The learned mode of
interpretation
is not
more satisfactory than dogmatic authority.
more satisfactory than dogmatic authority.
Madame de Stael - Germany
net/2027/hvd.
32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 274 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
existence, cannot be expressed by the re-
gular forms of speech. Reasoning on such
subjects serves to show where reasoning
comes to an end; and at that conclusion
commences true certainty; for the truths of
feeling have an intensity of strength which
calls all our being to their support. The in-
finite acts upon the soul so as to exalt and to
disengage it from time. The business of life
is to sacrifice the interests of our transitory
existence to that immortality which even
"now commences for us, if we are already
"worthy of it; and not only the greater part
of religions have this same object, but the
fine arts, poetry, glory, love, are religions,
into which there enters more or less alloy.
This expression, " it is divine," which has
become general, in order to extol the beau-
ties of nature and of art--this expression is a
species of belief among the Germans: it is
not from indifference that they are tolerant;
it is because there is an universality in their
manner of feeling and conceiving religion.
In fact, every man may find, in some dif-
ferent wonder of the universe, that which
most powerfully addresses his soul:--one
admires the Divinity in the character of a
father; another in the innocence of a child;
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY, 275
a third in the heavenly aspect of Raphael's
virgins, in music, in poetry, in nature, it
matters not in what--for all are agreed in
admiring (if all are animated by a religious
principle) the genius of the world, and of
every human being.
Men of superior genius have raised doubts
concerning this or that doctrine; and it is a
great misfortune, that the subtilty of logic,
or the pretences of self-love, should be able
to disturb and to chill the feeling of faith.
Frequently also reflection has found itself at
a loss in those intolerant religions, of which,
as we may say, a penal code has been
formed, and which have impressed upon
theology all the forms of a despotic govern-
ment: but how sublime is that worship,
which gives us a foretaste of celestial happi-
ness in the inspiration of genius, as in the
most obscure of virtues; in the tenderest af-
fections as in the severest pains; in the tem-
pest a6 in the fairest skies; in the flower as
in the oak; in every thing except calculation,
except the deadly chill of selfishness, which
separates us from the benevolence of nature,
which makes vanity alone the motive of our
actions--vanity, whose root is ever venom-
ous! How beautiful is that religion which
t2
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? 276 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
consecrates the whole world to its Author,
and makes all our faculties subservient to the
celebration of the holy rites of this wonder-
ful universe!
Far from such a belief interdicting litera-
ture or science, the theory of all ideas, the
secret of all talents, belong to it; nature and
the Divinity would necessarily be in contra-
diction to each other, if sincere piety forbade
men to make use of their faculties, and to
taste the pleasure that results from their exer-
cise. There is religion in all the works of ge-
nius ; there is genius in all religious thoughts.
Wit is of a less illustrious origin; it serves for
an instrument of contention; but genius is
creative. The inexhaustible source of ta-
lents and of virtues, is this feeling of infi-
nity, which claims its share in all generous
actions, and in all profound thoughts.
Religion is nothing if it is not every thing;
if existence is not filled with it; if we do
not incessantly maintain in the soul this
belief in the invisible; this self-devotion,
this elevation of desire, which ought to
triumph over the low inclinations to which
our nature exposes us.
But how can religion be incessantly pre-
sent to our thoughts, if we do not unite it
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY. 2? 7
to every thing which ought to form the oc-
cupation of a noble existence, devoted affec-
tions, philosophical meditations, and the
pleasures of the imagination? A great num-
ber of practices are recommended to the
faithful, that their religion may be recalled
to their minds every moment of the day by
the obligations which it imposes; but if the
whole life could be naturally, and without
effort, an act of worship at every moment,
would not this be still better? Since the
admiration of the beautiful always has rela-
tion to the Divinity, and since the very spring
of energetic thought makes us remount to
our origin, why should not the power of
feeling love, poetry, philosophy, form the
columns of the Temple of Faith?
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? 273 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
CHAPTER II.
Of Protestantism.
If was natural for a revolution, prepared by
ideas, to take place in Germany; for the
prominent trait of this thinking people is the
energy of internal conviction. When once
an opinion lias taken possession of German
heads, their patience, and their perseverance
in supporting it, do singular honour to the
force of human volition.
When we read the details of the death
of John Huss, and of Jerome of Prague, the
forerunners of the Reformation, we see a
striking example of that which characterized
the Protestant leaders in Germany, the union
of a lively faith with the spirit of inquiry.
Their reason did no injury to their belief, nor
their belief any to their reason; and their
moral faculties were always put into simul-
taneous action.
Throughout Germany we find traces of
the different religious struggles, which, for
many ages, occupied the whole nation. They
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? PROTESTANTISM. 379
still show, in the cathedral at Prague, bas-
reliefs where the devastations committed by
the Hussites are represented; and that part
of the church which the Swedes set fire to
in the thirty years' war, is not yet rebuilt.
Not far from thence, on the bridge, is placed
the statue of St. John Nepomucenes, who
preferred perishing in the waves to revealing
the weaknesses which an unfortunate queen
had confessed to him. The monuments, and
even the ruins, which testify the influence of
religion over man, interest the soul in a lively
manner; for the wars of opinion, however
cruel they may be, do more honour to na-
tions than the wars of interest.
Of all the great men produced by Ger-
many, Luther is the one whose character is
the most German: his firmness had something
rude about it; his conviction arose even to
infatuation; the courage of the mind was in
him the principle of the courage of action;
what there was passionate in his soul did
not divert him from abstract studies; and
although he attacked certain abuses, and
considered certain doctrines as prejudices, it
was not a philosophical incredulity, but a
species of fanaticism, that excited him.
Nevertheless, the Reformation has intro-
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? 28G RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
duced into the world inquiry in matters of
religion. In some minds its result has been
scepticism; in others, a stronger conviction
of religious truths: the human mind had
arrived at an epoch when it was necessary
for it to examine in order to believe. The
discovery of printing, the multiplicity of
every sort of knowledge, and the philoso-
phical investigation of truth, did not allow
any longer that blind faith which was for-
merly so profitable to its teachers. Religious
enthusiasm could not grow again except by
inquiry and meditation. It was Luther who
put the Old Testament and the Gospel into
the hands of all the world; it was he who
gave its impulse to the study of antiquity;
for in learning Hebrew to read the Old, and
Greek to read the New Testament, the stu-
dents cultivated the ancient languages, and
their minds were turned towards historical
researches.
