“‘Naturæ vero rerum vis atque majestas sin omnibus momentis fide caret, si quis modo partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo.’—_Plin. Hist. Nat._, _lib._ 7. c. 1. Stuttgart.” 54. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. WEDNESDAY, _April 28th, 1841_. Be very kind and indulgent in reading my work. I am anxious that you should get a complete idea of the composition of it. In A, I have made large corrections. Notice especially p. 37 and the notes; Schelling’s name, pp. 37 and 68; Hegel, p. 66. The positive declaration at p. 64, that it is not the creator of Natural Philosophy whom I accuse, will, I hope, make my biting severity at the “gay Saturnalia,” _le bal en masque_ of the craziest of all natural philosophers, seem more pardonable to him. “Il faut avoir le courage d’imprimer. Ce que l’on a dit et écrit depuis trente ans.” It has been a lamentable period, in which Germany has sunk far below England and France. Chemistry, without so much as wetting one’s fingers. The diamond is a pebble arrived at consciousness. Granite is ether. Carus. The side of the moon turned towards the earth is of a different convexity from the reverse. The cause of it: the moon fain would stretch out her loving arms—she cannot, but gazes at the earth, and protrudes her lower jaw. The granite blocks on the rocks are the convulsions of nature. It is well known that the forests are the hair of the earth-animal. The swelling equatorial region is the belly of Nature. America is a female figure, long, slender, watery and freezing at 48°. The degrees of latitude are the years woman gets old at, 48 years. The East is oxygen, the West hydrogen; it rains when clouds from the East are mixed with clouds from the West.—_Schelling._ Petrifactions in rocks are not the remains of former living beings. They are the first attempts of nature at making animals and plants. In Siberia some dogs lived for years on such an experiment—a stinking elephant at the mouth of the Lena. These are the Saturnalia! Cast your eye particularly on the notes, _en masse_, of which I inclose a few. P. 40–49; p. 55–57. I wish to give to the work the greatest generality and breadth of views, a lively and, if possible, graceful style, and to replace all technical terms with well-chosen, graphic, and descriptive language.