Humboldt's Letters. 355 



puny history, of at most a few thousand years, with 

 laws for the possibilities of millions of years. Neither 

 Fichte, nor Schelling, nor Steffens, nor Hegel, were par- 

 ticularly fortunate in their essays ; the assignment of 

 the ages is best left to the poets. What is especially 

 singular in our author is that he confesses to a strong 

 doubt of his own doctrine, for he " cannot practically 

 renounce the national Ideal of a restored emperor and 

 empire, although his theoretical faith in their realization 

 is slight" (p. 157). One who writes thus has written 

 his own sentence. A friendly answer at the hands of 

 your Excellency the author may hope to receive, an 

 approving one you will not be able to give him. 



To hear that your welfare, your activity, your energy, 

 continue unaltered and progressive, is refreshing and 

 encouraging to us authors, who stand in need of great 

 example to protect us from flagging in our daily work, 

 oXfyov rs (jp/Xov rs. The views of the new volume of 

 Kosmos give me great delight, and, as Schiller said when 

 Goethe produced one of his masterpieces, " I thank the 

 gods that they have suffered me to live to see it." 



The Neufchatel affair, even hi its present stage, has in 

 it much that is disheartening, and I was from the first 

 opposed to our negotiations at Paris, which had all the 

 appearance of snares, in which much may yet be entan 

 gled. The zeal displayed by many is not at all sincere, 

 but seems an excellent means for the attainment of 



