This infinity
consists
in the absence of limits:
but the feeling of the infinite, such as the
imagination and the heart experience it, is
positive and creative.
but the feeling of the infinite, such as the
imagination and the heart experience it, is
positive and creative.
Madame de Stael - Germany
handle.
net/2027/hvd.
32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 256 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
most enlightened and the most courageous
authors of their country.
What discovery have they made? it will
be asked. No doubt, what was true in morals
two thousand years ago, is true at the pre-
sent moment; but, during this period, the
arguments of meanness and corruption have
been multiplied to such an excess, that a
philosopher of good feeling ought to pro-
portion his efforts to this fatal progress.
Common ideas cannot struggle against a
systematic immorality; we must dig deeper
inwards, when the exterior veins of the pre-
cious metals are exhausted. We have so
often seen, in our days, weakness united to
a large proportion of virtue, that we have
been accustomed to believe in the energy of
immorality. The German philosophers (and
let them receive the glory of the deed) have
been the first in the eighteenth century, who
have ranged free-thinking on the side of
faith, genius on the side of morality, and
character on the side of duty.
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? ignorance and frivolityof spirit. 257
CHAPTER XXL
Of Ignorance and Frivolity of Spirit in their
Relations to Morals.
Ignorance, such as it appeared some ages
past, respected knowledge, and was desirous
of attaining it. The ignorance of our days
is contemptuous, and endeavours to turn
into ridicule the labours and the meditations
of enlightened men. The philosophical spirit
has spread over almost all classes a facility
of reasoning, which is used to depreciate
every thing that is great and serious in
human nature, and we are at that epoch of
civilization, in which all the beauties of the
soul are mouldering into dust.
When the barbarians of the North seized
upon the possession of the most fertile
countries in Europe, they brought with
them some fierce and manly virtues; and in
their endeavours at self-improvement, they
asked from the South, her sun, and her arts
and sciences. But our civilized barbarians
esteem nothing except address in the manage-
ment of worldly affairs; and only instruct
vol. in. a
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? 258 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS*.
themselves just enough to ridicule, by a few
set phrases, the meditations of a whole life.
Those who deny the perfectibility of the
human understanding, pretend that progres-
sion and decline follow each other by turns,
and that the wheel of thought rolls round
like that of fortune. What a sad spectacle
is this! the generations of men employing
themselves upon earth, like Sisyphus in hell,
in constant and useless labour! and what
would then be the destiny of the human
race, when it resembled the most cruel pu-
nishment which the imagination of poetry
has conceived? But it is not thus; and we
can perceive a destiny always the same,
always consequential, always progressive, in
the history of man.
The contest between the interests of this
world and more elevated sentiments has
existed, at every period, in nations as well
as in individuals. Superstition sometimes
drives the enlightened into the opposite
party of incredulity; and sometimes, on the
contrary, knowledge itself awakens every
belief of the heart. At the present sera,
philosophers take refuge in religion, in order
to discover the source of high conceptions,
and of disinterested sentiments; at this sera,
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF SPIRIT. 259
prepared by ages, the alliance between phi-
losophy and religion may be intimate and
sincere. The ignorant are not, as formerly,
the enemies of doubt, and determined to
reject all the false lights which might disturb
their religious hopes, and their chivalrous
self-devotion; the ignorant of our days are
incredulous, frivolous, superficial; they know
all that selfishness has need to know; and
their ignorance is only extended to those
sublime studies, which excite in the soul a
feeling of admiration for nature and for the
Deity.
Warlike occupations formerly filled up
the life of the nobility, and formed their
minds for action; but since, in our days, men
of the first rank have ceased to study any
science profoundly, all the activity of their
genius, which ought to have been employed
in the circle of affairs, or in intellectual
labours, is directed to the observation of
manners, and to the knowledge of anecdotes.
Young persons, just come from school,
hasten to put on idleness as soon as the
manly robe: men and women act as spies
upon each other in the minutest events,
not exactly from maliciousness, but in order
that they may have something to say, when
s2
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? 260 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
they have nothing to employ their thoughts.
This sort of daily censoriousness destroys
good-nature and integrity. We are not
satisfied with ourselves when we abuse the
hospitality which we exercise or receive, by
criticising those with whom we live; and we
thus prevent the growth and the continuance
of all sincere affection; for in listening to
the ridicule of those who are dear to us, we
tarnish all that is pure and exalted in that
affection: sentiments, in which we do not
maintain perfect sincerity, do more mischief
than indifference.
