Prince August apologises for the late return of his family book on the part of himself an the undersigned (W. Schlick, M.A. von Thümmel, Frackenbergs, and S.), making especial note of an entry by one ‘S.S.’ dated 8th April. He notes that he recruited a well-known prosaic and poetic writer, Voltaire, whom he highly values for the performance, quoting from Voltaire’s Stances Irregulières. He then turns to politics, mentioning Napoleon, before returning to the family book, noting that nobody understood the deep meaning of S.S.’s entry for they could not recognise the forest for the trees. He ends with references to the witch’s meal in Faust.