As the above letter was handed to my personal friends for the purpose of conveying the desired intelligence, and sent to me, when the report of my illness and mental derangement was found to be groundless and false, there can be no impropriety or breach of courtesy or justice in its publication. The serious consequences to which it gave rise, the deprivation of my liberty for six entire months, and the suspension of my functions as an academic instructor (though not of my activity as an author, which under the most inauspicious circumstances was still continued) alike demand, that it should be made known in connection with my own communications before and during my imprisonment. A comment or two will exhibit the contents of the Doctor's epistle in their proper light.

1st, The Dr's. letter is itself a contradiction and an egregious symptom of insanity on his part, which is, moreover, confirmed by his previous conduct from his first entrance into the institution. In comparing the University with the Lunatic Asylum, I find that the former during the winter of 1852-'53 (I may add, ever since my return from Europe in 1850) was a far more disorderly and irrational place than the latter, where the occasional confusion or the perpetual (sane and insane) perversity of men is the lamentable, but natural and necessary (consequently irresponsible) result, of an internal physical or intellectual disorder or defect, which is moreover susceptible of classification and of a psychological exposition, while in the former it was "got up" for the particular purpose of subjugation or of expulsion, and where consequently it was the result of responsible perversity and malice, susceptible of moral reprobation.

2d, The allegation of my being "unfitted for the business of teaching," and of the propriety of finding me "another institution, adapted to such, away from study," is an absurd and a libelous perversion of the truth, which it is scarcely worth while to refute. From the year 1839, the year of my matriculation at the institution, to the present hour I have had no other profession, except that of having appeared in the additional capacity of an author. Even during my undergraduate career I taught successfully the various disciplines of our academic course, with the approbation and to the satisfaction of the Faculty, members of which examined and admitted to promotion several of my private scholars, who had been expressly referred to me for tuition in the Classics, in Mathematics, in Philosophy, &c.—Of my courses of instruction since my official and regular connection with the institution (which dates from the year 1846) in the language and in the literature which I was more especially appointed to profess, it is not necessary to speak here, the University itself having offered but little inducement and no emolument or honor to the cultivation of the modern languages. In all the professional services, however, which I have had occasion to render to the institution of late years, my qualifications and my efficiency could never have been honestly or honorably questioned. I have prepared my own text-books, which have found their way into most of the literary and educational institutions of this continent to some extent into Europe even. One of them was begun at the very time, when "the indications of a disordered mind had become more decided," and was completed with scarcely a day's intermission of my work at the lunatic asylum, where I subsequently improved my leisure (as far as my shattered health would permit) by zealously engaging in some preliminary studies for a history of modern literature.—It is equally needless to expatiate on my extensive acquaintance, direct and indirect, with academic men and methods both in the United States and in Europe, where within a few years past I spent an entire year in the pursuit of literary and philosophical studies at two of its most prominent Universities.—To my morality, both private and social, and to my religion, no one but a hyper-puristic religionist or a calvinistic tyrant could possibly object.—The real objection, and the cause of my being unfitted for the business of instruction must therefore be looked for elsewhere. From various indications and from several catastrophes in my personal history, brought about by sectarian jealousy and fanatical intrigue, from certain significant changes in the faculty of the institution, and from innumerable efforts to subject me to a creed, or to the social control of certain religious parties, I should infer that it manifestly and palpably resided in a mistrust of what is vulgarly termed "the soundness of my views" on certain questions, never discussed in respectable literary institutions, and beyond their jurisdiction, or in other words in a suspicion of heresy.—I claim, however, in opposition to all these pretensions, which I deem an absurdity, my right (which is inalienable and imprescriptible) to my moral and intellectual culture, commenced under the auspices and fostering care of my Alma Mater herself (during a former administration) and continued and perfected by years of serious and earnest effort in America and Europe, since. I recognize no sectarian guidance or control whatever in any of the independent sciences, cultivated from time immemorial at academic institutions, much less in the science of sciences, the very law and indispensable condition of which is absolute freedom from all external authority or restraint. The law of intellectual freedom, of which the Reader will find a short exposition in the concluding document of this pamphlet (which I have extracted and translated from a distinguished authority on the "Philosophy of Right") is recognized by the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and by the political and social history of the United States, by the Revised Statutes of the State of New-York, by all the leading universities of Protestant and Catholic Europe, and by a number of similar institutions in America, among which stands, "professedly" at least, the University of the city of New-York. The attempts of certain parties in connection with the institution and ab extra to "smother" (to use one of their own cant words) and to crush my independence by gravely endeavoring to coerce me into an alliance with a questionable religionism, which is abhorrent to my ideas, my habits and my sentiments, and by fomenting internal disorders for the purpose of effecting an exclusion, are an unconstitutional, an unjust, an iniquitous invasion of my most sacred rights as a man, an American citizen, a scholar and a professor. I repel, therefore, Dr. Ferris' insinuation as a maliciously astute and as a false one, which of itself declares the Dr. incompetent to decide upon the merits of a real scholar, and utterly unfit for the important trust of presiding over the interests of any other but a sectarian institution of the narrowest description, of the most painfully exclusive moral perversity.

