THE LAST TEN YEARS. 365 



appeared between us as a threatening cloud accusing me of in- 

 justice towards you and the king ? I must have read out to you 

 from the proof something of a more nattering nature than 

 appears in " Cosmos." My memory does not serve me for any- 

 thing more, the proof-sheets are destroyed (there were no 

 revises, for Cotta allows me to have eight or ten sheets printed 

 off at once, and I make alterations up to the last minute from 

 the remarks written on the margin), neither can Professor 

 Buschmann recall any alterations, but he is going to see if 

 in the older manuscripts there are any variantes lectiones. I 

 am proud of your "distinguished friendship," and of being- 

 indebted to the " most profound critic of dramatic literature." 

 Whether, in the final marginal corrections, which may have 

 been overlooked, I intensified the words " profound " and " dis- 

 tinguished," I cannot now recall, for I pass my days among 

 proof-sheets, and have the feeling that the three leading minds 

 of our country, Groethe, Tieck, and Schiller, can scarcely gain 

 glory by epithets. The two volumes of " Cosmos " are stereo- 

 typed, and in six weeks 10,000 copies of the second volume were 

 struck off, but alterations can be made in the stereotype plates. 

 Along with the third volume will be published a second edition 

 of the first two volumes. Should your memory be less treache- 

 rous than mine, I beseech you, my dearest friend, send me the 

 words omitted : we will certainly have them reinstated. Deceit 

 or malice are out of the question. It seems as if an evil 

 apparition or some frightful nightmare threatened to destroy 

 our friendship.' 



Much ado about nothing, and much that is disgraceful to 

 both parties. It is difficult to decide which is the most paltry ; 

 the miserable vanity of Tieck, or Humboldt's weak anxiety for 

 reconciliation, for the sake of which he was not ashamed to 

 place this romanticist side by side with the two great classic 

 writers of Germany. But when language, which is inalienable 

 in its truth, is regarded as an article of merchandise, it is but 

 one step further to degrade it by bargaining and cheapening 

 like a tradesman. 1 



We shall gain the best idea of the method employed by 

 Humboldt in the compilation of ' Cosmos ' by casting a glance 



1 The passage, however, in ' Kosmos,' vol. ii. p. 62, remained unaltered. 



