78 Humboldt's Letters. 



have strangely interpreted and translated into his own 

 language, what I said to him, when he represents me 

 as condemning one whose great talents and delight- 

 ful style and manners I praise everywhere. How is it 

 credible that I could have spoken unfavorably of you 

 in the only conversation I ever had with a man who 

 brought me a letter from your own hand ? Who 

 recognises in me such careless, Orinoco manners ? 



Marheineke also has made a campaign in the " Kri- 

 tische-Blatter," more against Savigny than against 

 Stahl. There is a good deal of acrimony in the air, 

 and the black-coats are not merciful. The conclusion 

 of the philippic is very eloquent, in the climax from the 

 rationalists, vid St. Hegel, to Galilee. It is a pity that 

 the preceding twelve pages are so indifferently written 

 in the most mediocre style. 



Goerres and Schelling understand coloring better. I 

 thus feel only interested in what is dramatic and in the 

 talents exhibited, or not exhibited, therein. Caesareo- 

 papacy, territorial system, nay, even "the authority 

 of a distinctly positive doctrine, and marked physiog- 

 nomy," for which Marheineke (p. 41) has a tendency, 

 are abominations, and are mere carnival buffoonery to 

 me. Both parties are mere compressing machines of 

 different kinds, and a philosophically proved Christian 

 dogmatism of " marked physiognomy," this seems to me 

 the most offensive of all strait-waistcoats. 



