Berlin, May 10th, 1837.
At last, my dear friend, I can send you the volume of the Academical Proceedings, which contains the important treatise on history. I shall soon exchange this borrowed volume for another, which you may keep. It seems that there never were separate copies made of this essay. You disappeared so quickly after the last performance, that I fear very much your appearance on that fated day was only a sacrifice to me. I move eternally like a pendulum between Potsdam and Berlin. To-morrow again to Potsdam, where we expect, on the 16th, the amiable Princess,[[15]] who has set at variance the whole hellenic camp, and whom they will now be happy to find “by far not beautiful enough.”
Most gratefully yours,
M. Humboldt.
Wednesday.
I knew long ago that General Bugeaud did not speak French. I now see that his real language is Mongol. What a Timurid proclamation of the “armée civilisatrice.”
The essay of thy brother is one of his most perfect works as to style. “God governs the world (p. 317); the task of history is to trace these eternal mysterious destinies.” This is the essence of his production. I have sometimes discussed with my brother, not to say quarrelled about that. This result certainly is analogous to the oldest ideas of mankind, expressed in every language. My brother’s treatise is a commentary developing, explaining, praising, this dim perception. In the same manner the physiologist creates so-called vital powers, in order to explain organic phenomena, because his knowledge of physical powers, which act in what they call lifeless nature, does not suffice to explain the play of living organisms. Are vital powers demonstrated by this? I know that you will be angry with me, because you divine that the fundamental idea of this wonderful treatise is not entirely satisfactory to me.
28.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Wednesday, May 17th, 1837.
You have prepared for me, my highly esteemed friend, a delightful pleasure. I hope that these remarks upon the composition of history will hereafter form a part of your miscellaneous writings! The mind certainly becomes dizzy in contemplating the abundance of material which springs copiously from every fresh source. You point out how this material may be moulded by a man of genius. In the approaching millennium everything will be simplified—the individual life of nations is preserved, in spite of warlike expeditions over continents. Since the great epoch of Columbus and Gama, who made one part, one side of this planet known to the other, that fluctuating element, the ocean, has established the omnipresence of one kind of civilization (that of Western Europe). Its influence breaks through the rigid barriers of continents, and establishes new customs, new faith, new wants of life even in the most unorganised parts of the earth. The South Sea Islands are already Protestant parishes;—a floating battery, a single vessel of war, changes the fate of Chili....