On this letter Varnhagen remarks in his diary, July 5th, 1854:—“I found a long letter from Humboldt, who communicated to me, accompanied by fine remarks, the latest number of the Herald of Peace, a letter of Bunsen—four closely-written quarto pages—and another by Robert Froriep, of Weimar. ‘The missive at the same time is intended for a sign of _life_, that is, of most intimate and faithful friendship for you in these sad times of weakness and folly.’ Farther: ‘I disengaged myself from the new “Stahl-Ranke” council, for reasons, which are not those of old age; I resigned.’ Then he speaks of Froriep’s plays of imagination, who wishes to build a crystal palace to control the climate in the ‘deserted town of barracks,’ Potsdam, with a loan of one and a half million of thalers! Finally, he blames Gneisenau’s misjudgment on Wilhelm von Humboldt, pronounced in a letter of 1818, which Pertz communicates in his ‘pointless Biography of Stein;’ and Humboldt rightly condemns the mean misjudgment of his brother. “The letter of Bunsen is written in a very unconnected manner—Humboldt calls it an ‘unkempt’ one, which characterizes it admirably. Bunsen intends to live for the future in Bonn, but he complains that the university has deteriorated so much, particularly the theological faculty. Dorner and Rothe have been jostled out, and their places are held by the most mediocre and narrow-minded people to be found in all Germany, such as Lange and Steinmeyer; from Hengstenberg’s study, through Gerlach, all bends, he says, to ignorance and darkness, the present gloomy period of the most intellectual king of the century will come to be deplored even more grievously than the age of Woellner; every thing is imbued with the reactionary political character of the squirearchy; hypocrisy and _real_ infidelity can grow out of this unholy system, and a most violent reaction must ensue; body-guards and policemen can enforce any political programme as long as it lasts; but the German never submits to the enthralment of the mind, and his curse will pursue through all the centuries those who have attempted it. Thus writes Bunsen! But he writes thus now as a deposed favorite! How was he, and for what did he work before? For the same ignorance and darkness. Quite like Radowitz, who also played the liberal at last!” 160. VARNHAGEN TO HUMBOLDT. BERLIN, _July 8th, 1854_.