322 Humboldt's Letters. 



winter, brighter and more enlivening than the sun- 

 beams which accompany them ! Receive my repeated 

 thanks and the assurance that I know how to appreciate 

 every one of them, and most of all the beneficent inten- 

 tion, which remember me so well, and gladden my heart 

 so cheerily ! The pencil lines of the dying Heine are a 

 valued keepsake, and shall be continued to be devoutly 

 treasured in the envelope superscribed by your Excel- 

 lency. The boon of to-day, the significant combination 

 of Archimedes and Franklin in reference to their tomb- 

 stones, I have also read with the warmest appreciation. 



I see that you do not dread the wind or the weather, 

 and that, fortunately, you need not dread them, when a 

 duty of honor is to be performed. The present time 

 imposes curious tasks upon us ! The ' death of a chief 

 of police in a duel is probably unprecedented in the 

 communities of modern Europe. The summoning of a 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs to Paris, to attend at the 

 close of important negotiations, with a box of writing 

 sand from the Mark,* has also a fabulous aspect. How- 

 ever, Allah is great ! 



In the most faithful reverence and most grateful 

 devotion, I remain immutably 



Your Excellency's most obedient, 



YABNHAGEN VON ENSE. 



* The Mark Brandenburg, a very sandy province, sometimes face- 

 tiously called the sand-box of the Holy Roman Empire. TV. 



