SATURDAY, _March 9th, 1833_. To a mind like yours, noble friend, solitude and calm are necessary. You draw only upon yourself. Think, that I received the painful news[9] only last night by Prince Carolath. You know what a warm-hearted, long-proved, and kind friend I lost in her, the honor of her sex! how amiable she was, when lately she instructed me to transact the little business with Beuth. So experienced in all the vicissitudes and illusions of life, and yet so cheerful, and so gentle! With such an intellect, so full of soul, and so true of heart! The world will appear to you a solitude for a long time, but the consciousness of having imparted to such a lovely woman, until her very last breath, all that genius, and heart, and gracefulness of intercourse like yours can afford, will be a balm to your wound, dear Varnhagen. I conjure you, take care of your health! A. HUMBOLDT. 13. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. BERLIN, _December 3, 1833_. Pardon, a thousand pardons, for not sooner returning the classical studies of Friedrich Schlegel. I studied them diligently and I am convinced that many views of Grecian antiquity, which modern authors ascribe to themselves, are buried in writings dated from 1795 (a deucalionic time of yore!). Angelus Silesius, whom I have but now learned to appreciate, has also gratified me and my brother very much. There is a piety in the book, which breathes on the mind like the balmy air of spring, and the mysterious and hieroglyphical marks of your departed wife, render your gift doubly dear to me. Spiker,[10] very curiously mistook the genitive in the “astronomical observations _of_ Alexander von Humboldt,” for my signature, when he informed the public of Oltmann’s death. I will pass it over, however, without correction. With everlasting affection, yours, A. HUMBOLDT. 14. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. BERLIN, _December 9, 1833_. I enclose you, most honored friend, some words of the lovely Duchess of Dessau. Anything honoring the memory of our departed lady friend must be dear to your heart. A. V. HUMBOLDT. Sunday. DESSAU, _December 1, 1833_. Accept my best thanks for the books you sent me. Each in its way interested me very much. I am sorry not to have been personally acquainted with Rahel. Her mind now lies so clearly before me, that I should have been happy to have been acquainted with her exterior appearance, that it might suggest to me the intellect within.