Henry Crab Robinson, 2 Plowden Buildings, Temple, London, to Wilhelm Benecke, Heidelberg, 2 March 1836. 

2 Plowden Buildings

My dear Sir

       Your very interesting and most acceptable letter would not have lain by me – or rather – remained so long unanswerd, but for the very unsettled state I have been in – It is only yesterday that I came to a determination concerning my projected journey to Spain which has been on my mind for the last three months: And I was unwilling to write to you till I could speak of that intention with confidence. I have with reluctance given up the plan for the present – The excuse for not executing my purpose which was to quit my chambers & leave England for a year or more has been the business of my executorship which renders my stay here for some months, perhaps a duty at all events highly expedient – I yesterday announced to my friend the Chief Justice of Gibraltar my determination not to visit him for the present – And I now turn to your letter with great satisfaction, feeling relieved –

       Every instance sentence of your letter is weighty and would allow of a distinct notice from me – But the result of your various remarks on our English theologians is the renewal of a very old impression of the inherent & essential diversity in our English and your German modes of contemplating the great matters of religious philosophy – I say modes not substance – For since there is nothing national in the great topics which such philosophy involves it would seem that there ought not to be so great a difference in the works of the several authors , the great authors of the two languages – I do not at all wonder that you do not relish any of our writers, even of the highest reputation It is ascribable to the same cause that renders the great masters of German thought unenjoyable by English readers. It is remarkable that since the great change introduced only by Kant, in your philosophical studies not one single book has yet attracted the attention of our scholars or soi-desant thinkers – Of the metaphysicians scarcely a book has even been translated – A few congenial minds – (Coleridge, for instance,) have announced that there is a something worth knowing, but the mass care little about it. It is only in connection with religion that an attempt has been made to draw attention to your great men – I have heard of a translation of the first Vol: of Neander’s Church history And also of a work of Schleiermacher on St Luke, but I believe both have fallen dead born from the press –It is asserted by our Churchmen that German theology is either crypto-infidelity or mystical fanaticism – Every attempt to recommend the gospel to thinkers by the slightest departure from the received authorised interpretation is received with scorn – Probably you have heard of the very recent clamour raised by the Tory-high church men at Oxford against a Dr Hampden on the ground of his being a Socinian – Now I have been informed by a young clergyman whom I know to be a serious believer in the Orthodox doctrines that his Bampton lectures, which profess to treat of the relation of the Scholastic Philosophy to the Scripture contain the most explicit & solemn assertion of the Doctor’s belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, but he admonishes the clerical student to study the scriptures more than the schoolmen – he insinuates his regret that Churchmen have presumed to be wise beyond what is written And instead of leaving the awful mysteries as they are, objects of reverential faith & adoption, have tried to define & ascertain exactly what they infer must have been meant tho’ it  has not been expressed –!  By the bye, did I ever mention to you the famous Oxford convocation a year ago on the subject of matriculation? If I did, excuse the ^repetition.^ If I did not, you will be interested by what I have to mention – On a matriculation at Oxford, the young man is forced to declare his “unfeigned assent to every article ^matter^ & thing contained in the 39 Articles” This has long been a theme of reproach & derision And therefore a proposal was made to substitute a declaration to this effect – [“]That the subscriber is a member of the Church of England as far as he yet understands it’s doctrines That he will obey its precepts & conform to it’s rites during his period of study at the university And that he will labour to understand its doctrines that he may become an intelligent member of the Church”  This was rejected with angry violence by five out of six – All the country clergymen coming up to vote!!! And these are the people who really feel contempt for German theology & German philosophy! – To return to the great difference between our English & your German habits of thought – I am most deeply impressed with the conviction that your profounder thinkers & writers are beyond the comprehension of us, because the thinking faculty is left in a half-uncultivated state – Whatever lies deeper than an ordinary logic is out of our reach – Where we even concur in the result – The intellectual process is very different – And I never meet with a German book of the highest order in which I do not find a something at which I stand at a loss; it thought I cannot be sure I thoroughly comprehend – It was so in the study of your preface in which there was at the same time so much that I heartily relished, because I fancied I understood it – Of all the books I have read for a long time none has in this respect given me more pleasure than Dr Passsavant’s And it is my intention to try and ^to^ translate it with a running commentary illustrating the translation by parallelisms drawn from English writers – Perhaps I understood this little book the more easily my intercourse with you having prepared me for it – Without the intimates being expressly made, I should have inferred that the author is your friend And has had the advantage of your society – I lent it to Dr Arnold of Rugby whose acquaintance I made lately in Westmoreland on my late stay at Rydal – You are aware I spent more than six weeks with Wordsworth – during December and January – DrRugby ^Arnold^ was greatly pleased with the book – He is one of our most eminent scholars – Master of the great School And particularly famous for his liberal notions. [H]e would open the universities to the Dissenters By the bye I must mention an act of the present ministry which will have probably very great & happy results for posterity – They are about to erect a Metropolitan University on a new plan – You are aware that a number of individuals united to form what we pleased to call a University – And we had the assurance to request of the government a charter enabling us to confer degrees – Tho’ I am one of the council of our soi-disant London University I always thought the application a foolish one – The governt have wisely refused it, tho’ we got a resolution of the House of Commons in our favour – They have said we will give you a charter of incorporation as a college – a teaching body – But we will at the same time erect a university in London which shall consist merely of a body of Examiners who shall confer degrees on the students of [which] you send from the college – Also on the students sent from the King’s College (a rival institution set up by the high church tories against us to crush us) or by such our ^other^ colleges or institutions as may have the privilege of sending up students conferred on them This <-> scheme therefore lays the foundation of many universities in fact – The Catholics have a capital Academy at Stonyhurst, the Unitarians have one at York  The Orthodox dissenters have several in different parts of the Kingdom – All the establishms that are found worthy, will send up their pupils, who will have the several degrees conferred on them in arts, medicine & law – But theology is for the present excluded  This is in accommodation to the prejudices of the clergy in favor of Oxford & Cambr: who will retain their duopoly of spiritual science – This is really a great event in prospect –And I dare say Geheimrath Schlosser will take an interest in it – The Earl of Burlington is to be Chancellor and among the Examiners are to be the Bishop of Chichester ^Maltby^ Dr Arnold of Rugby, Airy the Astronomer, Sedgewick the Geologist, Thirlwall the translator of Niebuhr And in Law Amos – In the medical faculty man ist nicht ins Reine gekommen

