of a distinguished physician, who about a week before, dressed
a slight wound on one of my eye-brows, received from a fall against my
sofa in the dark. 3dly, By the fact, that I was quietly and constantly
engaged in writing, and in daily communication with the printer, who
stereotyped my "Hand-book of German Literature." _Symptoms of unusual
excitement, in consequence of such an outrage, are no proof of
derangement._

LETTER IV.

Bloomingdale Asylum, _Dec. 26th_, 1853.

To----, Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir,

For several years past, I have repeatedly been on the point of making an
effort to resuscitate a slight, but to me no less cherished
acquaintance, by giving you some account of my doings and purposes,
which, I have sometimes flattered myself, might not be without interest
both to yourself and to such of your co-adjutors in Washington, as have
enlisted with you in the noble cause of extending and diffusing
knowledge among men. Of the proceedings of your institution I have
occasionally informed myself, both from the pamphlets and reports
periodically submitted to the public, and more especially from the
volumes of regular "Transactions," in the archaeological and linguistical
parts of which, I have taken so much the greater interest, as of late
years my own attention has at times been almost exclusively directed to
the same field of investigation. It is true, I have as yet neither been
able nor willing to give any positive result of my studies. I have
hardly done anything more than "to break the ice." This, however, I may
safely say to have done, having not only had the best opportunities,
(since I saw you last in 1848) of surveying the field in the
time-honored centres of intellectual light on the other side of the
Atlantic, but having also since my return, as a member of several
Learned Associations, had special occasion and incitement to keep alive
my interest in these engaging pursuits. And if there be any truth in the
ancient adage: [Greek: arche hemisy pantos], I may perhaps even
entertain the hope (_non invita Minerva_) of some future concentration
of my somewhat desultory excursions in these regions of light (where
ignorance indeed, but ignorance alone, sees only darkness) to some
radiant focal point. There are a number of subjects, closely connected
with the inquiries, that come under the cognizance of the
historico-philosop