Perhaps you will not be displeased to learn the rôle you have been made
to play in the unfortunate debate of our religious politics.
The old Minister Dechamps, who sat on your right at the dinner of the
Baron of Arhim, and who was so much astonished at hearing you say that
you were as much of a Republican as your friend Arago, having associated
your name with those of the illustrious believers who profess the
Catholic faith, a liberal journal this morning answered him as follows:—
“M. Dechamps, in the last homily delivered by him in the Chamber, cited
the name of M. de Humboldt to prove that science could well be made
subservient to the creed. It must be admitted, as Mr. Devaux showed,
that the example could not have been worse chosen. M. de Humboldt is one
of those rationalists, pure and simple, against whom M. Dechamps has
already written so many letters. If M. Humboldt had taught in Belgium he
would most certainly have been pursued in pastoral letters, and
discharged by M. Dechamps, if M. Dechamps had been the Minister.
Nevertheless, it is thus that history is written, and thus that the most
important questions of our intellectual and moral future are
appreciated!”