PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



THE following letters of Humboldt contain materials 

 of inestimable importance for forming a true, legiti- 

 mate, and unveiled picture of his mind and character. 

 It was his will and desire that they should be made 

 public at his death, as will be seen distinctly expressed 

 in the extract on a previous page. Nowhere has he 

 expressed himself with less reserve or more sincerity 

 than in his intercourse with Varnhagen, his long tried 

 and trusty friend, whom he loved and valued above 

 all others. In him he reposed the most unreserved 

 confidence, and although ordinarily in the habit of 

 destroying most of the letters addressed to him, it was 

 with Yarnhagen that he deposited such as he con- 

 sidered important and desired to have preserved. He 

 reckoned upon Varnhagen, who was the younger of 

 the two, surviving him. 



Yarnhagen, however, died fiist, and transferred to 

 me the duty, now become doubly such, of publishing 

 these wondrous records of the life, activity, and habits 

 of thought of this great man. In fulfilling so sacred 

 a duty it became an act of piety to let every word 

 remain exactly as it was written down. To have 



