X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



presumed to alter his expressions would indeed have 

 been to offer an insult to the shade of Humboldt ! 



Therefore, I have necessarily paid 110 greater heed 

 to the well-meant desire of my publishers, to make even 

 the slightest alterations, than I did to my own personal 

 wishes and inclinations. One thing only was here to 

 be considered eternal truth truth which I owe to 

 Humboldt, to history, to literature, and to the revered 

 memory of him who has bequeathed to me this task. 

 Behold then the bequest, unaltered and entire as it 

 has been deposited in my hands ! 



A vivid commentary on Humboldt' s letters is sup- 

 plied by passages in Varnhagen's Diary the latter 

 giving us the spoken as well as written expression of 

 Humboldt' s thoughts. Unfortunately but very few 

 of Varnhagen's letters have been preserved or come to 

 hand. Those we have, however, bear fully the impress 

 of the noble friendship, the ever-active interchange of 

 thought, the true fellowship of common labour in the 

 cause of science and freedom, which bound Humboldt 

 and Varnhagen together for so many years. 



The letters of numerous other famous and distin- 

 guished persons, which are added, exhibit Humboldt 

 in his wide -spread intercourse with the world, in his 

 manifold relations to Scholars and Men of Letters, 

 to Statesmen and Princes, all of whom sought him, 

 and paid him homage. 



LUDMILLA ASSING. 



Berlin, February, 1860. 



