My proposition is that we make the attack ourselves. In case the authors wish to defend themselves in Die Horen, they must submit to our conditions. And my advice is, not to begin with propositions, but to begin with deeds. There is no harm if we are denounced as ill-bred."
Several letters were exchanged on this subject, and Goethe wrote in a letter of December 23, 1795, to Schiller:
"We must cultivate the idea of making epigrams upon all journals; one distich for each magazine, in the manner of Martial's Xenia; and we must publish a collection of them in the Musen-Almanach of next year. Enclosed are some Xenions as a specimen."
Schiller answered at once, December 23, 1795:
"The idea of the Xenions is splendid and must be carried out. . . . What a wealth of material is offered by the Stolbergs, by Racknitz, Ramdohr, the metaphysical world with its Me's and Not-Me's, friend Nicolai, our sworn enemy, the Leipsic taste-mongers, Thümmel, with Göschen as his horse-*groom, and others."
