400 Humboldt's Letters. 



The regency, indispensable as it is to restore the 

 wasted power of the country, is still, alas ! in the clouds. 

 I hope the Prince of Prussia will abide by his present 

 promise, not to act further without being expressly 

 invested with the title of Regent. But who is to make 

 the first move, when the King is kept in such seclusion, 

 that even I have not seen him since the return ? If the 

 Chambers initiate the matter, the Government stands 

 convicted of pusillanimity. Aleajacta, and the sum of 

 intelligence at stake seems to have been doled out by 

 nature with laudable economy. 



What knowledge have you, dear friend, of M. Iwan 

 Golowin, whose impudence is so unprecedented as to 

 admit of his photographing me before the public in the 

 most dreadful neglige de costume, meme, as I wrote 

 him in great indignation, en me dotant de deux f antes de 

 francais, venaient instead of mennent, pourrait instead 

 of pouvait. What will men not do to make tools of 

 their neighbors ? 



I beg you to return me the three curiosities consisting 

 of the copy of Victoria, the letter of the Secretary of 

 War, and Rovira by Golowin, by Sunday morning, 

 when I must go to Tegel with Baron Stockmar, the 

 father. 



My walk (ma demarche) increases lamentably in 

 senile want of direction. Beware of my patience with 

 life. Reputation keeps pace with imbecility, and the 



