91 

 LXYI. 



HUMBOLDT TO YAENHAGEN. 



Berlin, 6th April, 1842. 



After the insolently promulgated sentence of the 

 Inquisition in the case of Bruno Bauer, I suppose I 

 must no longer retain possession of your Strauss. I 

 return you with many thanks this remarkable book, 

 which has furnished me with much matter for thought. 

 The method of its logical arrangement is excellent ; 

 besides which, it imparts to us the whole history 

 of the religious beliefs current in our time, especially 

 the priestly craft with which people, Schleiermacher- 

 like,* profess all forms of the Christian myths, 

 accommodate themselves to dissentients, and, the 

 " chalice being drained," will have themselves put 

 under the sod with a cortege of Eoyal carriages ; while 

 for each of these myths a so-called philosophical 

 explanation has been substituted. 



What I do not like in Strauss is the recklessness he 

 evinces as regards Natural History, and which allows 

 him to see no difficulty in the evolution of the organic 

 from the inorganic, not even in the creation of man 

 out of primaeval Chaldaic mud. That he seems to make 

 very light of the wonderful things beyond the grave I 

 am the more inclined to pardon him, because, with 

 very moderate expectations, the surprise comes upon 

 us in a much more agreeable and welcome form. For 

 you, happy man ! it will be no surprise. In to- 

 day's inquisitorial formulary one phrase has struck me 



* Allusion to Schleiermacher's profession of the orthodox faith on his 

 death-bed. The King, Friedrich Wilhelm III., when hearing of it, ordered 

 the court carriages to follow his funeral.- Tu. 



