ing from all parts under their banners; the State of Wurtemburg
is, proclaiming a general levy, and volunteers are coming in from every
quarter, asking to die for their country. I consider it my duty, too, to
fight for my country and for all the dear ones whom I love. If I were
not profoundly convinced of this truth, I should not communicate my
resolution to you; but my family is one that has a really German heart,
and that would consider me as a coward and an unworthy son if I did not
follow this impulse. I certainly feel the greatness of the sacrifice; it
costs me something, believe me, to leave my beautiful studies and go to
put myself under the orders of vulgar, uneducated people, but this only
increases my courage in going to secure the liberty of my brothers;
moreover, when once that liberty is secured, if God deigns to allow, I
will return to carry them His word.

"I take leave, therefore, for a time of you, my most worthy parents, of
my brothers, my sisters, and all who are dear to me. As, after mature
deliberation, it seems the most suitable thing for me to serve with the
Bavarians. I shall get myself enrolled, for as long as the war may last,
with a company of that nation. Farewell, then; live happily; far away
from you as I shall be, I shall follow your pious exhortations. In this
new track I shall still I hope, remain pure before God, and I shall
always try to walk in the path that rises above the things of earth and
leads to those of heaven, and perhaps in this career the bliss of saving
some souls from their fall may be reserved for me.

"Your dear image will always be about me; I will always have the Lord
before my eyes and in my heart, so that I may endure joyfully the pains
and fatigues of this holy war. Include me in your Prayers; God will send
you the hope of better times to help you in bearing the unhappy time in
which we now are. We cannot see one another again soon, unless we
conquer; and if we should be conquered (which God forbid!), then my last
wish, which I pray you, I conjure you, to fulfil, my last and supreme
wish would be that you, my dear and deserving German relatives, should
leave an enslaved country for some other not yet under the yoke.

"But why should we thus sadden one another's hearts? Is not our cause
just and holy, and is not God just and holy? How then should we not be
victors? You see that sometimes I doubt, so, in your letters, which I am
impatiently expecting, hav