180 Humboldt's Letters. 



92. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, Sept. 13th, 1844. 



I MUST be in a few moments at the Stettin depot to 

 meet the King, who arrives at 9 o'clock. Thence I 

 go for a few days to Sans Souci, where I shall, unfortu- 

 nately, celebrate my seventy-fifth birth-day. I say 

 unfortunately, because in 1789 I believed that the 

 world would have solved more problems than it has 

 done. It is true that I have seen a great deal ; but very 

 little, indeed, in proportion to my exactions. 



I have no time to-day to write you about your charm- 

 ing description of your sojourn in Paris in 1810. My 

 good sense led me at once to that page, from which I 

 could inhale the perfume of your friendship. I have 

 learned that I have not yet grown insensible to praise. 

 What a magnificently anti-Scythian spirit the University 

 of Breslau has evinced! How inventive men become 

 under political oppression ! Nothing but rope-ladders, 

 loop-holes, disguises to get out into the open air. And 

 when once there, how really German they are in their 



