303 



lately been too independent to be agreeable, would 

 be got rid of. The man has, however, displayed a 

 noble energy, and the King has postponed the 

 whole Commission (a piece of Niebuhr's handiwork). 

 With warmest friendship, your 



A. v. HT. 



My respects to your gifted niece. 



It was hardly politic, I think, in " God in His- 

 tory" to accept the Eoyal offer, in spite of its repe- 

 tition (I am sorry for it), for he is a man I respect, 

 and much will be attributed to him, of which he is 

 altogether innocent. 



CCXVIL 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, 14th October, 1857. 

 Written on returning the letters of Gentz to Grarve.* 



My best thanks ! I was already in possession of 

 the letters, and had revelled in them. Nothing can 

 add to my brother's reputation. Strange that An- 

 cillon should have been able, for such a length of 

 time, to impose on the astute Gentz. 



A. HT. 



On the 3rd of December, 1 857, Varnhagen remarks in his Diary : 

 " Called on Humboldt ; Director von Olfers just leaving; told us that 



* Christian Garve, philosopher, translator into German of Ferguson's 

 " Moral Philosophy," Burke " On the Sublime and Beautiful," Paley's " Moral 

 Philosophy," Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations," and of several works of 

 Aristotle and Cicero. TR. 



