ll give more of it. If I only knew
what to do with the work for Germany! My task was arranged for England. It
seemed to me important, under the guidance of the rediscovered Hippolytus,
whose form first rose clearly before me during the first work, to show the
organic development of the leading ideas of Christendom in the teachers
and heroes, beginning from the first Pentecostal feast; in order to sift
the ground, and show to my readers--

_a._ That the old system of inspiration and the Theodice of the Middle
Ages, that is to say, that of the seventeenth century, has no _support_ in
ancient Christianity, but just the _contrary_. That is now a fact.

_b._ That we have something infinitely more reassuring to put in its
place. Truth instead of delusion; reality instead of child's play and
pictures.

_c._ That it is high time to be in earnest about this.

_d._ That for this, _clear insight_ and practical purpose, also reasoning
and moral earnestness, will be required on the part of the spiritual
guides.

_e._ But that before all things Christianity must be introduced into the
reality of the present; and that the corporation of the Church, the life
of the community in its worship as in its mutually supporting work, must
become the centre whence springs the consciousness of communion,--_not_ a
system of theology. Christianity is nothing to me but the restoration of
the ideal of humanity, and this will become especially clear through the
antecedent forms (praeformations) of the development in language and
religion. (See "Outlines.") There is a natural history of both, which
rests on laws as sure as those of the visible Cosmos. The rest is
professional, philological,--_legitimatio ad causam_.

How much of this idea can be presented to the English public, and in what
manner, you know much better than I. Therefore you know the one as well,
and the other better than I do. This is the reason why I believe you would
not wait for my answer. Still I should have sent to you, if during this
time two passions had not filled my heart. For once the dreadful distress
of our condition forced me to try, from the midst of my blessed Patmos, to
help by letters as far and wherever I could, through advice and cry of
distress and summons to help. Now there is nothing more to be done but to
wait the result. _Alea jacta esse_. Ernest is in Berlin.

My second passion is the carrying out of an idea by means of a Christian
philosophical People's