Preface.

—firmest teachings, opinions, systems, and activities. Truth and error, light and darkness, play and seriousness appear as nothing but counterpoints. The purest as well as the most depraved way of thinking Original: Denkungsart; a common 18th-century term for a person’s mindset or intellectual character. are equally prevalent; the lowest and most sublime principles run alongside and against one another. Should the time not already be approaching, however, when a spirit from above—as living as it is two-edged—will penetrate the marrow and bone of the human race and bring about a great separation? This is a clear allusion to the New Testament (Hebrews 4:12), which describes the word of God as a "two-edged sword" piercing even to the "marrow and bone." The author is suggesting a coming moment of divine judgment or spiritual clarity.

While materialism and atheism still have their numerous aspirants, others build in deep silence and under the gentle influences of a steady light upon a temple of the Eternal Spirit, which can outlast more than one world. While so many of our contemporaries, incapable of true reflection, prefer to choose every appearance and shimmer rather than feeling the desire and calling for serious investigations into the highest concern of humanity, In the context of 18th-century religious philosophy, the "highest concern" usually refers to the immortality of the soul and the relationship between the human and the divine.