278 Humboldt's Letters. 



153. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, August 15th, 1853. 



SEPARATED from you, my dear intellectual friend, by 

 the prolongation of my dreary sojourn at Potsdam, my 

 first approach to you is to petition. You, you alone are 

 my literary adviser, you who combine such depths of 

 feeling with so wonderful a command of the harmonies 

 of language. In my extreme old age, timidity in regard 

 to my own powers increases in an almost morbid 

 degree. A separate volume is to contain a selection of 

 the sonnets of my brother, in which there is not always 

 a perfect consonance between form and substance. I 

 crave your permission to come to you to-morrow, Tues- 

 day, at one o'clock, to read you a preface I have been 

 compelled to write ! By all means send a verbal assent 

 by the bearer. 



With indestructible friendship, yours, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



