rned, 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.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER SCHLEMIHL***

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