Humboldt's Letters. 227 



with impatience ; you are not to be read, you must be 

 studied, and the place of a pupil suits me exactly. No 

 one is more called upon than I am to do justice to your 

 remark relative to the influence exercised by Christianity 

 on the natural sciences,* as upon mankind in general 

 and hence upon all science, for that remark has long 

 since dawned upon my mind. It is oorrect in all 

 respects, and its generating cause is simple as are all 

 other truths, those which are, as well as those which 

 are not understood, for the latter circumstance has no 

 effect on the substance of a truth. Error leads to error, 

 as truth is the guide to truth. As long as the mind 

 remained in error in the sphere of thought which is the 

 most elevated of all those attainable by the human 

 mind, this deplorable state of things could not fail to 

 react upon every quarter of the moral compass upon all 

 intellectual and social questions, and to oppose to their 

 development in the right direction, an insurmountable 

 obstacle. The good news once told, the position could 

 not but change. It was not by bestowing divine honor 

 on effects that they could be traced to the fountain head 

 of truth ; the investigation continued to be confined to 

 the abstract speculations of the philosophers, and to the 

 rhapsodies of poets. The cause once laid bare, the hearts 



* NOTE BY HUMBOLDT. I had spoken of the intensity of the love 

 of nature. I had compared St. Basil with Bernardin de St. Pierre. 



A.HT. 



