Wilhelm Benecke, Heidelberg, to Henry Crabb Robinson, London, 1 April 1834.

Heidelberg April 1st 1834

My dear Sir,

            Your letter has given me very great satisfaction. I did not expect that you would approve of every point of my book, or rather, that on a first reading you would subscribe to every sentence of it, and I am quite content with the effect which you say it produced on you. A book which contains, as it were, the quint-essence of a man’s whole life, experience and study, cannot be made our own in every particular in a short time; it’s results must be confusing compared with the results of our own life, before we can come to a conclusion. You will probably recollect that I once read a long manuscript to you. Had the contents of that manuscript been still present to your mind – which, I am well aware, could not be the case – I am almost sure that you would have overcome the obstacles which are still in your way. To remove them, or at least, to discuss the different heads which you have pointed out, would, as you say, require a book, and that book might probably share the fate of the first. We will, therefore, let the matter rest till you come, and I am very glad, indeed, that you are determined to spend the next summer with us. In the mean time I wish you would take the trouble of reading my Commentary once more, principally with a view of solving by it’s help the very same difficulties which you found in it, and I am utmost confident that you will at least partly succeed, for it is the main object of my book to remove what you call your stumbling-block, the difficulties which the doctrine of atonement throws in every thinking man’s way. That doctrine, well understood, is the foundation of true religion not only, but also of true philosophy. The great merit of it is, that those who really believe in it, are by that very belief, – because it is not a passive but an active one – rendered capable of understanding and that there is no other way to understand or to know, than that of believing or of faith. All this can be made as clear as day light to those who are in the secret, but it is impossible to make them understand it who are still without. (Draussen)  I am confident that the time is not far when you will be persuaded of the truth of what I was just saying, for those who seek, as you do, shall find.

             You ask me whether in my translation I followed Luther? I followed no one; but gave a most faithful translation of my own from the original, and I assure you that this was not an easy task. Many a single verse has cost me days of contemplation before I was able to find the adequate expression for it, for such a translation, in which a single word may often influence th not only that single sentence but the whole work, is widely different from that of a profane writer.

             You will probably have heard that Germany lost lately one of the greatest men it ever produced, Schleiermacher. He was a great theologian, a great Philosopher (in the german sense of the word) and a greater Philologer at the same time, and what is more, he was a true Christian and a powerful instrument in the hands of Providence to overcome both: religious prejudice and prejudice against religion. – Immediately before his death he took the Sacrament with his family and his very last words were: “Ich beharre bei dem Worte Gottes und im Glauben und den Versöhnungstod Jesu Christi; in welchem ich meine Seligkeit gefunden habe.” This may shew you that this great man found more truth and “wahre Vernunft” in the doctrine of Atonement, than in Plato, whom he translated and knew almost by heart, and all the ancient and modern Philosophers, all of whom he was thoroughly familiar with.

            Mrs B. will be very glad to receive your promised letter and I hope you will soon find time to write it. She is at present in Carlsruhe with my daughter, the wife of Professor Koopmann, who expects soon to be brought to bed.

             I am with the sincerest esteem and friendship

                                     my dear sir,                  

                                                 yours most faithfully

                                                             Wm Benecke

You know, of course, that old Knebel died about 6 weeks or 2 months ago.

I wish particularly that you may read again the preface of my book with the greatest attention. Tho’, at first sight, it may appear to you a hors d’ouvre, yet I assure you, that it is the true key to the whole. It contains, in nuce, the principles of all true ^and the refutation of all false^ philosophy, and I reckon it by far the best of all I ever wrote hitherto.

Text: Crabb Robinson Correspondence, Dr. Williams's Library, 1834-35, Letter 18.