171.VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin,January 27th, 1856.
Berlin,January 27th, 1856.
Berlin,January 27th, 1856.
Berlin,January 27th, 1856.
With joyful thanks I profit by your Excellency’s goodness in sending me the copy of your beautiful response to the deputies of the city of Berlin. Were it not presumption to praise, where praise has already become a habit and a superfluity, I should say that thespeech is as full of sterling merit as of noble intention. The brightest passage, to my mind, is the (I hesitate whether to call it felicitous or masterly) allusion to the King, in terms so dignified and delicate, so warm and graceful; and every pure heart must at once acknowledge, that in this connexion the remark was singularly appropriate and beautiful. In your Excellency’s last favor, the expression, “Madame de Quitzow,” at first puzzled me a good deal. But I may boast of having solved the riddle by the power of the head—as the Jews say, where we speak of cudgelling our brains—and am constrained to acknowledge that the little sally is not only a good joke, but proportionably a mild measure of punishment. The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar desired to see me; but I found myself chained down to my rheumatic complaint.
With faithful reverence and most grateful devotion, unalterably your Excellency’s most obedient,
Varnhagen von Ense.
Varnhagen von Ense.
Varnhagen von Ense.
Varnhagen von Ense.