Now, it pleases me better to put: 1, “It has influenced rulers and nations equally, as far as civilization and commerce extend” (extend, not extended, which latter I abhor); or, 2, “As far as civilization and commerce ennobled mankind;” or, 3, “Made mankind susceptible;” or, 4, “United mankind.”
Would No. 4 (the last), not be the better? Perhaps you have an inspiration. Put clandestinely, to-night at Staegemann’s, a bit of paper in my hand. Perhaps the first conception is the best.
A. Ht.
“Humanity” I give up at any rate, having just read so many mockeries regarding it in the last volume of Campe’s dictionary.
“Sed quamquam, primo statim beatissimi sæculi ortu, Nerva Cæsar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem; augeatque quotidie felicitatem imperii Nerva Trajanus.” Tacitus in Agricola, cap. 3. Also, of the same old Nerva (noble and gifted with literary taste):
“Quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi Nervæ, et imperium Trajani, uberiorem securioremque materiam senectati seposui: rara temporum felicitas, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere licet.” Tacit. Hist. I. 1. I, of course, in order to avoid all detail, shall give only the numerical quotations, sic: Tacit. Vita Ag. c. 3 Hist. I. 1.
Ht.
48.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, Tuesday Night, Oct. 27th, 1840.
If I have delayed so long in coming to you, my dear friend, both before and after my campaign to the North, it is only because there are impossibilities in life against which we battle in vain. Immediately after the festivities in this city I intended to hasten to you, but the uncertainty whether I should go to Paris (I refused, because then it would not have been honorable either to me or to the king, if Prussia did not dare to act independently!) the approaching departure of Bulow, the arrival of the sick General von Hedemann and his family, together with a rheumatic fever, which kept me in the house for six days, spoiled all my intentions. To-morrow morning, at 8 o’clock, I have to move over again to Sans Souci; but (I hope) only for some days. I, therefore, now take up my pen to chat with you. First my best thanks for your talented and noble treating of the rather mediocre “Erinnerungen von M. Arndt!” I certainly had observed his hostility towards you. The tone of your criticism is the noblest kind of revenge. The man, whom I never knew personally, was raised by the great events of his time and not by himself. Strange enough that the government attached to him in these latter days, in the evening of his life, an importance not arising merely from a simple love of justice.