, in which he declared that he no longer belonged to their
society, since he did not wish that their brotherhood should include
a man about to die an the scaffold. The other letter, which bore this
superscription, "To my nearest and dearest," was an exact account of
what he meant to do, and the motives which had made him determine upon
this act. Though the letter is a little long, it is so solemn and so
antique in spirit, that we do not hesitate to present it in its entirety
to our readers:--

"To all my own

"Loyal and eternally cherished souls

"Why add still further to your sadness? I asked myself, and I hesitated
to write to you; but my silence would have wounded the religion of
the heart; and the deeper a grief the more it needs, before it can be
blotted out, to drain to the dregs its cup of bitterness. Forth from
my agonised breast, then; forth, long and cruel torment of a last
conversation, which alone, however, when sincere, can alleviate the pain
of parting.

"This letter brings you the last farewell of your son and your brother.

"The greatest misfortune of life far any generous heart is to see the
cause of God stopped short in its developments by our fault; and
the most dishonouring infamy would be to suffer that the fine things
acquired bravely by thousands of men, and far which thousands of men
have joyfully sacrificed themselves, should be no more than a transient
dream, without real and positive consequences. The resurrection of our
German life was begun in these last twenty years, and particularly in
the sacred year 1813, with a courage inspired by God. But now the house
of our fathers is shaken from the summit to the base. Forward! let us
raise it, new and fair, and such as the true temple of the true God
should be.

"Small is the number of those who resist, and who wish to oppose
themselves as a dyke against the torrent of the progress of higher
humanity among the German people. Why should vast whole masses bow
beneath the yoke of a perverse minority? And why, scarcely healed,
should we fall back into a worse disease than that which we are leaving
behind?

"Many of these seducers, and those are the most infamous, are playing
the game of corruption with us; among them is Kotzebue, the most cunning
and the worst of all, a real talking machine emitting all sorts of
detestable speech and pernicious advice. His voice is skillful in
removing from us all anger and bitterness against the most unjust