LETTER FROM HUMBOLDT. 225 



your plates are lithographed, as I fear they 

 are, and also whether they are colored, which 

 seems to nae unnecessary. Have your superb 

 original drawings remained in your posses- 

 sion, or are they included in the sale of your 

 collection ? . . . 



I could not make use of your letter to the 

 King, and I have suppressed it. You have 

 been ill-advised as to the forms. " Erhabener 

 Konig" has too poetical a turn ; we have here 

 the most prosaic and the most degrading offi- 

 cial expressions. M. de Pfuel must have some 

 Arch-Prussian with him, who would arrange 

 the formula of a letter for you. At the head 

 there must be " Most enlightened, most power- 

 ful King, all gracious sovereign and lord." 

 Then you begin, " Your Eoyal Majesty, deep- 

 ly moved, I venture to lay at your feet most 

 humbly my warmest thanks for the support 

 so graciously granted to the purchase of my 

 collection for the Gymnasium in Neuchatel. 

 Did I know how to write," etc. The rest of 

 your letter was very good ; put only " so much 

 grace as to answer ' ' instead of " so much kind- 

 ness." You should end with the words, " I 

 remain till death, in deepest reverence, the 

 most humble and faithful servant of your 

 Royal Majesty." The whole on small folio, 



VOL. I. 15 



