A German letter from Prince Metternich, expressing sentiments full of graceful language, will interest you. I present you the letter for your archival collection. The occasion was a moulding in plaster and copy, partly by the Prince’s own hand, of an old Egyptian column of granite, which he had received twenty-five years ago from Mehemed Ali. The old Prince gave me this copy, three-fourths of a foot in height, to decipher the long inscription in Demotic writing. This has been done by Dr. Brugsch, the talented young Egyptologist, author of a Demotic Grammar, universally admired in other countries. Dr. Brugsch, who had the first edition of his Grammar printed in Latin, when he was still in the first class of August’s Gymnasium[83] (the second edition is written in French), has found a good deal of very remarkable astronomy in the inscription; and in order to give pleasure to the old Prince, Brugsch has published the whole under the name of “Stele. Metternich,” in the “Journal for the Orient,” and in the “Athenée.” Brugsch was in Egypt for two years, at the expense of the King; he is the son of a poor sergeant, and is familiar with Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, and Persian. Pardon my horrid writing, illegible, and in wild, incorrect style. The letter of the maccaroni King[84] to Louis Philippe, in the “Spenersche Zeitung,” will not have escaped you, I hope. _Non v’a bisogno_—entirely as Rochow-Seiffart (in his first manner) to the Elbingers:—“It is not at all necessary that my people think; I think for them; the people, who have betrayed me so often, submit to my power.” Your faithful A. HUMBOLDT. 185. METTERNICH TO HUMBOLDT. KOENIGSWART, _October 14th, 1856_. MY OLD FRIEND!—I received gratefully the information on the stele which Herr Brugsch calls by my name, and I beg of you to hand over to the learned investigator the words you find inclosed. After my return to Vienna, I shall avail myself of the interpretation, already so instructive, of the monument, to point out the way to archæologists in which they may obtain copies, by an advertisement. I did not doubt that I could not do better than to address you for light on the scientific value of the present of Mehemed Ali, which for many years slept in my multifarious collections, and of which I was quite ignorant. May you and Herr Brugsch receive my most sincere thanks.