212 



has been wrung from me ! Pray do not trouble yourself 

 to do more than say " yes," by my servant. 

 Yours, in old unalterable friendship, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



Monday. 



CLIII. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, 3lst August, 1853. 



There is then, after all, in this sad time, when an 

 ominous simoom is blowing from the Pruth to the 

 Tagus,* something to give me a great delight your 

 return, your kindly words, your aid ! Your glorious 

 letter reaches me at the ban d tirer of a small, and, 

 I hope, an unpretentious Preface to the Sonnets. 

 As unfortunately it is impossible for me to thank you 

 to-morrow in person I am obliged to deliver at 

 Potsdam to the King on his arrival many things I 

 have promised I presume to send to you, this very 

 evening, my proof-sheet. 



I most earnestly beg your severe scrutiny of the 

 pages in which I have inserted a marvellous fragment 

 (as if for illustration of the ideas and feelings which 

 manifest themselves in the " Letters to a Lady"), and 

 to note on a separate sheet what I am to alter, and 

 especially what I am to substitute. I follow YOU 

 blindly. 



P. iv. I do not like : " ScJwn errungene Himmels- 

 gabe." 



The pious fragment was written by my own hand 



* This refers to the impending war, which Humboldt had foreseen in 

 1839. See page 42, and note there. TR. 



