100 



LXXI. 



HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, June 26th, 1843. 



I am convinced, my dear friend, that I am giving 

 you some pleasure in communicating to you (alone) a 

 fragment of a new volume of Eckermann.* Wonder- 

 ful adoration of the vigour of youth as divine source of 

 productiveness (adoration in an old man !) ; admiration 

 of Napoleon, unclogged by the considerations of any 

 moral law. I must earnestly beg you not to show 

 the fragment to our " child,"f nor to speak to Brock- 

 hausj about the communication made to me by Ecker- 

 mann. It might do him harm, and he is unhappy 

 enough already. I hope that "Wilhelm's last two 

 volumes have at length reached you through Busch- 

 mann. The weather was very favourable for our 

 journey to the north. Such journeys are well adapted 

 for deceiving princes on the condition of their people. 



* The Boswell of Goethe. See Oxenford's excellent translation of " E.'s 

 Conversations with Goethe." TR. 



f Bettina von Arnim. TR. 



Eckermann had made a contract with Brockhaus, by which the latter, 

 in consideration of the price paid to Eckermann, was to produce three thousand 

 copies of his " Conversations with Goethe." Brockhaus, however, had not 

 sufficient confidence in the sale to do this ; therefore he divided the edition 

 of three thousand into two impressions of fifteen hundred each. In the 

 second impression there were some slight changes in the text ; upon this, 

 Eckermann, who knew nothing about the publisher's arrangements, and, 

 indeed, had nothing to do with them, brought an action against Brockhaus, 

 which went, of course, in favour of the publisher. Eckermann, throughout 

 the transaction, appears as a headstrong and self- conceited man, with 

 extravagant ideas in reference to his book. TR. 



A very able linguist, and Sub-librarian at Berlin. He was the faithful 

 amanuensis of Wilhelm v. Humboldt, whose work on the Kawi language he 

 carried through the press. TR. 