Every one has his ridiculous side; it is
only at a distance that a character appears
perfect; but that which constitutes the in-
dividuality of each person being always some
singularity, this singularity affords an opening
to ridicule: man, therefore, who fears ridi-
cule above every thing, endeavours, as much
as possible, to remove the appearance of all
that may signalize him in any manner, whe-
ther it be good or bad. This sort of effaced
nature, in however good taste it may seem
to be, has also enough of the ridiculous
about it; but few have a sufficiently delicate
tact to seize its absurdities.
Ridicule has this peculiarity; it is essen-
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF SPIRIT. 261
tially attached to goodness, but not to power.
Power has something fierce and triumphant
about it, which puts ridicule to death ;--be-
sides, the men of frivolous mind respect the
wisdom of the flesh, according to the expres-
sion of a moralist of the sixteenth century;
and we are astonished to discover all the
depth of personal interest in those who ap-
peared incapable of pursuing an idea, or a
feeling, when nothing could result from
either, advantageous to their calculations of
fortune, or of vanity.
Frivolity of understanding does not lead
men to neglect the affairs of this world.
We find, on the contrary, a much more
noble carelessness, in this respect, in serious
characters than in men of a trivial nature;
for their levity, in most cases, only consists
in the contempt of general ideas, for the pur-
pose of more close attention to their personal
concerns.
There is sometimes a species of wicked-
ness in men of wit; but genius is almost
always full of goodness. Wickedness does
not arise from a superfluity of understanding,
but from a deficiency. If we could talk
upon ideas, we should leave persons at rest
if we believed that we could excel others by
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? 262 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
our natural talents, we should not wish to
level the walk that we are ambitious to
command. There are common and mode-
rate minds disguised under a poignant and
malicious style of sarcasm; but true supe-
riority is radiant with good feeling as well as
with lofty thoughts.
The habit of intellectual employment in-
spires an enlightened benevolence towards
men and things. We no longer cling to
ourselves as privileged beings, when we
know much of the destiny of man; we are
not offended with every event, as if it were
unexampled; and as justice only consists in
the custom of considering the mutual rela-
tions of men under a general point of view,
comprehensiveness of understanding serves
to detach us from selfish calculations. We
have ranged in thought over our own exist-
ence as well as that of others, when we
have given ourselves up to the contemplation
of the universe.
Another great disadvantage of ignorance,
in the present times, is, that it renders us
entirely incapable of having an opinion of
our own upon the larger portion of subjects
which require reflection : consequently, when
this or that manner of thinking becomes
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF S PI RIT. 26S
fashionable from the ascendancy of events,
the greater part of mankind believe that
these words, " all the world acts, or thinks,
in this manner," ought to influence every
claim of reason and of conscience.
In the idle class of society, it is almost
impossible to have any soul without the cul-
tivation of the mind. Formerly nature was
sufficient to instruct man, and to expand his
imagination; but, since thought (that fading
shadow of feeling) has turned all things
into abstractions, it is necessary to have a
great deal of knowledge to have any good
sentiment. Our choice is no longer balanced
between the bursts of the soul, devoid of
instruction, and philosophical studies; but
between the importunate noise of common
and frivolous society, and that language
which has been holden by men of real
genius from age to age, even to our own
times.
How then can we, without the knowledge
of languages, without the habit of readings
communicate with these men who are no
more, and whom we feel so thoroughly our
friends, our fellow-citizens, and our allies?
We must be mean and narrow of soul to
refuse such noble enjoyments. Those only.
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? 264 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
who fill their lives with good actions, can
dispense with study: the ignorance of idle
men proves their dryness of soul, as well as
their frivolity of understanding.
After all, there yet remains something
truly beautiful and moral, which ignorance
and emptiness cannot enjoy: this is the
union of all thinking men, from one end of
Europe to the other. Often they have no
mutual relations; often they are dispersed to
a great distance from each other; but when
they meet, a word is enough for recognition.
