pinions come to us from the highest circles, at times also from the
lowest, and it is difficult to tell which of the two are the more
instructive. The problems of humanity in all their simplicity are after
all the same for us all, only they are viewed from different standpoints,
and are treated with scientific or practical design. Members of the same
profession readily understand each other; they employ their own technical
language; but the unprofessional person often goes straighter to the heart
of a question, and refuses to be satisfied with authorities or traditional
formulas. These gentlemen it is often difficult to silence. We can easily
contend with combatants who wield their weapons according to the rules
laid down by the schools; we know what to expect, and how to parry a quart
or a tierce. But an opponent who strikes regardless of all rule is often
hard to manage, and we get a scar where it is least expected or deserved.
In this wise I was served by an unknown opponent, who wrote to me from a
place in the neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, not far from Ohio. He had read
in his country solitude my article on Celsus in the _Deutsche Rundschau_.
I know nothing of him, except what he himself writes, but the man
interested me. After all, he says in his rude way very much the same
things as others veil in learned phrases, and his doubts and difficulties
are manifestly products of his heart as well as of his brain. The problems
of humanity have troubled him with genuine pain, and after honestly
thinking them out as well as he knew how, his convictions stand firm as a
rock, and all who disagree with him seem to him not only fools, but
unfortunately hypocrites as well. It is the misfortune of these lonely
thinkers that they cannot comprehend how any one can hold opinions
differing from their own without being dishonest. They cannot doubt that
they have been honest toward themselves, and as a consequence they cannot
conceive how others, who are of a different mind, can be equally honest,
and have come by their convictions by a straightforward path. Often it has
been very difficult for them to break with their old faith, cherished from
childhood, and they can only look upon it as cowardice and weakness if
others, as they think, have not made or wished to make this sacrifice. But
we shall let the horseherd who emigrated to America speak for himself.

I here print his letter exactly as I received it, without any
alterations.(34) To