Humboldt's Letters. 207 



fessor M. did not see Minister von Bodelschwingh for 

 two years, but the Minister then treated him very 

 kindly, and Massmann desires very much, without 

 intruding, to give a candid answer to every question. 

 In view of the noble and frank character of Minister 

 von Bodelschwingh I have great hopes of the result of 

 such a conversation, and therefore I have to beg of your 

 Majesty, most submissively, to communicate to me, 

 whether, according to the orders of your Majesty, the 

 Minister will send for Professor M., or whether he may 

 go to the Minister on his own account, not called for, 

 but animated by some words of your Majesty. I won- 

 der how it could be forgotten how much Massmann has 

 done for the poetry of the Hohenstaufen times, and 

 how talented a lecturer he was at the University. I 

 find praised in Gervinus Geschichte der Deutschen 

 Litteratur : Massmann's Denkmaeler Deutscher Sprache, 

 1828 ; his Gedichte des Zwoelften Jahrhunderts, his 

 Legenden and Ritterliche Poesie. How could a man 

 be dangerous to youth whom the King of Bavaria 

 appointed for the education of his princes, and by whom 

 above all others the Crown-Prince declares himself to 

 have been animated with the love of culture and intel- 

 lectual freedom, and the true appreciation of his impend- 

 ing kingly duties ? We live not in a sad, but in an 

 earnest time. All action and energy are paralysed, if 

 backbiting is permitted to deprive us of our most useful 



