102 



things. I enclose (as you preserve everything that 

 concerns your friends) the little address. Yours, 



A. HT. 



LXXIII. 



HUMBOLDT TO YARNHAGEN. 



Sans Souci, 27th August, 1843. Sunday, 

 How, my dear friend, should I not hasten to thank 

 you for your charming gift, your affectionate re- 

 membrance of one who is intellectually dwindling 

 away 1 I know of nothing more graceful in com- 

 position (deep and heartfelt conception), in euphony 

 of language, or in the blending of the landscape tints, 

 than your Life Pictures, and your judgment of what 

 has had literary value in our times. That you have 

 thought even of me, and the unimportant words I 

 have spoken, I call generous. Many a time have I 

 followed you eagerly in these three volumes, along 

 formerly-trodden but ever-inviting paths ; but in this 

 " Sylva Sylvarum," nothing was more agreeable to me 

 than what you so earnestly and truly said (ii. 256 

 272) about the historical error in the "genuine 

 Grermanic" separation of classes. My rage for politics, 

 you see, does not leave me; and I still cling to the 

 things of earth, as (according to Kant) I learn from 

 you, we should not boast too much of the immor- 

 tality of the soul after its so-called disembodiment. 

 " The budding twig which has shot up within the 

 limits of the northern realms" (I am getting wicked) 

 has not become quite acclimatized yet; and as to 

 waiting I have not much time for that, having waited 

 for more than fifty-three years . . . The Germans will 

 yet write many books about liberty. 



