Humboldt's Letters. 307 



ton festival of oblivion (as if there was no history of 

 1813 and '14) > is now played out among the free insular 

 people, a kind of monkey comedy. There is only this 

 consolation which uplifts my spirit, that out of all this 

 something will arise, which both parties do not at all 

 intend. That is, le principe^ which outlives us all. I 

 am so cruel as to include you too. To my brother, 

 Wilhelm, the Kassel book seems to have done good up 

 there. In old attachment and reverence, 



Your faithful A. HUMBOLDT. 



WEDNESDAY. 



Be good enough to return the ghost story, by all 

 means. 



XOTE BY YARXHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT'S LETTEE OP APRIL 26TH, 

 1855. A " stranger is emboldened to transmit words of power to the 

 spirit" u They are given to her with the order to repeat them." In 

 case Humboldt should answer, he is requested to send the letter with 

 the chiffre A. W., to the store on the left of the house, at No. 120 

 Linden Street, and receive further details. A wanderer is described 

 as sitting down to rest Brother "Wilhelm appears to brother Alexan- 

 der and exhorts him to think of the kingdom of heaven, and how 

 splendid it is up there, how misty on earth. As a token of identity, 

 he reminds him of the eighteenth warm birthday, " where they swore 

 to love each other," an oath which reaches beyond the portals of 

 death, and which he now fulfils. It is a bombastic farrago, frequently 

 repeating the word " finish," which strikes the reader as eminently 

 inappropriate. 



Of the above-named direction Humboldt observes : " That it is the 

 boarding-school of Frau von "Wenkstern and Widow Poppe." 



