Humboldt's Letters. 133 



NOTE BY YARNHAGEX. Marheineke's article on the Anglican church 

 in the " Jahrbuecher fuer wissenschaftliche Kritik," with a couple of 

 censorial blunders. 



On the 26th June, 1842, Varnhagen writes in his 

 diary about the new order : " Humboldt tells me much 

 about the foundation of the new order. The King had 

 at first composed a list, in which he had written the 

 names with Sanscrit letters. This list was referred for 

 advice to Humboldt, Eichhorn, Savigny, Thiele; then 

 it was altered many times ; new names were added and 

 others stricken out the indecision lasted six weeks. 

 Originally the King had decided for forty-six members, 

 to correspond with the number of years embraced by 

 the reign of Frederick the Great. Afterwards he 

 thought of adopting forty, but was afraid of doing so, 

 on account of the ' plaisanteries ' about the number ' qua- 

 rante ' in the French Academy ; at last he limited the 

 number to thirty. All was managed by the King in his 

 own way. Arago was originally placed on the list by 

 the King. He insisted upon Metternich as his particular 

 choice. Rumohr was abandoned. Steffens was, in the 

 opinion of the King, not deserving ' enough neither 

 as philosopher nor as a naturalist.' Liszt was decidedly 

 favored by the King, and no objections could prevail. 

 Spontini was thought of, but Savigny and the cabinet 

 counsellor, Mueller, succeeded in displacing him. Moore 

 was objected to as having written satirical verses on 