Examination may weaken that habitual
faith which men do well to preserve as much
as they can ; but when man comes out of his
inquiries more religious than he was when he
entered into them, it is then that Religion is
built upon an immutable basis; it is then
that harmony exists between her and Know-
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? PUOTESTANTISM.
281
ledge, and that they mutually assist each
other.
Some writers have largely declaimed
against the system of perfectibility; and, to
hear them, we should think that it was a
real crime to believe our species capable of
perfection. It is enough in France that an
individual of such a party should have main-
tained this or that opinion, to make it bad
taste to adopt it; and all the sheep of the
same flock, one after the other, hasten to
level their wise attacks at ideas, which still
remain exactly what they are by nature.
It is very probable that the human species
is susceptible of education, as well as each
man in particular; and that there are epochs
marked for the progress of thought in the
eternal career of time. The Reformation
was the vera of inquiry, and of that enlight-
ened conviction which inquiry produces.
Christianity was first established, then al-
tered, then examined, then understood; and
these different periods were necessary to its
developement; they have sometimes lasted a
hundred, sometimes a thousand years. The
Supreme Being, who draws time out of
eternity, does not economize that time after
our manner.
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? 282 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
When Luther appeared, religion was no
more than a political power, attacked or de-
fended as an interest of this world. Luther
recalled it to the land of thought. The his-
torical progress of the human mind, in this
respect, in Germany, is worthy of remark.
When the wars occasioned by the Reforma-
tion were set at rest, and the Protestant
refugees vwere naturalized in the different
northern states of the German empire, the
philosophical studies, which had always
made the interior of the soul their object,
were naturally directed towards religion;
and there is no literature of the eighteenth
century in which we find so many religious
books as in the literature of Germany.
Lessing, one of the most powerful ge-
niuses of his nation, never ceased to attack,
with all the strength of his logic, that
maxim so commonly repeated, " that there
"are some dangerous truths. " In fact, it is
a singular instance of presumption, in certain
individuals, to think they have the right of
concealing the truth from their fellow-men,
and to arrogate the prerogative of placing
themselves (like Alexander before Diogenes)
in a situation to veil from our eyes that sun
which belongs alike to all: this pretended
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? PROTESTANTISM. 283
prudence is but the theory of imposture; is
but an attempt to play the juggler with
ideas, in order to secure the subjection of
mankind. Truth is the work of God; lies
are the works of man. If we study those
eras of history in which truth has been an
object of fear, we shall always find them
when partial interests contended in some
manner against the universal tendency.
The search for truth is the noblest of em-
ployments, and its promulgation is a duty.
There is nothing to fear for society, or for
religion, in this search, if it is sincere; and
if it is not sincere, truth no longer, but false-
hood, causes the evil. There is not a sen-
timent in man of which we cannot find the
philosophical reason; not an opinion, not
even a prejudice, generally diffused, which
has not its root in nature. We ought then to
examine, not with the object of destroying,
but to build our belief upon internal, not
upon borrowed conviction.
We see errors lasting for a long time; but
they always cause a painful uneasiness.
When we look at the tower of Pisa, which
leans over its base, we imagine that it is
about to fall, although it has stood for ages;
and our imagination is not at its ease, except
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? *284 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
in the sight of firm and regular edifices. It
is the same with our belief in certain prin-
ciples; that which is founded upon preju-
dices makes us uneasy; and we love to see
reason supporting, with all its power, the ele-
vated conceptions of the soul.
The understanding contains in itself the
principle of every thing which it acquires by
experience. Fontenelle has justly said, that
"we think we recognise a truth when first
"we hear it. " How then can we imagine,
that sooner or later just ideas, and the in-
ternal conviction which they cause, will not
reappear? There is a pre-established har-
mony between truth and human reason,
which always ends by bringing each nearer
to the other.
Proposing to men not to interchange
their thoughts, is what is commonly called
keeping the secret of the play. We only
continue in ignorance because we are uncon-
sciously ignorant; but from the moment that
we have commanded silence, it appears that
somebody has spoken; and to stifle the
thoughts which . those words have excited,
we must degrade Reason herself. There are
men, full of energy and good faith, who
never dreamt of this or that philosophical
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? PROTESTANTISM.
285
truth; but those who know and conceal
their knowledge, are hypocrites, or, at least,
are most arrogant and most irreligious beings.
Most arrogant; for what right have they to
think themselves of the class of the initiated,
and the rest of the world excluded from it ? --
Most irreligious; for if there is a philoso-
phical or natural truth, a truth, in short,
which contradicts religion, religion would
not be what it is, the light of lights.
We must be very ignorant of Christianity,
that is to say, of the revelation of the moral
laws of man and the universe, to recommend to
those who wish to believe in it, ignorance, se-
crecy, and darkness. Open the gates of the
temple; call to your support genius, the fine
arts, the sciences, philosophy; assemble
them in one focus to honour and to com-
prehend the Author of creation; and if Love
has said, that the name of those we love
seems written on the leaves of every flower,
how should not the impress of the Godhead
appear in every thought that attaches itself
to the eternal chain?
The right of examining what we ought to
believe, is the foundation of Protestantism.
The first reformers did not so understand it:
they thought they could fix the pillars of
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? 286 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
Hercules of the human mind at the boundary
of their own knowledge; but they were
wrong in fancying that men would submit to
their decisions as if they were infallible;--
they who rejected all authority of this sort
in the Catholic religion. Protestantism then
was sure to follow the developement and the
progress of knowledge; while Catholicism
boasted of being immoveable in the midst of
the waves of time.
Among the German writers of the Pro-
testant religion, different ways of thinking
have prevailed, which have successively oc-
cupied attention. Many learned men have
made inquiries, unheard of before, into the
Old and New Testament. Michaelis has
studied tire languages, the antiquities, and
the natural history of Asia, to interpret the
Bible; and while the spirit of French phi-
losophy was making a jest of the Christian
religion, they made it in Germany the object
of erudition. However this sort of labour
may, in some respects, insure religious
minds, what veneration does it not imply
for the book which is the object of so se-
rious an inquiry! These learned men at-
tacked neither doctrines, nor prophecies, nor
miracles; but a great number of writers
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? PROTESTANTISM.
