In October "the misty vision" took palpable shape, and the Brays, Miss Hennell, and Miss Evans had a delightful fortnight in Scotland, visiting Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine, The Trossachs, Stirling, Edinburgh, Melrose, and Abbotsford. They were away from the 14th to the 28th, and on returning to Coventry Strauss was taken up again. Miss Hennell was reading the translation, and aiding with suggestions and corrections. The next letter to her seems to be dated in November.
[Sidenote: Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, Nov. 1845.]
Please to tell Mr. Hennell that "habits of thought" is not a translation of the word _particularismus_. This does not mean national idiosyncrasy, but is a word which characterizes that idiosyncrasy. If he decidedly objects to particularism, ask him to be so good as substitute _exclusiveness_, though there is a shade of meaning in _particularismus_ which even that does not express. It was because the word could only be translated by a circumlocution that I ventured to Anglicize it.
[Sidenote: Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, Tuesday morning, Dec. (?) 1845.]
I have been idle, and have not done a stroke to the prefaces, but they shall be sent as soon as possible. Thanks for the copy of the Latin preface and letter. They are in preconceived harmony with my ideas of the appropriate.
I will leave the titlepage to you and Mr. Hennell. Thanks for the news in your last _extra Blatt_. I am glad to find that the theological organs are beginning to deal with philosophy, but I can hardly imagine your writer to be a friend with a false cognizance on his shield. These dear orthodox people talk so simply sometimes that one cannot help fancying them satirists of their own doctrines and fears, though they mean manfully to fight against the enemy. I should like if possible to throw the emphasis on _critically_ in the titlepage. Strauss means it to be so: and yet I do not know how we can put anything better than what you say.
[Sidenote: Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, Dec. 1845.]
I send you to-day the conclusion of the chapter you are reading, and, unless you find anything of importance to be rectified, you need not return this to me, but may forward the whole to the printer as soon as you have read it. I am not altogether satisfied with the use of the word sacrament as applied specifically to the _Abendmahl_. It seems like a vulgarism to say _the_ sacrament for one thing, and for another it does not seem _ab_original enough in the life of Jesus; but I know of no other word that can be substituted. I have altered passover to paschal meal, but [Greek: tho pascha] is used in the New Testament of the eating of the lamb _par excellence_. You remember, in the title of the first section in the _Schluss_--which I had been so careless as to omit--the expression is "Nothwendiger Uebergang der Kritik in das Dogma." Now, dogmatism will not do, as that would represent _Dogmatismus_. "Dogmatik" is the idea, I believe--_i.e._, positive theology. Is it allowable to say _dogmatics_, think you? I do not understand how the want of manuscript can be so pressing, as I have only had one proof for the last fortnight. It seems quite dispiriting to me now not to see the proofs regularly. I have had a miserable week of headache, but am better now, and ready for work, to which I must go.