be no place for
that which should be always surrounded with holy veneration and awe.
Religious views, pious emotions, and serious considerations with
regard to them--these we cannot throw out to one another in such small
crumbs as the topics of a light conversation; and when the discourse
turns upon sacred subjects, it would rather be a crime than a virtue
to have an answer ready for every question, and a rejoinder for every
remark. Hence, the religious sentiment retires from such circles
as are too wide for it, to the more confidential intercourse of
friendship, and to the mutual communications of love, where the eye
and the countenance are more expressive than words, and where even a
holy silence is understood. But it is impossible for divine things
to be treated in the usual manner of society, where the conversation
consists in striking flashes of thought, gaily and rapidly alternating
with one another; a more elevated style is demanded for the
communication of religion, and a different kind of society, which is
devoted to this purpose, must hence be formed. It is becoming, indeed,
to apply the whole richness and magnificence of human discourse to the
loftiest subject which language can reach--not as if there were any
adornment, with which religion could not dispense, but because it
would show a frivolous and unholy disposition in its heralds if they
did not bring together the most copious resources within their power
and consecrate them all to religion, so that they might thus perhaps
exhibit it in its appropriate greatness and dignity. Hence it is
impossible, without the aid of poetry, to give utterance to the
religious sentiment in any other than an oratorical manner, with all
the skill and energy of language, and freely using, in addition,
the service of all the arts which can contribute to flowing and
impassioned discourse. He, therefore, whose heart is overflowing with
religion, can open his mouth only before an auditory, where that which
is presented, with such a wealth of preparation, can produce the most
extended and manifold effects.

Would that I could present before you an image of the rich and
luxurious life in this city of God, when its inhabitants come together
each in the fulness of his own inspiration, which is ready to stream
forth without constraint, but, at the same time, each is filled with a
holy desire to receive and to appropriate to himself everything which
others wish to bring before him. I