287
have followed them, who have attempted to
give an entirely physical explanation to the
Old and New Testament; and who, con-
sidering them both in the light only of good
writings of an instructive kind, see nothing
in the mysteries but oriental metaphors.
These theologians called themselves rational
interpreters, because they believed they could
disperse every sort of obscurity: but it was
a wrong direction of the spirit of inquiry to
attempt applying it to truths, of which we
can have no presentiment, except by eleva-
tion and meditation of soul. The spirit of
inquiry ought to serve for the demarcation
of what is superior to reason, in the same
manner that an astronomer defines the
heights to which the sight of man cannot
attain: thus therefore to point out the in-
comprehensible regions, without pretending
to deny their existence, or to describe them
by words, is to make use of the spirit of in-
quiry, according to its measure, and its
destination.
The learned mode of interpretation is not
more satisfactory than dogmatic authority.
The imagination and the sensibility of the
Germans could not content itself with this
sort of prosaic religion, which paid the
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? 288 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
respect of reason to Christianity. Herder
was the first to regenerate faith by poetry:
deeply instructed in the eastern languages,
he felt a kind of admiration for the Bible
like that which a sanctified Homer would in-
spire. The natural bias of the mind in Ger-
many is to consider poetry as a sort of
prophetic gift, the forerunner of divine en-
joyments; so that it was not profanation to
unite to religious faith the enthusiasm which
poetry inspires.
Herder was not scrupulously orthodox;
but he rejected, as well as his partisans, the
learned commentaries which had the simpli-
fication of the Bible for their object, and
which, by simplifying, annihilated it. A
sort of poetical theology, vague but animated,
free but feeling, takes the place of that pe-
dantic school which thought it was advancing
towards reason, when it retrenched some of
the miracles of this universe; though, at the
same time, the marvellous is, in some
respects, perhaps, still more easy to con-
ceive, than that which it has been agreed to
call the natural.
Schleiermacher, the translator of Plato, has
written discourses of extraordinary eloquence
upon religion; he combatted that indiffer-
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? ^ROTfeSTANTlSM. 289
ence which has been called toleration, and
that destructive labour which has passed
for impartial inquiry. Schleiermacher is
not the more on this account an orthodox
theologian; but he shows, in the religious
doctrines which he adopts, the power of
belief, and a great vigour of metaphy-
sical conception. He has developed, with
much warmth and clearness, the feeling
of the infinite, of which I have spoken
in the preceding chapter. We may call
the religious opinions of Schleiermacher,
and of his disciples, a philosophical the-
ology.
At length Lavater, and many men of ta-
lent, attached themselves to the mystical
opinions, such as Fenelon in France, and
different writers in all countries, conceived
them. Lavater preceded some of the authors
whom I have cited; but it is only for these
few years past, that the doctrine, of which
he may be considered one of the principal
supporters, has gained any great popularity
among the Germans. The work of Lavater
upon physiognomy is more celebrated than
his religious writings; but that which ren-
dered him especially remarkable was his per-
sonal character. There was in this man a
vol. in. v
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? 290 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
rare mixture of penetration and of enthu-
siasm; be observed mankind with a peculiar
sagacity of understanding, and yet aban-
doned himself, with entire con6dence, to a
set of ideas which might be called supersti-
tious. He had sufficient self-love; and this
self-love, perhaps, was the cause of those
whimsical opinions about himself, and his
miraculous calling. Nevertheless, nothing
could equal the religious simplicity and the
candour of his soul. W e could not see with-
out astonishment, in a drawing-room of our
own times, a minister of the holy Gospel
inspired like an apostle, and animated as a
man of the world. The warrant of Lavater's
sincerity was to be found in his good actions,
and in his 6ne countenance, which bore the
stamp of inimitable truth.
The religious writers of Germany, pro-
perly so called, are divided into two very
distinct classes--the defenders of the Re-
formation, and the partisans of Catholicism.
I shall examine separately the writers who
are of these different opinions; but the as-
sertion which it is important to make before
every thing is this, that if northern Ger-
many is the country where theological ques-
tions have been most agitated, it is also that
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? PROTESTANTISM. 291
in which religious sentiments are most uni-
versal; the national character is impressed
with them, and it is from them that the ge-
nius of the arts and of literature draws all
its inspiration. In short, among the lower
orders, religion in the north of Germany
bears an ideal and sweet character, which
singularly surprises us in a country where we
have been accustomed to think the manners
very rude.
Once, as I was travelling from Dresden to
Leipsic, I stopped for the evening at Meissen,
a little village placed upon an eminence over
the river, and the church of which contains
tombs consecrated to illustrious recollections.
I walked upon the Esplanade, and suffered
myself to sink into that sort of reverie which
the setting sun, the distant view of the land-
scape, and the sound of the stream that flows
at the bottom of the valley, so easily excite
in our souls:--I then caught the voices of
some common persons, and I was afraid of
hearing such vulgar words as are elsewhere
sung in the streets. What was my astonish-
ment, when I understood the burthen of
their song ! --4* They loved each other, and
"they died, hoping one day to meet again V
v2
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? 292 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
Happy that country where such feelings are
popular; and spread abroad, even into the
air we breathe, I know not what religious
fellowship, of which love for heaven, and
pity for man, form the touching union!
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? MORAVIAN MODE OF WORSHIP. 293
CHAPTER HI.
? f ?
. Moravian Mode of Worship.
There is perhaps too much freedom in
Protestantism to satisfy a certain religious
austerity, which may seize upon the man
who is overwhelmed by great misfortunes;
sometimes even in the habitual course of
life, the reality of this world disappears all
at once, and we feel ourselves in the middle
of its interests as we should at a ball, where
we did not hear the music; the dancing that
we saw there would appear insane. A species
of dreaming apathy equally seizes upon the
bramin and the savage, when one by the
force of thought, and the other by the force
of ignorance, passes entire hours in the dumb
contemplation of destiny. The only activity
of which the human being is then suscepti-
ble, is that which has divine worship for its
object. He loves to do something for Hea-
ven every moment; and it is this disposition
which gives their attraction to convents, how-
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? 594 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
ever great may be their inconvenience in
other respects.
