226 



The late Prince Wittgenstein one day congratulated 

 me for not being under the necessity of sitting in the 

 Council of State, and that was the old one, in which 

 your Excellency had a place. How much more may I 

 congratulate you for having got clear of the new one, 

 which has Stahl and Banke for members ! No one 

 will feel inclined to dispute with the latter the part of 

 "ridiculous person;" to the former, every one will 

 readily yield the first rank as a sophist. 



The words of Gneisenau, which Pertz communicates 

 in Stem's " Life" (Y. 262), are so completely misapplied 

 in the case of Wilhelm von Humboldt, that one might 

 feel tempted to interpret the H. there differently, if 

 any plausible conjecture could be found. I have cer- 

 tainly heard from Gneisenau's own mouth expressions 

 of disapproval ; but never such extravagant ones such 

 as might have been so easily and completely refuted. 

 The principal reproach urged by Gneisefnau against 

 your brother was, that he had never tried by his 

 authority and overwhelming intellectual power to 

 unite all those who were of one mind in a brother- 

 hood, by means of which much might be undertaken 

 and carried out. This reproach, if reproach it be, 

 Gneisenau himself has deserved just as much; and 

 he has had plenty of it from his own people. The 

 book of Pertz is full of unjust and trimming state- 

 ments, most of which originate with Stein himself, but 

 are with blind partiality confirmed by Pertz. He, who 

 communicates everything, and frequently inserts even 

 quite irrelevant matter, unhesitatingly leaves out im- 

 portant evidence, as soon as it is not completely in 

 favour of his hero. The same will happen again, when 

 he writes Gneisenau's biography, which certainly 



