Knebel begins by saying that he regrets Goethe’s discomfort, and encourages him to continue to think positively about Lukrez. He adds that Lucretius was a reformer whose teaching is not as dangerous as is often believed, noting that Voltaire considered the places of the complete dissolution of man after death to be the most effective in Lucretius’ De rerum natura. He concludes by discussing mutual friends, and the expectation of an imminent earthquake following the flood of the Saale.