The Moravians are the monks of Pro-
testantism; and the religious enthusiasm of
northern Germany gave them birth, about a
hundred years ago. But although this asso-
ciation is as severe as a Catholic convent,
it is more liberal in its principles. No vows
are taken there; all is voluntary; men and
women are not separated, and marriage is
not forbidden. Nevertheless the whole so*
ciety is ecclesiastical i that is to say, every
thing is done there by religion and for it;
the authority of the church rules this com-
munity of the faithful, but this church is
without priests, and the sacred office is ful-
filled there in turn, by the most religious and
venerable persons.
Men and women, before marriage, live
separately from each other in assemblies,
where the most perfect equality reigns. The
entire day is filled with labour; the same for
every rank; the idea of Providence, con-
stantly present, directs all the actions of the
life of the Moravians.
When a young man chooses to take a
companion, he addresses himself to the fe-
male superintendants of girls or widows,
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? MORAVIAN" MODE OF WORSHIP. 295
and demands of them the person he wishes
to espouse. They draw lots in the church,
to know whether he ought to marry thg
woman whom he prefers; and if the lot is
against him, he gives up his demand. The
Moravians have such a habit of resignation,
that they do not resist this decision; and as
they only see the women at church, it costs
them less to renounce their choice. This
manner of deciding upon marriage, and upon
many other circumstances of life, indicates
the general spirit of the Moravian worship.
Instead of keeping themselves submitted' td
the will of Heaven, they fancy they can
learn it by inspirations, or, what is still more
strange, by interrogating Chance. Duty and
events manifest to man the views of God
concerning the earth; how can we flatter
ourselves with the notion of penetrating
them by other means?
We observe, in other respects, among the
generality of Moravians, evangelical man-
ners, such as they must have existed from
the time of the Apostles, in Christian com-
munities. Neither extraordinary doctrines
nor scrupulous practices constitute the bond
of this association: the Gospel is there in-
terpreted in the most natural and clear
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? 296 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
manner; but they are there faithful to the
consequences of this doctrine, and they
make their conduct, under all relations, har-
monize with their religious principles. The
Moravian communities serve, above all, to
prove that Protestantism, in its simplicity,
may lead to the most austere sort of life,
and the most enthusiastic religion; death
and immortality, well understood, are suffi-
cient to occupy and to direct the whole of
existence.
I was some time ago at Dintendorf, a
little village near Erfurtb, where a Moravian
community is established. This village is
three leagues distant from every great road;
it: is situated between two mountains, upon
the banks of a rivulet; willows and lofty
poplars environ it: . there is something tran-
quil and sweet in the look of the country,
which prepares the soul to free itself from
the turbulence of life. The buildings and
the streets are marked by perfect cleanliness;
the women, all clothed alike, hide their hair,
and bind their head with a riband, whose
colour indicates whether they are married,
maidens, or widows: the men are clothed
in brown, almost like the Quakers, Mer-
cantile industry employs nearly all of them;
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? MORAVIAN MODE OF WORSHIP. 297
but one does not hear the least noise in the
village. Every body works in regularity
and silence; and the internal action of re-
ligious feeling lulls to rest every other im-
pulse. ? . ;. '>. . ';
The girls and widows live together in a
large dormitory, and, during the night, one
of them has her turn to watch, for the pur-
pose of praying, or of taking care of those
who" may be ill. The unmarried men Jive
in the same manner. Thus there exists a
great family for him who has none of his
own; and the name of brother and sister is
common to all Christians. ? ? !
Instead of bells, wind instruments, of a
very sweet harmony, summon them to di-
vine service. As we proceeded to church,
by the sound of this imposing music, we felt
ourselves carried away from the earth; we
fancied that we heard the trumpets of the
last judgment, not such as remorse makes
us fear them, but such as a pious confidence
makes us hope them; it seemed as if the
divine compassion manifested itself in this
appeal, and pronounced beforehand the par-
don of regeneration.
The church was dressed out in white roses,
and blossoms of white thorn: pictures were
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? RE1IGION AtfD EKTHUSIASM*
not banished from the temple; and music
was cultivated as a constituent part of re-
ligion: they only sang psalms; there was
neither sermon, nor mass, nor argument,
nor theological discussion; it was the wor-
ship of God in spirit and in truth. The
women, all in white, were ranged by each
other without any distinction whatever; they
looked like the innocent shadows who were
about to appear together before the tribunal
of the Divinity.
The burying-ground of the Moravians is
a garden, the walks of which are marked
out by funeral stones; and by the side of
each is planted a flowering shrub. All these
grave-stones are equal; not one of these
shrubs rises above the other; and the same
epitaph serves for all the dead. "He was
"born on such a day; and on such another<.
"he returned into his native country/'
Excellent expression to designate the end
of our life! The ancients said, " He lived f
and thus threw a veil over the tomb, to divest
themselves of its idea; the Christians place
over it the star of hope.
On Easter-day, divine service is performed
in the burying-ground, which is close to the
church, and the resurrection is announced
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? Mtfft,AV<*sr ftor>? of Worship.
in the middle of the tombs. All those who
are present at this act of worship, know the
stone that is to be placed over their coffin;
and already breathe the perfume of the
young tree, whose leaves and flowers will
penetrate into their tombs. It is thus that
we have seen, in modern times, an entire
army assisting at its own funeral rites, pro-
nouncing for itself the service of the dead,
decided in belief that it was to conquer hm
mortality*.
The communion of the Moravians danrrot
adapt itself to the social state, such a3 Cir-
cumstances ordain it to be; but as it has
been long and frequently asserted that Ca-
tholicism alone addressed the imagination, it
is of consequence to remark, that what truly
touches the soul in religion is common to all
. Christian churches. A sepulchre and a
prayer exhaust all the power of the pathetic;
and the more simple the faith, the more
emotion is caused by the worship.
* The allusion in this passage is to the siege of Saragossa.
