570 Socrates^ Schleiermacher^ and Delbrueck. any one else, if he no longer trusts in the wisdom and virtue of Socrates? (p. 104). Happily.for Mr D., his distress has been long relieved, and his peace restored so effectually, that it seems it will be his own fault if he ever relapses into his former disquietude (p. 101). But the mode in which his trouble was allayed, and a new view of the subject presented to his mind, in which all his difficulties vanished, it would be presumptuous in any one else to attempt relating, since he himself considers it as mysterious (p. 102), nor would it be of much use to do so, since the same effect can never be again produced in the same manner. In general the reader's curiosity may be satisfied with learning, that it was the result of an interchange of confessions between Mr D. and a person whom he saw but once in his life and whose name he never knew, but who seem to have succeeded better than any one else has ever done, in making him a convert to his own opinions. A more important question, which the reader will be tempted to ask, is, what these opinions were, and what was that new, consolatory, and tranquillizing view, which the mysterious stranger imparted, and which we may hope Mr D. still holds fast. Unfortunately it would be still more difficult to satisfy this curiosity, natural as it is, without rashly intru- ding upon secrets which Mr D. has thought fit to keep to him- self, or has disclosed only by some broken hints, which at the utmost afford room only for general and uncertain conjectures. If there is any inference which one might venture to draw, with some degree of confidence, from the narrative, it is this : that whereas at the beginning of the conference Mr D. was painfully perplexed through his veneration for Socrates, and his reluctance to admit any opinion which was at variance with that feeling, he has since been enabled to receive such opinions with indifference, because his faith now rests on a better and surer ground than the character of Socrates, or Plato, or Xenophon (p. 137). Heartily as Mr D.'s personal friends must rejoice, if this is the case, in so happy a termination of his inward struggles, it is evidently one with which we have nothing to do in ex- amining a question which affects the character of Socrates or his disciples, for it must always be presumed that we enter upon such inquiries in a state of mind which enables us to
