240 Humboldt's Letters. 



ISO. 



METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT. 



VIENNA, February, 1847. 

 MY DEAR BARON: 



I WILL begin this letter by congratulating you upon 

 the new decoration, which the King has lately conferred 

 upon you. The "Eagle," under whose wing sub 

 umbra alarum you have executed so much will be a 

 noble decoration on your breast. Suum cuique ! 



Now to what I wish to say further. You know, that 

 I am no savan and that I have no pretension to be 

 one ; but notwithstanding this, you know that I am the 

 friend of science, and in that capacity have furnished 

 the means to some savans of publishing the little work 

 of which I enclose the first copy to you. I hope you 

 will approve of its execution. I think I am at the 

 present the owner of the most complete collection of 

 monuments* now existing of an epoch of which I can- 

 not pretend to fix the age and of which the "Gossau'* 

 conceals countless numbers. History written by man 



* Petrifactions dug out in the Gossau, in Bohemia. 



