text:
Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 1.djvu/234

120

1. 'Spirit (prâna) is better than hope. As the spokes of a wheel hold to the nave, so does all this (beginning with names and ending in hope) hold to spirit. That spirit moves by the spirit, it gives spirit to the spirit. Father means spirit, mother is spirit, brother is spirit, sister is spirit, tutor is spirit, Brâhmana is spirit.

2. 'For if one says anything unbecoming to a father, mother, brother, sister, tutor or Brâhmana, then people say, Shame on thee! thou hast offended thy father, mother, brother, sister, tutor, or a Brâhmana.

3. 'But, if after the spirit has departed from them, one shoves them together with a poker, and burns them to pieces, no one would say, Thou offendest thy father, mother, brother, sister, tutor or a Brâhmana.

4. 'Spirit then is all this. He who sees this, perceives this, and understands this, becomes an ativâdin. If people say to such a man, Thou


text:
Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 1.djvu/235

Rh art an ativâdin, he may say, I am an ativâdin; he need not deny it.'

1. 'But in reality he is an ativâdin who declares the Highest Being to be the True (Satya).'

'Sir, may I become an ativâdin by the True.'

'But we must desire to know the True.'

'Sir, I desire to know the True.

1. 'When one understands the True, then one declares the True. One who does not understand it, does not declare the True. Only he who understands it, declares the True. This understanding, however, we must desire to understand.'

'Sir, I desire to understand it.'

1. 'When one perceives, then one understands. One who does not perceive, does not understand. Only he who perceives, understands. This perception, however, we must desire to understand.'

'Sir, I desire to understand it.'

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 1.djvu/236

122

1. 'When one believes, then one perceives. One who does not believe, does not perceive. Only he who believes, perceives. This belief, however, we must desire to understand.'

'Sir, I desire to understand it.'

1. 'When one attends on a tutor (spiritual guide), then one believes. One who does not attend on a tutor, does not believe. Only he who attends, believes. This attention on a tutor, however, we must desire to understand.'

'Sir, I desire to understand it.'

1. 'When one performs all sacred duties, then one attends really on a tutor. One who does not perform his duties, does not really attend on a tutor. Only he who performs his duties, attends on his tutor. This performance of duties, however, we must desire to understand.'

'Sir, I desire to understand it.'

1. 'When one obtains bliss (in oneself), then one performs duties. One who does not obtain bliss, does not perform duties. Only he who obtains bliss, performs duties. This bliss, however, we must desire to understand.'

'Sir, I desire to understand it.'


text:
Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 1.djvu/237

Rh

1. 'The Infinite (bhûman) is bliss. There is no bliss in anything finite. Infinity only is bliss. This Infinity, however, we must desire to understand.'

'Sir, I desire to understand it.'

1. 'Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is the Infinite. Where one sees something else, hears something else, understands something else, that is the finite. The Infinite is immortal, the finite is mortal.'

'Sir, in what does the Infinite rest?'

'In its own greatness—or not even in greatness .'

2. 'In the world they call cows and horses, elephants and gold, slaves, wives, fields and houses greatness. I do not mean this,' thus he spoke; 'for in that case one being (the possessor) rests in something else, (but the Infinite cannot rest in something different from itself.)

1. 'The Infinite indeed is below, above, behind, before, right and left—it is indeed alt this.

'Now follows the explanation of the Infinite as


text:
Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 1.djvu/238

124 the I: I am below, I am above, I am behind, before, right and left—I am all this.

2. 'Next follows the explanation of the Infinite as the Self: Self is below, above, behind, before, right and left—Self is all this.

'He who sees, perceives, and understands this, loves the Self, delights in the Self, revels in the Self, rejoices in the Self—he becomes a Svarâg, (an autocrat or self-ruler); he is lord and master in all the worlds.

'But those who think differently from this, live in perishable worlds, and have other beings for their rulers.

1. 'To him who sees, perceives, and understands this the spirit (prâna) springs from the Self, hope springs from the Self, memory springs from the Self; so do ether, fire, water, appearance and disappearance, food, power, understanding, reflection, consideration, will, mind, speech, names, sacred hymns, and sacrifices—aye, all this springs from the Self.

2. 'There is this verse, "He who sees this, does not see death, nor illness, nor pain; he who sees this, sees everything, and obtains everything everywhere.

'"He is one (before creation), he becomes three


text:
Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/339

 wherefore B will also be the definition of C, hence if both signify what a thing is, and what the very nature of it is, there will be the very nature of a thing prior in the middle term. Universally also, if it is possible to show what man is, let C be man, but A what he is, whether biped animal, or any thing else; in order then that a conclusion should be drawn, A must necessarily be predicated of every B, and of this there will be another middle definition, so that this also will be a definition of a man, wherefore a person assumes what he ought to show, for B also is the definition of a man.

We must however consider it in two propositions, and in first and immediate (principles), for what is stated becomes thus especially evident: they therefore who show what the soul is, or what man or any thing else is, by conversion, beg the question, as if a man should assume the soul to be that which is the cause to itself of life, and that this is number moving itself, he must necessarily so assume as a postulate that the soul is number moving itself, as that it is the same thing. For it does not follow if A is consequent to B, and this to C, that A will therefore be the definition of the essence of C, but it will be only possible to say that this is true, nor if A is that which is predicated essentially of every B. For the very nature of animal is predicated of the very nature of man, since it is true that whatever exists as man, exists as animal, (just as every man is animal,) yet not so, as for both to be one thing. If then a person does not assume this, he will not


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/414

392 broth,' replied Spinoza. "It is a practical and politic method, but not applicable to my case. My dear doctor, I do not want you to be angry with me, but what are such proposals to me?"

"I only told, you of them to fulfil my commission; I personally have something else to say to you. Youth will not see that there is really no such thing as absolute truth, that such a thing cannot exist in the world, because it would be tyrannically absolute. He who knows the fate of man, and has lived a long life of his own, knows that historical truth alone is worth anything. You are too modest and humble to be a scoffer; you see, even God allows the many-sidedness of truth; grant—"

"And my intelligence of Him obliges me to follow that perception."

"Hold firmly to that, and at the same time hold to the conditions of history. Whether you come to my conviction that no philosophy can reveal the secrets of the world further than the Jewish revelation, or whether you are of another opinion, and accept the Messianic time as one in which your absolute intellectual truth reigns; look back: if it were for nothing but the memory of the innumerable multitude who were murdered for our faith, this alone must keep us fast within its sacred walls. A religion which despises the joys of life, and teaches love of a fearful death for its sake, must it not contain the first spring of truth? Who would

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/414


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/415

Rh dam it up with a rash hand because in course of time it runs muddily? The blood of your brothers and sisters murdered in the past cries to Heaven for vengeance on you, for you defile their honorable graves by writing on their tombstones that they died for illusion and error."

"I do not do so; it is calumny to say so of me: the Jewish laws are great and holy to me; in them the Godhead for those times most clearly revealed himself; blessed are they who know and live according to them; but has the Divinity since those times ceased to live in the minds of men? Are all later born races doomed to stop where the former stood, and fetter themselves with old forms? The form fades, the spirit remains eternal, renewed in youth, and increasing ever in strength."

"A powerful mind is in you," began Silva again, controlling himself; "your moderation assures me that you will be a great man. Weak natures are violent and wrathful in controversy, but never the strong. Do not throw a stone in the well you have drunk from. Your resolution to freely sacrifice all for the truth, you have inherited from the Jews. Be thankful. Show your power by self-control, be faithful to yourself and your own, and be not led away to apostasy."

"There is no apostasy but from ourselves."

"We shall all honor you, I above the rest, if you control yourself."

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/415


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/416

394 "And I shall be disgraced in my own eyes."

Confusion and dejection were seen in Silva's face; everything, even just appreciation of his virtue, was in vain with Spinoza. The physician rose and cried:

"Alas! you are lost. I can only pray to God to let in the light of day on you, that the ignis fatuus which leads you into marsh and slough may vanish."

Tears stood in Silva's eyes as he spoke; he turned and went away. Spinoza was deeply moved by the conversation; he was much pained to have so grieved the reverend old man, and not to be able to obey him; but how otherwise could he or durst he act?

It was much easier for Spinoza to dismiss the last tempter. In the afternoon Chisdai came, and as soon as he had entered the door he threw himself on the floor and sat as if mourning.

