Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands - Nýr flokkur - 01.01.1983, Síða 36

36
BRÉF WILLARDS FISKES
Þér sjáið, að ég læt hér fylgja tvær bókmenntalegar athugasemdir, sem þér kunnið
að telja ástæðu til að nýta aðrahvora eða báðar og birta í ísafold. Ég verð alls staðar í
Þýzkalandi var vaxandi áhuga á iðkun íslenzkra fornbókmennta. Þegar hinir öldnu
forvígismenn íslenzkra fræða í Þýzkalandi falla frá, þeir Maurer, Möbius og
Bergmann, verða augljóslega nógir yngri menn til að leysa þá af hólmi, svo sem þeir
Gering, Brenner og Edzardi.
Til síra Matthíasar Jochumssonar skálds
American Legation,
Berlin.
January 5, 1880.
My dear Síra Matthías,
A thousand happy New Years to you and to Iceland! May 1880
bring to all my friends in your dear country nothing but pleasure and
happiness!
It is sad that this midwinter steamer brings to Iceland the
mournful intelligence of the death of her greatest son - the noblest
Icelander of the XlXth century. But it is at least gratifying to feel
that his life was a complete one - that his great task was
accomplished and that he went to his grave knowing that the labor he
did would bear fruit for all time. Iceland’s right to self-government is
secure forever, and in the steady progress of his country in future Jón
Sigurðsson will hnd his best and worthiest monument. God bless his
golden memory!
The chief events of the world, since your last mail, have been the
attempted assassination of the Emperor of Russia, and the discovery
of a cheap and brilliant electric light by the American Edison. My
countrymen are quite excited about this wonderful invention. It will
probably altogether supersede gas and cost only one tenth as much.
It is not dangerous, for it contains no heat and will not set fire even to
paper. We have not yet received full particulars.
My health continues only so so. I pass most of my day in taking
pills, and hope soon to improve so that I shall be able to do my
accustomed amount of work, and get out of the hands of the doctors.
I shall probably not get back to America before March or the early
days of April.
I have sent to Bogi Melsteð and Ólafur Davíðsson a little sketch of
what is doing in Icelandic literature here in Germany,' and have
1 Greinin kom í Þjóðólfi 22. apríl, „B. og Ó. þýddu“.