284 Humboldt's Letters. 



whole concern is privy counsellor Mebuhr, a low, cant- 

 ing parasite, full of spite and venom. 



" ' Garcia cannot sing here, he said some time ago, she 

 is too red ;* all representations, that her singing would 

 not be red, were in vain. At last I told him to send to 

 Bethaniaf for deaconesses to sing. He will be happy 

 to see me under the sod.' " 



On the 25th of September, Varnhagen narrates in his 

 diary : u They say, on the presence of Humboldt in the 

 High Ecclesiastical Council, that the priests had had in 

 their midst their greatest adversary, who puts all of 

 them to rout the man of natural science, before whom 

 all their mist and deceits flow into nothingness. ' Abael- 

 lino is among you !' one might have cried out." 



155. 



HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, Dec. 12th, 1853. 



AGAIN, my noble friend, you have shown your skill 

 in giving me pleasure. After our departure from Pots- 



* I.e. too much of a Bed Republican. 



f A Hospital near Berlin, administered by Protestant Sisters of 

 Mercy. 



