Wilhelm Benecke, Heidelberg, to HCR, London, 8 November 1835.

Heidelberg Nov 8th 1835

My dear Sir,

       I should long ago have replied to your kind letter had I not imagined that during the summer you would be absent from London, and I find I was not mistaken, since Victor – who visited us on his return to Berlin about three weeks ago – tells me that you were not yet returned when he left England. But as by this time you will most probably have taken your winter quarters again, I will no longer defer what, but for the above mentioned circumstances, I ought to have done months ago. And first let me sincerely thank you for the books which you have had the kindness to send me. Law’s translation of Boehme is very valuable to me, and tho’ the course of my studies have not yet allowed me to <–> read much of it, yet I am confident that the time will come when I shall go through the whole with great attention. As to the holy living and dying I shall immediately tell you that, tho’ it is certainly a book of great merit and may be useful to many, yet it can give me little satisfaction, since neither the contents are new to me, nor the form suitable to my taste. And when the ^author^ is praised as an orator, is not even that only with regard to the time in which he wrote? – Poor Woolman was certainly an excellent man, and if the history of his life and his opinions had been concentrated in two or three chapts, I could read them with pleasure, but spun out to the length of a book I confess that my patience is not sufficient to get through it. – I tell you all this without reserve, knowing that you would not wish me to go out of my character. – Of the other theologians which you mention I know little more than their names, except Law, whose Spirit of love and of prayer I possess and have read with great satisfaction, nor do I wish for their writings at present, since at all events it would be a long time before I should find leasure to make use of them. – Jonathan Edwards is mentioned as a strict calvinist in our ecclesiastical histories, but I am confident that his writings are known but to very few, if any, of our present theologians You say that his book on Original Sin did you great mischief, and I do not doubt it, but it might have done you much good, if it had cured you from party-religion without rendering Christianity itself unpalatable to you. Books of that kind can be useful only in a negative sense, by convincing us that a man may be a good logician and yet run into the greatest absurdities, which leads us to conclude that the fundamental truths are not to be acquired by logic but must be derived from a very different source. To shew this, and to lead to the true and only source is the end of all my theological and philosophical (or rather metaphysical) endeavours; to remove the obstacles which either a false Philosophy or a mistaken theology may have thrown in our ways. Hence it is clear that what I have to offer can be acceptable only to such persons who not only have a longing for thouth [truth?], but who at the same time are aware that obstacles are in their way which may be removed. And this accounts to me fully for the reception which your translation of my preface has met with at your two friends. The former, you say, belongs to that class of men “who have a passion for clear ideas” which probably means: who want to reduce every thought to a train of notions to which they are once accustomed and which they fancy to comprehend because they never thought of calling them into doubt. Such persons are either convinced, in their own way, that no such thing as Higher truth exists or is accessible to man, or they mean to have it already and cannot be expected to trouble their heads any longer about it. “Am verständlichsten” says Hegel “werden Schriftsteller, Prediger, Redner u.s.w. gehalten, die ihren Zuhörern oder Lesern Dinge vorsagen, welche diese bereits auswendig wissen, die ihnen geläufig sind, und die sich von selbst verstehen.” Your excellent brother does certainly not belong to that class, but having found already what satisfies him, why should he seek for any thing better? many doubts that have been <–> raised by our philosophers probably never reached his ear, why should he wish to see them removed? he, therefore, highly approves and enjoys what is consonant to his feelings and lets the rest alone, and he is perfectly right.

       You will probably have recd Mrs B’s letter which she sent by a traveller a few weeks ago and which was accompanied by a small book of a friend of mine, Dr Passavant, “Von der freiheit des Willens und dem Enwicklungsgesetze des Menschen,” which, I hope, will please you. I have been accustomed for many years to converse with the author on those subjects, and you will meet there with many of my own ideas, tho’ not always represented in my way.

       When I told Geheimrath Schlosser what you desired me about the Times, he replied that he was entirely of your opinion but that he knew to distinguish true from false and therefore could read them without danger of being mislead. Some time ago he called on me to desire me to tell you that your letter had been of great use to him and that he had inscribed the greater part of it verbally in his book. He wished very much to shew you some other part of his Mscript and to have your advice about it. – He as well as old Schwartz, Prof. Bachs, Mrs Nies, Thibaut, in short all your friends here, wish to be kindly remembered to you. – Perhaps you do not know yet that my son Victor is going to marry Miss Emmeline Schunck, daughter of Mr Phil. S. of Leipzig. She is a very lovely girl and of a most respectable family, so that I have reason to expect that he will be as happy in his married life as his brother and sister are.           

      I hope and sincerely wish that in the course of next summer you will come again to Heidelberg and spend some months with us. You have many friends here who would be glad to see you again, and to me and Mrs B., you know, it would be it would be a real treat. We will not again lose our time in translating what nobody has a mind to read, but I trust that we shall not want topics of conversation.

       With the sincerest friendship and regard I remain

                                     my dear Sir                                               Yours truly

 Wm Benecke

Text: Crabb Robinson Correspondence, 1834-35, letter 136, Dr. Williams's Library, London.