V. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, 3rd April, 1829. 



I shall call, that I may thank you in person ; that I 

 may enjoy for some few moments the pleasure of your 

 return, and congratulate you on the favourable im- 

 pression your new official activity* has produced every- 

 where ; and that in the present unfortunate state of my 

 family affairs, I may entreat pardon from your highly 

 gifted wife, whose friendship is so dear to me. The King 

 never allows a book to be presented to him,- not even 

 by Prince Wittgenstein. It must take the ordinary 

 course. I will, however, recommend itf very, very 

 strongly to Albrecht. J I am done up, and am off in 

 a week. 



Friday. A. HT. 



VI. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, 26th April, 1830. 



This moment returned from Potsdam, I find your 

 valued letters and delightful present. " Zinzendorf" 

 will be a source of great pleasure to me. The book 

 displays as peculiar a character as Lavater or Car- 

 dan. The new pietistic fever which lee/ an (p. 22) to 



* Varnhagen was at this time sent as Envoy Extraordinary to Kassel, 

 having been absent from the political arena since 1819, in consequence of 

 the great offence taken by the Court of Berlin at the liberal tendencies dis- 

 played by him during his diplomatic position at the Court of Baden from 

 1816. TR. 



f One of Ranke's works. 



\ Secretary to Altenstein, Minister of State for Educational and Ecclesias- 

 tical Affairs ; formerly Cabinet Councillor under Baron Stein. TR. 



A biographical memoir, by Varnhagen, of Count Zinzendorf, the founder 

 of the famous Moravian settlement of Herrnhut. TR. 



