96.

Berlin,June 16th, 1845.

I avail myself of the few moments allotted me before going to the railroad station, dear friend, to thank you heartily for your characteristic biography of “Hans von Held.” I have read but one half of it, and that immediately after having read your “Life of Bluecher.” It is, therefore, but natural that I was filled with admiration. How fortunate you are in coloring all the details of military life in the one, and in describing the civil efforts of a people struggling for liberty, in the other book. The fatalistic word “fortunate,” however, is outof place here, because the secret of such successes lies in the clearness of intellect and the intensity of your feelings. The whole world, as it is at present, is reflected in your “Held.” Zerboni’s letter on the bloody tragedy in the streets of Breslau, is as eloquently written as it is heart-rending. Such things, however, can’t deter our dull, fanatical, white-livered Polignacs. They will attempt to confirm the first deed of violence and brutality by subsequent ones more systematically devised—and all this under the reign of such a King! I am very angry and deeply affected.

A. v. Humboldt.

Monday Morning.

As I shall have no time for reading during my hasty journey, I have left the instructive book for a few days to Buelow’s, at Tegel.

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