Gifts of Heaven · Volume 2 · Chapter 337

The Lord and the Reviewer – commentary to the announcement

of June 23, 1844 24th June 1844

[1] These (*1) cited passages (*2) with a few more, have already been sniffed out by the General newspaper of Jena in Germany by a sour reviewer who speaks the word of pure religion of reason, which reviewer, however, through such his review, has shown that despite his sharp philosophy, he will not be able to receive a higher light of the spirit for a long time and therefore also not understand for a long time what the "boy" Steffens, named by the reviewer, wrote down out of Me!

[2] Although he accuses the "boy" of Hegelianism, he does not notice that Hegel and Strauss only speak out of themselves, while Steffens and Hegel are two completely opposite poles.

[3] Of course, the super-clever reviewer finds nothing in it but a poetic enthusiasm of a mystically fanatical, youthful disposition, nothing but fog and firmament clouds of a mystical fantasy and screams and makes a great noise about it – and still so many with him.

[4] But that doesn't matter – that is why Steffens, like several others of his own kind, is still among the chosen, while the sour reviewer is not even one of the many called, but is like the parasitic plants that grow on the mighty oaks and shine there on the high branches as if they were level with or even above the oak. But when a storm comes, which the oak defies, it quickly and easily tears the loose branches of the weeds from the trunk. And loose boys then collect the scattered twigs including the fruit and use it to cook a glue as bait to catch siskins, finches, sparrows and bullfinches! Which doesn't mean to say much, because the mighty Eagle will forever know how to mock such a trap!

[5] This is also to be observed here, so that no-one would bump into it if such a parasitic plant should sometime fall into his hands from a rational review!

[6] Also this say I, the personal Savior in you and in your friends and brothers! Amen.

Footnotes (*1) in the preceding announcement of 23.06.1844 (ed.) (*2) from the work of Heinrich Steffens: "The false theology and the true faith" (ed.)