382 Humboldt's Letters. 



214. 



HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 



BERLIN, July 6th, 1857. 

 So ignorant of German poetry as to know nothing 



of the fame of Mr. - of what he calls the dreary 



Mecklenburg, I must ask you, my dear friend, to spe- 

 cify the degree of politeness with which the man ought 

 to be answered. Eight volumes, a compensation of 

 forty louis d'or, four for myself, four, as usual, for the 

 King, and a nonsensical letter, are before me. The 

 man appears to have sung of the great Napoleon and 

 Ney, but to have vainly knocked at the door of Napo- 

 leon III., Stephanie, Walewski, and Edgar Ney. It is 

 made my duty forthwith to read a Trajan, a Bianca, 

 and a Henry IV. Neither does he seem to have an 

 extravagant idea of what is to be obtained from the 

 King, a circumstance which discourages me from deli- 

 vering the treasure. Elisa von Ahlefeldt has given great 

 pleasure in Tegel, where I went with Kaulbach yester- 

 day, as delicate and pure in taste. Not in Tegel but in 

 Berlin, some court chaplains or officers, anxious to 

 acquire the title of consistorial councillors, may have 

 mooted the ecclesiastical question, whether a husband 



