I, a native of Pommerania, bear this tribute to the great man who took the light of scholarship to America and encouraged his country to value freedom; and if the government does not want to end tyranny, then to accomplish that through arms. You are, my lord, a great man, the American Orpheus whose vast merit has amazed all of Europe. Our poor seacoast on the Baltic has come to know you through your writings because we seek light and the Atlantic Ocean is not wide enough to resist our hunger for knowledge. Long have we seen nature as revealed by you, the veil of electricity pushed back by you, the lightning rod, your colossus, also introduced to us; and now we see you struggling in a bloody war, travelling from the new world to the old over the sea to secure peace. We see you, the honorable patriarch of philosophers and statesmen, resplendent in the well-earned laurels around your silver head. Till now people have praised only the ashes of men of merit; only Trajan while he lived. I do that which Pliny did because you, my lord, merit it as did Trajan. What a limited song of praise this is which I dedicate to the greatness of your merit; so limited as the distant hall of fame on our seacoast allows, the faint echo of your great deeds. Nevertheless my feeling for the great and noble in you remains unbounded. Only my song says too little. Future praisers will be able, will want to and will say more. They should say everything we want to see and have the whole philosopher. Though my poem says too little of the greatness of your deeds, I would be completely charmed if you found my heart not lacking in reverence for the true, the noble and the elevated. I support you completely. May God add to your glorious age many happy and blissful years.

I am, my lord, yours entirely,