m without his paying
any duty; and so at all events there will be a reduction. I was
excessively pleased with Aufrecht. Your parcels for Pertz will go safely
and quickly if they are here on the 1st or 15th of the month.

P. S. Aufrecht must be courageous, and keep in good spirits. Haupt is
called to Berlin, which rather surprises me. Read the "Journal des
Debats," Sunday, December 12, on Hippolytus. Do you know Laboulaye?

[23.]

PRUSSIAN LEGATION, _February 19, 1853._

Please tell me at leisure how Amestris (Herod, ix. 109) is to be explained
as the wife of Xerxes? I am convinced that _Esther_ is hidden here, which
name, according to the testimony of the Book of Esther, was her _Persian_
name, as she was first called _Myrtle_, as her Jewish maiden name.
Therefore _Am_ must mean "queen," "mistress," "lady," or what you may
discover. I find that the idea had occurred to one and the other even
about 100 years ago; but was given up, partly on account of its
"godlessness;" partly on account of the uncertainty whether Ahasuerus was
really Xerxes, as Scaliger declared. The Suabian simpletons (for they are
so in historical matters) are the only people who now doubt this, and that
the book is historical,--a book with a history on which depends the only
great Jewish feast established since the days of Moses (till the
Purification of the Temple, after the fall of Epiphanes). So, my dear M.,
send it to me. There can have been at that same time, in Persia, but one
woman so vindictive and clever as Esther is. The first volume of my
Prophets (from Abraham to Goethe) is ready, with a popular explanation of
the age of the so-called "Great Unknown" (Isaiah) of Daniel, and _all the
Psalms_, etc. I write _only German_ for this, but only _for the English_,
and yet without any reserve.

The most remarkable of the thirteen articles which I have seen on
Hippolytus, is by Taylor (a Unitarian in Manchester), in the "Prospective
Review" (February). He confesses that I have made the principle of the
Trinity, and the national blessing of the Episcopacy and the Liturgy,
clear to him. I have never seen him, but he seems to me a deep thinker. I
am again in correspondence with Bernays, who promises to work at Lucretius
with all diligence. I think he has more leisure, and his health is better.

To-morrow the new African expedition sets sail,--Dr. Vogel, the botanical
astronomer, and his army, two volunteers from the sappers and miners. I am