Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/412

Rh import, written with English clearness and precision, without any German prolixity. This little work comes very near Martensen's “Autonomi,”—that excellent treatise which Martensen has yet to develope; and it rejoices me all the more, as it proves that the laws of thought develope themselves in the human race, from an inner necessity, irrespective of accidental circumstances. Truths, discoveries, do not emigrate from one country to another. Among all people who have advanced to about the same degree of intellectual cultivation the same phenomena and the same views present themselves. Thus here, a young, solitary, retired, but profoundly thinking man arrived at the same train of thought as our greatest Scandinavian philosophical theologians, and that without knowing them or the fountains from which they have quaffed the new life of thought. One instance in the book, by which the young Miles elucidates the connection of the subjective reason with the objective—that is of man's with that of God, has struck me from the same cause—namely, how different minds in far distant countries and under different circumstances arrive at the same results of thought; because I myself have frequently made use of the same in conversation, as proof on this subject—and have always regarded it as my own discovery and have had my own little selfish pleasure in so doing. But how much greater is my pleasure in seeing that it also flashes forth before another seeking soul, and becomes for him a guiding star. The instance I alluded to is the well-known one of Le Verrier, who calculated that a star existed in a certain spot of the universe, and of the star being afterwards discovered there.

I must immediately write to Mrs. H., to express my pleasure in the book and its author. And now once more I hope to wander with her in the shades of the myrtle grove.

Justina, the eldest daughter of Mrs. W. H., is just