The last period of Stirner's life, from the time when his wife left him to his death, is as obscure as his childhood days. He moved from place to place, and since his income was very irregular creditors pressed him hard. His lot was tolerable because of the simple habits of his life, his only luxury consisting in smoking a good cigar. In 1853 we find him at least twice in debtor's prison, first 21 days, from March 5 to 26,1853, and then 36 days, from New Year's eve until February 4 of the next year. In the meantime (September 7) he moved to Philippstrasse 19. It was Stirner's last home. He stayed with the landlady of this place, a kind-hearted woman who treated all her boarders like a mother, until June 25, 1856, when he died rather suddenly as the result of the bite of a poisonous fly. A few of his friends, among them Bruno Bauer and Ludwig Buhl, attended his funeral; a second-class grave was procured for one thaler 10 groats, amounting approximately to one American dollar. During this period Stirner undertook several literary labors from which he possibly procured some remuneration. He translated the classical authors on political economy from the French and from the English, which appeared under the title _Die National-Oekonomen der Franzosen und Engländer_ (Leipsic, Otto Wigand, 1845-1847). He also wrote a history of the Reaction which he explained to be a mere counter-revolution. This _Geschichte der Reaction_ was planned as a much more comprehensive work, but the two volumes which appeared were only two parts of the second volume as originally intended. The work is full of quotations, partly from Auguste Comte, partly from Edmund Burke. None of these works represent anything typically original or of real significance in the history of human thought. His real contribution to the world's literature remains his work _Der Einzige und sein Eigentum_, the title of which is rendered in English _The Ego and His Own_, and this, strange to say, enthrones the individual man, the ego, every personality, as a sovereign power that should not be subject to morality, rules, obligations, or duties of any kind. The appeal is made so directly that it will convince all those unscientific and half-educated minds who after having surrendered their traditional faith find themselves without any authority in either religion or politics. God is to them a fable and the state an abstraction. Ideas and ideals, such as truth, goodness, beauty, are mere phrases. What then remains but the concrete bodily personality of every man of which every one is the ultimate standard of right and wrong? [1] See also R. Schellwien, _Max Stirner und Friedrich Nietzsche_; V. Basch, _L'individualisme anarchiste, Max Stirner_, 1904. [2] _Max Stirner, sein Leben und sein Werk_. Berlin, 1898. [3] The name of the gentleman she mentions is replaced by a dash at his express wish in the facsimile of her letter reproduced in Mr. Mackay's book (p. 255). EGO-SOVEREIGNTY