ot true, I beg, you to give the lie to
anyone you hear saying it. I have before my eyes four hundred and sixty
of his letters over which I weep and which I will burn. I have asked
Count Leopold to burn mine, which he had saved, and I hope that he will
please me by doing it. I have survived all my true friends. 'Tempus abire
mihi est' Horace says to me.

"Returning to my Memoirs . . . I am a detestable man; but I do not care
about having it known, and I do not aspire to the honor of the
detestation of posterity. My work is full of excellent moral
instructions. But to what good, if the charming descriptions of my
offences excite the readers more to action than to repentance?
Furthermore, knowing readers would divine the names of all the women and
of the men which I have masked, whose transgressions are unknown to the
world, my indiscretion would injure them, they would cry out against my
perfidy, even though every word of my history were true . . . . Tell me
yourself whether or not I should burn my work? I am curious to have your
advice."

On the 6th May 1793, Casanova wrote Opiz: "The letter of recommendation
you ask of me to the professor my brother for your younger son, honors
me; and there is no doubt that, having for you all the estimation your
qualities merit, I should send it to you immediately. But this cannot be.
And here is the reason. My brother is my enemy; he has given me sure
indications of it and it appears that his hate will not cease until I no
longer exist. I hope that he may long survive me and be happy. This
desire is my only apology."

"The epigraph of the little work which I would give to the public,"
Casanova wrote the 23rd August 1793, "is 'In pondere et mensura'. It is
concerned with gravity and measure. I would demonstrate not only that the
course of the stars is irregular but also that it is susceptible only to
approximate measures and that consequently we must join physical and
moral calculations in establishing celestial movements. For I prove that
all fixed axes must have a necessarily irregular movement of oscillation,
from which comes a variation in all the necessary curves of the planets
which compose their eccentricities and their orbits. I demonstrate that
light has neither body nor spirit; I demonstrate that it comes in an
instant from its respective star; I demonstrate the impossibility of many
parallaxes and the uselessness of many others. I criticize not only
Tiko-Brahi, but also