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? 300 EELIOI0N AND ENTHUSIASM.
CHAPTER IV.
? 274 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
existence, cannot be expressed by the re-
gular forms of speech. Reasoning on such
subjects serves to show where reasoning
comes to an end; and at that conclusion
commences true certainty; for the truths of
feeling have an intensity of strength which
calls all our being to their support. The in-
finite acts upon the soul so as to exalt and to
disengage it from time. The business of life
is to sacrifice the interests of our transitory
existence to that immortality which even
"now commences for us, if we are already
"worthy of it; and not only the greater part
of religions have this same object, but the
fine arts, poetry, glory, love, are religions,
into which there enters more or less alloy.
This expression, " it is divine," which has
become general, in order to extol the beau-
ties of nature and of art--this expression is a
species of belief among the Germans: it is
not from indifference that they are tolerant;
it is because there is an universality in their
manner of feeling and conceiving religion.
In fact, every man may find, in some dif-
ferent wonder of the universe, that which
most powerfully addresses his soul:--one
admires the Divinity in the character of a
father; another in the innocence of a child;
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY, 275
a third in the heavenly aspect of Raphael's
virgins, in music, in poetry, in nature, it
matters not in what--for all are agreed in
admiring (if all are animated by a religious
principle) the genius of the world, and of
every human being.
Men of superior genius have raised doubts
concerning this or that doctrine; and it is a
great misfortune, that the subtilty of logic,
or the pretences of self-love, should be able
to disturb and to chill the feeling of faith.
Frequently also reflection has found itself at
a loss in those intolerant religions, of which,
as we may say, a penal code has been
formed, and which have impressed upon
theology all the forms of a despotic govern-
ment: but how sublime is that worship,
which gives us a foretaste of celestial happi-
ness in the inspiration of genius, as in the
most obscure of virtues; in the tenderest af-
fections as in the severest pains; in the tem-
pest a6 in the fairest skies; in the flower as
in the oak; in every thing except calculation,
except the deadly chill of selfishness, which
separates us from the benevolence of nature,
which makes vanity alone the motive of our
actions--vanity, whose root is ever venom-
ous! How beautiful is that religion which
t2
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? 276 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
consecrates the whole world to its Author,
and makes all our faculties subservient to the
celebration of the holy rites of this wonder-
ful universe!
Far from such a belief interdicting litera-
ture or science, the theory of all ideas, the
secret of all talents, belong to it; nature and
the Divinity would necessarily be in contra-
diction to each other, if sincere piety forbade
men to make use of their faculties, and to
taste the pleasure that results from their exer-
cise. There is religion in all the works of ge-
nius ; there is genius in all religious thoughts.
Wit is of a less illustrious origin; it serves for
an instrument of contention; but genius is
creative. The inexhaustible source of ta-
lents and of virtues, is this feeling of infi-
nity, which claims its share in all generous
actions, and in all profound thoughts.
Religion is nothing if it is not every thing;
if existence is not filled with it; if we do
not incessantly maintain in the soul this
belief in the invisible; this self-devotion,
this elevation of desire, which ought to
triumph over the low inclinations to which
our nature exposes us.
But how can religion be incessantly pre-
sent to our thoughts, if we do not unite it
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY. 2? 7
to every thing which ought to form the oc-
cupation of a noble existence, devoted affec-
tions, philosophical meditations, and the
pleasures of the imagination? A great num-
ber of practices are recommended to the
faithful, that their religion may be recalled
to their minds every moment of the day by
the obligations which it imposes; but if the
whole life could be naturally, and without
effort, an act of worship at every moment,
would not this be still better? Since the
admiration of the beautiful always has rela-
tion to the Divinity, and since the very spring
of energetic thought makes us remount to
our origin, why should not the power of
feeling love, poetry, philosophy, form the
columns of the Temple of Faith?
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? 273 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
CHAPTER II.
Of Protestantism.
If was natural for a revolution, prepared by
ideas, to take place in Germany; for the
prominent trait of this thinking people is the
energy of internal conviction. When once
an opinion lias taken possession of German
heads, their patience, and their perseverance
in supporting it, do singular honour to the
force of human volition.
When we read the details of the death
of John Huss, and of Jerome of Prague, the
forerunners of the Reformation, we see a
striking example of that which characterized
the Protestant leaders in Germany, the union
of a lively faith with the spirit of inquiry.
Their reason did no injury to their belief, nor
their belief any to their reason; and their
moral faculties were always put into simul-
taneous action.
Throughout Germany we find traces of
the different religious struggles, which, for
many ages, occupied the whole nation. They
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? PROTESTANTISM. 379
still show, in the cathedral at Prague, bas-
reliefs where the devastations committed by
the Hussites are represented; and that part
of the church which the Swedes set fire to
in the thirty years' war, is not yet rebuilt.
Not far from thence, on the bridge, is placed
the statue of St. John Nepomucenes, who
preferred perishing in the waves to revealing
the weaknesses which an unfortunate queen
had confessed to him. The monuments, and
even the ruins, which testify the influence of
religion over man, interest the soul in a lively
manner; for the wars of opinion, however
cruel they may be, do more honour to na-
tions than the wars of interest.
Of all the great men produced by Ger-
many, Luther is the one whose character is
the most German: his firmness had something
rude about it; his conviction arose even to
infatuation; the courage of the mind was in
him the principle of the courage of action;
what there was passionate in his soul did
not divert him from abstract studies; and
although he attacked certain abuses, and
considered certain doctrines as prejudices, it
was not a philosophical incredulity, but a
species of fanaticism, that excited him.
Nevertheless, the Reformation has intro-
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? 28G RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
duced into the world inquiry in matters of
religion. In some minds its result has been
scepticism; in others, a stronger conviction
of religious truths: the human mind had
arrived at an epoch when it was necessary
for it to examine in order to believe. The
discovery of printing, the multiplicity of
every sort of knowledge, and the philoso-
phical investigation of truth, did not allow
any longer that blind faith which was for-
merly so profitable to its teachers. Religious
enthusiasm could not grow again except by
inquiry and meditation. It was Luther who
put the Old Testament and the Gospel into
the hands of all the world; it was he who
gave its impulse to the study of antiquity;
for in learning Hebrew to read the Old, and
Greek to read the New Testament, the stu-
dents cultivated the ancient languages, and
their minds were turned towards historical
researches.
