300 



CCXV. 



VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT. 



SthMy, 1857. 



The two little volumes of poetry kindly sent me 

 by your Excellency evince, no doubt, literary cul- 

 ture of no mean order, and a clever treatment of 

 language and metre ; but there praise ends. Talent 

 of this sort is very plentiful, and if accompanied by no 

 particular preeminence, ought to be treated as common- 

 place. The claims founded on such performances are 

 out of all proportion, and especially in the present 

 case, where not only acknowledgment but direct 

 reward is demanded. I know little of the author. 

 His reputation certainly is but small. That his 

 youth has been one of hardship, and that his means 

 are still circumscribed, is sad ; but yet the mode 

 by which he seeks to relieve himself, by appeals 

 to the great and powerful, by unprincipledly pay- 

 ing court to men of every shade, displeases me 

 greatly, as does also his letter to your Excellency, 

 to which you have awarded its fitting epithet. In 

 the answer you are about to give him, your in- 

 exhaustible and always even benevolence and kind- 

 ness furnish an ample guarantee that the harsh 

 words I have uttered on the subject will be appro- 

 priately tempered down. My niece Ludmilla thanks 

 your Excellency from the fulness of her heart for the 

 kindly interest you have expressed on her behalf, 

 and which, during all her life, she will count among 

 the greatest treasures that can fall to her lot. We 

 paid a visit yesterday to Madame Gaggiotti Richards, 



