40 Humboldt's Letters. 



always careful, as in my " Views of Nature," and in 

 that work my manner is quite different from that of 

 Forster and Chateaubriand. I have always endeavored 

 to describe faithfully, to design correctly, and to be 

 even scientifically true, without losing myself in the dry 

 regions of knowledge. 



HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEK 



BERLIN, October 28th, 1834. 



You have encouraged and cheered me by your amia- 

 ble letter, and your still more amiable solicitude. You 

 have quite entered into the spirit of my efforts. But 

 the expression of my affectionate confidence in you [a 

 manifestation of the acknowledgment of your talent in the 

 Humboldt family] has rendered you too considerate and 

 inclined to praise. Your remarks have a degree of refine- 

 ment, of taste, and acuteness, which makes emendation a 

 highly pleasant task. I have adopted all, or nearly all 

 more than nineteeu-twentieths. Some obstinacy, how- 

 ever, must always be allowed an author. I beg a thousand 

 pardons for sending you some sheets, in which (towards 

 the end of the Discourse) I had not corrected the newly- 



