Humboldt's Letters. 



199 



The " Quarterly Review" says I had a prolix style, 

 and am never able to write one page of " vivid expres- 

 sion." 



With faithful attachment, yours, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



Please excuse, like a philosopher, the writing on this 

 mutilated sheet. I am in such a hurry that I have 

 mistaken the address. 



105. 



HUMBOLDT TO YAENHAGEN. 



BERLIN, January 25fA, 1846. 



AFTER an official feeding, at court, of the " knights 

 of the peace," whose unworthy chancellor I am after 

 some sorrowful hours at Buelow's, whose state becomes 

 every day more precarious after a ball at the Chateau, 

 from which I am just returned, I cannot seek repose 

 without sending you my preliminary thanks for your 

 ecclesiastical gifts. I am delighted at the review of a 

 poetical period, the precursor of a nobler one or, to 

 speak more correctly, of one more pregnant with life. 

 I will, however, turn away from the long " Ode of 

 Grief," from "The Blue and the Black Eyes," from 



