As soon as this infernal game is played out in Paris, I hope to have a little leisure again. I have written a warning to Bernays: he is very much out of spirits, and still far behindhand; says he only received the proper appointment (from Gaisford) in February, and without mention of any fixed time. He will write to you, and inclose what is done as a specimen. I am delighted to hear from Lassen that Aufrecht is coming to England. Tell him to call on me. _Cura ut valeas._ Rawlinson has been preferred to Luynes and Wilson by the Berlin Academy. [22.] _Wednesday, December 15, 1852._ Tell Aufrecht I will try and arrange the affair for him without his paying any duty; and so at all events there will be a reduction. I was excessively pleased with Aufrecht. Your parcels for Pertz will go safely and quickly if they are here on the 1st or 15th of the month. P. S. Aufrecht must be courageous, and keep in good spirits. Haupt is called to Berlin, which rather surprises me. Read the “Journal des Débats,” Sunday, December 12, on Hippolytus. Do you know Laboulaye? [23.] PRUSSIAN LEGATION, _February 19, 1853._ Please tell me at leisure how Amestris (Herod, ix. 109) is to be explained as the wife of Xerxes? I am convinced that _Esther_ is hidden here, which name, according to the testimony of the Book of Esther, was her _Persian_ name, as she was first called _Myrtle_, as her Jewish maiden name. Therefore _Am_ must mean “queen,” “mistress,” “lady,” or what you may discover. I find that the idea had occurred to one and the other even about 100 years ago; but was given up, partly on account of its “godlessness;” partly on account of the uncertainty whether Ahasuerus was really Xerxes, as Scaliger declared. The Suabian simpletons (for they are so in historical matters) are the only people who now doubt this, and that the book is historical,—a book with a history on which depends the only great Jewish feast established since the days of Moses (till the Purification of the Temple, after the fall of Epiphanes). So, my dear M., send it to me. There can have been at that same time, in Persia, but one woman so vindictive and clever as Esther is. The first volume of my Prophets (from Abraham to Goethe) is ready, with a popular explanation of the age of the so-called “Great Unknown” (Isaiah) of Daniel, and _all the Psalms_, etc. I write _only German_ for this, but only _for the English_, and yet without any reserve. The most remarkable of the thirteen articles which I have seen on Hippolytus, is by Taylor (a Unitarian in Manchester), in the “Prospective Review” (February). He confesses that I have made the principle of the Trinity, and the national blessing of the Episcopacy and the Liturgy, clear to him. I have never seen him, but he seems to me a deep thinker. I am again in correspondence with Bernays, who promises to work at Lucretius with all diligence. I think he has more leisure, and his health is better.