THE

CHRISTIAN TEACHER.

ART. I.-SKETCHES OF PAULUS.

Skizzen aus meiner Bildungs-und Lebens-Geschichte zum Andenken an mein 50 jähriges Jubiläum von Dr. Heinr. Eberh. Gottlob Paulus, grosherzogl. Badischen Geh. Kirchenrath, Professor der Theologie und Philosophie. Heidelberg und Leipsig. 1839.

Sketches of my Life and Literary History. By Dr. H. E. G. Paulus.

THIS Small volume was published by Dr. Paulus in commemoration of the 17th April 1839, the fiftieth anniversary of his appointment to the Professor's chair: a day celebrated among the Germans as a jubilee. A choir, accompanied by some of Dr. Paulus's friends, surrounded his house before sun-rise, and ushered in the day by singing a hymn of welcome composed for the occasion. During the morning various deputations waited on Dr. Paulus and presented him with congratulatory addresses, not only from the several faculties of the University of Heidelberg, but likewise from the theological professors of almost all the Universities of Germany.* These addresses were signed by men entertaining and advocating the most opposite religious views. Dogmatic differences were lost sight of, and Dr. Paulus's warmest friends and his most strenuous opponents seemed alike anxious to express their sympathy with one whose life had been devoted to the investigation and elucidation of truth :-to testify

We regret to say Berlin was an exception. Dr. Marheinecke wished and proposed an address, but his vote was negatived by two of the Professors. Dr. Hengstenberg wrote a letter to Dr. Paulus, alleging as a reason, that it was not usual for the Professors of the University of Berlin to make any public demonstration of their sympathy on such occasions.

VOL. III. No. 13.-New Series.

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their admiration of his candid avowal of opinion, and unswerving adherence to the convictions of his own mind :—and, whilst in many instances dissenting altogether from his conclusions, to acknowledge their full appreciation of the invaluable services rendered by him to theology and to philosophy. On the following day a deputation was sent from the chief magistrate, council, and a committee of the citizens of the town of Heidelberg, to testify their feelings of high esteem and veneration for Dr. Paulus, and their sense of his great merit, and of the services he had rendered to the town and University. This deputation represented the expressed feeling of five hundred of his fellow citizens, who had subscribed a petition to that effect.

On the 2nd of July a deputation arrived, consisting of four gentlemen, of whom two were clergymen, bearing an address from one hundred and eighty-two clergymen and lay members of the Synod, in the twelve Dioceses of Rhenish Bavaria.

We give a few sentences of this address. "Rare are the instances in which to uninterrupted exertion in scientific pursuit, conducted with unusual force of mind, an extraordinary length of duration is also conceded. So much the greater, then, is the gratification experienced by ourselves, and by all who are sincerely devoted to the cause of evangelical light, that this so rare felicity-highly venerated Professor-it has pleased divine Providence to confer upon you.". "A very large part of the Protestants in Rhenish Bavaria, and amongst them very many of the clergy, who reflect with pride on the privilege they have enjoyed of attending your public instructions, unites with the very numerous body of your admirers, to acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude their sense of your distinguished and meritorious exertions for the extension and advancement of theological science, and of your long combat in the cause of light, of truth, and of justice."

The many addresses received by Dr. Paulus are given at length in this volume. Some of them are in Latin, some in German. They are all written in the same strain of ardent admiration, and breathe the same spirit of grateful love and reverence towards one who seems to be universally recognized by his countrymen as the Master-mind of his age, as well as the most sincere, the most excellent of men.

Dr. Paulus's answers and warm acknowledgments are touchingly beautiful, from the genuine feeling and simplicity they exhibit. The subjoined sketch of his literary history-dedicated by him to all who took part in his jubilee-will be found full of interest by those who are acquainted with the views and writings of this "Apostle of Rationalism."

Dr. Paulus seems to have felt all the difficulty of writing of himself. "The attempt to describe oneself," he says, "is always a hazardous undertaking; yet in old age we feel so different from what we were in our youth, that we are able to look back on our early years almost with the eyes of a stranger: we take as it were a telescopic view of the distant past, and that view is consequently less liable to be a partial one." Yet never was apology less called for; the total absence of egotism-of every selfish consideration-is particularly striking in this most pleasing autobiographical sketch. The singleness of the author's aim is apparent in every page. His object is to show how entirely his religious opinions are the result of earnest and patient inquiry, and of the most sincere conviction. The memoir embodies his particular views, but his anxiety is not so much to enforce these upon others, however true and important they may appear to himself; his most ardent desire is that others should feel as he feels, that truthfulness—an absolute and fearless faithfulness to conviction, to conviction arising from honest investigation-is man's highest, most imperative duty; and that in so far only as he is faithful to his convictions, does he act in conformity with the will of God.

