Here, out of considerable bundles now burnt, are some rough jottings, Excerpts of Notes and Studies,--which, I still doubt rather, ought to have gone in AUTO DA FE along with the others.

AUTO DA FE I called it; Act of FAITH, not Spanish-Inquisitional, but essentially Celestial many times, if you reflect well on the poisonous consequences, on the sinfulness and deadly criminality, of Human Babble,--as nobody does nowadays! I label the different Pieces, and try to make legible;--hasty readers have the privilege of skipping, if they like.
The first Two are of preliminary or prefatory nature,--perhaps still more skippable than those that will by and by follow.
1.

GENEALOGY OF PETER.

"His grandfather was Friedrich IV., Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig, Karl XII.'s brother-in-law; on whose score it was (Denmark finding the time opportune for a stroke of robbery there) that Karl XII., a young lad hardly eighteen, first took arms; and began the career of fighting that astonished Denmark and certain other Neighbors who had been too covetous on a young King.

This his young Brother-in-law, Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp (young he too, though Karl's senior by ten years), had been reinstated in his Territory, and the Danes sternly forbidden farther burglary there, by the victorious Karl; but went with Karl in his farther expeditions.