"What is that for?" said Spinoza.

"Alas!" cried Chisdai, muttering to the floor, without raising his head, "has the unclean spirit in thee made thee forget everything? Do you no longer know the story of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos?"

"Very well; he wanted to prove his view of the permissible use of a baker's oven by miracles, and was excommunicated for it. No one would take him the news till Rabbi Akiba did as you are doing

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/416


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/417

Rh here. Am I not still a good Talmudist? But get up; I can neither tell a tree to place itself elsewhere, nor water that it should flow backwards, nor the walls either that they should bend inward; they none of them obey me."

"So!" cried Chisdai, springing up, and shaking his fist fiercely, "so you mock at the Talmud too? You see I came here in peace; I would have warned you to fear God, and showed you that I did not oppose you in jealousy or any other base passion; but words are lost on you. Go thy ways! The carrion crows beside the stream will peck out thine eyes, and the young eagles devour them."

"You can pervert the Bible, like a good Talmudist as you are; the Scriptures only lay that curse on one who mocks at and scorns his father and mother."

"That you have done seventy times seven, you reprobate. But your punishment will not tarry; you will yet be stoned to death, and men will cast stones in heaps on thy carcass, for a warning to all coming generations. Take heed to thyself; if I get thee into my hands I will tear thee as men tear fish, until thy breath can no longer poison the air."

"Talmud again," laughed Spinoza; "but remember the Talmud also says, 'It is good that the ass hath no horns.'"

Chisdai foamed at the mouth with rage, but hearing some one on the stairs he went out.

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/417


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/418

396 "What sort of a featherless biped is it that has just left you?" said Meyer, entering; "he looks like an incarnate original sin."

Spinoza laughed heartily at the description.

"You have ridden your hobby horse to the right post this time," said he; "but this original sin wanted to lead me back into the Jewish paradise."

Meyer exhorted him to oppose the Jewish Papacy with all his usual power and firmness, and as he soon took his leave, Spinoza too went out.

For the first time he felt not at home alone within his own four walls; he found it impossible to concentrate his mind as formerly on the investigation of any particular line of thought; he needed a friendly cheerful heart with whom he could unbend, and forget the storm of the day. Where should he seek it if not with Olympia? He went there, and found her in confidential conversation with Kerkering. He thought both looked strangely surprised when he entered; he guessed rightly that he had been the subject of their conversation.

Olympia, as usual, easily mastered her agitation.

"You appeared to me in a dream last night, Herr von Spinoza," she said in the course of conversation; "you must guess in what form."

"You believe in neither angels nor devils; perhaps you saw me in the form of a monk?"

"No, guess again."

"An Emperor?"

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/418


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/419

Rh "No."

"A Rabbi? A Pope?"

"No, you are not guessing now, I know. I saw you as Masaniello, with a fishing net on your back; your red embroidered cap with the long tassel suited your coal-black hair, and your sleeves were rolled up above your elbows. I saw you carried through the streets that way, by a crowd of Jews, to the new Town Hall; there you climbed up to the golden ship on the tower and cried: 'Fellow-citizens, you who, as Erasmus of Rotterdam says, live like crows on the tops of trees! I see your fork-like chimneys and your double-faced gables, I see the canals and dams that intersect your land, and your life that flows on as much contracted, and without free tide, in the preordained way. I tell you, this will all be changed. I erase the "You should" from your book of life, and in my doctrine write it, "You must, for you can." You think fish are mute? It is not true. I have caught a legion from the depth of the sea, who all speak wisdom.' Then you took your net from your back, it was empty; you turned it round, and an infinite number of fish fell out; they glittered beautifully in the sun, their fins became wings, and they fluttered away screaming. You, however, remained there, and uttered a Philippic against the legend that, on the day on which the envoys of the Seven United Provinces should go through the seven doors of the

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/419


text:
Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/340

 conclude that A is the very nature and substance of C, but if he thus assume it, he will assume prior to the conclusion that B is the definition of the essence of C. Therefore there has been no demonstration, for he has made a "petitio principii."

Chapter 5
, neither does the method through divisions infer a conclusion, as we observed in the analysis about figures, since it is never necessary that when these things exist, that should exist, as neither does he demonstrate who forms an induction. For the conclusion ought not to inquire nor to exist from being granted, but it necessarily is, when they exist, although the respondent does not acknowledge it. Is man (for instance) animal or inanimate, if he has assumed him to be an animal, it has not been syllogistically concluded. Again, every animal is either pedestrian or aquatic, he assumes it pedestrian, and that man is that whole animal pedestrian, is not necessary from what is said, but he assumes also this. It signifies nothing however, whether he does this in respect of many things or few, since it is the same thing; to those therefore who thus proceed, and in what is capable of syllogistic conclusion, this use is unsyllogistic. For what prevents the whole of this being true of man, yet without enunciating what a thing is, or the very nature of it? Again, what prevents something being added to, or taken away from, or exceeding the essence?

Negligence then happens about these things, but we may avoid it by assuming all things (as granted) in respect of what a thing is, and the first being made a postulate by arranging the order


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/420

398 finished Town Hall the good-fortune of each province would desert it and never return. And then you explained how your philosophy corresponded with the water communication of our land; how they could break and control storms and tides; how men could drain flooded land from the stream of sensations, and make it dry and fertile; everything was perfectly clear, I understood it quite well in my dream. Now I am, unfortunately, as unphilosophical again as the grauw—the crowd—who roared and shrieked, 'He is a wizard, he is a son of the Devil!' and pulled down the Town Hall. I awoke. If you only possessed some of Daniel's art!"

Spinoza asked if she had spoken to Frau Gertrui lately; Olympia protested she had not seen her for several weeks. It was really a strange coincidence, for Spinoza had two days ago begun the odd freak of drawing his own portrait as Masaniello. He told Olympia nothing of this, because he knew that she was much given, in spite of her free-thinking opinions, to building up wonderful theories of premonition. To-day, too, he did not feel at ease with her. Was it the presence of Kerkering, or was it because he had come there with a full heart, and saw too late that he should find no sympathy here in his painful conflict? An undefined uncertainty and doubt pervaded his connection with Olympia. He saw that Kerkering became more and more familiar with her, and she did not, as formerly,

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/420


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/421

Rh keep him jestingly at a distance. He even thought he perceived a secret understanding between them. When he left, Olympia said:

"Your sister Rebecca came to me to-day. I was to persuade you to submit to the Rabbis."

Spinoza bowed in silence. How could she relate her dream and carry on such jests, instead of imparting this circumstance? Must it not have made her heart full that his sister should come entreatingly to her? "You should not expect others to know an emotion which you suppress in yourself," he said to himself.

Miriam, who had lived with him in sisterly love from childhood, came to him, and only inquired shyly about his love; while Rebecca, the domineering, who had always been estranged from him, went straight to Olympia. What must she have appeared to her? Perhaps she had made his beloved one's heart doubtful, and given her a dislike to his family.

Spinoza felt his cheeks burn. He was on the point of cutting loose from all bonds of family and all chains of habit, but could never endure these to be despised.

Love and truth should have stood by him in the conflict now opening on him. Did truth alone remain to him?

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/421


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/422

N innumerable crowd lined the streets, praying with folded hands to the Lord that he would protect the undertaking of their liberator. In front rode the Imperial herald with the eagle, and the soldier of God's Word followed, accompanied by travellers the same way in shining steel and gorgeous accoutrements. And when he entered the assembly, his admirers climbed on the roofs, and filled the streets and windows, for each one esteemed himself highly favored who caught sight of him. And when he had boldly and manfully fought the battle, he was borne home in triumph, and a voice was heard to cry, "Blessed are the hands that bear him." Thus, in the year 1521, Martin Luther went to Worms, the bold champion of the freedom of the Divine Word.

