Humboldt's Letters. 33 



la 



HUMBOLDT TO YABNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, December 3, 1833. 



PAEDON, a thousand pardons, for not sooner return- 

 ing the classical studies of Friedrich Schlegel. I stu- 

 died them diligently and I am convinced that many 

 views of Grecian antiquity, which modern authors ascribe 

 to themselves, are buried in writings dated from 1795 

 (a deucalionic time of yore !). Angelus Silesius, whom I 

 have but now learned to appreciate, has also gratified me 

 and my brother very much. There is a*piety in the book, 

 which breathes on the mind like the balmy air of spring, 

 and the mysterious and hieroglyphical marks of your 

 departed wife, render your gift doubly dear to me. 



Spiker,* very curiously mistook the genitive in the 

 " astronomical observations of Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt," for my signature, when he informed the public 

 of Oltmann's death. I will pass it over, however, with- 

 out correction. 



With everlasting affection, yours, 



A. HUMBOLDT. 



* At that time editor of the Haude and Spenersche Zeitung in 

 Berlin. Tr. 



2* 



