possibly imagine with respect to religion, as the Being without whose presence in the mind perfect piety is impossible, surely there is left us in him that which is essential in Christianity' (p. 132). Subsequently, however, he placed himself in far more decided opposition to historical Christianity. In his Lebens- und Charakterbild Märklins, 1851, p. 125, he describes the naturalist Feuerbach as 'the man who put the dot upon the i we had found,' and characterizes the breach with Christianity as the inevitable requirement of truthfulness, e.g. 124, 127, 130, etc. The preface also to his Ulrich Hutten (1860) is full of bitterness, while the saying, p. 24, is not merely bitter, but blasphemous: 'We that are outside (the Church) can declare that none of us has ever thought, or will think, of denying to old Captain Schiller the fatherhood of his son in favour of a higher being; nor of attributing to the medicines which he, as doctor to the regiment, prescribed, the power of raising the dead; nor of using the circumstance that even to the present day there is still a mystery connected with the poet's grave, to favour the supposition that he was raised to the heavenly regions in a living body.' In his Leben Jesu, für das deutsche Volk, 1864, he describes the modern view of the world, advocated by himself, as that which leaves a man to himself (p. 9); and afterwards adds, p. 19, He who would rid the Church of popes, must first rid religion of miracles.' The poetic confession of Prutz (Deutsches Museum, 1862, p. 687), 'Kreuz und Rosen,' accords with the expressions of this philosophico-theological representative of the 'modern view of the world:' Nur mir kein Kreuz auf's Grab gezetzt So voller Wonne um und um to read the New Testament, before my studies had advanced to the age in which it was written. How shall I describe to you what I found therein! I had not read it for many years, and was prejudiced against it before I took it in hand. The light which struck Paul with blindness on his way to Damascus was not more strange-more surprising to him, than it was to me, when I suddenly discovered the fulfilment of all hopes, the highest perfection of philosophy, the explanation of all revolutions, the key to all the seeming contradictions of the physical and moral world. I beheld that which was most wonderful effected by the most insignificant means. I perceived the references of all the revolutions of Europe and Asia to that miserable nation in which the promises were deposited, just as important papers are entrusted to one who can neither read nor adulterate them. I saw the religion appear at the moment most favourable for its appearance, and in the manner most adapted to procure its acceptance. .. The whole world seemed to be ordered for the sole purpose of furthering the religion of the Redeemer; and if this religion is not divine, I understand nothing at all. I have read no book on this subject, but hitherto in all my study of the ancient times, I have always felt the want of something, and it was not till I knew our Lord that fall was clear to me; with Him there is nothing which I am not able to solve." Works, 15, 315, etc. Also in Naville, p. 156, etc. Augustine calls history a poem of the Divine intelligence (De Civ. xi. 10: deus ordinem seculorum tanquam pulcherrimum carmen honestavit). (18) Compare further remarks on this subject in Kahnis's already named work, pp. 153, etc. Comp. also Nicolas, i. pp. 81, etc. (19) Cicero, Delegg. ii. 4, and the fine fragment from. Cicero, de Republ. i. 3, in Lactantius, Div. instit. vi. 8. The literature of this evidence, e.g. in Hahn, Lehrbuch des christl. i. 228. (20) So, e.g., frequently Strauss, Glaubenslehre, i. 393 ; Leben Märklins, p. 155, and elsewhere. (21) Pasc. Pens. ii. 314, 315 (219, 245). (22) For further information on this matter, I refer especially to the excellent work of Weissenborn, Vorlesungen über Pantheismus und Theismus, Marburg, 1859. In his treatise on the relation of Goethe to Spinoza (Zeitschr. für luth. Theol. 1866, 2), Heyder calls attention to the fact, that Pantheism is divided into two main forms, the occidental and the oriental. The former merges the world in God, the latter merges God in the world. In that, God is rest, in this, He is motion; there God is being, here He is development, process. Hence the former is neither just nor powerful in its conception of the actual world, while the latter really gives up the absolute, for that knows no development, this no being, in the process of the finite, God is ever being developed without ever really existing. (23) Jacobi, Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an Herrn Moses Mendelssohn, Breslau, 1785; and Mendelssohn, Moses Mendelssohn an die Freunde Lessing's (a supplement to Jacobi's correspondence on the doctrines of Spinoza), Berlin, 1786. Enger asserts that the publication of these letters was the immediate cause of Mendelssohn's death; so much did he take it to heart, that his friend Lessing should have withheld from him such a secret as his pantheistic opinions, while he revealed it to Jacobi in the conversation which took place at Wolfenbuttel. Yet M. M. would perhaps have died even if the letters had not been published,' says Claudius. Compare generally Matth. Claudius, v. 102-120. (24) Spinoza has found a poetical interpreter in Auerbach, e.g. in his last novel Auf die Höhe. Schelling gives a poetical representation of his pantheistic speculations in an interesting poem (of the year 1800), of which we here append a few lines (Sammtl. Werke, Div. 1, vol. iv. p. 546):— Die Kraft wodurch Metalle sprossen, Und hofft durch Drehen und durch Winden Lernt er im Kleinen Raum gewinnen. Vom eisernen Schlaf, vom langen Traum Der Riese mocht' sich ermannen und bäumen Seine kinder verschlingen im Zorn Weiss nicht dass er es selber ist, 'Ich bin der Gott den sic in Busen hegt, Wo Kraft in Kraft, und Stoff in Stoff verquillt Die erste Blüth', die erste Knospe schwillt Den Himmel so Tag wie Nacht erhellt, Ist eine Kraft, ein Wechselspiel und Weben, Translation. The force which causes metals to flow and trees to burst forth in spring, tries on all sides to get out towards the light. It cares not for trouble, and now soars upwards, lengthening its members and organs, then again shortening and narrowing them, and hopes by turning and winding to find the right form and shape. And thus, struggling hand and foot against the opposing element, it learns to find in a small thing space in which it first comes to its senses. And now the giant spirit finds himself enclosed in a dwarf of beautiful form and similar offspring (called in language a man). Wakened from his iron sleep and long dream, he scarcely knows himself, and is much astonished. He salutes and surveys himself with wondering eyes, and would fain be again dissolved with all his senses into vast nature. But when once he has burst forth from it, he cannot flow back again into it. So he remains during life narrow and small, alone in his own great world. Sometimes, indeed, in terrified dreams he fears lest the giant should take courage and arise, and, like the old god Saturn, devour his own offspring in his anger. He knows not that it is but himself; he quite forgets his origin, and torments himself with phantoms, when he might say to himself, 'I am the god whom the world cherishes in its bosom, the spirit which moves in |