It is hard to sustain a conflict with power and custom at any time; it is painful to support it publicly; but the thousand upturned sympathetic faces are like a glory round the head of the champion, and raise his strength to be the strength of thousands. And if he finds himself overcome, he has felt the blessings of innumerable hearts in whom

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/422


text: Spinoza: A novel/Chapter 23

title: Spinoza: A novel/Chapter 23


text:
Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/341

 in division, omitting nothing. This however is requisite for it is necessary that there should be an individual, yet nevertheless there is not a syllogism, but if so it indicates after another manner. And this is not at all absurd, since neither perhaps does he who makes an induction demonstrate, though at the same time he renders something manifest, but he who selects definition from division does not state a syllogism. For as in conclusions without media, if a man state that from such things being granted, this particular thing necessarily exists, it is possible to inquire why, thus also is it definitions by division. What is man? A mortal animal, pedestrian, biped, without wings. Why? according to each addition, for he will state and show by division as he thinks that every one is either mortal or immortal. The whole however of such a sentence is not definition, wherefore though it should be demonstrated by division, yet the definition does not become a syllogism.

Chapter 6
it however possible to demonstrate what a thing is according to substance, but from hypothesis assuming that the very nature of a thing in the question what it is, is something of its


text:
Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/423

Rh his ideas will live. How very different it is to gird for a conflict without victory in mute obscurity!

In the year 1657 Benedict Spinoza went alone to the House of Jacob Synagogue in Amsterdam, accompanied by no one, greeted by no one. The people who knew him avoided this man, who was the firmest champion of the freedom of religious thought. He had no old written law to conquer for the world anew; he appeared as if he would deprive it of its strongest fortress, since he would have naught but the good old right of free thought.

In the synagogue the ten Judges sat in their seats, the president being Rabbi Isaak Aboab. Near him sat Rabbi Saul Morteira. Spinoza stood four paces distant from him. Rabbi Isaak Aboab rose and said:

"With the help of God we are here assembled to declare judgment and law on thee, Baruch ben Benjamin Spinoza. Swear to us in the name of the Almighty God that thou wilt neither deny nor conceal anything from us, and that thou wilt submit to the sentence which the Lord shall make known by our mouths."

"Deceit I know not, and lies are far from me," answered Spinoza; "I will submit to your judgment, if you judge me according to the Divine Word, and not according to the inclinations of your own hearts and the interpretations of the Rabbis."

A murmur rose in the assembly, but it could be

title: Page:Auerbach-Spinozanovel.djvu/423


text:
Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/344

 know what tragelaphos is. Moreover, if he should show what a thing is, and that it is, how will he show this in the same sentence? for both definition and also demonstration manifest one certain thing, but what man is is one thing, and the essence of man is another.

We next say that it is necessary to show by demonstration every thing, that it is, except it be substance, but to be, is not substance to any thing, for being is not the genus. There will then be demonstration that it is, and this the sciences now effect. For what a triangle means, the geometrician assumes, but that it is, he demonstrates. What then will he who defines what it is, prove? that it is a triangle? he then who knows what it is by definition, will not know if it is, but this is impossible.

Evidently then those who define according to the present methods of definition, do not demonstrate that a thing is, for although those lines be equal which are drawn from the middle, yet why is it the thing defined? and why is this a circle? for we might say that there is the same definition of brass. For neither do definitions demonstrate that it is possible for that to be which is asserted, nor that that thing is, of which they say there are definitions, but it is always possible to say why.

If then he who defines shows either what a thing is or what the name signifies, except there is, by no means (an explanation) of what a thing is, definition will be a sentence signifying the same thing as a name, but this is absurd. For in the first place


text: Little Men/Chapter 2

title: Little Men/Chapter 2


text:
Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/345

 there would be a definition of non-essences and of non-entities, since it is possible even for non-entities to have a signification. Again, all sentences will be definitions, for we might give a name to any sentence, so that we might all discuss in definitions, and the Iliad would be a definition. Besides, no science would demonstrate that this name signifies this thing, neither therefore do definitions manifest this.

From these things therefore it appears that neither definition nor syllogism are the same thing, nor are syllogism and definition of the same thing, moreover that definition neither demonstrates nor shows any thing, and that we can know what a thing is neither by definition nor by demonstration.

Chapter 8
we must consider which of these things is well, and which is not well asserted, also what definition is, and whether there is in a certain way or by no means a demonstration and definition of what a thing is. Now since it is the same thing as we have said to know what a thing is, and to know the cause wherefore it is, and the reason of this is, that there is a certain cause, and this is either the same or another, and if it is another, it is either demonstrable or indemonstrable; if then it is another, and is capable of demonstration, it is necessary that the cause should be a medium, and should be demonstrated in the first figure, for that which is demonstrated is both universal and affirmative. Now one method will be that which has been now investigated, viz. to demonstrate what a thing is through something else, for of those things which


text: Little Men/Chapter 3

title: Little Men/Chapter 3


text: Little Men/Chapter 4

title: Little Men/Chapter 4


text: Little Men/Chapter 5

title: Little Men/Chapter 5


text: Little Men/Chapter 6

title: Little Men/Chapter 6


text: Little Men/Chapter 7

title: Little Men/Chapter 7


text: Little Men/Chapter 8

title: Little Men/Chapter 8


text: Little Men/Chapter 9

title: Little Men/Chapter 9


text: Little Men/Chapter 10

title: Little Men/Chapter 10


text: Little Men/Chapter 11

title: Little Men/Chapter 11


text: Little Men/Chapter 12

title: Little Men/Chapter 12


text: Little Men/Chapter 13

title: Little Men/Chapter 13


text:
Author:George Henry Haydon

Works

 * Five Years' Experience in Australia Felix (1846)
 * The Australian Emigrant: A Rambling Story, Containing as Much Fact as Fiction (1854)
 * "Out of the World" in Once a Week, Series 1, 6 (1862) illustrated by the author

title: Author:George Henry Haydon


text: Little Men/Chapter 14

title: Little Men/Chapter 14


text: Little Men/Chapter 15

title: Little Men/Chapter 15


text: The Australian Emigrant/Chapter 6

title: The Australian Emigrant/Chapter 6


text: Little Men/Chapter 16

title: Little Men/Chapter 16


text: Little Men/Chapter 17

title: Little Men/Chapter 17


text: Little Men/Chapter 18

title: Little Men/Chapter 18


text: Little Men/Chapter 19

title: Little Men/Chapter 19


text: Little Men/Chapter 20

title: Little Men/Chapter 20


text: Little Men/Chapter 21

title: Little Men/Chapter 21


text: The Australian Emigrant/Chapter 7

title: The Australian Emigrant/Chapter 7


text: The Australian Emigrant/Chapter 8

title: The Australian Emigrant/Chapter 8


text:
Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/240

220

 * }


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/279

Rh both 'yeses' and 'noes,' and the 'will' is called on then to solve the conflict. Take a soldier, for example, with his dread of cowardice impelling him to advance, his fears impelling him to run, and his propensities to imitation pushing him towards various courses if his comrades offer various examples. His person becomes the seat of a mass of interferences; and he may for a time simply waver, because no one emotion prevails. There is a pitch of intensity, though, which, if any emotion reach it, enthrones that one as alone effective and sweeps its antagonists and all their inhibitions away. The fury of his comrades' charge, once entered on, will give this pitch of courage to the soldier; the panic of their rout will give this pitch of fear. In these sovereign excitements, things ordinarily impossible grow natural because the inhibitions are annulled. Their 'no! no!' not only is not heard, it does not exist. Obstacles are then like tissue-paper hoops to the circus rider—no impediment; the flood is higher than the dam they make. "Lass sie betteln gehn wenn sie hungrig sind!" cries the grenadier, frantic over his Emperor's capture, when his wife and babes are suggested; and men pent into a burning theatre have been known to cut their way through the crowd with knives.


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/280

264 One mode of emotional excitability is exceedingly important in the composition of the energetic character, from its peculiarly destructive power over inhibitions. I mean what in its lower form is mere irascibility, susceptibility to wrath, the fighting temper; and what in subtler ways manifests itself as impatience, grimness, earnestness, severity of character. Earnestness means willingness to live with energy, though energy bring pain. The pain may be pain to other people or pain to one's self—it makes little difference; for when the strenuous mood is on one, the aim is to break something, no matter whose or what. Nothing annihilates an inhibition as irresistibly as anger does it; for, as Moltke says of war, destruction pure and simple is its essence. This is what makes it so invaluable an ally of every other passion. The sweetest delights are trampled on with a ferocious pleasure the moment they offer themselves as checks to a cause by which our higher indignations are elicited. It costs, then, nothing to drop friendships, to renounce long-rooted privileges and possessions, to break with social ties. Rather do we take a stern joy in the astringency and desolation; and what is called weakness of character seems in most cases to consist in the inaptitude for these sacrificial moods, of which one's own inferior self and its pet softnesses must often be the targets and the victims.


