MY DEAR FRIEND,—I think you will not have misunderstood my silence since
your last letter. Your heart will have told you that no news could be
pleasanter to me than that you would undertake to bring the last sevenfold
child of my English love into public notice. This can of course only be
during the Parliamentary recess. You know better than any one what is the
unity of the seven volumes, and what is the aim and result. Your own is a
certainly not unimportant, and an independent part of it. But you have
with old affection worked yourself and thought yourself into the whole,
even where the particulars were of less interest to you. Lastly, as you
have told me to my delight, Jowett has begun to interest himself in the
work, and you have therefore one near at hand who, from one point of view,
can help you as reflecting English opinion. Ewald told me that I had
wished to give a Cosmos of the mind in that work. At all events, this idea
has floated before me for many years, and is expressed in the Preface to
the “God Consciousness.” Only it is not more than _a study_ for that which
floats before me. My two next volumes will give more of it. If I only knew
what to do with the work for Germany! My task was arranged for England. It
seemed to me important, under the guidance of the rediscovered Hippolytus,
whose form first rose clearly before me during the first work, to show the
organic development of the leading ideas of Christendom in the teachers
and heroes, beginning from the first Pentecostal feast; in order to sift
the ground, and show to my readers—
_a._ That the old system of inspiration and the Theodice of the Middle
Ages, that is to say, that of the seventeenth century, has no _support_ in
ancient Christianity, but just the _contrary_. That is now a fact.
_b._ That we have something infinitely more reassuring to put in its
place. Truth instead of delusion; reality instead of child’s play and
pictures.
_c._ That it is high time to be in earnest about this.
_d._ That for this, _clear insight_ and practical purpose, also reasoning
and moral earnestness, will be required on the part of the spiritual
guides.
_e._ But that before all things Christianity must be introduced into the
reality of the present; and that the corporation of the Church, the life
of the community in its worship as in its mutually supporting work, must
become the centre whence springs the consciousness of communion,—_not_ a
system of theology. Christianity is nothing to me but the restoration of
the ideal of humanity, and this will become especially clear through the
antecedent forms (præformations) of the development in language and
religion. (See “Outlines.”) There is a natural history of both, which
rests on laws as sure as those of the visible Cosmos. The rest is
professional, philological,—_legitimatio ad causam_.
How much of this idea can be presented to the English public, and in what
manner, you know much better than I. Therefore you know the one as well,
and the other better than I do. This is the reason why I believe you would
not wait for my answer. Still I should have sent to you, if during this
time two passions had not filled my heart. For once the dreadful distress
of our condition forced me to try, from the midst of my blessed Patmos, to
help by letters as far and wherever I could, through advice and cry of
distress and summons to help. Now there is nothing more to be done but to
wait the result. _Alea jacta esse_. Ernest is in Berlin.
My second passion is the carrying out of an idea by means of a Christian
philosophical People’s Bible, from the historical point of view, to get
the lever which the development of the present time in Europe has denied
me. That I should begin this greatest of all undertakings in the
sixty-fifth year of my age, is, I hope, no sign of my speedy death. But I
have felt since as if a magic wall had been broken down between me and
reality, and long flowing springs of life stream towards me, giving me the
discernment and the prolific germ of that which I desired and still strive
after. The Popular Bible will contain in two volumes (of equal thickness),
1st, the corrected and reasonably divided text; and 2d, the key to it. For
that purpose I must see whether I shall succeed in executing the most
difficult part, Isaiah and Jeremiah. And I have advanced so far with this
since yesterday evening, that I see the child can move, it can walk. The
outward practicability depends on many things, but I have thoroughly
worked through the plan of it.
By the end of 1856 all must be ready. My first letter is to you. Thanks
for your affection: it is so exactly like you, breaking away at once from
London and going to Oxford, to talk over everything with Acland.
Meyer has once more descended from Pegasus, to our prosaic sphere. I
believe he is working at a review of our work for the Munich Literary
Journal of the Academy. Laboulaye (Vice-President of the Academy) says I
have given him so much that is new to read, that he cannot be ready with
his articles before the end of February. We shall appear in the “Débats”
the beginning of March.
Holzmann is working at the proofs that the Celts were _Germans_. Humboldt
finds the unity of the Turanians not proved. (Never mind!) Osborn’s
“Egypt” runs on in one absurdity (the Hyksos period _never_ existed),
which the “Athenæum” censures sharply.
What is Aufrecht about? But above all, how are you yourself? God preserve
you. My family greet you. Heartily yours in old affection.
[65.]