasted nearly an hour, and much that was said was remarkable; my share in the conversation must have been unpleasant, at least the physical part of it, which is entirely ruined and quite unintelligible from coughing, influenza, and rheumatic compression of the chest.
With the best wishes for your Excellency’s welfare, I remain in profound reverence and gratitude,
Your obedient
Varnhagen von Ense.
183.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Sep. 24th, 1856.
Before I bury myself again for some days in Potsdam, a sacrifice to the Queen and to her solitude, I shall, dear friend, justify the Grand Duke and myself. The Grand Duke visited you, which honors him, not to consult you, but out of respect for your fine talents and your character, because he had, as he said, inherited the idea from his house, that one must see two men in Berlin, you and me. That we must both accept with gratitude as an inheritance from the old gentleman and the Imperial Highness, who is a worthy lady. He had not at all the idea to speak with you of what he seeks and never will find (equal inclination for science and poetry, history of geographical discoveries, art, painting, gems and sculpture, refined social manners, fluent French speaking and waiting, also reading aloud). That bantling is yet unborn. I said, j’aviserai, and quite casually I added, that I would ask your opinion. Only when taking leave, which he introduced officially by very far-fetched phrases on the “noble grey-haired youth,” he asked me whether it would be contrary to my wishes to submit the problem to you also. The visit had for its motive the manifestation of inherited reverence, and a desire to produce an effect, which must be connected with some self-denial at eight o’clock in the morning, on the day of departure. To vaccinate him with our excellent H., we might send the latter for four months to Paris and London; but would a mind like H.’s put up with it? J’en doute.
Most cordially, your
A. v. Humboldt.
Wednesday.
Gerlach intends to separate himself from the King, and to oust Reyher, whereby he would still remain quite near the King, ay, even nearer than at present, for the cause of little animosities (electricity from contact) would then disappear.
184.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Potsdam, November 9th, 1856.
I forgot to inform you, my revered friend, that I fulfilled punctually your wish to send to Weimar the letter you addressed me, and to recommend urgently the proposed “Private Secretary,” and all this a few days after I knew your intention.
A German letter from Prince Metternich, expressing sentiments full of graceful language, will interest you. I present you the letter for your archival collection. The occasion was a moulding in plaster and copy, partly by the Prince’s own hand, of an old Egyptian column of granite, which he had received twenty-five years ago from Mehemed Ali. The old Prince gave me this copy, three-fourths of a foot in height, to decipher the long inscription in Demotic writing. This has been done by Dr. Brugsch, the talented young Egyptologist, author of a Demotic Grammar, universally admired in other countries. Dr. Brugsch, who had the first edition of his Grammar printed in Latin, when he was still in the first class of August’s Gymnasium[[83]] (the second edition is written in French), has found a good deal of very remarkable astronomy in the inscription; and in order to give pleasure to the old Prince, Brugsch has published the whole under the name of “Stele. Metternich,” in the “Journal for the Orient,” and in the “Athenée.” Brugsch was in Egypt for two years, at the expense of the King; he is the son of a poor sergeant, and is familiar with Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, and Persian.
Pardon my horrid writing, illegible, and in wild, incorrect style.
The letter of the maccaroni King[[84]] to Louis Philippe, in the “Spenersche Zeitung,” will not have escaped you, I hope. Non v’a bisogno—entirely as Rochow-Seiffart (in his first manner) to the Elbingers:—“It is not at all necessary that my people think; I think for them; the people, who have betrayed me so often, submit to my power.”
Your faithful
A. Humboldt.
185.
METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT.
Koenigswart, October 14th, 1856.
My old Friend!—I received gratefully the information on the stele which Herr Brugsch calls by my name, and I beg of you to hand over to the learned investigator the words you find inclosed. After my return to Vienna, I shall avail myself of the interpretation, already so instructive, of the monument, to point out the way to archæologists in which they may obtain copies, by an advertisement. I did not doubt that I could not do better than to address you for light on the scientific value of the present of Mehemed Ali, which for many years slept in my multifarious collections, and of which I was quite ignorant. May you and Herr Brugsch receive my most sincere thanks.
