'I was interested in De Wette's Theodor, and that learned and
(_on dit_) profound man seemed to me so to fail, that I did
not finish the book, nor try whether I could believe the
novice should ever arrive at manly stature.
'I am not so clear as to the scope and bearing of this
book, as of that. I suppose if I were to read Lamennais, or
L'Erminier, I should know what they all want or intend. And
if you meet with _Les paroles d'un Croyant_, I will beg you to
get it for me, for I am more curious than ever. I had supposed
the view taken by these persons in France, to be the same with
that of Novalis and the German Catholics, in which I have
been deeply interested. But from this book, it would seem to
approach the faith of some of my friends here, which has been
styled Psychotheism. And the gap in the theoretical fabric is
the same as with them. I read with unutterable interest the
despair of Alexis in his Eclectic course, his return to the
teachings of external nature, his new birth, and consequent
appreciation of poetry and music. But the question of Free
Will,--how to reconcile its workings with necessity and
compensation,--how to reconcile the life of the heart with
that of the intellect,--how to listen to the whispering breeze
of Spirit, while breasting, as a man should, the surges of the
world,--these enigmas Sand and her friends seem to have solved
no better than M.
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