310 



rogues. Moreover, he is a master in the art of toning down all that 

 is most animated and buoyant in these mighty events to mortal 

 tediousness. 



CCXXIL 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Berlin, \3thApril, 1858. 



I am touched by the kindness of your lines, and 

 by the remembrance of the gifted Miss Ludmilla. 

 As Illaire* was with me yesterday, I prepared 

 everything to become useful to M. * *, the much 

 respected clergyman of j~ *|", in the little matter of 

 one of those toys, which do not, indeed, feed their 

 possessor, but afford a pleasant pastime ; even of a 

 steeple-chase, late in life, with the difficulties, and 

 the prospect of deliverance from the Acheron of the 

 Fourth Class. 



I shall write to Illaire for the Third Class, but 

 entreat you to freshen up my memory a little. * *'s 

 title ? I think he does not preach, does not even 

 distribute any longer the little wafers so hostile to 

 the chemically analogous bread of the Protestant 

 Union. But I fancy he is a Protestant power 

 in t t- 



I here subjoin for your and Miss Ludmilla's con- 

 version, some fancies on the Cosmic drought of Berlin 

 before the deluge and the fiery destruction of the 

 world, which a little degenerated potash in the inno- 

 cent feldspath of granite will produce in the latter 



* Cabinet Councillor to Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Ti:. 



