Two and twenty years have I laboured incessantly to defeat these drifts of the old wives, for the good of all states, but the more I labour the more enemies spring up. Still must I of necessity stand up for the princes, since that dwells in me which man styles duty. During the half of that two and twenty years, I have written treatises for the guidance of students of jurisprudence and criminal law, adapted to all cases and occasions, after which, however, no man inquires. Students diverge continually farther and farther from my views of law, being influenced by the city clergy, who warn them against them through means of the post. I live in privacy with the great Director of the whole world; yet have the malicious city old wife gossips calumniated me. And this led them to the base action, for many a base deed is brought about through medicaments. The most grievous evils not only arise but continue--I will point out only a few of them. To injure a man in his eyesight irreparably,--to damage his hearing,--to cause his hair to fall off,--to induce epilepsy,--to make his very spirit stand still! Instead of that office of important study to which I believe myself advanced, thus came I to sit there where inexpressible pains are given, which make every thing in man, that is of the nature of man, cry out. But the hardest of all was to become a maniac! To keep off this, I wrote from nine to ten thousand sheets, drawn from life itself, to throw out and express the very kernel of knowledge, which must yet be printed. But I am so poor, that I am always on the point of starvation; for many years I have belted myself more tightly in. I lodge at Widow Ueberlin's on the Freisenberg, who could, if she pleased, from the Great Frederick of Prussia, turn herself into the Grand Turk himself. She was not, however, aware of this; therefore, I assumed the crown of human misery, and wrote this year six hundred and fifteen hefts (each about six sheets of paper). Think only of the diligence in my dwelling! It were well if a learned man in Baden would set himself upon a winter's work, in writing out my manuscripts, in translating them, and sending them to the press, and to make an extract for each faculty, of such matter as relates to them. I am so poor that I am quite unable to defray the cost of such printing. I am the life--I have rent the great secret out of the bosom of Nature. I am the sun, the love, the goodness, a secret that the common class of men have to thank the learned for. From year to year I have continually learned more thoroughly the contents of the surface of the earth. I am, however, only allowed to divulge certain glimpses of this knowledge, and I show it to true friends, wearing knowledge at my side, as the soldier his sabre. The true Friend Frederick von Diehl. * * *