Examination may weaken that habitual
faith which men do well to preserve as much
as they can ; but when man comes out of his
inquiries more religious than he was when he
entered into them, it is then that Religion is
built upon an immutable basis; it is then
that harmony exists between her and Know-
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? PUOTESTANTISM.
281
ledge, and that they mutually assist each
other.
Some writers have largely declaimed
against the system of perfectibility; and, to
hear them, we should think that it was a
real crime to believe our species capable of
perfection. It is enough in France that an
individual of such a party should have main-
tained this or that opinion, to make it bad
taste to adopt it; and all the sheep of the
same flock, one after the other, hasten to
level their wise attacks at ideas, which still
remain exactly what they are by nature.
It is very probable that the human species
is susceptible of education, as well as each
man in particular; and that there are epochs
marked for the progress of thought in the
eternal career of time. The Reformation
was the vera of inquiry, and of that enlight-
ened conviction which inquiry produces.
Christianity was first established, then al-
tered, then examined, then understood; and
these different periods were necessary to its
developement; they have sometimes lasted a
hundred, sometimes a thousand years. The
Supreme Being, who draws time out of
eternity, does not economize that time after
our manner.
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? 282 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
When Luther appeared, religion was no
more than a political power, attacked or de-
fended as an interest of this world. Luther
recalled it to the land of thought. The his-
torical progress of the human mind, in this
respect, in Germany, is worthy of remark.
When the wars occasioned by the Reforma-
tion were set at rest, and the Protestant
refugees vwere naturalized in the different
northern states of the German empire, the
philosophical studies, which had always
made the interior of the soul their object,
were naturally directed towards religion;
and there is no literature of the eighteenth
century in which we find so many religious
books as in the literature of Germany.
Lessing, one of the most powerful ge-
niuses of his nation, never ceased to attack,
with all the strength of his logic, that
maxim so commonly repeated, " that there
"are some dangerous truths. " In fact, it is
a singular instance of presumption, in certain
individuals, to think they have the right of
concealing the truth from their fellow-men,
and to arrogate the prerogative of placing
themselves (like Alexander before Diogenes)
in a situation to veil from our eyes that sun
which belongs alike to all: this pretended
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? PROTESTANTISM. 283
prudence is but the theory of imposture; is
but an attempt to play the juggler with
ideas, in order to secure the subjection of
mankind. Truth is the work of God; lies
are the works of man. If we study those
eras of history in which truth has been an
object of fear, we shall always find them
when partial interests contended in some
manner against the universal tendency.
The search for truth is the noblest of em-
ployments, and its promulgation is a duty.
There is nothing to fear for society, or for
religion, in this search, if it is sincere; and
if it is not sincere, truth no longer, but false-
hood, causes the evil. There is not a sen-
timent in man of which we cannot find the
philosophical reason; not an opinion, not
even a prejudice, generally diffused, which
has not its root in nature. We ought then to
examine, not with the object of destroying,
but to build our belief upon internal, not
upon borrowed conviction.
We see errors lasting for a long time; but
they always cause a painful uneasiness.
When we look at the tower of Pisa, which
leans over its base, we imagine that it is
about to fall, although it has stood for ages;
and our imagination is not at its ease, except
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? *284 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
in the sight of firm and regular edifices. It
is the same with our belief in certain prin-
ciples; that which is founded upon preju-
dices makes us uneasy; and we love to see
reason supporting, with all its power, the ele-
vated conceptions of the soul.
The understanding contains in itself the
principle of every thing which it acquires by
experience. Fontenelle has justly said, that
"we think we recognise a truth when first
"we hear it. " How then can we imagine,
that sooner or later just ideas, and the in-
ternal conviction which they cause, will not
reappear? There is a pre-established har-
mony between truth and human reason,
which always ends by bringing each nearer
to the other.
Proposing to men not to interchange
their thoughts, is what is commonly called
keeping the secret of the play. We only
continue in ignorance because we are uncon-
sciously ignorant; but from the moment that
we have commanded silence, it appears that
somebody has spoken; and to stifle the
thoughts which . those words have excited,
we must degrade Reason herself. There are
men, full of energy and good faith, who
never dreamt of this or that philosophical
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? PROTESTANTISM.
285
truth; but those who know and conceal
their knowledge, are hypocrites, or, at least,
are most arrogant and most irreligious beings.
Most arrogant; for what right have they to
think themselves of the class of the initiated,
and the rest of the world excluded from it ? --
Most irreligious; for if there is a philoso-
phical or natural truth, a truth, in short,
which contradicts religion, religion would
not be what it is, the light of lights.
We must be very ignorant of Christianity,
that is to say, of the revelation of the moral
laws of man and the universe, to recommend to
those who wish to believe in it, ignorance, se-
crecy, and darkness. Open the gates of the
temple; call to your support genius, the fine
arts, the sciences, philosophy; assemble
them in one focus to honour and to com-
prehend the Author of creation; and if Love
has said, that the name of those we love
seems written on the leaves of every flower,
how should not the impress of the Godhead
appear in every thought that attaches itself
to the eternal chain?
The right of examining what we ought to
believe, is the foundation of Protestantism.
The first reformers did not so understand it:
they thought they could fix the pillars of
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? 286 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
Hercules of the human mind at the boundary
of their own knowledge; but they were
wrong in fancying that men would submit to
their decisions as if they were infallible;--
they who rejected all authority of this sort
in the Catholic religion. Protestantism then
was sure to follow the developement and the
progress of knowledge; while Catholicism
boasted of being immoveable in the midst of
the waves of time.
Among the German writers of the Pro-
testant religion, different ways of thinking
have prevailed, which have successively oc-
cupied attention. Many learned men have
made inquiries, unheard of before, into the
Old and New Testament. Michaelis has
studied tire languages, the antiquities, and
the natural history of Asia, to interpret the
Bible; and while the spirit of French phi-
losophy was making a jest of the Christian
religion, they made it in Germany the object
of erudition. However this sort of labour
may, in some respects, insure religious
minds, what veneration does it not imply
for the book which is the object of so se-
rious an inquiry! These learned men at-
tacked neither doctrines, nor prophecies, nor
miracles; but a great number of writers
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? PROTESTANTISM.
