Humboldt's Letters. 359 



198. 



VARNHAQEN TO HUMBOLDT. 



BERLIN, March 17&, 1857. 

 deny myself the pleasure to offer to your 

 Excellency my most heartfelt congratulations for your 

 happy and perfect recovery ! The finest and most 

 powerful testimony of it is the letter to Privy Councillor 

 Boeckh, which appeared in the papers this morning, and 

 which no epithet of praise will suffice to describe. Such 

 an invocation has never yet fallen to the lot of any man, 

 and the receiver will not fail to honor and appreciate it 

 as the most precious of all the gifts bestowed upon him. 

 How fresh must have been the mind, and how warm 

 the heart, from which it emanates, and how sterling and 

 graceful at once is its expression ! Even its narrative 

 form its Herodotic narrative, I might call it is of 

 inestimable value, and shows us a beautiful combination 

 of youth preserved and old age achieved. 



May your Excellency pardon this overflow of senti- 

 ment ! You have no need of my words, but to me it 

 is not possible to suppress them, and I therefore will 

 give free vent to my most fervent desire, that the 

 radiating star, covered for a moment by a cloud, may 



