I find after a week’s residence in Potsdam, which has very much discouraged me, your amiable souvenir. Receive, revered friend, this very evening, my warmest thanks; you have praised me for my most cherished aim, which is, that I may not become a fossil, as long as I move, and cling to the belief, “that nature has put her curse upon stagnancy and inertia.” Youth is the symbol of progress, and those, who rule now (the Berlin world’s elephants) sont des momies en service extraordinaire. Good night, A. HUMBOLDT. 33. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. BERLIN, TUESDAY, _November 7th, 1837_. The commencement of my letter is weak, the end of it more reasonable. But you should not lose the dramatic effect of the whole. What you ask, my dear friend, is very perilous, for the question is not about my feelings, but about a family who anxiously _interpret_. The more striking and spirited your delineation is, particularly p. 10–15, (“He started from ideas.”... “That which many deny to him entirely.”)... it impresses me uncomfortably, the more because it is in so short an essay, and because it would appear less harsh in the description of a whole life which was, in a literary and political point of view, not unimportant. But this more complete description is impossible now; therefore, my wish is incessantly to secure his renown by the publication of his literary works. To leave out anything, or to alter anything in this fine essay of yours, would rob it both of its charm and vigor. You have written the whole in the noblest mood; but there are points (Reineke Fuchs, the relation to Frau von Humboldt), which it is not pleasant to allude to just now. Since you only demand of me to enumerate individual impressions, I will give you these. Often they are merely doubts. P. 5: “Foreign to abstract thinking.” The term “Conservative philosophy” points, I believe, to Kant, to whom he adhered most. He just believed that metaphysics, ante-Hegelian, had been the chief study of his youth. I only wished a more decided expression. P. 6: “In the proper sense not productive.” Philosophy of language according to entirely new views, genius of antiquity, treating of history, deep understanding of poetry—in all these branches he produced nothing that was not of importance. P. 8: “Style all ice;” make it somewhat milder. You do it yourself (p. 30), where the word “warms.” P. 13: “Thus the call is soon decided, and the name is Mephistopheles or Reineke.” One would wish the two significant names left out, since all is said before in the happiest, liveliest style. “Mephistopheles” reminds one of Duke Charles.