To this I may add, that in consideration of the many and various disciplines, earnestly and steadily cultivated by me for several years past, such as intellectual philosophy, the learned and modern languages, linguistics and the history of literature generally, I could in academic justice demand the right to instruct in any one of the departments for which I was fitted. That such a right exists, and that it is applicable to my case, the reader may learn from Sir William Hamilton's Essays on University Education, recently republished in America, to which I refer passim. I can therefore confidently challenge not only the chancellor, but, in case of a concurrence in his sentiments, the entire faculty of the University to the following proposition:—In case my capacity to teach or lecture academically is questioned, I propose to take, and I demand one of the following chairs; where under suitable auspices and with proper and regular provisions for the maintenance of order, I could at once begin:—1st, The Latin language and literature.—2d, the Greek ditto, ditto.—3d, Moral and intellectual philosophy, either systematically or historically.—4th, History or the general history of literature (of which I have at present a text-book in preparation).—5th, Linguistics or the classification of languages, including general grammar.—6th, the history of modern (European) languages and literatures.—7th, the elements of the Sanscrit, of which I still have a Mss. grammar, compiled by myself for my private use, during the winter of 1851.—I omit mentioning the remaining academic disciplines, for which I have no particular taste, but which I still could teach, and for which I could prepare the text-books, if it were necessary to do so.