It is not this religion, or that opinion, or such
a sort of study; it is the veneration of truth
that forms their bond of union. Sometimes,
like miners, they dig into the foundations of
the earth, to penetrate the mysteries of the
world of darkness, in the bosom of eternal
night: sometimes they mount to the summit
of Chimboraco, to discover, at the loftiest
point of the globe, some hitherto unknown
phenomena; sometimes they study the lan-
guages of the East, to find in them the
primitive history of man: sometimes they
journey to Jerusalem, to call forth from the
holy ruins a spark, which reanimates reli-
gion and poetry: in a word, they truly are
the people of God; they who do not yet
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF SPIRIT. 265
despair of the human race, and wish to pre-
serve to man the dominion of reflection.
The Germans demand our especial grati-
tude in this respect. Ignorance and indif-
ference, as to literature and the fine arts, is
shameful with them; and their example
proves, that, in our days, the cultivation of
the understanding preserves, in the inde-
pendent classes of society, some sentiments
and some principles.
The direction of literature and philosophy
was not good in France during the last part
of the eighteenth century; but, if we may
so express ourselves, the direction of igno-
rance is still more formidable: for no book
does harm to him who reads every book. If
idle men of the world, on the contrary, are
busy for a few moments, the work they meet
with is an event in their heads, like that of
a stranger's arrival in the desert; and when
this work contains dangerous sophistries,
they have no arguments to oppose to it.
The discovery of printing is truly fatal for
those who only read by halves, or by hazard;
for knowledge, like the spear of Achilles,
ought to cjire the wounds which it has in-
flicted.
Ignorance, in the midst of the refinements
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? 266 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
of society, is the most hateful of all mix-
tures: it makes us, in some respects, like the
vulgar, who value intrigue and cunning alone:
it leads us to look but for good living and
physical enjoyments; to make use of a little
wit, in order to destroy a great deal of soul;
to boast of our ignorance; to demand ap-
plause for what we do not feel; in a word,
to unite a limited understanding with a hard
heart, to such a degree, as to be deprived
of that looking upwards to heaven, which
Ovid has recorded as the noblest attribute of
human nature.
Os homini sublime dedit; ccelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera toll ere vultus.
He, who to man a form erect hag given,
Bade his exalted looks be fix'd on heaven.
END OF THE THIRD PART.
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? PART THE FOURTH.
RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
CHAPTER I.
General Considerations upon Religion in
Germany.
The nations of German extraction are all
naturally religious; and the zealousness of
this feeling has given occasion to many wars
amongst them. Nevertheless, in Germany,
above all other countries, the bias of mind
leans more towards enthusiasm than fanati-
cism. The sectarian spirit must manifest
itself under a variety of forms, in a country
where the activity of thought is most ob-
servable; but, in general, they do not mix
theological discussions with human passions;
and the different opinions in regard to reli-
gion seldom wander out of that ideal world
which enjoys a profound peace.
For a long time they were occupied, as I
shall show in the following chapter, with
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? 268 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM. *
the inquiry into the doctrines of Christianity;
but, for the last twenty years, since the
writings of Kant have had great influence
upon the public mind, there have prevailed
a liberty and a comprehensiveness in the
manner of considering religion, which nei-
ther require nor reject any form of wor-
ship in particular, but which derive from
heavenly things the ruling principle of ex-
istence.
Many persons think that the religion of
the Germans is too indefinite; and that it is
better to rally round the standard of a more
positive and severe mode of worship. Les-
sing says, in his Essay on the Education of
the human Race, that religious revelations
have been always proportioned to the degree
of knowledge which existed at the time of
their appearance. The Old Testament, the
Gospel, and, in many respects, the Reforma-
tion, were, according to their seasons, per-
fectly in harmony with the progress of the
understanding; and, perhaps, we are on the
eve of a developement of Christianity, which
will collect all the scattered rays in the same
focus, and which will make us perceive in
religion more than morality, more than hap-
piness, more than philosophy, more than
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY. 269
sentiment itself, since every one of these
gifts will be multiplied by its union with all
the others.
However this may be, it is perhaps in-
teresting to know under what point of view
religion is considered in Germany, and how
they have found means. to connect it with
the whole literary and philosophical system,
of which I have sketched the outline. There
is something imposing in this collective mass
of thought, which lays the whole moral order
completely open to our eyes; and gives this
sublime edifice self-devotion for its base, and
the Divinity for its capital.
(/It is to the feeling of the infinite that the
greater portion of German writers refer all
their religious ideas; but it may be asked,
Can we conceive infinity? Do we not con-
ceive it, at least in a negative manner, when,
in the mathematics, we are unable to sup-
pose any boundary to duration or to space?
