378 Humboldt's Letters. 



the fresh, vivid, characteristic likeness of features so 

 dear to me (the talent of the skilful Miss Ludmilla 

 Assing), or the writing of your hand, so pregnant in 

 thought and expression. The latter I have copied 

 myself and shown it to my friends, because it is to be 

 ranked with the best of what our language contains in 

 the sententious compression of ideas. The unexpected 

 arrival of the brothers Schlagintweit from Cashmere, 

 Thibet, and the Kuen Luen mountains, which bound 

 Thibet on the north, as the Himalaya on the south, 

 has unreasonably delayed my acknowledgment of your 

 kindness, as they are going to the King at Marienbad, 

 without, it is to be hoped, the three hundred and forty 

 boxes they have brought with them. All the passes, 

 even those most convenient for travel, are 18,000 feet 

 high. From the liberal grand ducal power (not liberal 

 in the prosaic sense of filthy lucre), not a syllable, pro- 

 bably because he is expecting us to send him fresh 

 proposals, fresh victims. No one but the honorary 

 Hungarian monk* and the princess is now a riddle to 

 me. Yours most faithfully, 



A. V. HUMBOLDT. 



The Emperor Napoleon has adroitly mended what 

 before was dubious, by means of very amiable letters, 

 rich in delicate turns of language, addressed to me by 



* Liszt. 



