Baron Humboldt.

The Berlin papers publish the following letter;

‘Overwhelmed by a correspondence which daily increases, and which averages yearly between 1,600 and 2,000 letters, pamphlets on subjects I know nothing in the world about, MSS. about which my advice is asked, schemes of emigration and colonization, models, machines, specimens of natural history, questions about balloons, requests for autographs, offers of services as my nurse, to amuse me, &c., &c., &c., I try once more publicly to invite all my well-wishers to try and keep people from busying themselves about me on both continents, and from treating my house like an intelligence office; that despite the diminution of my physical and intellectual strength, I may have a little leisure and repose in which to labor.

I hope this appeal (I have determined to make it with reluctance) will not be malevolently interpreted.’