This infinity consists in the absence of limits:
but the feeling of the infinite, such as the
imagination and the heart experience it, is
positive and creative.
t^The enthusiasm, which the beautiful in
idea makes us feel (that emotion, so full of
agitation and of purity at the same time), is
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? 270 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
excited by the sentiment of infinity. We
feel ourselves, as it were, disengaged by ad-
miration from the shackles of human destiny;
and it seems as if some wondrous secret was
revealed to us, to free the soul for ever from
languor and decline. When we contemplate
the starry heaven, where the sparks of light
are universes like our own, where the bril-
liant dust of the milky way traces, with its
worlds, a circle in the firmament, our thoughts
are lost in the infinite, our hearts beat for
the unknown, for the immense, and we feel
that it is only on the other side of earthly
experience that our real life will commence^
In a word, religious emotions, more than
all others together, awaken in us the feel-
ing of the infinite; but when they awaken
they satisfy it; and it is for this reason,
doubtless, that a man of great genius has
said: "That a thinking being was not
"happy, until the idea of infinity became
"an enjoyment instead of a burthen to his
"mind. "
/In effect, when we give ourselves entirely
up to reflections, to images, to desires which
extend beyond the limits of experience, it
r is then only that we freely breathe. When
we wish to confine ourselves to the interests,
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY. 271
the conveniencies, the laws of this world,
genius, sensibility, enthusiasm, painfully agi-
tate the soul; but they overflow it with
enjoyment when we consecrate them to this
remembrance, to this expectation of infinity,
which appears in metaphysics under the form
of innate dispositions, in virtue under that of
self-devotion, in the arts under that of the
ideal, and in Religion herself under that of
divine love.
^The feeling of the infinite is the true attri-
bute of the soul: all that is beautiful of every
kind excites in us the hope, and the desire,
of an eternal futurity, and of a sublime ex-
istence: we cannot hear the wind in the
forest, nor the delicious concords of human
voices; we cannot feel the enchantment of
eloquence or of poetry; in a word, above all,
we cannot innocently, deeply love, without
being penetrated with religion and immor-
tality. AJ1 the sacrifices of personal interest
arise from our wish to bring ourselves into
accord with this feeling of the infinite, of
which we experience all the charm, without
being able to express it. If the power of
duty was confined to the short duration of
this life, how then would it have more com-
mand than the passions over the soul? Who
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? 272 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
would sacrifice what is bounded to what is.
bounded? " All limited things are so short,"
says St. Augustin; the moments of enjoy-
ment that earthly inclinations may induce,
and the days of peace that a moral conduct
ensures, would differ very little, if emotions
without limit, and without end, did not spon-
taneously spring up in the bottom of that
human being's heart who devotes himself to
virtue.
vMany persons will deny this feeling of the
infinite; and, assuredly, they have very good
ground to deny it, for we cannot possibly
explain it to them: a few additional words
will not succeed in making them understand
what the universe has failed to teach them.
Nature has arrayed the infinite in symbols
which may bring it down to us: light
and darkness, storm and silence, pleasure
and pain, all inspire man with this uni-
versal religion, of which his heart is the
sancluary^,^
A writer, of whom I have already had
occasion to speak, M. Ancillon, has lately
published a work upon the new German
philosophy, which unites the perspicuity of
French wit with the depth of German
genius. M. Ancillon had before acquired a
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY.
celebrated name as an historian ; he is, incon-
testably, what we are accustomed to call in
France a good head; his understanding itself
is positive and methodical; and it is by his
soul that he has seized all that the thought of
the infinite can present most comprehensive
and most exalted. What he has written on
this subject bears a character entirely original;
it is, to use the expression, the sublime re-
duced to logic: he traces, with precision,
the boundary where experimental knowledge
is stopped, whether in the arts, or in phi-
losophy, or in religion; he shows that sen-
timent goes much farther than knowledge;
and that, beyond demonstrative proofs, there
is a natural evidence in it; beyond analysis,
an inspiration; beyond words, ideas; be-
yond ideas, emotions; and that the feeling
of the infinite is a phenomenon of mind, a
primitive phenomenon, without which there
would be nothing in man but physical in-
stinct and calculation.
It is difficult to be religious according to
the manner introduced by some dry cha-
racters, or some well-meaning persons, who
would w1 ih to confer upon religion the ho-
nours of scientific demonstration. That which
so intimately touches upon the mystery of
VOL. III. T
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? 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.
