The Religious Sentiment Part 13
The long story of religious effort is not from fetichism to monotheism, as Comte read it; nor is its only possible goal inside the limits of the ego, as Feuerbach and the other Neo-Hegelians a.s.sert; but it is on its theoretical side to develope with greater and greater distinctness the immeasurable reality of pure thought, to dispense more and more with the quantification of the absolute, and to avoid in the representation of that Being the use of the technic of concrete existence.
Little by little we learn that the really true is never true in fact, that the really good is never good in act.[194-1] Carefully cherishing this distinction taught by mathematics and ethics, the religious mind learns to recognize in that only reality darkly seen through the gla.s.s of material things, that which should fix and fill its meditations.
Pa.s.sing beyond the domain of physical law, it occupies itself with that which defines the conditions of law. It contemplates an eternal activity, before which its own self-consciousness seems a flickering shadow, yet in that contemplation is not lost but gains an evergrowing personality.
This is the goal of religious striving, the hidden aim of the wars and persecutions, the polemics and martyrdoms, which have so busied and bloodied the world. This satisfies the rational postulates of religion.
Does some one say that it does not stimulate its emotional elements, that it does not supply the impulses of action which must ever be the criteria of the true faith? Is it not a religion at all, but a philosophy, a search, or if you prefer, a love for the truth?
Let such doubter ponder well the signification of truth, its relation to life, its ident.i.ty with the good, and the paramount might of wisdom and a clear understanding, and he will be ready to exclaim with the pa.s.sionate piety of St. Augustine: "_Ubi inveni veritatem, ibi inveni Deum meum, ipsam veritatem, quam, ex quo didici, non sum oblitus._"
From this brief review of its character, the Myth will be seen to be one of the transitory expressions of the religious sentiment, which in enlightened lands it has already outgrown and should lay aside. So far as it relates to events, real or alleged, historic or geologic, it deals with that which is indifferent to pure religion; and so far as it a.s.sumes to reveal the character, plans and temper of divinity, it is too evidently a reflex of man's personality to be worthy of serious refutation where it conflicts with the better guide he has within him.
FOOTNOTES:
[156-1] In this definition the word _apperception_ is used in the sense a.s.signed it by Professor Lazarus--the perception modified by imagination and memory. "Mythologie ist eine Apperceptionsform der Natur und des Menschen." (_Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie_, Bd. i., s. 44). Most recent mythologists omit the latter branch of the definition; for instance, "A myth is in its origin an explanation by the uncivilized mind of some natural phenomenon." (John Fiske, _Myths and Myth Makers_, p. 21). This is to omit that which gives the myth its only claim to be a product of the religious sentiment. Schopenhauer, in calling dogmas and myths "the metaphysics of the people," fell into the same error.
Religion, as such, is always concrete.
[159-1] Half a century ago the learned Mr. Faber, in his _Origin of Pagan Idolatry_, expressed his astonishment at "the singular, minute and regular accordance" between the cla.s.sical myths. That accordance has now been discovered to be world-wide.
[160-1] "Ganz gleiche Mythen konnen sehr fuglich, jede selbststandig, an verschiedenen Oerter emporkommen." _Briefe an Woelcker._
[161-1] The last two are the modern orthodox theories, supported by Bryant, Faber, Trench, De Maistre and Sepp. Medieval Christianity preferred the direct agency of the Devil. Primitive Christianity leaned to the opinion that the Grecian and Roman myth makers had stolen from the sacred writings of the Jews.
[165-1] Sir Wm. Hamilton, _Lectures on Metaphysics_. Appendix, p. 691.
[165-2] Creuzer, _Symbolik und Mythologie_, Bd. ii., s. 107.
[166-1] Th. Noldeke, _Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie_, Bd. iii., s.
131.
[166-2] See a note of Prof. Spiegel to Yacna, 29, of the _Khordah-Avesta_.
[167-1] ? ???a f?s?? a??? ?a? ?e?es?? pa?t??.
Plutarch, _De Iside_.
According to the Koran and the Jewish Rabbis, the throne of G.o.d rested on the primeval waters from which the earth was produced. See a note in Rodwell's translation of the Koran, _Sura_. xi.
[167-2] I have discussed some of these myths in the seventh chapter of the _Myths of the New World_.
[168-1] How it troubled the early Christians who dared not adopt the refuge of the Epochs of Nature, may be seen in the _Confessions_ of St.
