19 Humboldt to Varnhagen
Berlin, May 15th, 1835, Tuesday.
My time is, unfortunately, so much occupied by the many princely strangers, and I am so affected by the cold, though not at all bracing weather, that I can scarcely find leisure to thank you, dear friend, for the “Bollmann”12 and the biographical sketch of him, in which I recognised at once your pen, and also the “retouchings,” when the “Staats Zeitung” fell into my hands. One should not undertake to speak of distinguished men in such papers; it is a difficult task, even for a man of your genius, to keep the proper course between the family, the censor, and the cold, indifferent public.
The name of “Mundt” has recalled to me some remarkable pages of his “Madonna,” on the tendency of the Germans to sentimental lucubrations. There is much truth in these observations, and I thought to read my own sentence in them. So much, dear friend, on this world, to us, now unhappily deserted.
Always gratefully,
A. Humboldt.
I feel some sorrow, nevertheless, that you refuse to see the Grand-Duchess.
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