I have had the good fortune to find the King in excellent health, and in the usual kind disposition towards myself. Great recollections in long lives are a fine bond between man and man, the power of which is well tried when it has resisted the storms of time. It is more than half a century since my first intercourse with the young heir-apparent. What vicissitudes have occupied this long interval is matter of history. That they have never deprived me of the confidence of the two kings, father and son, is with me a source of pride—that is to say, of a sensation which the term peace of mind and heart would better characterize than the unsafe word that has escaped my pen.
You, three years my senior, have just celebrated your eighty-seventh birth-day. That you and I have understood “the art of living,” we may confess. That we shall do well to cultivate it still longer, is not to be denied.
With sincere friendship and esteem,
Metternich.
186.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, November 20th, 1856.
I want your literary aid, my noble friend. Our great landscape painter, Hildebrandt, who was in Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and recently at the North Cape, has executed an admirable aquarelle picture of my “Interior Household,” in order to replace a smaller one sold in many hundreds of copies in America. “La renommée, fruit d’une longue patience de vivre, augmente avec l’imbécilité.” I am compelled to make an inscription to this picture of mine, with my own hand. This is no easy task. I pray that you will visit me on Saturday, at one o’clock, if it is possible to you. You shall guide me.
Your most grateful
A. v. Humboldt.
Thursday.
187.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, November 21st, 1856.
I yesterday prayed, dear friend, that you should make me the pleasure of your visit on Saturday. I pray to-day that you will not come; I hear with sorrow that you suffer much. The great picture of Hildebrandt remains yet a long time in my house. Every later day will also be useful to me. I only beg of you that you will kindly announce to me the day, beforehand, on which I may expect you. Choose the twelfth hour, under any circumstances, because I am sure to be free then. I also am in a condition in which I desire to run out of my skin.[[85]] As an old man, I suffer as from musquito bites; and moreover, a hyper-christian, Mr. Foster (living at Brussels), consults me from time to time, whether I believe that the souls of the lower animals, such as bed-bugs and musquitoes, are included in the scheme of salvation, and destined to go to heaven. So they threaten me up there too, where I shall find the animal souls, well known to me from the Orinoco, chanting a hymn of praise.
In old friendship, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Friday.
And the disgraceful party which sells negro children, and distributes canes of honor, as the Russian Emperor does swords of honor, and Graefe’s noses of honor,—who prove that all white workmen should rather be slaves than free—have succeeded. What a crime!
Nov. 22d, 1856.—Varnhagen writes in his diary:—“I started at half-past 12 o’clock, and drove to Humboldt in the pouring rain. He was rejoiced at my coming, and soon led me to an adjoining room, where hung Hildebrandt’s great aquarelle picture, in a frame; an excellent picture, indeed, in the rich variety of which the sitting figure of Humboldt predominates. Now came the question about the inscription to be chosen for it. I had rightly expected that he did not so much expect propositions from me, as my approval of those chosen by him already. Contrary to my expectation, no short sentence, but a longer speech, a rhetorical composition, which happily compares the searching traveller with the returned man of science. Some alterations were approved in the beginning, but disapproved again in the end. Hildebrandt gave the picture not to Herr von Humboldt, but to his valet Seiffert. It is to be engraved. We looked at the rooms, in three of them; his apparatus of study is strewn about; all three warmed to 19 degrees Réaumur, an intolerable temperature for me. A library hall not warmed. Pictures painted by Madame Gaggiotti, whose talents he praised highly; he wondered and rejoiced that I knew her too. He complained of itching; I said it was a well-known complaint, pruritus. “Senilis,” he immediately added. In a box he had a living chameleon, which he showed me, and of which he said, that it was the only animal which was able to direct one of its eyes upwards, and at the same time the other downwards; that our parsons only were able to do the same, with one eye directed to heaven and the other to the good things of this world. We talked of Neufchatel too; he said that the King was full of good hopes, and counted upon Louis Bonaparte; that Manteuffel did not see things in such a favorable light, but made merry of them. The Russian Chancellor, Graf von Nesselrode, said to Humboldt on his last visit, that the present constitution and position of Switzerland made the best impression on him, and were such as to win esteem and favor for the republic.”
188.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, November 30th, 1856.