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/289

Rh 2. A sense of the friendly continuity of the ideal power with our own life, and a willing self-surrender to its control.

3. An immense elation and freedom, as the outlines of the confining selfhood melt down.

4. A shifting of the emotional centre towards loving and harmonious affections, towards 'yes, yes,' and away from 'no,' where the claims of the non-ego are concerned.

These fundamental inner conditions have characteristic practical consequences, as follows:—

a. Asceticism.—The self-surrender may become so passionate as to turn into self-immolation. It may then so overrule the ordinary inhibitions of the flesh that the saint finds positive pleasure in sacrifice and asceticism, measuring and expressing as they do the degree of his loyalty to the higher power.

b. Strength of Soul.—The sense of enlargement of life may be so uplifting that personal motives and inhibitions, commonly omnipotent, become too insignificant for notice, and new reaches of patience and fortitude open out. Fears and anxieties go, and blissful equanimity takes their place. Come heaven, come hell, it makes no difference now!


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/359

Rh of religion's account, so long as the religious person's intellect is on the stage which the despotic kind of God satisfies. But as soon as the God is represented as less intent on his own honor and glory, it ceases to be a danger.

Fanaticism is found only where the character is masterful and aggressive. In gentle characters, where devoutness is intense and the intellect feeble, we have an imaginative absorption in the love of God to the exclusion of all practical human interests, which, though innocent enough, is too one-sided to be admirable. A mind too narrow has room but for one kind of affection. When the love of God takes possession of such a mind, it expels all human loves and human uses. There is no English name for such a sweet excess of devotion, so I will refer to it as a theopathic condition.

The blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque may serve as an example.

"To be loved here upon the earth," her recent biographer exclaims: "to be loved by a noble, elevated, distinguished being; to be loved with fidelity, with devotion,—what enchantment! But to be loved by God! and loved by him to distraction [aimé jusqù'à la folie]!—Margaret melted away with love at the thought of such a thing. Like Saint Philip of Neri in former times, or like Saint Francis Xavier, she said to God: 'Hold back, O my God, these torrents which overwhelm me, or else enlarge my capacity for their reception.'"

The most signal proofs of God's love which Margaret Mary received were her hallucinations of sight, touch, and hearing, and the most signal in turn of these were the revelations of Christ's sacred heart, "surrounded with rays more brilliant than the Sun, and transparent like a crystal. The wound which he received on the cross visibly appeared upon it. There


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/360

344 was a crown of thorns round about this divine Heart, and a cross above it." At the same time Christ's voice told her that, unable longer to contain the flames of his love for mankind, he had chosen her by a miracle to spread the knowledge of them. He thereupon took out her mortal heart, placed it inside of his own and inflamed it, and then replaced it in her breast, adding: "Hitherto thou hast taken the name of my slave, hereafter thou shalt be called the well-beloved disciple of my Sacred Heart."

In a later vision the Saviour revealed to her in detail the 'great design' which he wished to establish through her instrumentality. "I ask of thee to bring it about that every first Friday after the week of holy Sacrament shall be made into a special holy day for honoring my Heart by a general communion and by services intended to make honorable amends for the indignities which it has received. And I promise thee that my Heart will dilate to shed with abundance the influences of its love upon all those who pay to it these honors, or who bring it about that others do the same."

"This revelation," says Mgr. Bougaud, "is unquestionably the most important of all the revelations which have illumined the Church since that of the Incarnation and of the Lord's Supper. … After the Eucharist, the supreme effort of the Sacred Heart." Well, what were its good fruits for Margaret Mary's life? Apparently little else but sufferings and prayers and absences of mind and swoons and ecstasies. She became increasingly useless about the convent, her absorption in Christ's love,—

"which grew upon her daily, rendering her more and more incapable of attending to external duties. They tried her in the infirmary, but without much success, although her kindness, zeal, and devotion were without bounds, and her charity rose to acts of such a heroism that our readers would not bear the recital


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/361

Rh of them. They tried her in the kitchen, but were forced to give it up as hopeless—everything dropped out of her hands. The admirable humility with which she made amends for her clumsiness could not prevent this from being prejudicial to the order and regularity which must always reign in a community. They put her in the school, where the little girls cherished her, and cut pieces out of her clothes [for relics] as if she were already a saint, but where she was too absorbed inwardly to pay the necessary attention. Poor dear sister, even less after her visions than before them was she a denizen of earth, and they had to leave her in her heaven."

Poor dear sister, indeed! Amiable and good, but so feeble of intellectual outlook that it would be too much to ask of us, with our Protestant and modern education, to feel anything but indulgent pity for the kind of saintship which she embodies. A lower example still of theopathic saintliness is that of Saint Gertrude, a Benedictine nun of the thirteenth century, whose 'Revelations,' a well-known mystical authority, consist mainly of proofs of Christ's partiality for her undeserving person. Assurances of his love, intimacies and caresses and compliments of the most absurd and puerile sort, addressed by Christ to Gertrude as an individual, form the tissue of this paltry-minded recital. In reading such a narrative,


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/362

346 we realize the gap between the thirteenth and the twentieth century, and we feel that saintliness of character may yield almost absolutely worthless fruits if it be associated with such inferior intellectual sympathies. What with science, idealism, and democracy, our own imagination has grown to need a God of an entirely different temperament from that Being interested exclusively in dealing out personal favors, with whom our ancestors were so contented. Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness; and even the best professional sainthood of former centuries, pent in as it is to such a conception, seems to us curiously shallow and unedifying.

Take Saint Teresa, for example, one of the ablest women, in many respects, of whose life we have the record. She had a powerful intellect of the practical order. She wrote admirable descriptive psychology, possessed a will equal to any emergency, great talent for politics and business, a buoyant disposition, and a first-rate literary style. She was tenaciously aspiring, and put her whole life at the service of her religious ideals. Yet so paltry were these, according to our present way of thinking, that (although I know that others have been moved differently) I confess that my only feeling in


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/369

Rh false accusations and unjust reprimands as opportunities of humility; and such was his obedience that, when a room-mate, having no more paper, asked him for a sheet, he did not feel free to give it to him without first obtaining the permission of the superior, who, as such, stood in the place of God, and transmitted his orders.

I can find no other sorts of fruit than these of Louis's saintship. He died in 1591, in his twenty-ninth year, and is known in the Church as the patron of all young people. On his festival, the altar in the chapel devoted to him in a certain church in Rome "is embosomed in flowers, arranged with exquisite taste; and a pile of letters may be seen at its foot, written to the Saint by young men and women, and directed to 'Paradiso.' They are supposed to be burnt unread except by San Luigi, who must find singular petitions in these pretty little missives, tied up now with a green ribbon, expressive of hope, now with a red one, emblematic of love," etc.


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/370

354 Our final judgment of the worth of such a life as this will depend largely on our conception of God, and of the sort of conduct he is best pleased with in his creatures. The Catholicism of the sixteenth century paid little heed to social righteousness; and to leave the world to the devil whilst saving one's own soul was then accounted no discreditable scheme. To-day, rightly or wrongly, helpfulness in general human affairs is, in consequence of one of those secular mutations in moral sentiment of which I spoke, deemed an essential element of worth in character; and to be of some public or private use is also reckoned as a species of divine service. Other early Jesuits, especially the missionaries among them, the Xaviers, Brébeufs, Jogues, were objective minds, and fought in their way for the world's welfare; so their lives to-day inspire us. But when the intellect, as in this Louis, is originally no larger than a pin's head, and cherishes ideas of God of corresponding smallness, the result, notwithstanding the heroism put forth, is on the whole repulsive. Purity, we see in the object-lesson, is not the one thing needful; and it is better that a life should contract many a dirt-mark, than forfeit usefulness in its efforts to remain unspotted.


