Letters Of Alexander Von Humboldt Written Between The Years 1827 And 1858 To Varnhagen Von Ense - Together With Extracts From Varnhagen's Diaries, And Letters Of Varnhagen And Others To Humboldt Book

LETTERS ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, WRITTEN BETWEEN THE YEARS 1827 AND 1858, - 1860 - YOUR last letter, so honourable for me, contained words which I should not like to misunderstand. You scarcly permit to yourself the possession of - my impieties. After my speedy decease you may deal as you please with such property. We only owe truth in this life to such persons as we deeply esteem, therefore it is due to you. Letter from Alexander von Humboldt to Varnhagen, 7th December, 1841. - THE PUBLISHERS ADVERTISEMENT, - THESE letters have created the most lively sensation all over Germany, where, within a few weeks after their first publication, R fifth edition had already appeared. In the present eventful state of affairs they have been hailed a fresh and startling evidence of the fact, that liberal principles and a strong feeling of German nationality and unity have long been steadily gaining ground, even among the highest classes of Prussian society. Opinions and sentiments, such, for instance, as those recorded in t the Diary after Letter CXXXIV., become portentous signs of the times when uttered by men in the position of Humbojdt and Varnhagen. To this feature of the book, far more than to the delicious bits of scandal in it-- has been surmised, the powerful effect which it has produced from one end of the country to the other is mainly to be attributed. The fair editor of the original Letters has ex patiated at some length on the propriety of pub lishing them so soon after Humboldts death. This is a question with which the publishers . of the English version can have no concern. The book having once been brought before the world, the correspondence, and the effect roducedb y it, become matters of contemporary history, which ought pot to be withheld fiom the public of any civilized country. Some objection may be made that certain passages, which bear upon living persons here, have been retained in the translation. But, as most of the letters containing these personal allusions have already gone the round of the papers, even the suppression would have defeated its own purpose, by creating a suspicion that the original contained passages of greater acerbity than is really the case. And with due deference to the established rules of literary propriety, it might after all be asked which is the more desirable-to be attacked while 1ivir1. g and able to defend oneself, or to incur posthumous obloquy, which our surviving Kends may or may not feel disposed to ward off from our memory P R E F A C E TO THE, FIRST EDITION. THE following letters of Humboldt contain materials of inestimable importance for forming a true, legitimate, and unveiled picture of his mind and character. It was his will and desire that they should be made public at his death, as will be seen distinctly expressed i11 the extract on a previous page. Nowhere has he expressed himself with less reserve or more sincerity than in his intercourse with Varnhagen, his long tried and trusty friend, whom he loved and valued above all others. In him he reposed the most unreserved confidence, and although ordinarily in the habit of destroying most of the letters addressed to him, it was with Varnhagen that he deposited such as he considered important and desired to have preserved. He re oned upon Varnhagen, who was the younger of the two, surviving him...Read More