Saturday, April 24th, 1841.
A disappointment, dear friend, not to have found you. Correct this title-page for me; I have to send it away. As it is necessary to state, “that this is not the lecture of 1828,” I thought of having the long sentence printed on the title-page, in small type, like an aphorism. It may look strange after the name, but I hope you will be able to approve of it.
Ht.
“Kosmos. Sketch of a Physical Description of the World, by A. von Humboldt. From Sketches and Lectures delivered in the years 1827 and 1828, enlarged and corrected according to the latest researches.
“‘Naturæ vero rerum vis atque majestas sin omnibus momentis fide caret, si quis modo partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo.’—Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. 7. c. 1. Stuttgart.”
54.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Wednesday, April 28th, 1841.
Be very kind and indulgent in reading my work. I am anxious that you should get a complete idea of the composition of it. In A, I have made large corrections. Notice especially p. 37 and the notes; Schelling’s name, pp. 37 and 68; Hegel, p. 66. The positive declaration at p. 64, that it is not the creator of Natural Philosophy whom I accuse, will, I hope, make my biting severity at the “gay Saturnalia,” le bal en masque of the craziest of all natural philosophers, seem more pardonable to him. “Il faut avoir le courage d’imprimer. Ce que l’on a dit et écrit depuis trente ans.” It has been a lamentable period, in which Germany has sunk far below England and France. Chemistry, without so much as wetting one’s fingers.
The diamond is a pebble arrived at consciousness. Granite is ether. Carus.
The side of the moon turned towards the earth is of a different convexity from the reverse. The cause of it: the moon fain would stretch out her loving arms—she cannot, but gazes at the earth, and protrudes her lower jaw.