Yours faithfully, always equally illegible,

A. v. Humboldt.

219.
PRINCE NAPOLEON, SON OF JEROME, TO HUMBOLDT.

Paris, Oct. 13th, 1857.

Monsieur le Baron,—Mons. Mariette sent to me, only a few days ago, your letter of July, in which you speak of Dr. Brugsch, and of his having sent me a Demotic Grammar, which I have not yet received. I mention this, so that you cannot accuse me of negligence in answering you. To-day I do not feel the courage in me to speak to you even of science. Your heart and your mind must be much afflicted by the sickness of your sovereign and friend, who causes us great sorrow. I say us, because the few days which I passed at Berlin made me appreciate the eminent qualities of the King, and attached me very much to him. May God preserve his life! I wish it from my heart.

Receive, Monsieur le Baron, the assurance of my high esteem.

Napoleon.

Varnhagen reports in his diary under February 18th, 1858:—“I went to Humboldt. With a wonderful presence of mind he immediately thinks of all the things of which our presence can remind him; he tells most flattering things to Ludmilla on her book, for the second edition of which (which he declares to be inevitable), he will give her a passage on Friesen,[[99]] which he had indeed intended to communicate to the ‘Turners’ of Leipzig, as an inscription on the monument intended to be erected in Friesen’s honor, but which, after a preliminary inquiry, appears to have been forgotten by them. He is out of humor with the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who robbed him and the brothers Schlagintweit of some hours, by repeated visits; they soon found out that he did not want to inform himself about those things they had prepared for him, but that he only wanted to have spoken with them; he also gave to each one the Falkenorden.[[100]] About —— he made the same excuse to Humboldt as he made to me, that noble birth was indispensable, which Humboldt thinks quite detestable, and moreover entirely in harmony with the personal prejudices of the Grand Duke; the father, he says, who also was not very remarkable, had at least concealed this sentiment, but the son expresses it openly; once, after a man who was not of noble birth had left the company, he had with great satisfaction given utterance to his delight, saying, ‘Now we are among ourselves!’ Another time, when some one observed that thirteen were at the table, he replied for consolation, that two among them were not nobles, and therefore did not count! and this he said to Humboldt in French, because, he said, these two would certainly not understand that! Humboldt complained bitterly of the mass of letters by which he was visited; he had to read at least 400 of them in one month; many commenced, ‘Noble old man,’ or, ‘Noble youthful old man;’ or also in this fashion: ‘Caroline and I are happy; our fate is in your hands.’[[101]] He praised Princess Victoria, saying, that she was not pretty, but had pleasing simple manners, and an eye full of soul.”

220.
VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.

Berlin, February 19th, 1858.