"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?