198.VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT.
Berlin,March 17th, 1857.
Berlin,March 17th, 1857.
Berlin,March 17th, 1857.
Berlin,March 17th, 1857.
I cannot deny myself the pleasure to offer to your Excellency my most heartfelt congratulations for your happy and perfect recovery! The finest and most powerful testimony of it is the letter to Privy Councillor Boeckh, which appeared in the papers this morning, and which no epithet of praise will suffice to describe. Such an invocation has never yet fallen to the lot of any man, and the receiver will not fail to honor and appreciate it as the most precious of all the gifts bestowed upon him. How fresh must have been the mind, and how warm the heart, from which it emanates, and how sterling and graceful at once is its expression! Even its narrative form—its Herodotic narrative, I might call it—is of inestimable value, and shows us a beautiful combination of youth preserved and old age achieved.
May your Excellency pardon this overflow of sentiment! You have no need of my words, but to me it is not possible to suppress them, and I therefore will give free vent to my most fervent desire, that the radiating star, covered for a moment by a cloud, maystill shine upon us for a long time in accustomed splendor, and may forebode, as heretofore, health and wealth at home and abroad.
With profound veneration and gratitude,Ever faithfully your most devotedVarnhagen von Ense.
With profound veneration and gratitude,Ever faithfully your most devotedVarnhagen von Ense.
With profound veneration and gratitude,Ever faithfully your most devotedVarnhagen von Ense.
With profound veneration and gratitude,
Ever faithfully your most devoted
Varnhagen von Ense.
These lines are not so presumptuous as to expect an answer.