Bellevue, September 15, 18951

Dear friends and hosts,

It helps a parting if one immediately thereafter encounters different circumstances that give one something to do. So I felt very fortunate that I had to find my way about Corsica, had to guard against confusing Pelasgians and Phocaeans,2 and strove to keep in mind the individual traits of the somewhat monotonous heroism of the Corsican gentlemen in all its numerous incarnations. True, there were enough obstacles to this mental activity; side associations constantly distracted my attention. As to the Phocaeans, for example, I was overcome by an insurmountable inclination, which even now has not yet been sufficiently explained, to think of them as “seals.”3 A nasal symptom, probably. In between, my surroundings demanded their due. As to the green hunter, all of us made a careless prediction; he remained a faithful cellmate until Oberhollabrunn