with a small request and, if necessary, a challenge

To Pastor Goeze in Hamburg

Brunswick, 1778

Venerable Man,

I would say ‘Venerable Friend’ if I were a person who, by publicly advertising his friendships, disingenuously sought to predispose others in his favour. On the contrary, I am one who has no wish to cast an unfavourable light on any neighbour by informing the public that he stands – or stood – with that neighbour in one of those closer relationships which the world is accustomed to describe as friendship. –

For I would certainly be entitled to describe as a friend a man who went out of his way to oblige me, of whom I got to know a side whose existence many are unwilling to recognise, and to whom I am still obliged, if only because his vigilant voice has so far sought to spare my name.

But as already noted, I seek to gain as little through my friends as I would wish them to lose through me.

So simply: Venerable Man! I beg you to be so kind as to devote some reflection to the following trifle. But I urge you in particular to state your response to the subsequent request, not just as a polemicist but also as an honest man and a Christian, as soon as possible.