184.HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.

Potsdam,November 9th, 1856.

I forgot to inform you, my revered friend, that I fulfilled punctually your wish to send to Weimar theletter you addressed me, and to recommend urgently the proposed “Private Secretary,” and all this a few days after I knew your intention.

A German letter from Prince Metternich, expressing sentiments full of graceful language, will interest you. I present you the letter for your archival collection. The occasion was a moulding in plaster and copy, partly by the Prince’s own hand, of an old Egyptian column of granite, which he had received twenty-five years ago from Mehemed Ali. The old Prince gave me this copy, three-fourths of a foot in height, to decipher the long inscription in Demotic writing. This has been done by Dr. Brugsch, the talented young Egyptologist, author of a Demotic Grammar, universally admired in other countries. Dr. Brugsch, who had the first edition of his Grammar printed in Latin, when he was still in the first class of August’s Gymnasium[83](the second edition is written in French), has found a good deal of very remarkable astronomy in the inscription; and in order to give pleasure to the old Prince, Brugsch has published the whole under the name of “Stele. Metternich,” in the “Journal for the Orient,” and in the “Athenée.” Brugsch was in Egypt for two years, at the expense of the King; he is the son of a poor sergeant, and is familiar with Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, and Persian.

Pardon my horrid writing, illegible, and in wild, incorrect style.

The letter of the maccaroni King[84]to Louis Philippe, in the “Spenersche Zeitung,” will not have escaped you, I hope.Non v’a bisogno—entirely as Rochow-Seiffart (in his first manner) to the Elbingers:—“It is not at all necessary that my people think; I think for them; the people, who have betrayed me so often, submit to my power.”

Your faithfulA. Humboldt.

Your faithful

A. Humboldt.

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