47 



which he has but half investigated; uncertain, as over an 

 old manuscript which he has read too hastily. Whether 

 Frederika's* sisters, " whose parts we have no business 

 to take," page 48, or whether the catholic priest who had 

 "effected her ruin," and then, according to another 

 reading, had " not effected her ruin ;" be pleased with 

 all this I do not decide; we are also not yet clear 

 about the Troad and the Scamander, and Helen had in 

 her time to put up with a deal of Greek scandal. 

 Your old and very grateful friend, 



A. v. HDT. 



XL. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Monday, 9th March, 1840. 



The Crown Prince, to whom I took your " Lebens- 

 buch " this morning, has commissioned me, my dear 

 friend, to express to you his " friendliest thanks." In 

 doing so he recalled to mind your "Sophie Charlotte," 

 your " Seydlitz," your ever graceful language, and your 

 powers of delineating critical relations in life. I read 

 him your outspoken passage about Grimm. It pleased 

 him much, and gave rise to a conversation about 

 Hanover. He spoke very sensibly on the subject : 

 "the King of Hanover does not know how to manage 

 Germans ; he doesn't know how easily they are won over 

 if only one knows how to avail one's self of a moment of 

 genial impulse, /should, on the very day on which the 

 news of the close of the Gottingen election reached Ha- 

 nover, have sent an aide-de-camp or civil functionary to 



* The daughter of the pastor of Sesenheim, with whom Goethe, then a 

 student at Strasburg, had a romantic and somewhat serioiis love affair. TR. 