? 256 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
most enlightened and the most courageous
authors of their country.
What discovery have they made? it will
be asked. No doubt, what was true in morals
two thousand years ago, is true at the pre-
sent moment; but, during this period, the
arguments of meanness and corruption have
been multiplied to such an excess, that a
philosopher of good feeling ought to pro-
portion his efforts to this fatal progress.
Common ideas cannot struggle against a
systematic immorality; we must dig deeper
inwards, when the exterior veins of the pre-
cious metals are exhausted. We have so
often seen, in our days, weakness united to
a large proportion of virtue, that we have
been accustomed to believe in the energy of
immorality. The German philosophers (and
let them receive the glory of the deed) have
been the first in the eighteenth century, who
have ranged free-thinking on the side of
faith, genius on the side of morality, and
character on the side of duty.
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? ignorance and frivolityof spirit. 257
CHAPTER XXL
Of Ignorance and Frivolity of Spirit in their
Relations to Morals.
Ignorance, such as it appeared some ages
past, respected knowledge, and was desirous
of attaining it. The ignorance of our days
is contemptuous, and endeavours to turn
into ridicule the labours and the meditations
of enlightened men. The philosophical spirit
has spread over almost all classes a facility
of reasoning, which is used to depreciate
every thing that is great and serious in
human nature, and we are at that epoch of
civilization, in which all the beauties of the
soul are mouldering into dust.
When the barbarians of the North seized
upon the possession of the most fertile
countries in Europe, they brought with
them some fierce and manly virtues; and in
their endeavours at self-improvement, they
asked from the South, her sun, and her arts
and sciences. But our civilized barbarians
esteem nothing except address in the manage-
ment of worldly affairs; and only instruct
vol. in. a
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? 258 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS*.
themselves just enough to ridicule, by a few
set phrases, the meditations of a whole life.
Those who deny the perfectibility of the
human understanding, pretend that progres-
sion and decline follow each other by turns,
and that the wheel of thought rolls round
like that of fortune. What a sad spectacle
is this! the generations of men employing
themselves upon earth, like Sisyphus in hell,
in constant and useless labour! and what
would then be the destiny of the human
race, when it resembled the most cruel pu-
nishment which the imagination of poetry
has conceived? But it is not thus; and we
can perceive a destiny always the same,
always consequential, always progressive, in
the history of man.
The contest between the interests of this
world and more elevated sentiments has
existed, at every period, in nations as well
as in individuals. Superstition sometimes
drives the enlightened into the opposite
party of incredulity; and sometimes, on the
contrary, knowledge itself awakens every
belief of the heart. At the present sera,
philosophers take refuge in religion, in order
to discover the source of high conceptions,
and of disinterested sentiments; at this sera,
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF SPIRIT. 259
prepared by ages, the alliance between phi-
losophy and religion may be intimate and
sincere. The ignorant are not, as formerly,
the enemies of doubt, and determined to
reject all the false lights which might disturb
their religious hopes, and their chivalrous
self-devotion; the ignorant of our days are
incredulous, frivolous, superficial; they know
all that selfishness has need to know; and
their ignorance is only extended to those
sublime studies, which excite in the soul a
feeling of admiration for nature and for the
Deity.
Warlike occupations formerly filled up
the life of the nobility, and formed their
minds for action; but since, in our days, men
of the first rank have ceased to study any
science profoundly, all the activity of their
genius, which ought to have been employed
in the circle of affairs, or in intellectual
labours, is directed to the observation of
manners, and to the knowledge of anecdotes.
Young persons, just come from school,
hasten to put on idleness as soon as the
manly robe: men and women act as spies
upon each other in the minutest events,
not exactly from maliciousness, but in order
that they may have something to say, when
s2
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? 260 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
they have nothing to employ their thoughts.
This sort of daily censoriousness destroys
good-nature and integrity. We are not
satisfied with ourselves when we abuse the
hospitality which we exercise or receive, by
criticising those with whom we live; and we
thus prevent the growth and the continuance
of all sincere affection; for in listening to
the ridicule of those who are dear to us, we
tarnish all that is pure and exalted in that
affection: sentiments, in which we do not
maintain perfect sincerity, do more mischief
than indifference.
