He believed in freedom of
thought, but would not concede freedom of action or even of expression,
and would say with Bolingbroke, "Freedom belongs to a man as a rational
creature, he lies under the restraint as a member of society."
At these conclusions, Guenzburg arrived only after a long, severe, though
silent, struggle in the seclusion of his closet. His active mind would
not at first surrender unconditionally to the coercion of custom. But
his conception of ceremonialism served him in good stead on many an
occasion in his eventful life. Being an expedient to preserve harmony,
it may and must vary with change of conditions. Accordingly, Guenzburg
always accommodated himself to his environment. In Vilna he subscribed
to the regulations of the _Shulhan 'Aruk_, in Mitau he quickly and
completely became Germanized. Such adaptability rendered him conspicuous
wherever he went, and as early as 1829 his name was included among the
learned of Livonia, Esthland, and Courland in the Biographical
Dictionary then published by Recke and Napyersky.
His claim to fame, however, consists in the influence he exerted upon
Russian Jews.
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