23 



might make a break in your series. I was personally 

 intimate with almost all the people whom Bollmann 

 so vividly and truly depicts. We see how he him- 

 self rises as he advances in life, and becomes engaged 

 in more important affairs. Strange line of life 

 medecin de sametage. I have now formed a better 

 opinion of him through you; for, without being able to 

 get at the real cause, I found, these last few years, that 

 Bollmann was not popular in Lafayette's family. 



A. HT. 



XXI. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, Saturday, 2,3rd May, 1835. 



If, my dear friend, the " Morgenblatt "* of the 18th 

 May falls into your hands, be kind enough to cast a 

 glance at a not altogether agreeable article, " Wilhelm 

 von Humboldt's Burial." My brother is there repre- 

 sented as dying, deserted by his family. To such 

 misrepresentations, however, I pay little attention. I 

 want now to guess what that other thing is which, 

 like music, my brother " knew nothing of, and which 

 one cannot call by its right name." Is that God, or 

 some sort of profligacy ? I know of no such saying of 

 his. Do try, my dear friend, to find out how the sen- 

 tence is interpreted by the public. My brother's re- 

 tirement, too, from political life was so universally 

 known that it seems extraordinary to say they do not 

 know whether he was to blame for it ? You see how 

 gladly I avail myself of your acuteness and affec- 



* The "Morgenblatt," at this time one of the leading literary- papers 

 of Germany. TR. 



