The first volume has a beautiful passage on Therese, and says much in praise of the King of Bavaria. In the second volume a description of Rahel will please you. Of Bettina she speaks less approvingly, as Madame von Buelow told me. I shall try to modify it in this respect. I think the first volume will be ready for delivery next Tuesday, and the second will soon follow. I shall bring it myself, together with notes and facsimiles, all locked in a tin box, which must be shortened. Then you will be in possession of the whole treasure, and I “salvavi animam meam.” The thing will create much provoking but salutary scandal, and will elicit much conflicting criticism.
With sincerest friendship, yours,
A. v. Ht.
Please don’t let the book be printed at Berlin, and have it (if possible) advertised before it is in the trade. My letters to Carriere will have duly reached you, I hope?
On the 30th March, 1847, Varnhagen wrote in his diary:—“Just when I returned home, Humboldt came in and brought a pack of manuscripts—the letters of his brother to Mrs. Diede. Humboldt regards affairs here as desperate, as I do myself. He consoles himself with the belief that the constitution presented, though good for nothing at first, may result beneficially. He expects violence of every description—atrocities committed by the police, popular rage, and military strokes. The King, however, Humboldt thinks, has no misgivings. He is in high spirits, having prepared his opening speech, and no longer minds the 11th of April, and its consequences. He never yet talked with Humboldt on constitutional affairs. As to Michelet, Eichhorn has instigated the King very much; but after all they will not find a reason to dismiss him, although the King would like very much to do it, and the Minister urges him on to it.”
On the 31st March Varnhagen adds: “Humboldt told me but yesterday that the King was firmly believing the restoration of Don Miguel, Don Carlos, the overthrow of the July dynasty, and that he would yet go to Paris, to salute the legitimate king. Also, that he, Humboldt, was deemed a Jacobin, who carried the tri-colored standard in his breeches pocket. As for myself, I was considered a royalist, but the King had prejudices against me. They think it strange that my old friend Canitz should not have enlightened the King on my behalf; that they did not ask my advice, and avail themselves of my services in the present situation. Wittgenstein also has talked in this manner with Humboldt. They forget only one thing: that I neither can nor will—the one and the other, with equal determination.”
The nobility is terribly excited; the change is remarkable; self-esteem is mightily roused. The devil himself could not have invented more efficacious ways of provoking the hostility of this whole class than this monstrous “Herrenstand.”
A Dream.—I saw the King weeping bitterly, and crying: so far it has come. Well, I will resign! May my brother take charge of the whole, and be happier than I was!
March 27th, 1847, Varnhagen wrote the following repartee of Humboldt in his diary: “Humboldt recited, good-humoredly, that a certain Mr. Massow, in the Assembly, had characterized liberalism as a felony. He, Humboldt, was therefore a twofold felon, as Minister Bodelschwingh considered literary men felonious.”
On the 11th July, 1847, Varnhagen observes: “This morning Humboldt came in quite unexpectedly. He is in good health and spirits, and denies having been really sick. He says that the King lives in a whirlpool of pleasure, that he is often extravagantly gay; thinks no longer of the Chamber, except when reminded of it, when he becomes immediately grave and sullen. The ministers, however, are full of anger—Savigny and Eichhorn particularly so. Foremost, however, is Bodelschwingh, who is always exciting the King to strong measures. Canitz acts this time in a conciliatory and compromising spirit. Bodelschwingh cannot bear being deprived of the imaginary triumph of his visionary premiership by the Chambers. Humboldt is engaged on the final sheets of his second volume. He is going to Paris next September.”