Dr. Paulus was born in 1761, at the small village of Leonburg in Würtemberg. When nine years of age, his mother died, and his father being dissatisfied with his progress at the public school, removed him from it, and became his sole tutor. Dr. Paulus dwells with fond and grateful remembrance on these early years, passed under the paternal roof. The father's method of instruction was very admirable, and his own industrious habits and steady application had a most beneficial influence upon the mind of his boy. Paulus's love of reading seems to have been very great. He read indiscriminately all the tales and romances he could lay his hand upon; and when he had exhausted a large store of German books of this description, he ransacked his father's library to discover new treasures. Here he found Fenelon's Telemachus, and an Elzevir Homer with a Latin translation. He read these with avidity, though at that time altogether for the sake of the story. He would often of an evening take refuge in the then vacant study, and by twilight, and even by moonlight, pursue the exciting adventure to the end, till his curiosity was satisfied. The Æneid, though mastered with difficulty, was included in this romance reading; and if much was passed over without being understood, the boy found pleasure in tracing and following the historical thread interwoven with the fiction; and he delighted

greatly in the high-flowing diction, at once grand, sonorous, and rich in thought.

Dr. Paulus thinks this kind of reading, which occupied so many of the leisure hours of his boyhood, was highly useful to him.

The representations of fictitious circumstances, positions, and exploits, which did not overstep the limits of human possibility, led me always to the contemplation of the actual-matter of fact-historical ground of human existence. I loved the ideal and the noble, but not that which transcended the bounds of the possible. By comparing the fictitious delineations I met with in these works of taste, with historical facts, and real life, I acquired the habit, not only of analysing the wide distinctions which exist in human characters, and of observing the practical influences which they exercise upon each other, but likewise, more especially, of inquiring into the probable causes of actions and events narrated as historical. The more we accustom our minds to the contemplation of that which is humanly possible, the less liable shall we be to take a one-sided view of actual occurrences. Not only shall we find it difficult to persuade ourselves to refer all things to one exclusive source, to good, or to evil; but we shall also discover-what is of the first importance in all historical investigations that events are rarely the consequence of one solitary cause-that those occurrences which appear to us extraordinary, as well as those which we term ordinary, result from a combination of motives and causes, and admit of a natural explanation."

The father's favourite study was mathematics; he was much habituated to reasoning and demonstration, and he felt particular pleasure in training his boy to take part in logical discussions. He encouraged him to inquire the "wherefore" of all that came under his observation, and incited him, if possible, to seek out the answer for himself. The father had a particularly clear and felicitous mode of expressing himself, and of simplifying his subject. It was moreover a principle with him, and his daily practice, to explain the grounds of any opposition or difference of opinion he might express, studiously avoiding the exaction of a mere submissive acquiescence on the part of his children. Upon one subject however, and upon that alone-rendering the distinction so much the more marked and striking-he pursued an exactly opposite course. If religion, or, more strictly speaking, mysterious matters of belief, came under consideration, any objection raised against the evidences adduced, or the explanations given, invariably disturbed the father's equanimity, and excited his displeasure.

This inconsistency in his father's conduct, this unwillingness

to admit any reasoning or questioning upon the subject of religion, whilst investigation and inquiry were encouraged on all other subjects, produced a powerful effect upon Paulus: it gave birth to many a painful doubt respecting that belief which was so dogmatically taught :-in short it determined the direction of his whole future life.

Dr. Paulus gives an interesting explanation of the cause of his father's intolerance of religious inquiry. We have curtailed the account, but have retained his own words as far as this was possible. How naturally did the superstition of the father engender in the mind of the son that disbelief of the marvellous and the supernatural which constituted him, in maturer age, a Rationalist!

"My father," says Dr. Paulus," was the officiating clergyman in the small village of Leonburg, and he preached and inculcated the doctrines of his church with affectionate earnestness. He considered them calculated to afford consolation to the many; he thought them essentially beneficial in their moral influence; but above all, he deemed them infinitely superior to the dogmas of the traditional and hierarchical church of Rome, to which he was warmly opposed. The consequence was, he was regarded by his congregation as an eloquent and zealous Christian minister, whilst, in truth, he remained during many years a secret unbeliever. The belief in which he had been educated, appeared to him consistent in itself, but the foundation of all religious belief-the very being of a God-was with him a matter of doubt; he doubted also the existence of a state of consciousness after death. He sought in philosophy a solution of the difficulties which perplexed his mind, but the philosophy of the day-it was that of Wolf-failed to afford him the satisfaction he desired. These doubts, however, were confined to his own breast; they were the subjects of his private meditations. But the unwillingness he evinced to speak of an hereafter, to express any opinion respecting the reality of a future life, could not escape the observation of my actively pious and gentle mother. She suspected that he was sceptical on this point, and in consequence called his attention to a little book containing the histories of certain individuals who, in fulfilment of a promise made in their lifetime, had given signs of continued consciousness after death to the surviving friend. My father objected that the historical evidence of such individual experiences was very slight, and that such testimony was not to be relied on; that these appearances were possibly mere delusions, occasioned by an over-excited state of the brain. Still it is now unquestionable that these highly-coloured representations made a lasting impression on his naturally lively imagination.

Shortly after this, my mother died at an early age, of an intermittent fever. During her illness my father's mind had been kept in a state of intense anxiety-of constant alternation between hope and fear. The event afflicted him deeply; he was inconsolable. In this hour of affliction his doubts of the existence of a God, and of immortality, became