Augustine, Lib. XI, cap. 10, et seq. He quotes the reply of one pushed by the inquiry, what G.o.d was doing before creation: "He was making a h.e.l.l for inquisitive busy-bodies." _Alta spectantibus gehennas parabat._
[170-1] Many interesting references to the Oriental flood-myth may be found in Cory's _Ancient Fragments_. See also, Dr. Fr. Windischmann, _Die Ursagen der Arischen Volker_, pp. 4-10. It is probable that in very ancient Semitic tradition Adam was represented as the survivor of a flood anterior to that of Noah. Maimonides relates that the Sabians believed the world to be eternal, and called Adam "the Prophet of the Moon," which symbolized, as we know from other sources, the deity of water. Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, _More Nevochim_, cap. iv. In early Christian symbolism Christ was called "the true Noah"; the dove accompanied him also, and as through Noah came "salvation by wood and water," so through Christ came "salvation by spirit and water." (See St.
Cyril of Jerusalem's _Catechetical Lectures_, Lect. xvii., cap. 10). The fish (?????) was the symbol of Christ as well as of Oannes. As the second coming of Christ was to be the destruction of the world, how plainly appear the germs of the myth of the Epochs of Nature in the Judaeo-Christian mind!
[171-1] Besides the expressions in the Book of Ecclesiastes and the later prophets, the doctrine is distinctly announced in one of the most sublime of the Psalms (xc), one attributed to "Moses the Man of G.o.d."
[172-1] Malachi, ch. iv., v. 2.
[175-1] C. F. Koppen, _Die Lamaische Hierarchie_, s. 28.
[175-2] Odainsakr, o privative, _dain_ death, _akr_ land, "the land of immortal life." Saxo Grammaticus speaks of it also. Another such land faintly referred to in the Edda is Breidablick, governed by Baldur, the Light-G.o.d.
[176-1] C. F. Koppen, _Die Lamaische Hierarchie und Kirche_, p. 17.
[179-1] John Stuart Mill, _Theism_, p. 256.
[183-1] Creuzer, _Symbolik und Mythologie_, Bd. II., s. 47
[184-1] This is the first line of Yacna, 42, of the _Khordah-Avesta_.
The Pa.r.s.ees believe that it is the salutation which meets the soul of the good on entering the next world.
[186-1] "Sight is the light sense. Through it we become acquainted with universal relations, this being _reason_. Without the eye there would be no reason." Lorenz Oken, _Elements of Physio-Philosophy_, p. 475.
[187-1] _History of Philosophy_, Vol. II. p. 638 (4th ed.)
[187-2] "The intolerance of almost all religions which have maintained the unity of G.o.d, is as remarkable as the contrary principle in polytheism." Hume, _Nat. Hist. of Religion_, Sec. ix.
[187-3] "The Lamas emphatically maintain monotheism to be the real character of Buddhism." Emil Schlagintweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 108.
[188-1] No one has seen the error here pointed out, and its injurious results on thought, more clearly than Comte himself. He is emphatic in condemning "le tendance involontaire a const.i.tuer l'unite speculative par l'ascendant universel des plus grossieres contemplations numerique, geometrique ou mecaniques." _Systeme de Politique Positive_; Tome I., p.
51. But he was too bia.s.sed to apply this warning to Christian thought.
The conception of the Universe in the logic of Professor De Morgan and Boole is an example of speculative unity.
[189-1] _Bhagavad Gita_, ch. iv.
[190-1] See the introduction by Mr. J. W. Etheridge to _The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel_ (London, 1862). St. Augustine believed the trinity is referred to in the opening verses of Genesis.
_Confessiones_, Lib. xiii. cap. 5. The early Christian writer, Theophilus of Antioch (circa 225), in his _Apologia_, recognizes the Jewish trinity only. It was a century later that the dogma was defined in its Athanasian form. See further, Isaac Preston Cory, _Ancient Fragments, with an Inquiry into the Trinity of the Gentiles_ (London, 1832).
[191-1] _The Unseen Universe_, p. 194.
[194-1] "A good will is the only altogether good thing in the world."--_Kant._ "What man conceives in himself is always superior to that reality which it precedes and prepares."--_Comte._
THE CULT, ITS SYMBOLS AND RITES.
SUMMARY.
The Symbol represents the unknown; the Rite is the ceremony of worship.
A symbol stands for the supernatural, an emblem for something known. The elucidation of symbolism is in the laws of the a.s.sociation of ideas. a.s.sociations of similarity give related symbols, of contiguity coincident symbols. Symbols tend either toward personification (iconolatry), or toward secularization. The symbol has no fixed interpretation. Its indefiniteness shown by the serpent symbol, and the cross. The physiological relations of certain symbols. Their cla.s.sification. The Lotus. The Pillar.
Symbols discarded by the higher religious thought. Esthetic and scientific symbolism (the "Doctrine of Correspondences").
Rites are either propitiatory or memorial. The former spring either from the idea of sacrifice or of specific performance. A sacrifice is a gift, but its measure is what it costs the giver. Specific performance means that a religious act should have no ulterior aim.