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/391

Rh, and to the mixture we owe many of our blessings. But the aggressive members of society are always tending to become bullies, robbers, and swindlers; and no one believes that such a state of things as we now live in is the millennium. It is meanwhile quite possible to conceive an imaginary society in which there should be no aggressiveness, but only sympathy and fairness,—any small community of true friends now realizes such a society. Abstractly considered, such a society on a large scale would be the millennium, for every good thing might be realized there with no expense of friction. To such a millennial society the saint would be entirely adapted. His peaceful modes of appeal would be efficacious over his companions, and there would be no one extant to take advantage of his non-resistance. The saint is therefore abstractly a higher type of man than the 'strong man,' because he is adapted to the highest society conceivable, whether that society ever be concretely possible or not. The strong man would immediately tend by his presence to make that society deteriorate. It would become inferior in everything save in a certain kind of bellicose excitement, dear to men as they now are.

But if we turn from the abstract question to the actual situation, we find that the individual saint may be well or ill adapted, according to particular circumstances. There is, in short, no absoluteness in the excellence of sainthood. It must be confessed that as far as this world goes, any one who makes an out-and-out saint of himself does so at his peril. If he is not a large enough man, he may appear more insignificant and contemptible, for all his saintship, than if he had remained a worldling. Accordingly religion has seldom been so radically


text:
Letters of Julian

 * Introduction to the letters
 * Letters 1–58 with dates:
 * Letter 1. To Priscus
 * Letter 2. To the Same
 * Letter 3. To Eumenius and Pharianus
 * Letter 4. To Oribasius
 * Letter 5. To Priscus
 * Letter 6. To Alypius, brother of Caesarius
 * Letter 7. To the Same
 * Letter 8. To Maximus, the philosopher
 * Letter 9. To his Uncle Julian
 * Letter 10. To Eutherius
 * Letter 11. To Leontius
 * Letter 12. To the philosopher Maximus
 * Letter 13. To Hermogenes, formerly Prefect of Egypt
 * Letter 14. To Prohaeresius
 * Letter 15. To Bishop Aetius
 * Letter 16. To the High-priest Theodorus
 * Letter 17. To Zeno
 * Letter 18. To an Official
 * Letter 19. To a Priest
 * Letter 20. To the High-priest Theodorus
 * Letter 21. The Emperor Julian Caesar, most Mighty Augustus, to the People of Alexandria
 * Letter 22. To Arsacius, High-priest of Galatia
 * Letter 23. To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt
 * Letter 24. To the Alexandrians, an Edict
 * Letter 25. To Evagrius
 * Letter 26. To Basil
 * Letter 27. To the Thracians
 * Letter 28. On behalf of the Argives; unaddressed
 * Letter 29. To his Uncle Julian
 * Letter 30. To Philip
 * Letter 31. A decree concerning Physicians
 * Letter 32. To the priestess Theodora
 * Letter 33. To the most reverend Theodora
 * Letter 34. To Theodora?
 * Letter 35. To Aristoxenus, a Philosopher
 * Letter 36. Rescript on Christian Teachers
 * Letter 37. To Atarbius
 * Letter 38. Julian the Apostate to Porphyrius
 * Letter 39. To the citizens of Byzacium
 * Letter 40. To Hecebolius
 * Letter 41. To the citizens of Bostra
 * Letter 42. To Callixeine
 * Letter 43. To Eustathius the Philosopher
 * Letter 44. To Eustathius
 * Letter 45. To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt
 * Letter 46. To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt
 * Letter 47. To the Alexandrians
 * Letter 48. To the Alexandrians
 * Letter 49. To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt
 * Letter 50. To Nilus, surnamed Dionysius
 * Letter 51. To the community of the Jews
 * Letter 52. To Libanius
 * Letter 53. To Libanius
 * Letter 54. To Eustochius
 * Letter 55. To Photinus
 * Letter 56. Edict on Funerals
 * Letter 57. To Arsaces, Satrap of Armenia
 * Letter 58. To Libanius, Sophist and Quaestor
 * Letters 59–73 undated:
 * Letter 59. To Maximus the Philosopher
 * Letter 60. To Eugenius
 * Letter 61. To Sopater
 * Letter 62. To Eucleides the Philosopher
 * Letter 63. To Hecebolius
 * Letter 64. To Lucian the Sophist
 * Letter 65. To Elpidius, a Philosopher
 * Letter 66. To George, a Revenue Official
 * Letter 67. To George, a Revenue Official
 * Letter 68. To Dositheus
 * Letter 69. To Himerius
 * Letter 70. To Diogenes
 * Letter 71. To Commander Gregory
 * Letter 72. To Plutarch
 * Letter 73. To Maximinus
 * Apocryphal letters 74–83:
 * Letter 74. To Iamblichus
 * Letter 75. To the Same
 * Letter 76. To the Same
 * Letter 77. To the Same
 * Letter 78. To the Same
 * Letter 79. To the Same
 * Letter 80. To the most illustrious Sarapion
 * Letter 81. To Basil
 * Letter 82. Letter from Gallus Caesar to his brother Julian
 * Letter 83. Eustathius the Philosopher to Julian

title: Letters of Julian


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 1

1. To Priscus
[359 AD from Gaul] On receiving your letter I at once despatched Archelaus, and gave him letters to carry to you, and the passport, as you wished, for a longer time. If you are inclined to explore the ocean, everything, with the god's help, will be provided for you as you would wish, unless you dread the boorishness of the Gauls and the winter climate. This, however, will turn out as the god sees fit; but I swear to you by him who is the giver and preserver of all my good fortune that I desire to live only that I may in some degree be of use to you. When I say "you," I mean the true philosophers, and convinced as I am that you are one of these, how much I have loved and love you you well know, and how I desire to see you. May Divine Providence preserve you in health for many a year, my dearest and best beloved brother! I salute the admirable Hippia and your children.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 1


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 2

2. To the Same
[358-359, from Gaul] As regards a visit to me from your good self, if you have it in mind, make your plans now, with the help of the gods, and exert yourself; for perhaps a little later I too shall have no time to spare. Hunt up for me all the writings of Iamblichus to his namesake. Only you can do this, for your sister's son-in-law owns a thoroughly revised version. And, if I am not mistaken, while I was writing this sentence, a marvellous sign was vouchsafed me. I entreat you not to let Theodorus and his followers deafen you too by their assertions that Iamblichus, that truly godlike man, who ranks next to Pythagoras and Plato, was worldly and self-seeking. But if it be rash to declare my own opinion to you, I may reasonably expect you to excuse me, as one excuses those who are carried away by a divine frenzy. You are yourself an ardent admirer of Iamblichus for his philosophy and of his namesake for his theosophy. And I too think, like Apollodorus, that the rest are not worth mentioning compared with those two. As for your collection of the works of Aristotle, so much I will say, you have made me style myself your pupil, though I have no right to the title. For while Maximus of Tyre in six books was able to initiate me to some little extent into Plato's logic, you, with one book, have made me, perhaps I may even say, a complete initiate in the philosophy of Aristotle, but at any rate a thyrsus-bearer. When you join me I can prove the truth of my words by the great number of works that I wrote in my spare time, during last winter.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 2


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 3

3. To Eumenius and Pharianus
[359 From Gaul] If anyone has persuaded you that there is anything more delightful or more profitable for the human race than to pursue philosophy at one's leisure without interruptions, he is a deluded man trying to delude you. But if your old-time zeal still abides in you and has not been swiftly quenched like a brilliant flame, then I regard you as peculiarly blest. Four years have already passed, yes and almost three months besides, since we parted from one another. It would give me pleasure to observe how far you have progressed in this period. As for my own progress, if I can still so much as speak Greek it is surprising, such a barbarian have I become because of the places I have lived in. Do not despise the study of mere words or be careless of rhetoric or fail to read poetry. But you must devote still more attention to serious studies, and let your whole effort be to acquire understanding of the teachings of Aristotle and Plato. Let this be your task, the base, the foundation, the edifice, the roof. For all other studies are by the way, though they are completed by you with greater zeal than some bestow on really important tasks. I call sacred Justice to witness that I give you this advice because I love you like brothers. For you were my fellow-students and my very good friends. If therefore you follow my advice I shall love you the more, but if I see that you disregard it I shall grieve. And$undefined$grief, if it lasts, usually results in something that, for the sake of a happier augury, I forbear to mention.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 3


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 4

==4. To Oribasius == [358-9 from Paris] The divinely inspired Homer says that there are two gates of dreams, and that with regard to future events we cannot trust them both equally. But I think that this time, if ever before, you have seen clearly into the future; for I too this very day saw a vision of the same sort. I thought that in a certain very spacious room a tall tree had been planted, and that it was leaning down to the ground, while at its root had sprouted another, small and young and very flourishing. Now I was very anxious on behalf of the small tree, lest someone in pulling up the large one should pull it up as well. And in fact, when I came close I saw that the tall tree was lying at full length on the ground, while the small one was still erect, but hung suspended away from the earth. Now when I saw this I said, in great anxiety, "Alas for this tall tree! There is danger that not even its offspring will be preserved." Then one who was altogether a stranger to me said: "Look carefully and take courage. For since the root still remains in the earth, the smaller tree will be uninjured and will be established even more securely than before." So much then for my dreams. God knows what they portend.

