yment. I had
scarcely walked two hundred steps, when I noticed that I had lost the
road. I was in a wild virginal forest. Another few steps and I was on an
endless ice-field. The cold was unbearable, and I had to hasten my
steps. I ran for a few minutes, and found myself in rice-fields where
Chinese labourers were working. There could be no doubt; I had seven-
league boots on my feet!

I fell on my knees, shedding tears of gratitude. Now my future was
clear. Excluded from society, study and science were to be my future
strength and hope. I wandered through the whole world from east to west,
from north to south, comparing the fauna and flora of the different
regions. To reduce the speed of my progress, I found I had only to pull
a pair of slippers over my boots. When I wanted money, I just took an
ivory tusk to sell in London. And finally I made a home in the ancient
caves of the desert near Thebes.

Once in the far north I encountered a polar bear. Throwing off my
slippers, I wanted to step upon an island facing me. I firmly placed my
foot on it, but on the other side I fell into the sea, as the slipper
had not come off my boot. I saved my life and hurried to the Libyan
desert to cure my cold in the sun; but the heat made me ill. I lost
consciousness, and when I awoke again I was in a comfortable bed among
other beds, and on the wall facing me I saw inscribed in golden letters
my own name.

To cut things short--the institution which had received me had been
founded by Bendel and the widowed Mina with my money, and in my honour
had been called the Schlemihlium. As soon as I felt strong enough, I
returned to my desert cave, and thus I live to this day.

You, my dear Chamisso, are to be the keeper of my strange history, which
may contain useful advice for many. You, if you will live among men,
honour first the shadow, then the money. But, if you live only for your
better self, you will need no advice.

* * * * *

CHATEAUBRIAND

Atala

Francois Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, born on September 4,
1768, at St. Malo, Brittany, was as distinguished for his
extraordinary and romantic career as for the versatility of
his genius. At the height of the Revolution (1791) he left for
America with the intention of discovering the North-West
passage, but in two years returned to fight on the royalist
side, and was wounded at the siege of Thionville. E