Excerpt from Letters of William Von Humboldt to a Female Friend, Vol. 1 of 2: A Complete Edition, Translated From the Second German Editor, With a Biographical Notice of the Writer The tenor of all written intercourse of an intimate kind continued to a life's end is progressively saddening. We see the cloud stealing by degrees over the narrowing hori zon -one after another, the possessions of life drop and wither on the downward path 5 and the glimpses of a future, that raise the hopes of the wanderers themselves and console them for the losses that befall them on their way, do not take away the sense of bereavement from those who are pursuing their steps with affectionate regard. In the present instance, the other circumstances which we have mentioned give a peculiar effect to this interest, - and will be felt to throw a touching colour over the relics of a correspondence in its nature unusual and almost romantic. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.