PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. XV 



his contemporaries, and he sent them to Vamhagen, 

 for the very purpose of saving them from being- 

 burned, as was his usual custom of dealing with the 

 shoals of letters which he was in the habit of receiving. 



On the 30th November, 1856, Humboldt writes, 

 (p. 265) : " Pray take care of my pupil's letter " (a 

 letter of H.R.H. the Duke of Weimar), " as well as 

 of the paragraph in which I am mentioned as being 

 discussed in the Belgian Chambers as a Materialist 

 and Republican, who must be put down !" 



It was therefore Humboldt himself who urged the 

 preservation of these documents. As he took no 

 interest in autographs, he could only have wished 

 them preserved for the sake of their contents ; wit- 

 ness the paragraph respecting the debate in the 

 Belgian Chambers, as a record of the character of 

 the times, all of which plainly marks his desire to 

 have them laid by for the purpose of publication 

 after his death. 



Whenever Humboldt wished that the publication 

 of one of the letters sent to my uncle should be put 

 off until after the death of himself or of the writer of it, 

 he expressly states so. Thus, in sending the letter 

 of Arago he appends the remark (p. 63), "To his 

 gifted friend Varnhageii von Ense, with a very 

 urgent request to avoid any publication of it, as 

 being an autograph letter, until after Arago' s death." 



That the letter would and should be published is 

 treated by Humboldt as a matter of course. Only 

 as Humboldt might die before Arago, and the letter, 