As for that abominable eunuch, I should be glad to learn when he said these things about me, whether it was before he met me, or since. So tell me whatever you can about this.

But with regard to my behaviour towards him, the gods know that often, when he wronged the provincials, I kept silence, at the expense of my own honour; to some charges I would not listen, others I would not admit, others again I did not believe, while in some cases I imputed the blame to his associates. But when he thought fit to make me share in such infamy by sending to me to sign those shameful and wholly abominable reports, what was the right thing for me to do? Was I to remain silent, or to oppose him? The former course was foolish, servile and odious to the gods, the latter was just, manly and liberal, but was not open to me on account of the affairs that engaged me. What then did I do? In the presence of many persons who I knew would report it to him I said: "Such-a-one will certainly and by all means revise his reports, for they pass the bounds of decency." When he heard this, he was so far from behaving with discretion that he did things which, by heaven, no tyrant with any moderation would have done, and that too though I was so near where he was. In such a case what was the proper conduct for a man who is a zealous student of the teachings of Plato and Aristotle? Ought I to have looked on while the wretched people were being betrayed to thieves, or to have aided them as far as I could, for they were already singing their swan-song because of the criminal artifices of men of that sort? To me, at least, it seems a disgraceful thing that, while I punish my military tribunes when they desert their post — and indeed they ought to be put to death at once, and not even granted burial — I should myself desert my post which is for the defence of such wretched people; whereas it is my duty to fight against thieves of his sort, especially when God is fighting on my side, for it was indeed he who posted me here. And if any harm to myself should result, it is no small consolation to have proceeded with a good conscience. But I pray that the gods may let me keep the excellent Sallust! If, however, it turns out that because of this affair I receive his successor, perhaps it will not grieve me. For it is better to do one's duty for a brief time honestly than for a long time dishonestly. The Peripatetic teachings are not, as some say, less noble than the Stoic. In my judgement, there is only this difference between them; the former are always more sanguine and not so much the result of deliberate thought, while the latter have a greater claim to practical wisdom, and are more rigidly consistent with the rules of conduct that they have laid down.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 4


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 5

==5. To Priscus == [358-9, Winter, Paris] I had only just recovered by the providence of the All-Seeing One from a very severe and sharp attack of sickness, when your letters reached my hands, on the very day when I took my first bath. It was already evening when I read them, and it would be hard for you to tell how my strength began to return when I realised your pure and sincere affection. May I become worthy of it, that I may not shame your love for me! Your letters I read at once, though I was not very well able to do so, but those of Antonius to Alexander I stored up for the next day. On the seventh day from their receipt I began to write this to you, since my strength is improving reasonably well, thanks to Divine Providence. May the All-Seeing god preserve you, my dearest and best beloved brother. May I see you, my treasure! Added with his own hand. I swear by your well-being and my own, by the All-Seeing god, that I really feel as I have written. Best of men, when can I see you and embrace you? For already, like doting lovers, I adore your very name.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 5


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 6

6. To Alypius, brother of Caesarius
[361 Before July, from Gaul] Syloson, it is said, went up to Darius, reminded him of his cloak and asked him for Samos in return for it. Then Darius prided himself greatly on this, because he considered that he had given much for little; though after all it proved a grievous gift for Syloson. Now consider my conduct compared with that of Darius. In the first place I think that I have behaved better than he in one point at any rate, I mean that I did not wait to be reminded by another. But after preserving the memory of your friendship so long undimmed, the first moment that the god granted me power I summoned you, not among the second but among the very first. So much for the past. Now with reference to the future, will you allow me — for I am a prophet — to foretell something? I think that it will be far more prosperous than in the case I spoke of, only let not Adrasteia take offence when I say so! For you need no king to help you to conquer a city, while I on the other hand need many to help me to raise up again what has fallen on evil days. Thus does my Gallic and barbarian Muse jest for your benefit. But be of good cheer and come, and may the gods attend you.

Added with his own hand. There is good spoil of deer and hunting of small sheep in the winter quarters. Come to your friend who valued you even when he could not yet know your merit.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 6


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 7

7. To the Same
It happened that when you sent me your map I had just recovered from my illness, but I was none the less glad on that account to receive the chart that you sent. For not only does it contain diagrams better than any hitherto made; but you have embellished it by adding those iambic verses, not such as "Sing the War of Bupalus," as the poet of Cyrene expresses it, but such as beautiful Sappho is wont to fashion for her songs. In fact the gift is such as no doubt it well became you to give, while to me it is most agreeable to receive. With regard to your administration of affairs, inasmuch as you study to act in all cases both energetically and humanely, I am well pleased with it. For to blend mildness and moderation with courage and force, and to exercise the former towards the most virtuous, and the latter implacably in the case of the wicked for their regeneration, is, as I am convinced, a task that calls for no slight natural endowment and virtue. I pray that you may ever hold fast to these ambitions and may adapt them both solely to what is fair and honourable. Not without reason did the most eloquent of the ancient writers believe that this is the end and aim set for all the virtues. May you continue in health and happiness as long as possible, my well-beloved and most dear brother!

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 7


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 8

==8. To Maximus, the philosopher == [361, November, from Naissa (Nish)] Everything crowds into my mind at once and chokes my utterance, as one thought refuses to let another precede it, whether you please to class such symptoms among psychic troubles, or to give them some other name. But let me arrange what I have to tell in chronological order, though not till I have first offered thanks to the all-merciful gods, who at this present have permitted me to write, and will also perhaps permit us to see one another. Directly after I had been made Emperor — against my will, as the gods know; and this I made evident then and there in every way possible, — I led the army against the barbarians. That expedition lasted for three months, and when I returned to the shores of Gaul, I was ever on the watch and kept enquiring from all who came from that quarter whether any philosopher or any scholar wearing a philosopher's cloak or a soldier's tunic had arrived there. Then I approached Besontio. It is a little town that has lately been restored, but in ancient times it was a large city adorned with costly temples, and was fortified by a strong wall and further by the nature of the place; for it is encircled by the river Doubis. It rises up like a rocky cliff in the sea, inaccessible, I might almost say, to the very birds, except in those places where the river as it flows round it throws out what one may call beaches, that lie in front of it. Near this city there came to meet me a certain man who looked like a Cynic with his long cloak and staff. When I first caught sight of him in the distance, I imagined that he was none other than yourself. And when I came nearer to him I thought that he had surely come from you. The man was in fact a friend of mine though he fell short of what I hoped and expected. This then was one vain dream I had! And afterwards I thought that, because you were busied with my affairs, I should certainly find you nowhere outside of Greece. Zeus be my witness and great Helios, mighty Athene and all the gods and goddesses, how on my way down to Illyricum from Gaul I trembled for your safety! Also I kept enquiring of the gods — not that I ventured to do this myself, for I could not endure to see or hear anything so terrible as one might have supposed would be happening to you at that time, but I entrusted the task to others; and the gods did indeed show clearly that certain troubles would befall you, nothing terrible however, nor to indicate that impious counsels would be carried out.

But you see that I have passed over many important events. Above all, it is right that you should learn how I became all at once conscious of the very presence of the gods, and in what manner I escaped the multitude of those who plotted against me, though I put no man to death, deprived no man of his property, and only imprisoned those whom I caught red-handed. All this, however, I ought perhaps to tell you rather than write it, but I think you will be very glad to be informed of it. I worship the gods openly, and the whole mass of the troops who are returning with me worship the gods. I sacrifice oxen in public. I have offered to the gods many hecatombs as thank-offerings. The gods command me to restore their worship in its utmost purity, and I obey them, yes, and with a good will. For they promise me great rewards for my labours, if only I am not remiss. Evagrius has joined me. . . . of the god whom we honour. . ..