287
have followed them, who have attempted to
give an entirely physical explanation to the
Old and New Testament; and who, con-
sidering them both in the light only of good
writings of an instructive kind, see nothing
in the mysteries but oriental metaphors.
These theologians called themselves rational
interpreters, because they believed they could
disperse every sort of obscurity: but it was
a wrong direction of the spirit of inquiry to
attempt applying it to truths, of which we
can have no presentiment, except by eleva-
tion and meditation of soul. The spirit of
inquiry ought to serve for the demarcation
of what is superior to reason, in the same
manner that an astronomer defines the
heights to which the sight of man cannot
attain: thus therefore to point out the in-
comprehensible regions, without pretending
to deny their existence, or to describe them
by words, is to make use of the spirit of in-
quiry, according to its measure, and its
destination.
The learned mode of interpretation is not
more satisfactory than dogmatic authority.
The imagination and the sensibility of the
Germans could not content itself with this
sort of prosaic religion, which paid the
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? 288 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
respect of reason to Christianity. Herder
was the first to regenerate faith by poetry:
deeply instructed in the eastern languages,
he felt a kind of admiration for the Bible
like that which a sanctified Homer would in-
spire. The natural bias of the mind in Ger-
many is to consider poetry as a sort of
prophetic gift, the forerunner of divine en-
joyments; so that it was not profanation to
unite to religious faith the enthusiasm which
poetry inspires.
Herder was not scrupulously orthodox;
but he rejected, as well as his partisans, the
learned commentaries which had the simpli-
fication of the Bible for their object, and
which, by simplifying, annihilated it. A
sort of poetical theology, vague but animated,
free but feeling, takes the place of that pe-
dantic school which thought it was advancing
towards reason, when it retrenched some of
the miracles of this universe; though, at the
same time, the marvellous is, in some
respects, perhaps, still more easy to con-
ceive, than that which it has been agreed to
call the natural.
Schleiermacher, the translator of Plato, has
written discourses of extraordinary eloquence
upon religion; he combatted that indiffer-
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? ^ROTfeSTANTlSM. 289
ence which has been called toleration, and
that destructive labour which has passed
for impartial inquiry. Schleiermacher is
not the more on this account an orthodox
theologian; but he shows, in the religious
doctrines which he adopts, the power of
belief, and a great vigour of metaphy-
sical conception. He has developed, with
much warmth and clearness, the feeling
of the infinite, of which I have spoken
in the preceding chapter. We may call
the religious opinions of Schleiermacher,
and of his disciples, a philosophical the-
ology.
At length Lavater, and many men of ta-
lent, attached themselves to the mystical
opinions, such as Fenelon in France, and
different writers in all countries, conceived
them. Lavater preceded some of the authors
whom I have cited; but it is only for these
few years past, that the doctrine, of which
he may be considered one of the principal
supporters, has gained any great popularity
among the Germans. The work of Lavater
upon physiognomy is more celebrated than
his religious writings; but that which ren-
dered him especially remarkable was his per-
sonal character. There was in this man a
vol. in. v
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? 290 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
rare mixture of penetration and of enthu-
siasm; be observed mankind with a peculiar
sagacity of understanding, and yet aban-
doned himself, with entire con6dence, to a
set of ideas which might be called supersti-
tious. He had sufficient self-love; and this
self-love, perhaps, was the cause of those
whimsical opinions about himself, and his
miraculous calling. Nevertheless, nothing
could equal the religious simplicity and the
candour of his soul. W e could not see with-
out astonishment, in a drawing-room of our
own times, a minister of the holy Gospel
inspired like an apostle, and animated as a
man of the world. The warrant of Lavater's
sincerity was to be found in his good actions,
and in his 6ne countenance, which bore the
stamp of inimitable truth.
The religious writers of Germany, pro-
perly so called, are divided into two very
distinct classes--the defenders of the Re-
formation, and the partisans of Catholicism.
I shall examine separately the writers who
are of these different opinions; but the as-
sertion which it is important to make before
every thing is this, that if northern Ger-
many is the country where theological ques-
tions have been most agitated, it is also that
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? PROTESTANTISM. 291
in which religious sentiments are most uni-
versal; the national character is impressed
with them, and it is from them that the ge-
nius of the arts and of literature draws all
its inspiration. In short, among the lower
orders, religion in the north of Germany
bears an ideal and sweet character, which
singularly surprises us in a country where we
have been accustomed to think the manners
very rude.
Once, as I was travelling from Dresden to
Leipsic, I stopped for the evening at Meissen,
a little village placed upon an eminence over
the river, and the church of which contains
tombs consecrated to illustrious recollections.
I walked upon the Esplanade, and suffered
myself to sink into that sort of reverie which
the setting sun, the distant view of the land-
scape, and the sound of the stream that flows
at the bottom of the valley, so easily excite
in our souls:--I then caught the voices of
some common persons, and I was afraid of
hearing such vulgar words as are elsewhere
sung in the streets. What was my astonish-
ment, when I understood the burthen of
their song ! --4* They loved each other, and
"they died, hoping one day to meet again V
v2
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? 292 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
Happy that country where such feelings are
popular; and spread abroad, even into the
air we breathe, I know not what religious
fellowship, of which love for heaven, and
pity for man, form the touching union!
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? MORAVIAN MODE OF WORSHIP. 293
CHAPTER HI.
? f ?
. Moravian Mode of Worship.
There is perhaps too much freedom in
Protestantism to satisfy a certain religious
austerity, which may seize upon the man
who is overwhelmed by great misfortunes;
sometimes even in the habitual course of
life, the reality of this world disappears all
at once, and we feel ourselves in the middle
of its interests as we should at a ball, where
we did not hear the music; the dancing that
we saw there would appear insane. A species
of dreaming apathy equally seizes upon the
bramin and the savage, when one by the
force of thought, and the other by the force
of ignorance, passes entire hours in the dumb
contemplation of destiny. The only activity
of which the human being is then suscepti-
ble, is that which has divine worship for its
object. He loves to do something for Hea-
ven every moment; and it is this disposition
which gives their attraction to convents, how-
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? 594 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
ever great may be their inconvenience in
other respects.
