Humboldt's Letters. 1 29 



" drained the chalice," are followed to the grave by a 

 solemn cortege of court equipages, although in fact 

 they had always discarded the orthodox belief and sub- 

 stituted for it pseudo-philosophical interpretations. 



What displeases me very much in Strauss is his frivo- 

 lous manner of speaking of natural sciences, which makes 

 him accept without hesitation the formation of organ- 

 ism from inorganisms, and which enables him to easily 

 believe in the origin of man as springing from the 

 primitive sod of Chaldea. That he seems to think very 

 little of the blue regions on the other side of the grave 

 I might cheerfully forgive him ; the more so, as we are 

 the more agreeably and willingly surprised when we 

 expect little. As for you, you fortunate man, it could 

 have caused no surprise. How purely Spanish and revolt- 

 ing in the present inquisitorial formula was the sentence 

 that " The culprit would admit himself." Neque aliud 

 aut qui eadem saevitia usi sunt, nisi dedecus sibi atque 

 reges illis gloriam peperere. 



I send you a copy of "Don Juan." It shows beauty 

 of language, also a rich imagination. I am anxious to 

 hear how you are pleased with it. 



The constitutional Roi des Landes* repeatedly said 

 yesterday at dinner in the presence of forty people: 

 The professors of Goettingen had talked of their patriot- 



* King Ernest August of Hanover. 



6* 



