Humboldt's Letters. 1 1 5* 



ei. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, MONDAY NIGHT, Dec. 7$, 1841. 

 I HAVE not the leisure, dear friend, to thank you as 

 I ought to do for your spirited and historically thorough 

 biography of Schwerin.* A deep penetration into the 

 individuality of this great man pervades the whole. 

 Simplicity is the essential, vital element of description. 

 A hasty word of advice to ride off, and the winning 

 of the battle by himself alone,f were constant stum- 

 bling-blocks in the path of this hero during his life. 

 His end, the standard in his hand, amid the bloody 

 massacre of thirteen thousand unsympathizing men, is a 

 striking conclusion to the life of the old soldier, who, 

 like Columbus, was at the same time great and unro- 

 mantically avaricious. What does much honor to your 

 talent as historian, and what is probably overlooked by 



* A Prussian Field Marshal, killed at the battle of Prague, 1757. TV. 



\ Allusion to the battle of Mollwitz, 1741, which was won by 

 Schwerin alone, who, indignant at the blunders of the King, ordered 

 him to ride off, and assumed the command himself, which Frederick 

 the Great njver forgave. Tr. 



