Providence, the immortality of the soul: dams are being raised against
the rising flood of atheism.[53] And here is a fact still more
significant, namely, that the historians of ideas, whether they are
recurring to the most remote antiquity, or are passing in review the
worst errors of modern days, cannot meet with the negation of God,
without having their eyes thus turned to Paris, and their attention
directed to contemporary productions.[54]

I hence infer, that atheism is raising its head in France, and there
presenting itself under two forms. Materialism is appearing principally
as an heritage from the last century. The new, or rather renewed,
doctrine is the adoration of man by man. We are now going to cross the
Rhine.

A powerful thinker, Hegel, had supreme sway in the last movement of
speculative thought in Germany. Hegel's system of doctrine is enveloped
in clouds. It is so ambiguous in regard to the questions which most
directly concern the conscience and human interests, that it has been
pretended to deduce from it, on the one hand a Christian theology, and
on the other a sheer atheism. There is a story, whether a true one or
not I cannot say, that this philosopher when near his end uttered the
following words: "I have only had one disciple who has understood
me--and he has misunderstood me." A man distinguished in metaphysical
research by taste, genius, and science, and who has, in that respect,
devoted particular attention to Germany, M. Charles Secrétan, writes
with reference to the fundamental principle of the entire Hegelian
system: "If you ask me how I understand the matter, I will give you no
answer; I do not understand it at all, and I do not believe that any one
has ever understood it."[55] You will excuse me, Gentlemen, from here
undertaking the scientific study of so difficult a system. It will be