      I am unwilling to fill my paper with matter supplied by the public prints – I will therefore on politics merely say that the Whigs have greatly advanced in popularity since the opening of the Session – The great circumstances in their favour have been – First Lord Broughams retirement on account of ill health – he was a very annoying adversary for his polemical talents were first rate, but he was a more mischievous member of the governmt from his marvellous want of judgement – the bright desired it on every thing he concurred in – 2d The dissenters have ceased to cry out for the abolition of the Church establishment which frightened the timid & made the judicious grieve – And ^3dly^ even the radical press have learned wisdom – And no longer urge the ministry to enterprises beyond their strength to carry into effect – The detection of the abuses in the Irish corporations has gained over a portion of the Non: Cons (Nonconformists) whose zeal led them to be averse from measures favorable to the Catholic party – And indifference & an apriori preference for reform of every kind, have now to maintain a conflict with the religious protestants, chiefly Churchmen, who are the gave the only popular support to the Tory opposition in parliament – The Tories managed very ill in dividing on the address, on a question connected with the Irish Corporations – They gave the ministers a majority of 41. Had they staid for the Irish Church, they might have driven the Whigs hard – Herr v. Raumer who was here last year said everywhere that the pretensions of the English clergy to retain their Church in a country where they barely formed a tenth of the population was a subject of astonishment to all the thinking Protestants in Germany – 4th Even Oconnell is become comparatively discreet – He & the Whigs are now acting in concert which however gives mortal offence to the Tories & frightens the timid.

       I am gratified by your obliging proposal to me to repeat my visit to Heidelberg. Be assured that if my health continues I shall not delay many years a renewal of the pleasure – A principal reason why I at present feel as if I should do better to postpone the visit, is that I have some hope I may qualify myself better for making a due use of the benefit of your society – Of all the friends I have there is no one from whom I hear religious doctrines asserted with so strong an impression that they deserve my adoption

       Tho’ Wordsworths language is become very like your’s And there he is far more intelligible to me than you are, yet his opinions impress me less with being both credible and desirable as objects of belief, than your’s do – I shall hope to hear soon from you or Mrs B: to whom I have written – I beg to be most respectfully rememberd to the two Schlossers & their ladies – Mrs & Miss Becker – The Thibauts – Behr – And especially your excellent friend Mad Nies – To your Son & Daughter a kind remembrance when you write – I saw your Son Victor when here – he seemed unsettled then, the expected change in his condition will serve to settle him I hope – Your Son William I have seen several times lately There is no particular family  news to communicate   My kindest regards both to you & Mrs B:

                                     &c &c &c

                                       H. C. Robinson

Mr B:

Address:  [?] / M. W: Benecke / a Heidelberg / Allemagne.  

Postmark: Three in total, with one clear: 3 MR 1836. 

Endorsed: H.C.R. to Benecke.

Text: HCR Correspondence, DWL, 1836, letter 103. In this letter, as in the other HCR letters to Benecke, paragraphs have been lined through, most likely by HCR at a later date as something he did not want printed or used. In this letter, most of it has been lined through, though sometimes in the middle and sometimes on the side. Not clear as to its purpose.