114.ALEXANDER MANZONI TO HUMBOLDT.

(FROM THE FRENCH.)

Milan,Dec. 6th, 1844.

Monsieur le Baron:

I would not have hesitated to express my confidence in an august and perfect goodness; but, instead of a becoming confidence, it would have been an unpardonable presumption on my part to have dared to foresee under what ingeniously amiable form this goodness would deign to manifest itself. I have thus a second time acquired the precious right (I had almost been made to forget that it is a sacred duty), to beg yourExcellency to lay at the feet of your noble sovereign the humble tribute of a gratitude which has become, if possible, more lively and more grateful. And at the risk of appearing indiscreet, I cannot refrain from availing myself of this opportunity to renew the respectful homage of the devotion which, as a dweller on this earth, and under this title,nihil humani a me alienum putans, I have long entertained. This homage would cease to be pure, and would thus lose its unique value if it involved the slightest sacrifice of my Catholic conscience, that is to say, of that which is the soul of my conscience. But, thank God, such is not the case; for, amid the character and the sign of the high destiny which I salute from afar, with a respectful joy, it is my privilege to admire and to love the development of the most excellent work of justice, which is the liberty of doing good.

My admiration for you, M. le Baron, if even it did not content itself with being the simple echo of so great a reputation, ought not to surprise you; for if, as I am daily told, there is not a learned man who has not something to learn from you, there are few unlearned men whom you have not taught something. In this connexion, and at the risk of abusing your indulgence, I cannot conceal from you my hope to have a memento of Humboldt—a memento less precious, no doubt, than those which I owe to his good-will, but which will alsohave its value. My fellow-citizen, Count Alexander Lito Modignani, in a journey made by him, entirely under your guidance, in North America, sought out, in the mountain of Quindia, the magnificent Ceroxylus at the season of the ripeness of their fruit, possessed himself of one, and was kind enough, on his return, to divide with me the seeds he gathered from it. Planted last spring, not one has yet sprung up; but on visiting them lately, I found them entirely sound, and in two of them a trace of vegetation was perceptible at the base. I should be happy, and even a little proud, to possess a memento, and that, I believe, a very rare one, of a people at once ancient and new, whom you have subjected to the victorious sway of science.

It is with the most profound respect, and, permit me to add, with that affection always so naturally entertained for a great man, and which it gives such pleasure to express, that I have the honor to be your Excellency’s most humble and most obedient servant,

Alexander Manzoni.

Note by Humboldt.—Written to A. Humboldt on the occasion of a refusal to accept the class of peace of the orderpour le merite. I had been commissioned to write to him, that it was not to interfere with his liberty in any degree, that he was never to wear the cross, but that a name so great and so beautiful as his must needs continue to grace the list of the knights.

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