Many things occur to my mind, besides what I have written, but I must store up certain matters to tell you when you are with me. Come here, then, in the name of the gods, as quickly as you can, and use two or more public carriages. Moreover, I have sent two of my most trusted servants, one of whom will escort you as far as my headquarters; the other will inform me that you have set out and will forthwith arrive. Do you yourself tell the youths which of them you wish to undertake which of these tasks.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 8


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 9

9. To his Uncle Julian
[361, Late Nov. or Dec. from Naissa] The third hour of the night has just begun, and as I have no secretary to dictate to because they are all occupied, I have with difficulty made the effort to write this to you myself. I am alive, by the grace of the gods, and have been freed from the necessity of either suffering or inflicting irreparable ill. But the Sun, whom of all the gods I besought most earnestly to assist me, and sovereign Zeus also, bear me witness that never for a moment did I wish to slay Constantius, but rather I wished the contrary. Why then did I come? Because the gods expressly ordered me, and promised me safety if I obeyed them, but if I stayed, what I pray no god may do to me! Furthermore I came because, having been declared a public enemy, I meant to frighten him merely, and that our quarrel should result in intercourse on more friendly terms; but if we should have to decide the issue by battle, I meant to entrust the whole to Fortune and to the gods, and so await whatever their clemency might decide.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 9


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/392

376 taken in our Western world that the devotee could not mix it with some worldly temper. It has always found good men who could follow most of its impulses, but who stopped short when it came to non-resistance. Christ himself was fierce upon occasion. Cromwells, Stonewall Jacksons, Gordons, show that Christians can be strong men also.

How is success to be absolutely measured when there are so many environments and so many ways of looking at the adaptation? It cannot be measured absolutely; the verdict will vary according to the point of view adopted. From the biological point of view Saint Paul was a failure, because he was beheaded. Yet he was magnificently adapted to the larger environment of history; and so far as any saint's example is a leaven of righteousness in the world, and draws it in the direction of more prevalent habits of saintliness, he is a success, no matter what his immediate bad fortune may be. The greatest saints, the spiritual heroes whom every one acknowledges, the Francises, Bernards, Luthers, Loyolas, Wesleys, Channings, Moodys, Gratrys, the Phillips Brookses, the Agnes Joneses, Margaret Hallahans, and Dora Pattisons, are successes from the outset. They show themselves, and there is no question; every one perceives their strength and stature. Their sense of mystery in things, their passion, their goodness, irradiate about them and enlarge their outlines while they soften them. They are like pictures with an atmosphere and background; and, placed alongside of them, the strong men of this world and no other seem as dry as sticks, as hard and crude as blocks of stone or brickbats.


text:
Letters of Julian/Letter 10

==10. To Eutherius == [361 About December 1. From Naissa] I am alive, and have been saved by the gods. Therefore offer sacrifices to them on my behalf, as thank-offerings. Your sacrifice will be not for one man only, but for the whole body of Hellenes. If you have time to travel as far as Constantinople I shall feel myself highly honoured by your presence.

title: Letters of Julian/Letter 10


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/423

Rh occupy the mind. Sensorial images of this sort, whether literal or symbolic, play an enormous part in mysticism. But in certain cases imagery may fall away entirely, and in the very highest raptures it tends to do so. The state of consciousness becomes then insusceptible of any verbal description. Mystical teachers are unanimous as to this. Saint John of the Cross, for instance, one of the best of them, thus describes the condition called the 'union of love,' which, he says, is reached by 'dark contemplation.' In this the Deity the soul, but in such a hidden way that the soul—

"finds no terms, no means, no comparison whereby to render the of the wisdom and the delicacy of the spiritual feeling with which she is filled. … We receive this mystical knowledge of God clothed in none of the kinds of images, in none of the sensible representations, which our mind makes use of in other circumstances. Accordingly in this knowledge, since the senses and the imagination are not employed, we get neither form nor impression, nor can we give any account or furnish any likeness, although the mysterious and sweet-tasting wisdom comes home so clearly to the inmost parts of our soul. Fancy a man seeing a certain kind of thing for the first time in his life. He can understand it, use and enjoy it, but he cannot apply a name to it, nor communicate any idea of it, even though all the while it be a mere thing of sense. How much greater will be his powerlessness when it goes beyond the senses! This is the peculiarity of the divine language. The more infused, intimate, spiritual, and supersensible it is, the more does it exceed the senses, both inner and outer, and impose silence upon them. … The soul then feels as if placed in a vast and profound solitude, to which no created thing has access, in an immense and boundless desert, desert the more delicious the


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/424

408 more solitary it is. There, in this abyss of wisdom, the soul grows by what it drinks in from the well-springs of the comprehension of love, … and recognizes, however sublime and learned may be the terms we employ, how utterly vile, insignificant, and improper they are, when we seek to discourse of divine things by their means."

I cannot pretend to detail to you the sundry stages of the Christian mystical life. Our time would not suffice, for one thing; and moreover, I confess that the subdivisions and names which we find in the Catholic books seem to me to represent nothing objectively distinct. So many men, so many minds: I imagine that these experiences can be as infinitely varied as are the idiosyncrasies of individuals.

The cognitive aspects of them, their value in the way of revelation, is what we are directly concerned with, and it is easy to show by citation how strong an impression they leave of being revelations of new depths of truth. Saint Teresa is the expert of experts in describing such conditions, so I will turn immediately to what she says of one of the highest of them, the 'orison of union.'

"In the orison of union," says Saint Teresa, "the soul is fully awake as regards God, but wholly asleep as regards things of this world and in respect of herself. During the short time the union lasts, she is as it were deprived of every feeling, and even if she would, she could not think of any single thing.


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/425

Rh Thus she needs to employ no artifice in order to arrest the use of her understanding: it remains so stricken with inactivity that she neither knows what she loves, nor in what manner she loves, nor what she wills. In short, she is utterly dead to the things of the world and lives solely in God. … I do not even know whether in this state she has enough life left to breathe. It seems to me she has not; or at least that if she does breathe, she is unaware of it. Her intellect would fain understand something of what is going on within her, but it has so little force now that it can act in no way whatsoever. So a person who falls into a deep faint appears as if dead. …

"Thus does God, when he raises a soul to union with himself, suspend the natural action of all her faculties. She neither sees, hears, nor understands, so long as she is united with God. But this time is always short, and it seems even shorter than it is. God establishes himself in the interior of this soul in such a way, that when she returns to herself, it is wholly impossible for her to doubt that she has been in God, and God in her. This truth remains so strongly impressed on her that, even though many years should pass without the condition returning, she can neither forget the favor she received, nor doubt of its reality. If you, nevertheless, ask how it is possible that the soul can see and understand that she has been in God, since during the union she has neither sight nor understanding, I reply that she does not see it then, but that she sees it clearly later, after she has returned to herself, not by any vision, but by a certitude which abides with her and which God alone can give her. I knew a person who was ignorant of the truth that God's mode of being in everything must be either by presence, by power, or by essence, but who, after having received the grace of which I am speaking, believed this truth in the most unshakable manner. So much so that, having consulted a half-learned man who was as ignorant on this point as she had been before she was enlightened, when he replied that God is in us only by 'grace,' she disbelieved his reply, so sure she was of the true answer; and when she came to ask wiser doctors, they confirmed her in her belief, which much consoled her. …


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/426

410 "But how, you will repeat, can one have such certainty in respect to what one does not see? This question, I am powerless to answer. These are secrets of God's omnipotence which it does not appertain to me to penetrate. All that I know is that I tell the truth; and I shall never believe that any soul who does not possess this certainty has ever been really united to God."

The kinds of truth communicable in mystical ways, whether these be sensible or supersensible, are various. Some of them relate to this world,—visions of the future, the reading of hearts, the sudden understanding of texts, the knowledge of distant events, for example; but the most important revelations are theological or metaphysical.

