296 Humboldt's Letters. 



rents! The book of Pertz is full of aspersions and 

 incongruities, which, indeed, in most cases originate in 

 Stein himself, but are confirmed by Pertz in blind par- 

 tiality; he, while communicating everything, even in 

 many cases things which do not belong to the subject, 

 leaves out important documents without hesitation as 

 soon as he finds them not entirely for the benefit of his 

 hero. The same will take place when he writes the 

 biography of Gneisenau, for which the hand of a tacti- 

 cian would seem to be the first desideratum. 



The pious quaker-sheet was already known to me ; 

 one could hardly have thought such monstrosities prac- 

 ticable in the English language ! But our time abounds 

 in such. The psychographer takes the place of the 

 moving table ; they try to enforce my faith in the absur- 

 dity ; I excuse myself, that at my time of life a man is a 

 little backward, and that I have just arrived at table 

 moving, but of that they do not want to hear any more. 

 This reminds me of something, I will not suppress ! It 

 of course happens often, that remarks of your Excellency, 

 in particular such made at the royal table, come to the 

 ears of the public, and are repeated with zeal, and by 

 this assume widely different forms ; thus, quite recently, 

 a reply to Herr Senfft von Pilsach, in which the original 

 form seemed lost to a great extent, it would certainly 

 be desirable if the latter were always authentically pre- 

 served. 



