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238 LETTERS.
intended any political allusion. But if such a one should
nevertheless be inferred, I am even willing to admit it in
so far as I always consider the man of the extreme left,
the ultra-Republican, to be dangerous to be followed, as a
leader, by the people. My young friend at Marienberg
did not belong to the moderate party, and you would your-
self have been one of the foremost to endeavor to bring
him to political reason. The position which I occupy in
this little pamphlet, is no other than that which I have held
in “Sister-life,” and in my other writings, and which I
should wish to improve more and more. It is a position
above the parties; one from which I will contemplate and
acknowledge the humanly good and pure in the ultra-Re-
publican, as well, as in the ultra-Conservative ; amongst
the Protestants, even if he were an adherent of Bruno
Bauer’s atheism and communism, as well as aniongst the
Catholics, even if he were the most obdurate worshiper
of the coat in Frier; and I would besides let opinions
be valued at what they are worth, even if I should be
obliged, in consequence of the imperative force of thought,
to. join one of them in preference. You have surely,
more than many others, felt within you this imperative
force of thought, and that is enough to know that others
also must feel the same in the direction which they have
taken. My meaning, however, is not that all these
others are right in their views; but they have a right to
adhere to their belief and conviction, even if these are
one-sided, until they are convinced of their one-sidedness,
and can rise to a more liberal and more perfect conviction.
That this can be the case, I believe, for I believe in an
eternal right, an eternal reason, and in man’s capacity to .
understand this, and in consequence to coincide in, and to
settle, if not all controversies, at any rate, all bitter contro-
versies. But nothing could contribute more effectually to
attain the aim which we covet, than to keep this position
above all parties, and to acknowledge willingly the rights
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