How could you doubt, most honored Madam, my being thankful for the news of the real situation of those noble men, who after so many undeserved sufferings, and after so long and so shameful a neglect, are at last to be placed in an independent position. I thought that, to have given them such a situation in Berlin, three thousand thalers would be a sufficient salary for both, and with this view I have continued my efforts. The King has adopted it as a principle never to issue an order in financial matters on his own account; like all princes, he has no standard by which to measure the wants of learned men. The superior intellects with whom we wish to surround ourselves have wants as prosaic as their inferiors. Whoever wishes to obtain the end must also be willing to employ the means, and especially in an affair which attracts every eye and which touches the honor of the country. The minister Eichhorn, upon whom everything now depends, is happy in the arrival of the two Grimms. He was formerly on the most friendly terms with Jacob Grimm. I called on the minister an hour ago in order to support my view of the matter. He declares that by-and-by he will arrange the affair in the best manner, but that we must confide in him, and allow him to act without obstruction. Receive, gracious Madam, the expression of my veneration and of my sentiments of gratitude. A. HUMBOLDT. 52. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. BERLIN, _August 22d, 1841_. Your letter has done me an immense deal of good. I see that we feel ourselves both equally attracted to each other, and that you attributed my long, and to me very gloomy, seclusion, only to the distracted state of my life, and to the application of my faculties, to an aim which they never can reach. Towards the close of a much troubled life which has but imperfectly realized its aspirations, it is a happiness to remain secure in, and to possess the esteem of those to whose mind and intellect and wishes we are irresistibly drawn. I shall personally thank you, and this very afternoon apply for Mr. L. to the Princess of Prussia, and beg her Imperial Highness to assist me with all earnestness. With old veneration and love, yours, A. V. HUMBOLDT. At the request of the King I took the opportunity of reading to him Schelling’s discourse on nature and art. (Philosoph. Werke, tome 1st, 1809.) The passages concerning Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and about the possibility of a resuscitation of the arts, are the most pleasing in our language. This lecture produced on the King the effect of a beautiful song. But the bird is now sixty-seven years old, and goes from one golden cage to another.