225 



CLX. 



VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT. 



Berlin, Sth July, 1854. 



With a deeply-affected and grateful heart, I have 

 received your Excellency's most valued letter. Yes, in- 

 deed, a sign of life of life, the most vigorous, most 

 noble ! If ever the question could arise, how you have 

 thought and felt in these dark times? such a page would 

 be the most irresistible answer the most brilliant evi- 

 dence of an opinion and mode of action which have al- 

 ways kept the same line, and have never belied their prin- 

 ciple. The letter from London (the epithet " crabbed " 

 describes it most accurately in every respect) I duly 

 send back, in compliance with your Excellency's com- 

 mand; how glad should I have been to embody it 

 with my collection ! It is a remarkable sign of the 

 present state of things : many of its expressions strike 

 directly home. I only wish that its writer had thus 

 spoken in former times, previously to his late personal 

 experiences. The scientific fame which you consider 

 imperilled by the threatened shoal of writings, seems 

 to me to have been kept, from the very outset, up by 

 extraneous props, which being taken away, must irre- 

 trievably come down. Perhaps the political career 

 may open again; but certainly not by the aid of litera- 

 ture, which seems not unlikely to be one of the objects 

 aimed at in this sudden spring-tide of productivity. 

 Silent repose would be much more to the purpose. 

 This, however, can scarcely be expected at the residence 

 decided upon, where Papist hatred is already astir, fos- 

 tering and increasing political spite, which, proceeding 

 from the fountain-head here, will continue unabated. 



Q 