Esteemed Friend:
At this moment I receive a letter from a pupil, deserving of moderate praise for clearness of thought and diction. I shall not write before having first come to see you, my dear friend. The last fifteen lines of the letter are utterly illegible and unintelligible to me. I had written to him about the laying of the telegraph cable between Ireland and Newfoundland, but had not made him any offer. I cannot read what is underscored! Keep my pupil’s letter by all means, including the information that I am the subject of discussion in the Belgian Chambers, as a materialist and republican, who ought to be discharged! Where the dinner of the Baron d’Arhim (Arnim) took place, I cannot guess. I may have said, that I was as liberal as Arago, but certainly not that I was a Republican. Deposit M. Jobard in your archives, my friend,
Your faithful,
A. v. Humboldt.
Sunday.
What men believe and disbelieve does not generally become a subject of contention until after they have been officially buried and bepreached by Sydow.[[86]]
The “Spenersche Zeitung,” besides discussing Neufchatel and the evacuation of the Danubian principalities, contains a daily health return about five little silkworms of Fintelmann, the court gardener. How all things diminish in importance! I have often written letters dated from the hill of Sans Souci, which formerly was historical. Now the Peacock’s Island becomes historical by the still life of two caterpillars. Thus the world moves. It must be remembered that when the Angora goats made illustrious the administration of Richelieu in France, the Moniteur contained the announcement: “Le moral des chèvres s’améliore de jour en jour.”
189.
CHARLES ALEXANDER, GRAND DUKE OF SAXE-WEIMAR, TO HUMBOLDT.
Weimar, November 29th, 1856.
As I fortunately have the honor to be known, truly known to your Excellency, I may flatter myself that you will not estimate my gratitude for your services and those of M. de Varnhagen, by the length of time which has elapsed since the day I received your letter of the 31st, and the present time. My sincere thanks shall here receive a place. They have been delayed by the very nature of the transaction. Such could not but be the effect, for in an affair of that kind it is impossible to form a sudden resolution, and accordingly I now write for the sole purpose of not appearing ungrateful, and because, on the other hand, it is necessary to secure the possibility of forming a fixed resolve. To do this I must have time and freedom of election. Both are secured by the kindness of yourself and M. Varnhagen, for you join in proposing to send the young man so as to enable me in the first place to make his acquaintance. The question arises, when can this be done? for I do not care to begin by calling * * * here with the trombone of an appointment. Nothing remains, therefore, but to beg your Excellency to make inquiries at what time the gentleman would be at leisure and inclined to undertake a journey to the bank of the Jlm. Having asked this question, I would pause above all things, in order to proceed to the expression of my thanks for the important news you have the goodness to communicate. If I add the question, whether your Excellency will kindly send me the map for an admiring inspection, and if you should possibly find this question wonderfully troublesome, I take refuge under the shelter of your goodness to me, which has often made me proud, and to-day, perhaps, indiscreet. Yet I am proud of your goodness, which is ever coupled with truth, and in the latter I put my trust, that you will decisively reject my petition, if it troubles you, to whom, in reverence, I remain the most grateful scholar,
Charles Alexander.
190.
JOBARD TO HUMBOLDT.
Brussels, November 26th, 1856.
Monsieur le Baron:
Perhaps you will not be displeased to learn the rôle you have been made to play in the unfortunate debate of our religious politics.
The old Minister Dechamps, who sat on your right at the dinner of the Baron of Arhim, and who was so much astonished at hearing you say that you were as much of a Republican as your friend Arago, having associated your name with those of the illustrious believers who profess the Catholic faith, a liberal journal this morning answered him as follows:—
“M. Dechamps, in the last homily delivered by him in the Chamber, cited the name of M. de Humboldt to prove that science could well be made subservient to the creed. It must be admitted, as Mr. Devaux showed, that the example could not have been worse chosen. M. de Humboldt is one of those rationalists, pure and simple, against whom M. Dechamps has already written so many letters. If M. Humboldt had taught in Belgium he would most certainly have been pursued in pastoral letters, and discharged by M. Dechamps, if M. Dechamps had been the Minister. Nevertheless, it is thus that history is written, and thus that the most important questions of our intellectual and moral future are appreciated!”
Here is another unmixed and undisguised political opinion:—
“As often and so sure as you base your church upon human obtuseness, the gates of the mind will not prevail against it, because there will always be consummate fools, old fools, and little fools, to uphold and repair it. Pure reason has not the same chance.”
Yours, ever devotedly,
Jobard.
191.
LINES BY VARNHAGEN ON HILDEBRANDT’S PAINTING OF HUMBOLDT’S APARTMENTS, AND THE MOTTO ATTACHED.
