THE PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. 



THESE letters have created the most lively sensation 

 all over Germany, where, within a few weeks 

 after their first publication, a fifth edition has 

 already appeared. In the present eventful state of 

 affairs they have been hailed as fresh and startling 

 evidence of the fact, that liberal principles and a 

 strong feeling of German nationality and unity have 

 long been steadily gaining ground, even among the 

 highest classes of Prussian society. Opinions and 

 sentiments, such, for instance, as those recorded in 

 the " Diary" after Letter CXXXIV., become porten- 

 tous signs of the times when uttered by men in the 

 position of Humboldt and Varnhagen. To this 

 feature of the book, far more than to "the deli- 

 cious bits of scandal" in it as has been surmised, 

 the powerful effect which it has produced from one 

 end of the country to the other is mainly to be attri- 

 buted. 



The fair editor of the original Letters has ex- 

 patiated at some length on the propriety of pub- 



