TO SECRETARY HIRTE AT COLOGNE.
Honored Sir,—Accept my thanks for your friendly lines which have given me great pleasure. The idea which you communicate in them does me honour, but I must admit that I have a certain shyness about it, which I have been unable to get rid of for a considerable time. It is now so much the vogue for unknown or ordinary people to have their likenesses published so as to become a little better known, or else they do it to get a reputation without earning one, that I have always hesitated to do this too early myself. I should like to avoid it till I had accomplished something which I could be persuaded really deserved this honour. That is, however, not the case at present, and I should be happy to see such a recognition postponed till, in my own conviction, I am worthier of it. But I owe you many thanks for the friendship and kindness which prompted your proposal.I am, etc., etc.,