(TRANSLATED BY CHARLES GOEPP, ESQ., AT EASTON, PA.)
This was the latest, the peaceful home, where the mighty explorer,
Early ascender of summits, reposed on the heights of his glory.
Hall of the Castle of Knowledge, the limner has deftly restored thee!
Lofty and light, rich hung with trophies of noble endeavor;
Treasures of nature and art, and of love, and the weapons of science.
While in the midst sits, earnestly glad, thoughtfully commanding
All the profusion around, himself thy sovereign, breathing
Speech and significant life into every shape of the picture;
Plying the wonderful shuttle of thought, until it produces,
Painting and painted at once, fresh images, brighter and brighter.[[87]]
Varnhagen von Ense.
Berlin, December 1st, 1856.
192.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, December 3d, 1856.
So my pedestrian prose has led you back, my friend, to the regions of the noblest of rhythms! It would make me proud, if the universe were not entitled to your favor. With even more modesty than the poor, for whose benefit the old man with the moss-grown beard[[88]] exhibits himself for the small compensation of five silver groschen. With what excellent taste you have transferred the English “home” into “Daheim.” Indescribably beautiful is your poetry, full of grace and delicacy, and of a solemn monition of what should have been extracted from nature and art, and the weapon of science. If my brother William, who, in his correspondence with Wolf, discoursed so largely on lax and severe hexameters, could but have lived to witness this family honor!
Your advice, even when not clothed in verse, is law to me. I shall follow it at once; and you have made matters a great deal easier than they were. Alea jacta sit! Could you, perhaps, dear friend, transfer the last ten syllables (or lines) of the Grand Ducal letter into your classic chirography, so as possibly to enable me to guess what it is that I am understood to have promised.
Fremont’s portrait reminds one vividly of Chateaubriand. A biography of the former has just appeared in New York, dedicated to me—“Memoirs of the Life and Public Services of John Charles Fremont, by John Bigelow (?).” The dedication says; “To Alexander von Humboldt this memoir of one whose genius he was among the first to discover and acknowledge, is respectfully inscribed by the author.” Delicate words, a little artificially combined. There is a copy of the letter written to him from Sans Souci, in the King’s name, in 1850, accompanying the great prize medal for science and art, upon his having projected the most extensive barometrical level ever executed, from Missouri to the South Sea. It closes with the words of which Sans Souci has no reason to be ashamed: “La Californie, qui a NOBLEMENT résisté à l’introduction de l’esclavage, sera dignement représentée par un ami de la liberté et des progrès de l’intelligence.”[[89]] The biography has passages of a strange romantic interest. At one time cold and hunger have driven a party to fury and almost phrensy, when they all pray and sing, and then an oath from Fremont that there shall not in any case be a resort to cannibalism. As soon as my own curiosity is satisfied I shall send you the book. For the present, you may occupy yourself with the miracle performed by the chaplain of an army division in Magdeburg, on a Mr. Assemann, in Quedlinburg. I have lighted upon it in my capacity of naturalist. It is to be found on p. 34.
Gratefully yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Note by Varnhagen.—The water color paintings by Hildebrandt, that of Humboldt among them, were exhibited in the hall of the Art Union, for the benefit of the poor. Price of admission, five silber-groschen.[[90]]
Suicide a Folly and a Crime; Two Sermons by Dr. Crusius, Chaplain of a Division of the Army: Magdeburg, 1855. 8vo. The miracle consists in this, that one, who under the qualms of a guilty conscience, was long occupied with thoughts of suicide, was suddenly cured of them, permanently, by an invocation of the name of Jesus. The production is also remarkable as containing, on p. 34, the following allusion to Schleiermacher: “It is said of a distinguished divine, that he was once sorely tempted to commit suicide. Such is the influence which suffering of body and mind may exercise even upon good and godly men.”
193.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, December 17th, 1856.
Another grateful, unconstrained, and amiable letter from the Grand Duke. He fixes February for the visit, and desires the drama to open with a request to search the archives. The permission being given, the material part is to follow, as he says, symbolically. You will arrange that with care, my dear friend. We are approaching the goal of our wishes.
