worst of means.

SIRE, imagine not that thou readest a romance. My head is grey,
like thine. Read, yet despise not the world, though it has treated
me thus unthankfully. Good men have I also found, who have
befriended me in misfortunes, and there, where I had least claim,
have I found them most. May my book assist thee in noble thoughts;
mayest thou die as tranquilly as I shall render up my soul to appear
before the Judge of me and my persecutors. Be death but thought a
transition from motion to rest. Few are the delights of this world
for him who, like me, has learned to know it. Murmur not, despair
not of Providence. Me, through storms, it has brought to haven;
through many griefs to self-knowledge; and through prisons to
philosophy. He only can tranquilly descend to annihilation who
finds reason not to repent he has once existed. My rudder broke not
amid the rocks and quicksands, but my bark was cast upon the strand
of knowledge. Yet, even on these clear shores are impenetrable
clouds. I have seen more distinctly than it is supposed men ought
to see. Age will decay the faculties, and mental, like bodily
sight, must then decrease. I even grew weary of science, and envied
the blind-born, or those who, till death, have been wilfully
hoodwinked. How often have I been asked, "What didst thou see?"
And when I answered with sincerity and truth, how often have I been
derided as a liar, and been persecuted by those who determined not
to see themselves, as an innovator singular and rash!

Sire, I further say to thee, teach thy descendants to seek the
golden mean, and say with Gellert--"The boy Fritz needs nothing;--
his stupidity will insure his success, Examine our wealthy and
titled lords, what are their abilities and honours, then inquire how