gifts.
Heartiest thanks from us both for the Wine you have sent;
and with the earliest carriage-post the Reinwalds shall have
their share. Day after tomorrow we will celebrate your
Birthday as if you were present, and with our whole heart
drink your health.

Here I send you a little production of my pen, which may
perhaps give pleasure to my dear Mother and Sisters; for it
should be at least written for ladies. In the year 1790
Wieland edited the _Historical Calendar_, and in this of
1791 and in the 1792 that will follow, I have undertaken the
task. Insignificant as a _Calendar_ seems to be, it is that
kind of book which the Publishers can circulate the most
extensively, and which accordingly brings them the best
payment. To the Authors also they can, accordingly, offer
much more. For this Essay on the _Thirty-Years War_ they
have given me 80 Louis-d'or, and I have in the middle of my
Lectures written it in four weeks. Print, copperplates,
binding, Author's honorarium cost the Publisher 4,500
_reichsthaler_ (675_l._), and he counts on a sale of 7,000
copies or more.

"_28th._ Today," so he continues, after some remarks on a
good old friend of his Father's, written after
interruption,--"Today is your Birthday, dearest Father,
which we both celebrate with a pious joy that Heaven has
still preserved you sound and happy for us thus far. May
Heaven still watch over your dear life and your health, and
preserve your days to the latest age, that so your grateful
Son may be able to spread, with all the power he has, joy
and contentment over the evening of your life, and pay the
debts of filial duty to you!

"Farewell, my dearest Father; loving kisses to our dearest
Mother and my dear Sisters. We will soon write again.

"The Wine has arrived in good condition; once more receive
our hearty thanks.--Your grateful and obedient Son

"FRIEDRICH."

'In the beginning of this year (1791) the Poet had been seized with a
violent and dangerous affection of the chest. The immediate danger was
now over; but his bodily health was, for the rest of his life,
shattered to ruin, and required, for the time coming, especially for
the time just come, all manner of soft treatment and repose. The
worst, therefore, was to be feared if his friends and he could not
manag