I found everything thus in order, and returned again, as my strength returned, to my former engagements and habits of life. And now for a whole twelvemonth I have refrained from exposing myself to the unbearable winter's cold. And thus, my beloved Chamisso--thus do I yet live. My boots have not lost their virtues, as the very learned tome of Tieckius, _De rebus gestis Pollicilli_, gave me reason to apprehend. Their power is unbroken: but my strength is failing, though I have confidence I have applied them to their end, and not fruitlessly. I have learned more profoundly than any man before me, everything respecting the earth: its figure, heights, temperature; its atmosphere in all its changes; the appearance of its magnetic strength; its productions, especially of the vegetable world; all in every part whither my boots would carry me. I have published the facts, clearly arranged, with all possible accuracy, in different works, with my ideas and conclusions set down in various treatises. I have established the geography of interior Africa and of the North Pole,--of central Asia and its eastern coasts. My _Historia Stirpium Plantarum utriusque Orbis_ has appeared, being but a large fragment of my _Flora universalis Terrae_, and a companion to my _Systema Naturae_. In that I believe I have not only increased the number of known species more than a third (moderately speaking), but have thrown some light on the general system of nature, and the geography of plants. I am now busily engaged with my Fauna. I will take care before my death that my MSS. be disposed in the Berlin university. And you, my beloved Chamisso, you have I chosen for the keeper of my marvellous history, which, when I shall have vanished from the earth, may tend to the improvement of many of its inhabitants. But, my friend, while you live among mankind, learn above all things first to reverence your shadow, and next your money. If you will only live for Chamisso and his better self, you need no counsel of mine. FINIS. ROBERT HARDWICKE, PRINTER, 192, PICCADILLY, LONDON. Footnotes: {20} A frock coat. {37} Another novel of Fouque. {112} Australia.