190 



cxxxv. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Potsdam, \th August, 1849. 



Whenever I have cheated myself into the belief that 

 I have written some few lines that please my ear, I 

 invariably ask myself whether they would please you, 

 too, my excellent friend. You know, or rather you do 

 not know, that the Princess of Prussia has deposited a 

 magnificent album, with many autographs and illumi- 

 nated initials, in the Palace at Weimar, in the rooms 

 devoted to the memory of Goethe and Schiller, and to 

 that of those men whom Schiller has reviled in his let- 

 ters to Korner, Herder, and Wieland. I have been 

 obliged to write a Preface to it, which Galuski has very 

 felicitously translated. The Grand Duchess wished a 

 French version to be inserted in the Album for the 

 benefit of non-German visitors. Eeceive with indul- 

 gence this trifling sign of life from your friend. The 

 bloodstained horizon vastly displeases me. 



Your old and sincere friend, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



CXXXVI. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Potsdam, \5th October, 1849. 



I hope, my excellent friend, that my "Aspects of 

 Nature," augmented, and, as to two-thirds of it, com- 

 pletely altered, is at last in your hands ! Owing to 

 an unfortunate confusion caused by my long absence 

 from Berlin, it so happened that precisely you, in 