3d, The alleged indications of insanity were utterly unfounded at the time they were made. I had recovered my usual health and spirits immediately after the commencement of last year, about the beginning of July '53, when those who had flagrantly disturbed the quiet of my residence in and about the University building had vanished into the country. Of the winter of 1852-'53 I only recollect, that subsequently to the dismissal of my class, which I could not in honor consent to hear any longer, I made a fruitless attempt to continue my private studies, and to finish a commentary on a Greek drama which I had begun at the commencement of the term, and that the ominous symptoms of external insanity about me soon increased to such an alarming extent, that I was forced to lay aside my pen, unable to endure the outrage and annoyance any longer; that gangs of scandalous ruffians in the shape of boys, girls, men and women, many of whom I knew by their voices, kept up at certain intervals, by day and by night, a nefarious system of mystification and of nuisance from January to the end of June, in the council-room of the institution, in the hall, before my door, in front of my window, and on the parade ground; that in consequence of all this my rest at night was completely broken, until I could only sleep by day; that after a while I was confined to my bed most of the time, and that I frequently did not rise for breakfast till 6 o'clock, P. M.; that it was painful and disgusting for me to be awake, and that all I read for several successive months was "Hegel's Logic" for two or three hours a day, and that for some time I only eat once a day. In May, I think, I fled to a neighboring State and University, partly with the intention of changing my place of residence.—As a psychologist I was well aware, that sleep was a sovereign preventive, as well as a remedy for all the disorders of the mind, especially for those which might arise from external causes such as those I have just described; I therefore anticipated and prevented the unhappy consequences which the Dr. seems to have expected from the outrageous nuisance of his cherished institution, where such scenes of scandal only date from the time his prospective and his actual entrance on the duties of his office, and really seem to have been made to order, I know not for whose benefit (certainly not for mine). During the summer I was, in consequence of the happy reaction and repose, unusually gay and regular in my work. I then wrote an introduction to Schiller's Maid of Orleans, another one to Goethe's Iphigenia, and a third to Tieck's Puss in Boots, all of which have since been published in my new Manual of German Literature. I deny, therefore, having ever given any symptoms of insanity whatsoever at any time of the year, while I admit that a renewal of the scandal (which the parties concerned have endeavored to revive since my release this spring, but which I checked by a speedy notice to the police court and to some of my friends), in the autumn might have led to such calamitous results. Neither my Kant, nor my Rauch, nor my Hegel, nor any other philosopher or psychologist could for one moment be induced to admit, that the presence of external causes and tendencies to intellectual derangement were necessarily attended or followed by the malady itself. This would be an egregious logical fallacy, to which no intelligent physician in or out of the Lunatic Asylum could for one moment subscribe, without justly incurring the risk of being charged with an inexcusable lack of professional knowledge and experience or what is still worse, with a criminal connivance at an unjust and inquitous conspiracy against the reputation and the life of an American citizen. To the charge of the folly of suffering so long and so severely from so gross a system of disorder which might have speedily been checked by the extra-academic authorities of the city, I can only reply, that the confusion and the consequent embarrassment was so great, that it was impossible for me at the time to come to any decision as to the course to be pursued. The most advisable policy would have been, to have left entirely, and to have directed the correction or the punishment from a distance. The following letters, written from the Lunatic Asylum (between which and the University there was a manifest internal harmony, and which was evidently commissioned to complete the work of humiliation and of subjugation), may serve to elucidate the facts of the case with some additional particulars.

To the above mentioned causes of the ruin of my health, I may add, that during the same winter I had an opportunity of witnessing a resurrection of "Salem Witchcraft," practiced on me by a certain lady, a mother in Israel of this city, who was manifestly in connection with the ultra-calvinistic faction of the University, which is the one to which Dr. Ferris is indebted for his elevation. I moreover discovered in the same connection, one of the two sources, from which the low insults in the street, at certain well-known hours of my walks, in certain places and directions, (to which I made allusion in my letter to the mayor of the city,) had emanated, and I received some additional light on certain events of my personal history, to which I allude in letter No. 5.—A father in Israel, a gray-headed sinner in my opinion, likewise informed me that they had the Irish to defend them.—I venture to assert that few of my countrymen, except perhaps the lowest rabble, would ever lend their aid to such nefarious purposes.

From all that I have had occasion to observe of social disorder and discontent in the city for several years past, I am sure that there are men who foment intestine commotions, who shamelessly and openly conspire against the honor and the interests, if not against the property and lives of their fellow-citizens, and whom the State ought to prosecute and punish as offenders against a clearly defined law of the statute-book.

My sanity at the time of arrest I can establish:—1st, By the testimony of those who saw me daily, and more especially, by that of a young man, who came to see me frequently, after the reception of Dr. Ferris' letter, and who in fact brought it from the office. 2dly, By the testimony of a distinguished physician, who about a week before, dressed a slight wound on one of my eye-brows, received from a fall against my sofa in the dark. 3dly, By the fact, that I was quietly and constantly engaged in writing, and in daily communication with the printer, who stereotyped my "Hand-book of German Literature." Symptoms of unusual excitement, in consequence of such an outrage, are no proof of derangement.