96 Humboldt's Letters. 



51. 



HUMBOLDT TO BETTINA YON ARNIM. 

 [A copy in Varnhagen's handwriting.] 



SATURDAY, November 21, 1840. 



How could you doubt, most honored Madam, my 

 being thankful for the news of the real situation of 

 those noble men, who after so many undeserved suffer- 

 ings, and after so long and so shameful a neglect, are at 

 last to be placed in an independent position. I thought 

 that, to have given them such a situation in Berlin, 

 three thousand thalers would be a sufficient salary for 

 both, and with this view I have continued my efforts. 

 The King has adopted it as a principle never to issue an 

 order in financial matters on his own account ; like all 

 princes, he has no standard by which to measure the 

 wants of learned men. The superior intellects with 

 whom we wish to surround ourselves have wants as pro- 

 saic as their inferiors. Whoever wishes to obtain the 

 end must also be willing to employ the means, and espe- 

 cially in an affair which attracts every eye and which 

 touches the honor of the country. The minister Eich- 



