Humboldt's Letters. 197 



ately replied to that high-gifted lady, the Countess. 

 You are quite right in saying that her beautiful poetry 

 evinces an admirable familiarity of the mind with the 

 subject. 



I deem it more delicate to write to Baron Hormayr 

 rather than to his lady. May I beg to enclose my little 

 note, provided you approve its form ? I have long had 

 a predilection for this liberal-minded man. His literary 

 activity is astounding. I shall have the pleasure of 

 calling on Mr. Sachs to-day. I shall also present his book 

 to the King myself; this is, however, a time in which 

 no impression is permanent. All things dissolve into 

 mere visions, which will, however, reappear, ominous 

 and deformed, by being joined to old fancies. I am much 

 afraid of the consequence produced by incentives, from 

 which I had hoped to produce happier results. How 

 has it happened that Kosmos is so popular beyond ex- 

 pectation ? It seems to me that it must be attributed 

 to the imagination of the reader, which invests it with 

 additional features, or to the pliability of our (German) 

 language which renders it so easy to describe every 

 object intelligibly, and to picture it in words. 



I will come and thank you, my generous friend, for 

 the light you have thrown on the moral and intellectual 

 merits of Voltaire.* Your revelations are delightful; 



* Voltaire at Francfort-on-the-Main in 1753, by K. A. Varnhagen 

 vonEnse. 



^^-% 



> of Tins 

 o 



