4-O2 Humboldt's Letters. 



325. 



HUMBOLDT TO LUDMILLA ASSINGk 



BERLIN, Oct. 12th, 1858. 



WHAT a day of agitation, of grief, of misfortune was 

 yesterday. I was summoned by the Queen to Potsdam, 

 to take leave of the King. He wept with deep emotion. 

 Returning home at six hi the evening, I opened your 

 letter, my friend ! He has departed from the earth 

 before me, the man of ninety years, the old man of the 

 hills ! It is not enough to say that Germany has lost a 

 great author, him who could most nobly mould our 

 tongue to the expression of the finest sentiments for 

 what is the value of form in the presence of such acute- 

 ness, such pregnant force of mind, such elevation of 

 thought, such knowledge of the world. What he was to 

 me, to me who am now entirely isolated, is incompre- 

 hensible to any mind less refined, less beautiful than 

 yours ; I shall soon come to tell you, 

 Bowed with grief, yours, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