Every one has his ridiculous side; it is
only at a distance that a character appears
perfect; but that which constitutes the in-
dividuality of each person being always some
singularity, this singularity affords an opening
to ridicule: man, therefore, who fears ridi-
cule above every thing, endeavours, as much
as possible, to remove the appearance of all
that may signalize him in any manner, whe-
ther it be good or bad. This sort of effaced
nature, in however good taste it may seem
to be, has also enough of the ridiculous
about it; but few have a sufficiently delicate
tact to seize its absurdities.
Ridicule has this peculiarity; it is essen-
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF SPIRIT. 261
tially attached to goodness, but not to power.
Power has something fierce and triumphant
about it, which puts ridicule to death ;--be-
sides, the men of frivolous mind respect the
wisdom of the flesh, according to the expres-
sion of a moralist of the sixteenth century;
and we are astonished to discover all the
depth of personal interest in those who ap-
peared incapable of pursuing an idea, or a
feeling, when nothing could result from
either, advantageous to their calculations of
fortune, or of vanity.
Frivolity of understanding does not lead
men to neglect the affairs of this world.
We find, on the contrary, a much more
noble carelessness, in this respect, in serious
characters than in men of a trivial nature;
for their levity, in most cases, only consists
in the contempt of general ideas, for the pur-
pose of more close attention to their personal
concerns.
There is sometimes a species of wicked-
ness in men of wit; but genius is almost
always full of goodness. Wickedness does
not arise from a superfluity of understanding,
but from a deficiency. If we could talk
upon ideas, we should leave persons at rest
if we believed that we could excel others by
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? 262 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
our natural talents, we should not wish to
level the walk that we are ambitious to
command. There are common and mode-
rate minds disguised under a poignant and
malicious style of sarcasm; but true supe-
riority is radiant with good feeling as well as
with lofty thoughts.
The habit of intellectual employment in-
spires an enlightened benevolence towards
men and things. We no longer cling to
ourselves as privileged beings, when we
know much of the destiny of man; we are
not offended with every event, as if it were
unexampled; and as justice only consists in
the custom of considering the mutual rela-
tions of men under a general point of view,
comprehensiveness of understanding serves
to detach us from selfish calculations. We
have ranged in thought over our own exist-
ence as well as that of others, when we
have given ourselves up to the contemplation
of the universe.
Another great disadvantage of ignorance,
in the present times, is, that it renders us
entirely incapable of having an opinion of
our own upon the larger portion of subjects
which require reflection : consequently, when
this or that manner of thinking becomes
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF S PI RIT. 26S
fashionable from the ascendancy of events,
the greater part of mankind believe that
these words, " all the world acts, or thinks,
in this manner," ought to influence every
claim of reason and of conscience.
In the idle class of society, it is almost
impossible to have any soul without the cul-
tivation of the mind. Formerly nature was
sufficient to instruct man, and to expand his
imagination; but, since thought (that fading
shadow of feeling) has turned all things
into abstractions, it is necessary to have a
great deal of knowledge to have any good
sentiment. Our choice is no longer balanced
between the bursts of the soul, devoid of
instruction, and philosophical studies; but
between the importunate noise of common
and frivolous society, and that language
which has been holden by men of real
genius from age to age, even to our own
times.
How then can we, without the knowledge
of languages, without the habit of readings
communicate with these men who are no
more, and whom we feel so thoroughly our
friends, our fellow-citizens, and our allies?
We must be mean and narrow of soul to
refuse such noble enjoyments. Those only.
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? 264 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
who fill their lives with good actions, can
dispense with study: the ignorance of idle
men proves their dryness of soul, as well as
their frivolity of understanding.
After all, there yet remains something
truly beautiful and moral, which ignorance
and emptiness cannot enjoy: this is the
union of all thinking men, from one end of
Europe to the other. Often they have no
mutual relations; often they are dispersed to
a great distance from each other; but when
they meet, a word is enough for recognition.
It is not this religion, or that opinion, or such
a sort of study; it is the veneration of truth
that forms their bond of union. Sometimes,
like miners, they dig into the foundations of
the earth, to penetrate the mysteries of the
world of darkness, in the bosom of eternal
night: sometimes they mount to the summit
of Chimboraco, to discover, at the loftiest
point of the globe, some hitherto unknown
phenomena; sometimes they study the lan-
guages of the East, to find in them the
primitive history of man: sometimes they
journey to Jerusalem, to call forth from the
holy ruins a spark, which reanimates reli-
gion and poetry: in a word, they truly are
the people of God; they who do not yet
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? IGNORANCE AND FRIVOLITY OF SPIRIT. 265
despair of the human race, and wish to pre-
serve to man the dominion of reflection.
