Jacobi says that Goethe, like Voltaire and Sophocles, writes his best works between the seventieth and eightieth years. He adds that he borrowed Goethe’s biography from a passing traveler, as the Munich booksellers could not yet get it. He then provides a report on friends and family before going on to discuss Goethe’s writings.

In the section of the letter dated 23 February, Jacobi talks about his rejection of Schelling’s speech, quoting a line from Voltaire’s poetry: ‘Tous les goûts sont pour moi respectables’. He discusses the philosophies of Platonism and Spinozism, before discussing news of their mutual acquaintances.