Humboldt's Letters. 389 



sis. 



HUMBOLDT TO 



BERLIN, January llth, 1858. 



REVERED FRIEND, I, too, am a sufferer from the 

 returning cutaneous affection, an unwelcome conse- 

 quence of old age. You have, at least, unconditional 

 freedom, and can attend to your comfort ; to me there 

 is no freedom granted ; I am molested by all ; most 

 unmercifully and inexorably by the mail. The kind 

 memento of Mrs. Sarah Martin is very honorable to 

 me. I owe it, like many other things, to you. Suffer 

 me to make you the interpreter of my gratitude and of 

 my faithful reverence for the talented lady, and for her 

 brother, so dear to me, Mr. John Taylor. The news 

 from Livingstone interests me chiefly on account of his 

 views of the susceptibility of the negro race to civiliza- 

 tion, at a time when France on the one hand, and 

 Xorth America on the other, are most shamelessly 

 subserving the capture of slaves in Africa, under the 

 flimsy pretext of introducing free laborers. The politi- 

 cal news from India, by Captain Meadows Taylor, was 

 unimportant. Perhaps it is agreeable to you to add to 

 your archives some original letters of Count Walewski, 



