57 

 XLVII. 



HtJMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 



Friday, 29th of March, 1840. 



Decide, master of elegant diction and euphony I 

 had : " So weit Humanitat (Gesittung) den Erdkreis 

 umfasste." 



I now prefer, 1. " Er hat gleich machtig, so weit 

 Gesittung und Weltverkehr reichen, auf die Herrscher 

 wie auf die Volker gewirkt" (reichen, not reichten 

 that I detest) ; or, 2. "So weit Gesittung und Welt- 

 verkehr die Menschheit veredelten ;" or, 3. " Die 

 Menschheit empf anglich machten ;" or, 4. " Die 

 Menschheit geeinigt." 



Would not No. 4 (the last) be best? Perhaps you 

 may have an inspiration. Slip a note quietly into my 

 hand to-night at Stagemann's ;* perhaps the old read- 

 ing is best after all. 



A. HT. 



" Humanitat " I shall give up in any case, having 

 read in the last volume of Campe's Dictionary so many 

 jokes directed against it. 



" Sed quamquam, primo statim beatissimi saeculi 

 ortu, Nerva Caesar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit prin- 

 cipatum ac libertatem ; augeatque quotidie felicitatem 

 imperii Nerva Trajanus." Tacitus in Agricola, cap. 3. 



Also on that same old Nerva, (noble, refined, and 

 literary in his taste) : " Quod si vita suppeditet, princi- 



* Friedrich August von Stagemann, born 1763, at Vierraden, in the 

 Ukermark, in 1809, became Councillor of State, and subsequently editor of 

 the " Staats-zeitung." Known as a poet of some pretension. Died December, 

 1840. TR. 



