viii THE PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. 



lishing them so soon after Humboldt's death. 

 This is a question with which the publishers of the 

 English version can have no concern. The book 

 having once been brought before the world, the 

 correspondence, and the effect produced by it, be- 

 come matters of contemporary history, which ought 

 not to be withheld from the public of any civilized 

 country. Some objection may be made that cer- 

 tain passages, which bear upon living persons here, 

 have been retained in the translation. But, as most 

 of the letters containing these personal allusions have 

 already gone the round of the papers, even the sup- 

 pression would have defeated its own purpose, by 

 creating a suspicion that the original contained pas- 

 sages of greater acerbity than is really the case. 

 And with due deference to the established rules of 

 literary propriety, it might after all be asked which 

 is the more desirable to be attacked while living 

 and able to defend oneself, or to incur posthumous 

 obloquy, which our surviving friends may or may 

 not feel disposed to ward off from our memory ? 