The Germans demand our especial grati-
tude in this respect. Ignorance and indif-
ference, as to literature and the fine arts, is
shameful with them; and their example
proves, that, in our days, the cultivation of
the understanding preserves, in the inde-
pendent classes of society, some sentiments
and some principles.
The direction of literature and philosophy
was not good in France during the last part
of the eighteenth century; but, if we may
so express ourselves, the direction of igno-
rance is still more formidable: for no book
does harm to him who reads every book. If
idle men of the world, on the contrary, are
busy for a few moments, the work they meet
with is an event in their heads, like that of
a stranger's arrival in the desert; and when
this work contains dangerous sophistries,
they have no arguments to oppose to it.
The discovery of printing is truly fatal for
those who only read by halves, or by hazard;
for knowledge, like the spear of Achilles,
ought to cjire the wounds which it has in-
flicted.
Ignorance, in the midst of the refinements
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? 266 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
of society, is the most hateful of all mix-
tures: it makes us, in some respects, like the
vulgar, who value intrigue and cunning alone:
it leads us to look but for good living and
physical enjoyments; to make use of a little
wit, in order to destroy a great deal of soul;
to boast of our ignorance; to demand ap-
plause for what we do not feel; in a word,
to unite a limited understanding with a hard
heart, to such a degree, as to be deprived
of that looking upwards to heaven, which
Ovid has recorded as the noblest attribute of
human nature.
Os homini sublime dedit; ccelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera toll ere vultus.
He, who to man a form erect hag given,
Bade his exalted looks be fix'd on heaven.
END OF THE THIRD PART.
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? PART THE FOURTH.
RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
CHAPTER I.
General Considerations upon Religion in
Germany.
The nations of German extraction are all
naturally religious; and the zealousness of
this feeling has given occasion to many wars
amongst them. Nevertheless, in Germany,
above all other countries, the bias of mind
leans more towards enthusiasm than fanati-
cism. The sectarian spirit must manifest
itself under a variety of forms, in a country
where the activity of thought is most ob-
servable; but, in general, they do not mix
theological discussions with human passions;
and the different opinions in regard to reli-
gion seldom wander out of that ideal world
which enjoys a profound peace.
For a long time they were occupied, as I
shall show in the following chapter, with
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? 268 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM. *
the inquiry into the doctrines of Christianity;
but, for the last twenty years, since the
writings of Kant have had great influence
upon the public mind, there have prevailed
a liberty and a comprehensiveness in the
manner of considering religion, which nei-
ther require nor reject any form of wor-
ship in particular, but which derive from
heavenly things the ruling principle of ex-
istence.
Many persons think that the religion of
the Germans is too indefinite; and that it is
better to rally round the standard of a more
positive and severe mode of worship. Les-
sing says, in his Essay on the Education of
the human Race, that religious revelations
have been always proportioned to the degree
of knowledge which existed at the time of
their appearance. The Old Testament, the
Gospel, and, in many respects, the Reforma-
tion, were, according to their seasons, per-
fectly in harmony with the progress of the
understanding; and, perhaps, we are on the
eve of a developement of Christianity, which
will collect all the scattered rays in the same
focus, and which will make us perceive in
religion more than morality, more than hap-
piness, more than philosophy, more than
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY. 269
sentiment itself, since every one of these
gifts will be multiplied by its union with all
the others.
However this may be, it is perhaps in-
teresting to know under what point of view
religion is considered in Germany, and how
they have found means. to connect it with
the whole literary and philosophical system,
of which I have sketched the outline. There
is something imposing in this collective mass
of thought, which lays the whole moral order
completely open to our eyes; and gives this
sublime edifice self-devotion for its base, and
the Divinity for its capital.
(/It is to the feeling of the infinite that the
greater portion of German writers refer all
their religious ideas; but it may be asked,
Can we conceive infinity? Do we not con-
ceive it, at least in a negative manner, when,
in the mathematics, we are unable to sup-
pose any boundary to duration or to space?