"Saint Ignatius confessed one day to Father Laynez that a single hour of meditation at Manresa had taught him more truths about heavenly things than all the teachings of all the doctors put together could have taught him. … One day in orison, on the steps of the choir of the Dominican church, he saw in a distinct manner the plan of divine wisdom in the creation of the world. On another occasion, during a procession, his spirit was ravished in God, and it was given him to contemplate, in a form and images fitted to the weak understanding of a dweller on the earth, the deep mystery of the holy Trinity. This last vision flooded his heart with such sweetness, that the mere memory of it in after times made him shed abundant tears."


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/427

Rh Similarly with Saint Teresa. "One day, being in orison," she writes, "it was granted me to perceive in one instant how all things are seen and contained in God. I did not perceive them in their proper form, and nevertheless the view I had of them was of a sovereign clearness, and has remained vividly impressed upon my soul. It is one of the most signal of all the graces which the Lord has granted me. … The view was so and delicate that the understanding cannot grasp it."

She goes on to tell how it was as if the Deity were an enormous and sovereignly limpid diamond, in which all our actions were contained in such a way that their full sinfulness appeared evident as never before. On another day, she relates, while she was reciting the Athanasian Creed,—

"Our Lord made me comprehend in what way it is that one God can be in three Persons. He made me see it so clearly an university. For I saw and knew the being of all things, the and the Abyss, and the eternal generation of the holy Trinity, the descent and original of the world and of all creatures through the divine wisdom. I knew and saw in myself all the three worlds, the external and visible world being of a procreation or extern [sic] birth from both the internal and spiritual worlds; and I saw and knew the whole working essence, in the evil and in the good, and the mutual original and existence; and likewise how the fruitful bearing womb of eternity brought forth. So that I did not only greatly wonder at it, but did also exceedingly rejoice, albeit I could very hardly apprehend the same in my external man and set it down with the pen. For I had a thorough view of the universe as in a chaos, wherein all things are couched and wrapt up, but it was impossible for me to explicate the same." Jacob Behmen's Theosophic Philosophy, etc., by, London, 1691, pp. 425, 427, abridged. So George Fox: "I was come up to the state of Adam in which he was before he fell. The creation was opened to me; and it was showed me, how all things had their names given to them, according to their nature and virtue. I was at a stand in my mind, whether I should practice physic for the good of mankind, seeing the nature and virtues of the creatures were so opened to me by the Lord." Journal, Philadelphia, no date, p. 69. Contemporary 'Clairvoyance' abounds in similar revelations. Andrew Jackson Davis's cosmogonies, for example, or certain experiences related in the delectable 'Reminiscences and Memories of Henry Thomas Butterworth,' Lebanon, Ohio, 1886.


text:
Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/403

1896.

of Sums granted, and of the sums which may be applied as appropriations in aid in addition thereto, to defray the charges of the several Civil Services herein particularly mentioned, which will come in coarse of payment daring the year ending on the 3lst day of March 1897; viz:—

of granted, and of the sums which may be applied as appropriations in aid in addition thereto, to defray the charges of the several Revenue Departments, &c. herein particularly mentioned, which will come in coarse of payment daring the year ending on the 31st day of March 1897; viz.:—


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/428

412 that I remained as extremely surprised as I was comforted, … and now, when I think of the holy Trinity, or hear It spoken of, I understand how the three adorable Persons form only one God and I experience an unspeakable happiness."

On still another occasion, it was given to Saint Teresa to see and understand in what wise the Mother of God had been assumed into her place in Heaven.

The deliciousness of some of these states seems to be beyond anything known in ordinary consciousness. It evidently involves organic sensibilities, for it is spoken of as something too extreme to be borne, and as verging on bodily pain. But it is too subtle and piercing a delight for ordinary words to denote. God's touches, the wounds of his spear, references to and to nuptial union have to figure in the phraseology by which it is shadowed forth. Intellect and senses both swoon away in these highest states of ecstasy. "If our understanding comprehends," says Saint Teresa, "it is in a mode which remains unknown to it, and it can understand nothing of what it comprehends. For my own part, I do not believe that it does comprehend, because, as I said, it does not understand itself to do so. I confess that it is all a mystery in which I am lost." In the condition called raptus or ravishment by theologians, breathing and circulation are so depressed that it is a question among the doctors whether the soul be or be not temporarily dissevered from the body. One must read Saint Teresa's descriptions and the very exact distinctions which she makes, to


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/434

418 a mode of passage towards a higher kind of affirmation, there is correlated the subtlest of moral counterparts in the sphere of the personal will. Since denial of the finite self and its wants, since asceticism of some sort, is found in religious experience to be the only doorway to the larger and more blessed life, this moral mystery intertwines and combines with the intellectual mystery in all mystical writings.

In Paul's language, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Only when I become as nothing can God enter in and no difference between his life and mine remain outstanding.


text:
Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/402

382

of granted, and of the sums which may be applied as appropriations in aid in addition thereto, to defray the charges of the several Civil Services herein particularly' mentioned, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 318t day of March 1897; viz.:—


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/435

Rh This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime or creed. In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the same recurring note, so that there is about mystical utterances an eternal unanimity which ought to make a critic stop and think, and which brings it about that the mystical classics have, as has been said, neither birthday nor native land. Perpetually telling of the unity of man with God, their speech antedates languages, and they do not grow old.

'That art Thou!' say the Upanishads, and the Vedantists add: 'Not a part, not a mode of That, but identically That, that absolute Spirit of the World.' "As pure water poured into pure water remains the same, thus, O Gautama, is the Self of a thinker who knows.


text:
Page:The varieties of religious experience, a study in human nature.djvu/436

420 Water in water, fire in fire, ether in ether, no one can distinguish them; likewise a man whose mind has entered into the Self." "'Every man,' says the Sufi Gulshan-Râz, 'whose heart is no longer shaken by any doubt, knows with certainty that there is no being save only One. … In his divine majesty the me, the we, the thou, are not found, for in the One there can be no distinction. Every being who is annulled and entirely separated from himself, hears resound outside of him this voice and this echo: I am God: he has an eternal way of existing, and is no longer subject to death." In the vision of God, says Plotinus, "what sees is not our reason, but something prior and superior to our reason. … He who thus sees does not properly see, does not distinguish or imagine two things. He changes, he ceases to be himself, preserves nothing of himself. Absorbed in God, he makes but one with him, like a centre of a circle coinciding with another centre." "Here," writes Suso, "the spirit dies, and yet is all alive in the marvels of the Godhead … and is lost in the stillness of the glorious dazzling obscurity and of the naked simple unity. It is in this modeless where that the highest bliss is to be found." "Ich bin so gross als Gott," sings Angelus Silesius again, "Er ist als ich so klein; Er kann nicht über mich, ich unter ihm nicht sein."

In mystical literature such self-contradictory phrases as 'dazzling obscurity,' 'whispering silence,' 'teeming desert,' are continually met with. They prove that not conceptual speech, but music rather, is the element through which we


text:
Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/401

1896.

of granted, and of the sums which may be applied as appropriations in aid in addition thereto, to defray the charges of the several Civil Services herein particularly mentioned, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March 1897; viz.:—


text:
Author:Clifford Martin Eddy

Short Stories

 * Sign of the Dragon Written 1918, published September 1, 1919 in Mystery Managzine Vol. II, #44
 * A Solitary Solution (1924)
 * Pilgrimage of Peril (1924)
 * The Vengeful Vision (1924)
 * with H. P. Lovecraft
 * Miscreant From Murania (1951)
 * The Cancer of Superstition (1966) with H. P. Lovecraft
 * Red Cap of the Mara Written 1922, published May, 1976 in Fantasy Crosswinds #1
 * The Cur Written 1923, published 1976 in Erased From Exile
 * Eterna Written 1915, published 1976 in Terror Out of Time
 * Souls & Heels Written 1919, published 1976 in Erased From Exile
 * An Arbiter of Destiny Written 1918, published January, 1977 in Fantasy Crosswinds #1
 * The Cancer of Superstition (1966) with H. P. Lovecraft
 * Red Cap of the Mara Written 1922, published May, 1976 in Fantasy Crosswinds #1
 * The Cur Written 1923, published 1976 in Erased From Exile
 * Eterna Written 1915, published 1976 in Terror Out of Time
 * Souls & Heels Written 1919, published 1976 in Erased From Exile
 * An Arbiter of Destiny Written 1918, published January, 1977 in Fantasy Crosswinds #1

title: Author:Clifford Martin Eddy