“I was seriously ill; death was already close. Having gathered the rest of my strength and taking advantage of the first minute of complete sobriety of my mind, I wrote a spiritual will, in which, among other things, I assign the responsibility to my friends to publish, after my death, some of my letters. I wanted to at least in this way atone for the uselessness of everything that I had previously published, because in my letters, according to the recognition of those to whom they were written, there is more necessary for a person than in my writings. The heavenly mercy of God took the hand of death away from me. I am almost recovered; I feel better. But, feeling, however, the weakness of my strength, which announces to me every minute that my life is in the balance, and preparing for a distant journey to the Holy Places, necessary for my soul, during which anything can happen, I wanted to leave something of myself at parting. to my compatriots. I choose myself from my last letters, which I managed to get back, everything that is more relevant to the issues that occupy society today, eliminating everything that can gain meaning only after my death, excluding everything that could have meaning only for a few. I am adding two or three literary articles and, finally, enclosing the will itself, so that in the event of my death, if it overtook me on my way, it would immediately have its legal force, as witnessed by all my readers...”