This infinity consists in the absence of limits:
but the feeling of the infinite, such as the
imagination and the heart experience it, is
positive and creative.
t^The enthusiasm, which the beautiful in
idea makes us feel (that emotion, so full of
agitation and of purity at the same time), is
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? 270 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
excited by the sentiment of infinity. We
feel ourselves, as it were, disengaged by ad-
miration from the shackles of human destiny;
and it seems as if some wondrous secret was
revealed to us, to free the soul for ever from
languor and decline. When we contemplate
the starry heaven, where the sparks of light
are universes like our own, where the bril-
liant dust of the milky way traces, with its
worlds, a circle in the firmament, our thoughts
are lost in the infinite, our hearts beat for
the unknown, for the immense, and we feel
that it is only on the other side of earthly
experience that our real life will commence^
In a word, religious emotions, more than
all others together, awaken in us the feel-
ing of the infinite; but when they awaken
they satisfy it; and it is for this reason,
doubtless, that a man of great genius has
said: "That a thinking being was not
"happy, until the idea of infinity became
"an enjoyment instead of a burthen to his
"mind. "
/In effect, when we give ourselves entirely
up to reflections, to images, to desires which
extend beyond the limits of experience, it
r is then only that we freely breathe. When
we wish to confine ourselves to the interests,
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY. 271
the conveniencies, the laws of this world,
genius, sensibility, enthusiasm, painfully agi-
tate the soul; but they overflow it with
enjoyment when we consecrate them to this
remembrance, to this expectation of infinity,
which appears in metaphysics under the form
of innate dispositions, in virtue under that of
self-devotion, in the arts under that of the
ideal, and in Religion herself under that of
divine love.
^The feeling of the infinite is the true attri-
bute of the soul: all that is beautiful of every
kind excites in us the hope, and the desire,
of an eternal futurity, and of a sublime ex-
istence: we cannot hear the wind in the
forest, nor the delicious concords of human
voices; we cannot feel the enchantment of
eloquence or of poetry; in a word, above all,
we cannot innocently, deeply love, without
being penetrated with religion and immor-
tality. AJ1 the sacrifices of personal interest
arise from our wish to bring ourselves into
accord with this feeling of the infinite, of
which we experience all the charm, without
being able to express it. If the power of
duty was confined to the short duration of
this life, how then would it have more com-
mand than the passions over the soul? Who
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? 272 RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
would sacrifice what is bounded to what is.
bounded? " All limited things are so short,"
says St. Augustin; the moments of enjoy-
ment that earthly inclinations may induce,
and the days of peace that a moral conduct
ensures, would differ very little, if emotions
without limit, and without end, did not spon-
taneously spring up in the bottom of that
human being's heart who devotes himself to
virtue.
vMany persons will deny this feeling of the
infinite; and, assuredly, they have very good
ground to deny it, for we cannot possibly
explain it to them: a few additional words
will not succeed in making them understand
what the universe has failed to teach them.
Nature has arrayed the infinite in symbols
which may bring it down to us: light
and darkness, storm and silence, pleasure
and pain, all inspire man with this uni-
versal religion, of which his heart is the
sancluary^,^
A writer, of whom I have already had
occasion to speak, M. Ancillon, has lately
published a work upon the new German
philosophy, which unites the perspicuity of
French wit with the depth of German
genius. M. Ancillon had before acquired a
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? RELIGION IN GERMANY.
celebrated name as an historian ; he is, incon-
testably, what we are accustomed to call in
France a good head; his understanding itself
is positive and methodical; and it is by his
soul that he has seized all that the thought of
the infinite can present most comprehensive
and most exalted. What he has written on
this subject bears a character entirely original;
it is, to use the expression, the sublime re-
duced to logic: he traces, with precision,
the boundary where experimental knowledge
is stopped, whether in the arts, or in phi-
losophy, or in religion; he shows that sen-
timent goes much farther than knowledge;
and that, beyond demonstrative proofs, there
is a natural evidence in it; beyond analysis,
an inspiration; beyond words, ideas; be-
yond ideas, emotions; and that the feeling
of the infinite is a phenomenon of mind, a
primitive phenomenon, without which there
would be nothing in man but physical in-
stinct and calculation.
It is difficult to be religious according to
the manner introduced by some dry cha-
racters, or some well-meaning persons, who
would w1 ih to confer upon religion the ho-
nours of scientific demonstration. That which
so intimately touches upon the mystery of
VOL. III. T
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? 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.
