When this little book went out of print, I did not wish to refuse the publication of a second edition. In part, because I am indebted to the book for attracting readers of generous spirit in a way I had hardly expected, and for bringing me highly esteemed friends.1 And then also because such a refusal to reprint might be misinterpreted as a recantation. Let me, therefore, render thanks to these pages by granting them a new lease of life, at the same time explaining that all the sentiments expressed in them are still my own as fully as any portrait drawn in early life can and should resemble one’s older self. But in re-editing the book I must confess that the difficulties involved in touching up a work like this, to say nothing of revising it, are all too great, because there is danger, on the one hand, of clouding its essential, inner truth by an unconscious infusion of characteristics of a later period, or on the other hand, of disturbing friendly readers by changes which might appear arbitrary. For these reasons I prefer to republish it with all its imperfections, and except in small matters of expression I have made only a few changes noted down soon after its first appearance, because they seemed to clarify some obscurities and to prevent misunderstandings. Therefore, if anyone finds fault with the manner in which the book is written rather than with its content, let him not attribute the defect to me as I am now, but rather to the man I was when this book first appeared. But if there be others who find the very spirit of the book uncongenial, and who are unwilling or unable to distinguish between a man’s ideal self and his mere appearance, nothing need hinder them from serving up again the flat and tasteless ridicule heard here and there ten years ago.2
Dr. Fr. Schleiermacher.
Berlin, April, 1810.
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Footnotes
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Among them Ehrenfried v. Willich, whose widow Schleiermacher married. See Letters, v. 1, p. 266ff. E. v. Willich, S.’s stepson, has given an interesting picture of the family life in Aus Schleiermacher’s Hause. ↩
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D. F. Strauss’s Charakteristiken und Kritiken, p. 27, questions the effectiveness of this apology and accepts Schleiermacher’s invitation to criticize the Soliloquies. ↩