to join forces. Mynster was coldly logical, calm and reserved, a lover of
form and orderly progress. Grundtvig was impetuous, and volcanic, in
constant ferment, always in search of spiritual reality and wholly
indifferent to outward appearances. His own experience had led him to
believe that a return to Evangelical Christianity could be effected only
through a clean break with Rationalism, and he could not understand
Mynster's apparent attempt to temporize and bring about a gradual
transition from one to the other. There should be no compromise between
truth and falsehood. All believers in the Gospel should stand up and
proclaim it fearlessly, no matter what the consequences.

And so Grundtvig wrote to Mynster: "Dear Rev. Mynster, I owe you an
apology for asking a question that in our days may appear inexcusable:
What is your real belief regarding the Bible and the faith of Jesus
Christ? If you humbly believe in God's Word, I shall rejoice with you
even if you differ with me in all other things. Dear Rev. Mynster--for
you are that to me--if my question appears unseemly, you must not let it
hurt you, for I have written only as my heart dictates." But Mynster did
feel offended and answered Grundtvig very coldly that his questions
implied an unwarranted and offensive doubt of his sincerity that must
make future intercourse between them difficult--if not impossible.

Nor was Grundtvig more successful with a letter of similar purport to
Oehlenschlaeger whose later writings he found lacked the spiritual
sincerity of his earlier work. "My concern about this," he wrote, "is
increased by the thought that this lessening of spirituality must be
expressive of a change in your own spiritual outlook, your inner
relationship with God whom all spiritual workers should serve, counting
it a greater achievement to inspire their fellow men with a true
adoration of our Lord than to win the acclaim of the world." But like
Mynster the highly feted poet accepted this frank questioning of his
inner motive as an unwarranted impertinence, the stupid intrusion of an
intolerable fanatic with whom no friend of true enlightenment could have
anything to do. Grundtvig was fast finding out what it means to be
counted a fool for Christ's sake--or for what he thought was Christ's
sake.

In the midst of these troubles Grundtvig again turned his attention to
history, his favorite subject from childhood days. His retreat from the
present to the past impl