I have another funeral to-morrow at the column in Tegel, which, under the hand of Thorwalsden, promises Hope. The oldest niece (daughter) of my brother, the wife of General Hedemann, born in Paris in 1800, a few days after Madame von Humboldt’s return from Spain, has departed after much suffering (liver complaint connected with dropsy), an amiable, cheerful housewife, who enjoyed good health for forty years in a very happy marriage. I live to bury all my kith and kin.
Yours,
A. v. H.
Wednesday Evening.
194.
CHARLES ALEXANDER, GRAND DUKE OF SAXE-WEIMAR, TO HUMBOLDT.
Weimar, December 16th, 1856.
Like unto Nature, eternally invoked, eternally giving, because eternally bountiful, you respond with ever returning goodness to every repeated solicitation. The proposal of your Excellency in regard to the young man of science, as suggested by the plan of M. de Varnhagen, is so excellent, that I can only beg for its speedy execution. For that purpose, it would seem desirable that M. de Varnhagen should instil the idea into the young men that our plentiful archives would repay a thorough search, if I could be induced to sanction it. I would do so at once, permitting the material part to follow hereafter. The period beginning with February of next year would seem to me best adapted for the literary investigation. The real object of the journey should remain a secret, so that I shall be entirely at liberty to see him, to appoint him, or not to appoint him.
I thank you with all my heart for that printed inclosure. This task also, by no means an easy one, you have performed with a master hand, and could do so better than any one else, because you, more than most men, have spoken to the world by noble actions.
I shall appropriate the Journal of Petermann. My veneration for you is the pledge of the effective truth of my aspirations. I beg you to preserve your interest in it, and your goodness also, being your most grateful admirer and servant,
Charles Alexander.
195.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Feb. 7th, 1857.
When I read anything in Berlin that enlists my political or literary attention, my first thought is of you. Lasaulx of Munich, of Baader’s tribe, was only known to me as a man of the “Kreuz Zeitung” and of Schubert’s World of Darkness, and the new historical work he sends me contains little originality of views, but it manifests, by way of allusion, a wealth of positive knowledge, which I had not expected of the man. Numerous citations indicate a great preference for the views of my brother. The Slavonic passage in regard to the Messiah is also remarkable, and the notes present a rich collection of antiquities. I should not look for anything of the sort from President Gerlach and his brother, to whom Professor Gelzer of Basle, and others, of opinions opposite to his, have been officially referred in the Neufchatel negotiations. If Lasaulx is not agreeable to you on account of his wishes for the restoration of the ancient German empire, you may find it interesting to skim over the work, and glance at the notes.
My cutaneous disease is much better, as also my nocturnal diligence. The fourth and last volume of Kosmos will consist of two parts, i.e., of two volumes, each of thirty-five sheets, the first of which has already left the press. Both the parts, however, are to appear together, to avoid spoiling the effect of a continuous description, beginning with the internal warmth of the earth, and ending with the different races of man.
The presumptuous want of caution with which the pitiful Neufchatel affair is carried on here, exposes Prussia to great humiliation at Paris. Waterloo will be avenged on Prussia as it has been on Russia.
Yours most truly,
A. v. Ht.
196.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, Feb. 9th, 1857.
Your Excellency will receive, accompanying this, with my most hearty thanks, the book so kindly lent me. I have read it with varied emotions, I might say with painful interest. True, the author makes concessions, and opens up points of view, which I should not have expected any more than the luxurious learning of his manifold citations. But the pretty collection of notes fails to mantle the kernel of the text, which is extremely bitter; the apology of negro slavery, the brutal praise of warfare and of standing armies, and the beneficence of aristocratic revolutions, in spite of his far-fetched compliments, which look like invitations to be converted, the author really offers nothing but the fare of the “Kreuz Zeitung,” in a preparation somewhat more delicate than that of Professor Leo, whose “mire of cultivation” and “scrofulous rabble” are here cooked up with spices. Latet anguis in herba! I must say that I always take the alarm when philosophers undertake to measure the course and the stage of human development, and to combine the meagre dates of our puny history, of at most a few thousand years, with laws for the possibilities of millions of years. Neither Fichte, nor Schelling, nor Steffens, nor Hegel, were particularly fortunate in their essays; the assignment of the ages is best left to the poets. What is especially singular in our author is that he confesses to a strong doubt of his own doctrine, for he “cannot practically renounce the national Ideal of a restored emperor and empire, although his theoretical faith in their realization is slight” (p. 157). One who writes thus has written his own sentence. A friendly answer at the hands of your Excellency the author may hope to receive, an approving one you will not be able to give him.
