

Humboldt's Letters. 337 



to archaeologists in which they may obtain copies, by 

 an advertisement. I did not doubt that I could not 

 do better than to address you for light on the scientific 

 value of the present of Mehemed Ali, which for many 

 years slept in my multifarious collections, and of which 

 I was quite ignorant. May you and Herr Brugsch 

 receive my most sincere thanks. 



I have had the good fortune to find the King in 

 excellent health, and in the usual kind disposition 

 towards myself. Great recollections in long lives are a 

 fine bond between man and man, the power of which 

 is well tried when it has resisted the storms of time. 

 It is more than half a century since my first intercourse 

 with the young heir-apparent. What vicissitudes have 

 occupied this long, interval is matter of history. That 

 they have never deprived me of the confidence of the 

 two kings, father and son, is with me a source of pride 

 that is to say, of a sensation which the term peace of 

 mind and heart would better characterize than the 

 unsafe word that has escaped my pen. 



You, three years my senior, have just celebrated 

 your eighty-seventh birthday. That you and I have 

 understood " the art of living," we -may confess. That 

 we shall do well to cultivate it still longer, is not to be 

 denied. 



With sincere friendship and esteem, 



METTERNICH. 

 15 



