“I will act, therefore; and though driven violently away from my fair dreams of the future, I am none the less full of trust in God; I even experience a celestial joy, now that, like the Hebrews when they sought the promised land, I see traced before me, through darkness and death, that road at the end of which I shall have paid my debt to my country.

“Farewell, then, faithful hearts:  true, this early separation is hard; true, your hopes, like my wishes, are disappointed; but let us be consoled by the primary thought that we have done what the voice of our country called upon us to do; that, you knew, is the principle according to which I have always lived.  You will doubtless say among yourselves, ’Yes, thanks to our sacrifices, he had learned to know life and to taste the joys of earth, and he seemed:  deeply to love his native country and the humble estate to which he was called’.  Alas, yes, that is true!  Under your protection, and amid your numberless sacrifices, my native land and life had become profoundly dear to me.  Yes, thanks to you, I have penetrated into the Eden of knowledge, and have lived the free life of thought; thanks to you, I have looked into history, and have then returned to my own conscience to attach myself to the solid pillars of faith in the Eternal.

“Yes, I was to pass gently through this life as a preacher of the gospel; yes, in my constancy to my calling I was to be sheltered from the storms of this existence.  But would that suffice to avert the danger that threatens Germany?  And you yourselves, in your infinite lave, should you not rather push me on to risk my life for the good of all?  So many modern Greeks have fallen already to free their country from the yoke of the Turks, and have died almost without any result and without any hope; and yet thousands of fresh martyrs keep up their courage and are ready to fall in their turn; and should I, then, hesitate to die?

“That I do not recognise your love, or that your love is but a trifling consideration with me, you will not believe.  What else should impel me to die if not my devotion to you and to Germany, and the need of proving this devotion to my family and my country?

“You, mother, will say, ’Why have I brought up a son whom I loved and who loved me, for whom I have undergone a thousand cares and toils, who, thanks to my prayers and my example, was impressionable to good influences, and from whom, after my long and weary course, I hoped to receive attentions like those which I have given him?  Why does he now abandon me?’

“Oh, my kind and tender mother!  Yes, you will perhaps say that; but could not the mother of anyone else say the same, and everything go off thus in words when there is need to act for the country?  And if no one would act, what would become of that mother of us all who is called Germany?

“But no; such complaints are far from you, you noble woman!  I understood your appeal once before, and at this present hour, if no one came forward in the German cause, you yourself would urge me to the fight.  I have two brothers and two sisters before me, all noble and loyal.  They will remain to you, mother; and besides you will have for sons all the children of Germany who love their country.