249 



CLXXIV. 



VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT. 



Berlin, \Mh March, 1856. 



Your Excellency's kind and valued presents came 

 into the retreat which this bleak second winter has 

 imposed on me, more gladdening and more lovely 

 than the sunshine that accompanies it. Allow me, 

 in returning you my repeated thanks, most earnestly 

 to assure you that I know how to estimate as they 

 deserve all the favours I receive, and most of all 

 the friendly feeling which induces you to remember 

 me so graciously, and study so kindly my gratifica- 

 tion ! The pencil lines of dying Heine are a dear 

 memorial to me, and shall remain religiously pre- 

 served in the envelope inscribed by your Excellency's 

 hand. To-day's gift, too, the thoughtful combina- 

 tion of Archimedes and Franklin, respecting their 

 monuments, I have read with the warmest interest. 



I observe that you fear neither wind nor weather, 

 and fortunately have no need to fear them, if an 

 honourable duty has to be performed. Our times 

 furnish us with some singular tasks. The fact of 

 the Chief of the Police being killed in a duel is, per- 

 haps, the first occurrence of the sort in the States of 

 modern Europe.* The calling to Paris a Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs to bring the Brandenburg writing- 

 sand for the ready-made facts there, appears also 

 fabulous. But' Allah is great ! 



In truest admiration and grateful devotion, your 

 Excellency's most constant and obedient 



VARNHAGEN VON ENSE. 



* Allusion to the death of Hinckeldey, killed in duel by Baron Eochow, 

 a Member of the " Junker Partei (Squirearchy)." TK. 



