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.