46 



of a life, and to colour it so pleasingly without obliterat- 

 ing the outline, is of great authority. Kries,* moreovej, 

 was one of the friends of my youth. We attended 

 Heyne's lectures at the Seminarium together. I will 

 return you the book soon. 



A. HUMBOLDT. 



(In great haste.) 



XXXIX. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Wednesday afternoon, 26th February, 1840. 



I lament, dear friend, having missed you ; I was 

 suffering sadly in my foot from a wretched little whitlow 

 on my toe, and only got to-day (for the first time) as far 

 as the house of my neighbour Leopold von Buch.f 

 Best thanks for Sesenheim. J 



No doubt you were right in rescuing from oblivion 

 the little work, the character of which is German in 

 the highest degree, and which, owing to your preface, 

 has won such an interest with thoughtful men. There 

 is throughout this little book a fine perception of 

 that which a German must always hold sacred and im- 

 portant in the literature of his country. The writer ran- 

 sacks Sesenheim and Drusenheim, as others the Troad. 

 The proper names are unhappily less poetical. Passages 

 pp. 12 & 13 are extremely graceful in style. Then we 

 have the philologist in awkward indecision as to that 



* Friedrich Kries, a mathematician and Professor in the Gymnasium at 

 Gotha TR. 



f Leopold von Buch, born in 1777, died in March, 1853, the celebrated 

 geologist. TR. 



" Wallfahrt nach Sesenheim." By August Ferdinand Nake. Edited by 

 K. A. Varnhagen von Ense. Berlin, 1840. 



