much as their lives. They will leave consolation to the mourners, as the rich leave money to defray the expenses of their funerals, and their memories will be incrusted over with sublime and pleasing thoughts, as their monuments are overgrown with moss.
This to our cis-Alpine and cis-Atlantic Friends.
Also this other word of entreaty and advice to the large and respectable nation of Acquaintances, beyond the mountains; Greeting:
My most serene and irresponsible neighbors, let us see that we have the whole advantage of each other; we will be useful, at least, if not admirable, to one another 
I know that the mountains which separate us are high, and are covered with perpetual snow, but despair not. Improve the serene Winter weather to scale them. If need be, soften the rocks with vinegar. For here lie the verdant plains of Italy ready to receive you. Nor shall I be slow on my side to penetrate to your Provence. Strike then boldly at head or heart or any vital part. Depend upon it, the timber is well seasoned and tough, and will bear rough usage; and if it should crack, there is plenty more where it came from. I am no piece of crockery that can not be jostled against my neighbor without danger of being broken by the collision, and must needs ring false and jarringly to the end of my days, when once I am cracked; but rather one of the old-fashioned wooden trenchers, which at one while stands at the head of the table, and at another is a milking-stool, and at another is a seat for children, and finally goes down to its grave not unadorned with honorable scars, and
