108 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
revolution," he repeatedly said, and "there is as little reason in
atheism as in deism." Knowledge alone would not solve all human
problems nor completely satisfy the craving of the human spirit.
Much of life remained a mystery, and like most men Weitling
groped in vain for a solution for the riddle of the universe. He
believed that "the mysterious emotions of love" often prove more
powerful than reason, and lead men to comprehend that "image
of highest love" which they seek in their search for God. "Only
when the last riddle of human existence has been solved," he
wrote, "can we know what God is." In the meantime, he preferred
to have man take God on faith, rather than to "sink his thoughts
into empty space."
Weitling was an agnostic, but his bruised spirit yearned for the
balsam of religion, and he was not prepared to dismiss the whole
world of religious experience as a mere opiate for the people.^4 He
was conscious of an impenetrable mystery surrounding the origin
of life, and to him that mystery suggested an "eternal, omnipotent,
unifying cause." Though his extravagant references to religious
terminology irritated Marx and his followers, Weitling refused
to abandon his efforts to unite "intelligence and morality," "head
and heart," the joint products of "the harmony of creation," in
the quest for the communal society.
Weitling, the prophet with a mission to perform, undoubtedly
was something of a fanatic, but in many respects he was a more
lovable person than Marx. He belongs in the same category as that
other lovable Utopian, Moses Hess, the son of a pious and learned
Jewish rabbi, who was Weitling's colleague in the League of the
Just and the pioneer of socialism in the Rhineland. His name also
may be linked with that of Karl Grün, the philologist and journal-
(^4) It will be recalled that Heine, who was in daily contact with Marx in Paris,
once wrote,
Wir wollen hier auf Erden schon
Das Himmelreich errichten...
Den Himmel überlassen wir
Den Engeln und den Spatzen.