How unjust we once were in our opinions of the men who undertook to rearrange Europe at that great Congress—I mean to say how much more did we then exact in our unjust views, while at present, on comparing the members of that Congress with the mediocre creatures of to-day, they appear great in our recollection. In their place we have now court-philosophers, missionary-devoted ladies of state ministers, court theologians, and sensation preachers...... Minister Buelow complains that you never came to see him _en famille_ between the hours of 8 and 9. He will hold his public reception to-morrow, Tuesday evening, and you would be an ornament to his circle. He never sends letters of invitation to those who know how welcome they are to him. A. V. HUMBOLDT. MONDAY. 70. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. TUESDAY, _June 13th, 1843_. Excuse me, dear friend, for being prevented by the absence of Reimer, by my own eternal distractions and pendulum-like movements, as well as by some little preparations for an excursion to Pomerania, from sending you the two new volumes of Wilhelm’s works. I know that you are little pleased with the commentary on Hermann and Dorothea. It would have been preferable, to be sure, had he extended it into a pamphlet on epics; but you perceive even in the Kawi book how that great genius always deduced general law from special instances. The sonnets are full of grave pathos and depth of sentiment. I shall call to embrace you, and to ask you the surest way of sending a copy to Mr. Thomas Carlyle? A. seems unreliable, and Buelow’s despatches cannot be overloaded. I shall thank Mr. Carriere personally. The “fossil” minister, I am told, has given evidence of his vitality by an amiable letter to you! My life is also described “dans les biographies redigées par un homme de rien,” in which I am pictured as a socially-malicious beast. Such things will not kill, nor will they improve a man either. Always faithfully yours, A. V. HT. 71. BERLIN, _June 26th, 1843_.