The Moravians are the monks of Pro-
testantism; and the religious enthusiasm of
northern Germany gave them birth, about a
hundred years ago. But although this asso-
ciation is as severe as a Catholic convent,
it is more liberal in its principles. No vows
are taken there; all is voluntary; men and
women are not separated, and marriage is
not forbidden. Nevertheless the whole so*
ciety is ecclesiastical i that is to say, every
thing is done there by religion and for it;
the authority of the church rules this com-
munity of the faithful, but this church is
without priests, and the sacred office is ful-
filled there in turn, by the most religious and
venerable persons.
Men and women, before marriage, live
separately from each other in assemblies,
where the most perfect equality reigns. The
entire day is filled with labour; the same for
every rank; the idea of Providence, con-
stantly present, directs all the actions of the
life of the Moravians.
When a young man chooses to take a
companion, he addresses himself to the fe-
male superintendants of girls or widows,
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? MORAVIAN" MODE OF WORSHIP. 295
and demands of them the person he wishes
to espouse. They draw lots in the church,
to know whether he ought to marry thg
woman whom he prefers; and if the lot is
against him, he gives up his demand. The
Moravians have such a habit of resignation,
that they do not resist this decision; and as
they only see the women at church, it costs
them less to renounce their choice. This
manner of deciding upon marriage, and upon
many other circumstances of life, indicates
the general spirit of the Moravian worship.
Instead of keeping themselves submitted' td
the will of Heaven, they fancy they can
learn it by inspirations, or, what is still more
strange, by interrogating Chance. Duty and
events manifest to man the views of God
concerning the earth; how can we flatter
ourselves with the notion of penetrating
them by other means?
We observe, in other respects, among the
generality of Moravians, evangelical man-
ners, such as they must have existed from
the time of the Apostles, in Christian com-
munities. Neither extraordinary doctrines
nor scrupulous practices constitute the bond
of this association: the Gospel is there in-
terpreted in the most natural and clear
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? 296 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
manner; but they are there faithful to the
consequences of this doctrine, and they
make their conduct, under all relations, har-
monize with their religious principles. The
Moravian communities serve, above all, to
prove that Protestantism, in its simplicity,
may lead to the most austere sort of life,
and the most enthusiastic religion; death
and immortality, well understood, are suffi-
cient to occupy and to direct the whole of
existence.
I was some time ago at Dintendorf, a
little village near Erfurtb, where a Moravian
community is established. This village is
three leagues distant from every great road;
it: is situated between two mountains, upon
the banks of a rivulet; willows and lofty
poplars environ it: . there is something tran-
quil and sweet in the look of the country,
which prepares the soul to free itself from
the turbulence of life. The buildings and
the streets are marked by perfect cleanliness;
the women, all clothed alike, hide their hair,
and bind their head with a riband, whose
colour indicates whether they are married,
maidens, or widows: the men are clothed
in brown, almost like the Quakers, Mer-
cantile industry employs nearly all of them;
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? MORAVIAN MODE OF WORSHIP. 297
but one does not hear the least noise in the
village. Every body works in regularity
and silence; and the internal action of re-
ligious feeling lulls to rest every other im-
pulse. ? . ;. '>. . ';
The girls and widows live together in a
large dormitory, and, during the night, one
of them has her turn to watch, for the pur-
pose of praying, or of taking care of those
who" may be ill. The unmarried men Jive
in the same manner. Thus there exists a
great family for him who has none of his
own; and the name of brother and sister is
common to all Christians. ? ? !
Instead of bells, wind instruments, of a
very sweet harmony, summon them to di-
vine service. As we proceeded to church,
by the sound of this imposing music, we felt
ourselves carried away from the earth; we
fancied that we heard the trumpets of the
last judgment, not such as remorse makes
us fear them, but such as a pious confidence
makes us hope them; it seemed as if the
divine compassion manifested itself in this
appeal, and pronounced beforehand the par-
don of regeneration.
The church was dressed out in white roses,
and blossoms of white thorn: pictures were
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? RE1IGION AtfD EKTHUSIASM*
not banished from the temple; and music
was cultivated as a constituent part of re-
ligion: they only sang psalms; there was
neither sermon, nor mass, nor argument,
nor theological discussion; it was the wor-
ship of God in spirit and in truth. The
women, all in white, were ranged by each
other without any distinction whatever; they
looked like the innocent shadows who were
about to appear together before the tribunal
of the Divinity.
The burying-ground of the Moravians is
a garden, the walks of which are marked
out by funeral stones; and by the side of
each is planted a flowering shrub. All these
grave-stones are equal; not one of these
shrubs rises above the other; and the same
epitaph serves for all the dead. "He was
"born on such a day; and on such another<.
"he returned into his native country/'
Excellent expression to designate the end
of our life! The ancients said, " He lived f
and thus threw a veil over the tomb, to divest
themselves of its idea; the Christians place
over it the star of hope.
On Easter-day, divine service is performed
in the burying-ground, which is close to the
church, and the resurrection is announced
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? Mtfft,AV<*sr ftor>? of Worship.
in the middle of the tombs. All those who
are present at this act of worship, know the
stone that is to be placed over their coffin;
and already breathe the perfume of the
young tree, whose leaves and flowers will
penetrate into their tombs. It is thus that
we have seen, in modern times, an entire
army assisting at its own funeral rites, pro-
nouncing for itself the service of the dead,
decided in belief that it was to conquer hm
mortality*.
The communion of the Moravians danrrot
adapt itself to the social state, such a3 Cir-
cumstances ordain it to be; but as it has
been long and frequently asserted that Ca-
tholicism alone addressed the imagination, it
is of consequence to remark, that what truly
touches the soul in religion is common to all
. Christian churches. A sepulchre and a
prayer exhaust all the power of the pathetic;
and the more simple the faith, the more
emotion is caused by the worship.
* The allusion in this passage is to the siege of Saragossa.
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? 300 EELIOI0N AND ENTHUSIASM.
CHAPTER IV.
