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    and set up as a mark for the quibbling and cavilling of all sorts of one * sided judgments . The measure of the understandings of common men is really not so great , that one needs set them such gigantic problems to solve , or choose them as judges in the last resort of such questions . The mysteries , and more especially the dogmas of the Christian religion , are allied to subjects of the deepest and most intricate philosophy ; and

    it is only the positive dress with which it is invested that distinguishes the former from the latter . Thence it happens , that frequently enough , according to the position that a man takes up , he either calls theology a confused metaphysic , or metaphysic a confused Platonic theology . Both , however , stand on too elevated ground for human intellect , in her ordinary sphere , to presume to flatter herself that she can reach their sacred treasures . The interpretation of them to the vulgar cannot go

    beyond a very narrow practical circle of action . " . . . . " The multitude , however , are never so well satisfied as when they can repeat , in a still louder tone , tlie loud declamations of some few who give the cry . By this process the strangest scenes are produced , and there is no end to the exhibition of presumption and absurdity * A half-educated enlightened ' man often , in his shallowness and ignorance , jests on a subject before

    which a Jacobi , a Kant , the admitted ornaments of our country , would bcwin reverential awe / ,. .. * ' The results of philosophy , politics , and religion ought certainly to be brought home to the people ; but we ought not to attempt to exalt the mass into philosophers , priests , or politicians . It is of no avail ! If Protestants sought to define more clearly what ought to be loved , done , and taught—if they imposed an inviolable , reverential silence on the mysteries of religion , without compelling any

    man to assent to dogmas tortured , with afflicting presumption , into a conformity to this or that rule—if they carefully refrained from degrading it in the eyes of the many by ill-tirned ridicule , or from bringing it into danger by indiscreet denial , I should myself be the first to visit the church of my brethren , in religion , with sincere heart , and to submit myself with willing edification to the general , practical confession of a faith which connected itself so immediately with action . " '—vol . i . p .

    —103 . To descend from such elevated subjects : Goethe ' s social talents form the subject of a chapter—a perilous one to a translator . Of all authors , Joe Miller must be the most untranslatable . It is very seldom indeed that humour is " preserved in a second language , though wit may be . Mrs . Austin , we arc

    sure , will be grateful to us for explaining an instance of supposed humour in Goethe , which in her version is utterly without meaning . The Duke of Weimar , returning from the chase , and incommoded by the heat , opens the window of the drawingroom . Goethe , finding that the ladies are exposed to a draug ht , himself shuts it . The Duke is offended , and inquires who had done so . The servants do not answer :

    Goethe , however , with that arch , reverential gravity which is peculiar to him , and at the bottom of which often lies the most refined irony , stepped forward before his master and friend , and said , ** Your hig hness haa the power of life and death over all your subjects . Upon me lei

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    182 Characteristics of Goethe .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 182, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/22/