impending kingly duties? We live not in a sad, but in an earnest time. All action and energy are paralysed, if backbiting is permitted to deprive us of our most useful men. Enthusiastically attached to your person, to the splendor of your reign, and to the glory of our country, it makes me sad to see the most noble purposes in danger of being misunderstood. No doubt there are very honorable men who, from pure love of your Majesty, would like to see me also under the column at Tegel, or at least on the other side of the Rhine. In grateful submission, Your Royal Majesty’s most faithful HUMBOLDT. BERLIN, _March 29, 1846_. _The King wrote on the fly-leaf_: My warmest thanks, dearest Humboldt. M. Bodelschwingh will send for Massmann. In all haste, as ever. Your faithful F. W. ALEXANDER V. HUMBOLDT, Present. 111. BESSEL TO HUMBOLDT. KOENIGSBERG, _Feb. 12th, 1846_. I hear with great regret that your Excellency has to mourn the loss of Herr von Buelow. Although I had not the pleasure of knowing the late Baron personally, I was not unacquainted with the true affection of the uncle for his nephew, and I heard frequent mention of the enthusiastic manner in which it was reciprocated. Moreover, I knew his repute as that of a noble, talented, clear-sighted man. Would that I could indite words of consolation, such as I heard them, at the time of my great loss!—but it is not given to every one to speak them. That time heals our bleeding wounds, the wounds which at first seemed mortal, I myself have experienced; that death after a _short_ suffering is preferable to death after a _long_ one, is a truth which impresses itself often on my mind!