82 Humboldt's Letters. 



HUMBOLDT TO VAJINHAGEN. 



THURSDAY, April 9th, 1840. 



HEBE are two Salamanders. The black (black bor- 

 dered) king of Denmark is not only a Norwegian 

 constitutional, but also a mineralogical king, who has 

 written pretty good memoirs on Vesuvius. The prede- 

 cessor having been an astronomical king, who proposed 

 prize questions on comets, presented great men like 

 General Mueffling and myself with chronometers, and 

 died of a comet on the night of the discovery of Galli's 

 comet, the Danish astronomers were, probably, rather 

 anxious for their heavenly pursuits under the reign 

 of such an earthly (or rather subterranean) monarch. 

 I was called upon to remind the King of his old predi- 

 lection for me. I therefore resorted to the pretext, 

 never before made use of by me, of congratulating him 

 on his accession to the throne. This is the cause of the 

 black drama. The letter is plain and sensible. 



A. HT. 



Please read in Mr. Quinet's the passage on Goethe 

 and Bettina, and return the venom to me. 



