he lecture-room. Think of a man of middle
size, slender frame, homely but interesting and benevolent face, dark
and strongly Jewish complexion, deep-seated, sparkling eyes,
overshadowed by an unusually strong, bushy pair of eyebrows, black hair
flowing in uncombed profusion over the forehead, an old-fashioned coat,
a white cravat carelessly tied, as often behind or on one side of the
neck as in front, a shabby hat set aslant, jack-boots reaching above the
knee; think of him thus either as sitting at home, surrounded by books
on the shelves, on the table, on the few chairs, and all over the floor;
or as walking _unter den Linden_, and in the Thiergarten of Berlin,
leaning on the arm of his sister Hannchen, or a faithful student, his
eyes shut or looking up to heaven, talking theology in the midst of the
noise and fashion of the city, and presenting altogether a most singular
contrast to the teeming life around him, stared at, smiled at, wondered
at, yet respectfully greeted by all who knew him; or as finally standing
on the rostrum, playing with a goose-quill which his amanuensis had
always to provide; constantly crossing and recrossing his feet, bent
forward, frequently sinking his head to discharge a morbid flow of
spittle, and then again suddenly throwing it on high, especially when
aroused to polemic zeal against pantheism and dead formalism; at times
fairly threatening to overturn the desk, and yet all the while pouring
forth with the greatest earnestness and enthusiasm, without any other
help than that of some illegible notes, an uninterrupted flow of
learning and thought from the deep and pure fountain of the inner life;
and thus with all the oddity of the outside, at once commanding the
veneration and confidence of every hearer; imagine all this, and you
have a picture of Neander, the most original phenomenon in the literary
world of this nineteenth century."[61]
FOOTNOTES:
[55] Baur, _Kirchengeschichte d. 19 Jahrhunderts_, pp. 180-181.
[56] For summaries of Schleiermacher's views, see Herzog,
_Encyclopaedie_; Baur, _Kirchengeschichte, des 19 Jahrhunderts_; Vaughan,
_Essays and Remains_; Gieseler, _Kirchengeschichte_, vol. vi.; Kurtz,
_Church History_, vol. ii.; Saintes, _Histoire du Rationalisme_; Farrar,
_History of Free Thought_; and Auberlen, _Goettliche Offenbarung_, vol.
i.
[57] _Die Glaubenslehre._
[58] _Critical History of Free Thought_, p. 249.
[59] _Life of Jesus--Introduction._
[60] _
|