Humboldt's Letters. 309 



assures me of having always asserted, faithful to his 

 principles, that war would probably have been avoided, 

 if Prussia and Austria had from the first co-operated 

 actively with the Western powers against Russia. They 

 answered in St. Petersburg that the Emperor would 



not have yielded, but this the Prince doubted 



With old attachment, yours, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



THUESDAT. 



You wih 1 explain to me orally the mythological name 

 of Sorocaba.* 



Varnhagen narrates in his diary, under date of August 

 llth, 1855 : "About 1 o'clock Humboldt came, look- 

 ing well, quite vigorous, in fresh and lively spirits; 

 when he make a worse impression a short time ago, as 

 Dirichlet thought, it was the eflect of sickness, and is 

 passed now. First, he spoke of the book of my cousin, 

 which he praised, for which he thanks him (in a letter). 

 The expression Sorocaba I cannot explain to him. 

 Humboldt was but recently made a knight of the 

 great Brazilian order, on account of an arbitration 

 between Brazil and Venezuela, respecting a large tract 



* Francisco Adolfo de Yarnhagen's dedication of his book to the 

 Emperor over his own signature. The title-page contains the words : 

 " For urn socio do Institute Historico do Brazil, Natural de Sorocaba' 

 (the native place of the author, west of Eio Janeiro). 



