Humboldt's Letters. 211 



power over to-morrow. I have, therefore, thought best to 

 conceal entirely within my own breast the hope of possess- 

 ing the dearest of pictures, and to betray nothing, even to 

 my wife and daughters, until further news of the actual 

 approach of the hoped-for object shall render me as 

 secure in the certainty as the case permits. I have the 

 utmost horror against the propagation of anything the 

 truth of which maybe subjected to doubts by succeeding 

 events ; knowing from sad experience that it may not be 

 sustained by the next moment, for which falsehood and 

 misrepresentation are greedily lying in wait. I fear that 

 the premature spreading of such news, moreover, may 

 imply a sort of coercion (sit venia verbo) on the King. 

 These reflections imposed profound silence on me. But 

 when the letter of your Excellency to Herr von Wegnera 

 spread the news without my co-operation, and when the 

 realization of my hopes seemed near, this compulsory si- 

 lence terminated, and I actually revelled in the idea of its 

 possession. Next day, the 28th of January, I put down 

 on paper the testamentary provision, which disposes of 

 the picture after my death. I consider it the common 

 property of our country, not only on account of its funda- 

 mental object, that of alleviating the sufferings of the sick 

 man, but also for other reasons. I therefore do not leave 

 it to my family ; but in consequence of long and careful 

 considerations, up to January 27th, to my native town of 

 Minden, so that the highest military and civil functiona- 



