Humboldtfs Letters. 275 



ISO. 

 HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEX. 



BERLIN, March 13^ 1853. 



THE confusion of my lonely life, my dear friend of 

 many years, at a time of such profound moral degrada- 

 tion, leaves me in a harassing uncertainty as to whether 

 I have or have not sent you the seventh volume of my 

 brother's complete works. I am greatly ashamed, but I 

 know that you have not yet learned to be angry with 

 me. The article against Capodistrias, the demand for 

 the surrender of Strasburg, sounds like the irony of fate 



upon our present humility 



With ancient love and reverence, yours, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



The death of Leopold von Buch bows me deeply. A 

 happy blending of the most noble, philanthropic senti- 

 ments, momentary impulses, and a little despotism of 

 opinion ; one of the few men who have a physiognomy. 

 He has given a new form to his science ; he was one of 

 the greatest illustrations of our times ; our friendship 

 has endured sixty-three years, unruffled, although we 

 often tilled the same field. I found him, in Freiberg, in 

 1791, where he had come to the Mining Academy before 

 myself, although five years younger. His funeral 