To hear that your welfare, your activity, your energy, continue unaltered and progressive, is refreshing and encouraging to us authors, who stand in need of great example to protect us from flagging in our daily work, ολίγον τε φίλον τε. The views of the new volume of Kosmos give me great delight, and, as Schiller said when Goethe produced one of his masterpieces, “I thank the gods that they have suffered me to live to see it.”
The Neufchatel affair, even in its present stage, has in it much that is disheartening, and I was from the first opposed to our negotiations at Paris, which had all the appearance of snares, in which much may yet be entangled. The zeal displayed by many is not at all sincere, but seems an excellent means for the attainment of other ends, and will probably be successful. Nevertheless, I am without anxiety for the future, the light cannot be extinguished and must triumph; it is only the moment of darkness that is hard to bear.
With the best wishes, in the greatest veneration and devotion,
I remain your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
197.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, February 20th, 1857.
Will your Excellency pardon me for trespassing on your valuable time a moment? Not for myself, but for a literary project from which I cannot withhold my personal interest, if only on the score of old acquaintance! Professor Francis Hoffmann, of Wuerzburg, is engaged upon the publication of the works of Francis von Baader, which he pursues with self-sacrificing perseverance. I may say against wind and tide. He is about closing the enterprise with a sketch of the life of his author, and is anxious not to pass over unmentioned the fact, that Baader attended the Mining Academy at Freiberg, at the same time with your Excellency. It would be invaluable to him to obtain a word of reference to the matter from yourself, a bare hint as to whether any relation of moment took place between you, or whether he made any impression upon you? I would not presume to trouble your Excellency, if I did not take for granted that either a memento, or the contents of a single line, would dispose of the matter!
The crowd and your Excellency’s early departure prevented me from making my salutation at the Artists’ Festival. It is more than twenty years since I have ventured into such deep waters.
Strange reports are in circulation. I hope it is only a jest that presents M. Niebuhr as the Future Minister of finance, and M. Wagener as Privy Councillor, with a seat in the cabinet.
With a repeated request of your indulgence, I remain, with the most profound esteem, and in the most sincere devotion,
Your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
On Humboldt’s attack of sickness, Varnhagen’s diary of February 27, 1857, contains the following: “M. Hernrann Grimm called, coming from Humboldt’s apartments, where he had conversed with Seiffert, the valet. It is not a cold that has befallen Humboldt, but a far more serious attack, a paralytic stroke. After the court ball on Tuesday evening he felt unwell, in the night he left his bed to drink some water—wished to avoid disturbing the servant—and fell upon the floor. Seiffert awoke with the noise, and found his master speechless and unconscious; it was some time before he revived. Privy Councillor Schoenlein is not sanguine; he had not a very good night.”
Humboldt’s loss would be irreparable. He is a counterpoise to so much that is mean and contemptible, which, after his death, would boldly seek the light and glory in its own depravity. The honor and influence of science are embodied in him, and both would sink if he were taken away. There is not now a name in Germany, or in Europe, like his, not an influence in Berlin more extensive or more generally recognised than his. And how painful would his loss be to me! His name and his intercourse is attached to fifty years of my life, he has known those who were near and dear to us of old!
Under March 14th, Varnhagen narrates in his diary: “When the King was with Humboldt, Schoenlein said to the latter, that he would not be able for some time to stand firmly on his left side, to which Humboldt rejoined: ‘For all that, it will not be necessary for me to sit on the right with Gerlach.’”[[91]]
198.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, March 17th, 1857.
I cannot deny myself the pleasure to offer to your Excellency my most heartfelt congratulations for your happy and perfect recovery! The finest and most powerful testimony of it is the letter to Privy Councillor Boeckh, which appeared in the papers this morning, and which no epithet of praise will suffice to describe. Such an invocation has never yet fallen to the lot of any man, and the receiver will not fail to honor and appreciate it as the most precious of all the gifts bestowed upon him. How fresh must have been the mind, and how warm the heart, from which it emanates, and how sterling and graceful at once is its expression! Even its narrative form—its Herodotic narrative, I might call it—is of inestimable value, and shows us a beautiful combination of youth preserved and old age achieved.
