152.HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin,August 15th, 1853.
Berlin,August 15th, 1853.
Berlin,August 15th, 1853.
Berlin,August 15th, 1853.
Separated from you, my dear intellectual friend, by the prolongation of my dreary sojourn at Potsdam, my first approach to you is to petition. You, you alone are my literary adviser, you who combine such depths of feeling with so wonderful a command of the harmonies of language. In my extreme old age, timidity in regard to my own powers increases in an almost morbid degree. A separate volume is to contain a selection of the sonnets of my brother, in which there is not always a perfect consonance between form and substance. I crave your permission to come to you to-morrow, Tuesday, at one o’clock, to read you a preface I have been compelled to write! By all means send a verbal assent by the bearer.
With indestructible friendship, yours,A. v. Humboldt.
With indestructible friendship, yours,A. v. Humboldt.
With indestructible friendship, yours,A. v. Humboldt.
With indestructible friendship, yours,
A. v. Humboldt.