120.HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Potsdam,April 22d, 1846.
Potsdam,April 22d, 1846.
Potsdam,April 22d, 1846.
Potsdam,April 22d, 1846.
It has afforded me a great relief being permitted to read before you, and while very much of the warm andfriendly praises expressed by you are of course to be ascribed to the kindness of heart which prompts you to give pleasure to an old man, still there is a large margin for the unalloyed gratification of my love of approbation. The main object of my efforts is that ofcompositionin the precise sense of the word, the command of large masses of matter compounded with care and with an accurate knowledge of details. The management of our beautiful, pliant, harmonious, and drastic tongue is but a secondary consideration. I shall certainly find an opportunity of availing myself of your excellent advice for Flemming and Mad. de Sevigné. Seneca also, though I consider him a little bombastic (Quaest. natur.) I have taken home with me for perusal.
Now for the special purpose of these lines. The King said to me on going to bed yesterday, “Let Bettina know that she may make her mind easy in regard to the leading person.[47]No one ever thought of giving him up to the Russians.” “You should write her to that effect yourself,” said I. “Yes, I hope to do so,” was the answer. He spoke very kindly of Bettina.
With my old attachment, yours,A. v. Humboldt.
With my old attachment, yours,A. v. Humboldt.
With my old attachment, yours,A. v. Humboldt.
With my old attachment, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.
Wednesday.
Wednesday.
Wednesday.
Wednesday.
How sad is this eighth attack upon the King! Strangethat ministers and cabinet councillors are never shot at! Such events are the more unpleasant, the more the probabilities or improbabilities of their recurrence baffle all attempts at calculation.