I did not wish to mention Steffens, however much he might deserve a reproach for his utter barrenness in experimental science, and for his vain and criminal idleness. “Saturnalia” I call that merry but short farce, of which lately I gave you some specimens, but which are not from Steffens; they are by some of his worshippers several degrees lower down. Were Steffens a poor savan, oppressed by the powerful, I would be more careful; but as you are an amateur of autographs, I will give you one from which you will see how northern kings believe that there exists in Berlin a Steffensian philosophy, which is consoling to the theologians, _et qui n’est pas celle de Hegel_! Steffens will believe that he is included among those deep and powerful thinkers, whose advice has been disregarded. Besides the dangerous passage is immediately followed by another: “Abuse of youthful talents; for serious minds, devoted equally to philosophy and to observation, have kept aloof from those Saturnalia.” Such a sentence is a _défense_, a _fort detaché_, and Steffens certainly thinks that he, too, devoted himself to observation, when he once descended into a mine at Freiburg. By softening anything I should spoil the whole, and we ought in writing to show the same courage as in speaking, but should do both in the same easy and cheerful manner. Did you find out from Steffens’s tiresome biography, with which I was bored at Sans Souci, how his pietism and aristocracy is explained by the twofold inoculation of his old grandparents, performed by an archbishop and a king,—_ce sont des heritages_! A. V. HUMBOLDT. 58. KING CHRISTIAN VIII. OF DENMARK TO HUMBOLDT. MONSIEUR LE BARON—I am doubly obliged to the illustrious counsellor Dieffenbach for his attention in presenting me with a copy of his work on the cure of strabism and stammering, since it was the cause of your dear letter of the 9th February. Introduced by you, Monsieur le Baron, any one is sure of success. In the present case, the reputation and the works of the author could have dispensed with all further recommendation; but you only do justice to the great services which Counsellor Dieffenbach has rendered to mankind, and I hasten to acknowledge them by bestowing my Danebrog Order on that distinguished savan. My letter to him on this subject will be remitted by the Envoy Count de Reventlau, and I shall particularly recommend to Chevalier Dieffenbach any Danish surgeons going to Berlin to learn the art upon which he has thrown so much light.