May your Excellency pardon this overflow of sentiment! You have no need of my words, but to me it is not possible to suppress them, and I therefore will give free vent to my most fervent desire, that the radiating star, covered for a moment by a cloud, may still shine upon us for a long time in accustomed splendor, and may forebode, as heretofore, health and wealth at home and abroad.
With profound veneration and gratitude,
Ever faithfully your most devoted
Varnhagen von Ense.
These lines are not so presumptuous as to expect an answer.
199.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, March 19th, 1857—at Night.
How should I deny myself the pleasure to thank you, the dearest, ablest, and most attached of my friends. Not indulgence—no, praising expressions on my address to Boeckh—a praise of form, of the vesture of thought—has been my lot from the lips of the master of language, and of the delicate turns of good-will. You caused me great joy, more than you anticipated. What my nervous affection was, which produced a paralysis of such short duration, with the functions of the brain remaining entirely free, with pulse unchanged, with preservation of sight, and of all motion of the extremities subject to will, I cannot divine. There are magnetic storms (the polar light), electric storms in the clouds, nervous storms in man, heavy and light ones—perhaps, also, sheet lightning, foreboding the others. I had serious thoughts of death, comme un homme qui part, ayant encore beaucoup de lettres à écrire. Other interests, which for ever remain alive in me, bind me to the memories of yesterday!! I believe myself in full convalescence; but as I had to rest much on the bed without occupation, sadness and displeasure of the world have increased in me. This I say to you alone. I shall soon come to you, and thank you orally from the depths of my soul. All around us puts us to shame.
In most intimate friendship, your most faithful
A. v. Humboldt.
Varnhagen writes in his diary, March 19th, 1857: “Unexpectedly a letter from Humboldt! I had written under my congratulation, that these lines were not so immodest as to expect an answer. But he, nevertheless answers, and in the most obliging, most heart-gladdening manner. He gives a remarkable report of his sickness. The bad reports were all untrue, at least exaggerated; he never lost consciousness or language, his pulse remained as usual. Yet he did not conceal from himself, that it might be the end.” “I had serious thoughts of death, comme un homme qui part, ayant encore beaucoup de lettres à écrire!” Grand and fine is what he adds: “Other interests, which remain for ever alive in me, bind me to the memories of yesterday!! (of the 18th of March!)[[92]] I believe myself in full convalescence, but as I had to rest much on the bed without occupation, sadness and displeasure with the world have increased in me. This I say to you alone.”
200.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, April 6th, 1857.
If you, dear friend, understand the letter of the Grand Duke as I do, —— must go. I had proposed that he should come to Weimar, under the pretext of studying the archives; he would bring a letter of introduction from you or me; should be invited to court and if he did not please, should simply be asked whether he meant to return to ——. That this should be a shibboleth as a bad end of the drama, quod Deus avertat. I also proposed to advance the stipulated sum of money. On this head the tyrant does not answer distinctly. —— goes, I think, by way of Berlin. Shall we then give him the letter of recommendation with the galvanic stimulants? I do as you wish.
Your faithful
A. v. Humboldt.
Monday.
Keep the letter of the Grand Duke, which ends nicely, and in good taste.
201.
KARL ALEXANDER, GRAND DUKE OF SAXE-WEIMAR, TO HUMBOLDT.
Weimar, April 3d, 1857.
A misunderstanding is the key to my behavior towards ——. I believed and expected that he, after he had, in January, I believe, asked the permission to search our archives, would immediately come hither. Then only of course I would have paid his expenses. Just in these last days I wondered neither to hear nor to see anything of ——.
Then arrived the second letter of your Excellency, which, asking explanation of me, gives explanation; and I hasten to answer it by saying that —— may come in about ten days, and I would be prepared in any case to make the payment, the amount of which your Excellency yourself named. According to understanding, both of us, I and the traveller, would consider ourselves entirely free yet, and therefore observe due discretion on the proper cause of this journey.
Dante would have spoken still more truly if he had said: “Viver ch’ è un correr a l’eterna gioventù.” You prove it, for eternally your immortal spirit rejuvenates, its excellence is also a proof of this.
In grateful reverence and love, your faithfully most submissive
Karl Alexander.
202.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, April 7th, 1857.
