To my father belonged Tegel (formerly a hunting chateau of the great Elector, and it was consequently only a leasehold property. Wilhelm first possessed the place in fee-simple, as a manor; therefore Schinkel added to it four towers, in order to preserve the old tower erected under the great Elector). Besides this, he owned Ringenwalde, near Soldin, in the Neumark. Ringenwalde afterwards belonged to me, then to the Counts Reeden and Achim Arnim. Wilhelm, at the time of his death, possessed Tegel, Burgoerner, and Auleben (acquired by his wife, as the fiefdom of the Dacheroeden family had been abolished), Hadersleben, in the Magdeburg country, and Castle Ottmachau, in Silesia, the dotation given to him after the Paris peace. The Sonnet I., 394, refers to a second child, I believe, which Frau von Humboldt lost when at Rome. One was buried in Paris. I conjure you do not mention to the author anything as coming from me. He would inevitably state it in the preface, and then I should become responsible for a great many things which I dread. Pardon the stercoran-like[33] loquacity. A. HT. NOTE BY VARNHAGEN.—He probably had just read of the Stercoranists in Strauss’s “Glaubenslehre.” Hence this allusion. 65. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. THURSDAY, _31st March, 1842_. On my return from Potsdam with the King I received the “Loa-Tseu,” a work with a peculiar flavor of ante-Herodotian antiquity. Your note accompanying the Chinese philosopher impresses me painfully. I find that you have not yet received the courage arising from a consciousness of restored physical strength. That the vigor of your intellect never suffered is shown in each of your letters. I think I have not lost any of them. About a week ago I wrote you a long one of four pages about that “Christianly-dogmatising philosopher,” and my reply to the inquiries of the “Biographer,” who pestered me with his pietistic curiosity. Did that letter come to hand safely? It contained also much chit-chat on my brother’s first erudition. You don’t make any mention of my talkativeness. I trust it will not be a source of trouble to me. We have succeeded with Buelow. He may be here next Saturday. It may be the beginning of something good; or the end of it—_le bouquet_—the stage effect of foot-lights. I met with Tholuk and Bekedorff yesterday at Potsdam at dinner. No other occasion would have favored me with their _apparition_. With constant devotion yours, A. HT. 66. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. BERLIN, _April 6th, 1842_.