135 

 XCYT. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, IQth June, 1845. 



I employ the last moments before going to the 

 railway in thanking you heartily, my dear friend, 

 for your very original portrait of Hans von Held.* 

 I have only read half of it, and as I did so immediately 

 after perusing your Life of Bliicher, I could not but 

 feel the deepest admiration for your talent, which 

 enables you so fortunately to give the varied hues of the 

 life of the soldier, and of the civilian struggling for 

 liberty. The fatalistic word " fortunately " ought not to 

 be used here, since the cause of success lies only in the 

 clearness of the reasoning power and depth of feeling. 

 In " Held," we see the reflex of our present world. 

 Zerboni's letter on the sanguinary scene at Breslau is 

 as noble as it is affecting. But that does not deter 

 our soberly fanatical and white-blooded Polignacs. A 

 first deed of violence they will try to improve upon by 

 another more methodically planned : and all this under 

 the rule of such a King as ours ! I am very much 

 irritated, and deeply vexed. 



With old attachment, 



Yours, 

 Monday morning. A. V. HUMBOLDT. 



As I shall find no time for reading during my rapid 

 journey, I allowed Baron Billow in Tegel to take the 

 instructive work from me for a few days. 



* " Hans von Held," a biography, by K. A. Varnhagen von Ense. 1845. 



