Humboldt's Letters. 123 



enslave mankind anew, yea, who are putting on tbo 

 armor of their former adversaries. I shall gladly copy 

 the passage concerning Spinoza. Will not the late date 

 of the second volume of the " Glaubenslehre" (1841) 

 be urged against it by these men who pretend to teach 

 from ancient manuscript ? It would seem to me a better 

 plan to have published the wonderfully conflicting chro- 

 nology with some remarks on the new faith in the whole 

 " roman historique" of the apostolic collectors of myths. 

 He who teaches so publicly has to subject himself to the 

 publicity arising from the defence of those who differ 

 from him in creed. A private statement, clothed in the 

 mild language of complaint, makes the subsequent public 

 one very difficult, and elicits only patronizing smiles and 

 a denial. It is not the mishap of Spinoza, but this degra- 

 dation of the noblest intellectual faculties in the service 

 of the narrow doctrines of dark ages, that is really pain- 

 ful to me. The man* himself had certainly nothing 

 attractive for me, but I had a kind of predilection for 

 him, because everything enthrals and enraptures me, in 

 which, as in his lecture on Art, the gentle breath of 

 imagination warms and enlivens the harmony of lan- 



* Humboldt refers here to ScheUing, the philosopher, who had ,ust 

 received from the King of Prussia a call to Berlin, and who, in a peni- 

 tent spirit, endeavored to reconcile Christianity and philosophy, thus 

 recanting his former views. Humboldt was quite exasperated at his 

 conduct. Tr. 