Your Excellency’s kind and very much desired communications I forwarded in haste to —— that is to say, the substance of it. It is to be hoped that —— will start immediately, but I expect first to receive an answer from him, and as I do not believe that in the short time the Grand Duke has left him, he can make the détour by way of Berlin, it will be best for him to receive the letter of introduction in Weimar.
The Grand Duke insists upon discretion, and justly so! It is convenient for him, and delicate and sparing for the other party. —— has acted correctly in this respect up to the present time. I am very anxious to see the end of the matter; taking for granted that there was a good relation present in the germ. Success would give me extraordinary satisfaction.
The present you make me of the letter of the Grand Duke delights me very much. Not only the end is in good taste and fine, but the whole style has agreeable turns; and above all, the reverence for your Excellency expresses itself in a manner, the heartfelt sincerity of which cannot be misunderstood.
For some days I have been living entirely in recollections of past times and relations. The correspondence between Gentz and Adam Mueller, just now published by Cotta, keeps me spellbound, and I must contemplate the whole series of those experiences in my reviving recollection.
I have known both men early and intimately, and have had much intercourse with them, personally, of a friendly character, in measures generally an adversary. The superiority of Gentz over the younger friend, whom he greatly overvalued, never was doubtful to me, and is here confirmed anew; only at last when the murder of Kotzebue deranges and stupifies the mind, the force of terror drives the statesman, who formerly was fond of clearness, into the gloomy nebulous strata, to which the frightened friend had retreated long before. This correspondence is certainly unique in its kind. The transactions, disquisitions, mutual influences, inclinations, and feuds are invested with dramatic interest. In Adam Mueller, by-the-by, is contained the complete germ of the “Kreuz Zeitungs” party, though in ideal elevation, still without contact with the real world, and therefore without offensive vulgarities.
Your Excellency kindly promised me a few lines on Franz Baader; may I remind you of them in the most modest manner, and with the remark, that really a few lines only would suffice for the purpose?
In most faithful reverence and most grateful submission, immutably your Excellency’s most obedient
Varnhagen von Ense.
203.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, April 10th, 1857.
I have the pleasure to announce to your Excellency that Herr —— will start from —— to Weimar on the 14th. Much as he would have wished to make the détour by way of Berlin, if only to lay at the feet of your Excellency the most cordial expression of his boundless gratitude for so much friendly intercession, he is compelled by the brief period fixed by the Grand Duke to renounce the realization of that wish for the present. I therefore venture to solicit the favor of the introduction to the Grand Duke you were good enough to promise; a single line would suffice. I would immediately despatch it to Weimar, so that Mr. —— will find it there on his arrival. The young man is well aware that the journey concludes nothing, and that he must be prepared for a denial; but he is much pleased to see that the long delay in the progress of affairs is ended, and he is at last in motion. By your kind inquiry your Excellency has produced this result, and dispelled the clouds of misconception; the most grateful heart will acknowledge this with heartfelt devotion! His sentiments are warmly shared by myself, in this case, as in so many earlier cases!
With the best wishes for your welfare; with profound veneration and attachment I remain unalterably,
Your Excellency’s most obedient
Varnhagen von Ense.
204.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, April 13th, 1857.
Here, my valued friend, is the archivary recommendation for ——, just as prescribed. May the matter be successful.
With heartfelt attachment,
Yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
205.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, April 21st, 1857.
To my great regret, dear friend, I cannot accept the kind invitation of yourself and your amiable niece to a cup of coffee on Thursday, as I shall return late and much fatigued from Charlottenburg. During my illness, a number of unimportant matters have accumulated, which must be disposed of after dinner, because they are trumpery affairs of orders and dedications, a presentation of Betel in preference to gifts of money. The fourth class[[93]] operates like Betel chewing, it occupies the time, but affords no nourishment. On Thursday the King hopes to close and settle with me. Be pleased to write Professor Hoffmann, of Wuerzburg, that I am grateful for his torso, but no assistance is to be expected from the King, not only (what you must not write), because something like a holy horror of the Catholic zeal of Baader is rooted in the King’s mind, but also because all literary assistance dwindles down in the cabinet to a present of forty or forty-five thalers. In preference to the publication in the preface of a miserable letter of introduction, which may have been written in a moment of ill-humor, I enclose a memorandum as requested.
With the same friendship as of old,
A. v. Humboldt.