lecture02-第6节
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and that of happy relaxation; of calm deep breathing; of an
eternal present; with no discordant future to be anxious about;
has arrived。 Fear is not held in abeyance as it is by mere
morality; it is positively expunged and washed away。
We shall see abundant examples of this happy state of mind in
later lectures of this course。 We shall see how infinitely
passionate a thing religion at its highest flights can be。 Like
love; like wrath; like hope; ambition; jealousy; like every other
instinctive eagerness and impulse; it adds to life an enchantment
which is not rationally or logically deducible from anything
else。 This enchantment; coming as a gift when it does comea
gift of our organism; the physiologists will tell us; a gift of
God's grace; the theologians say is either there or not there
for us; and there are persons who can no more become possessed by
it than they can fall in love with a given woman by mere word of
command。 Religious feeling is thus an absolute addition to the
Subject's range of life。 It gives him a new sphere of power。
When the outward battle is lost; and the outer world disowns him;
it redeems and vivifies an interior world which otherwise would
be an empty waste。
If religion is to mean anything definite for us; it seems to me
that we ought to take it as meaning this added dimension of
emotion; this enthusiastic temper of espousal; in regions where
morality strictly so called can at best but bow its head and
acquiesce。 It ought to mean nothing short of this new reach of
freedom for us; with the struggle over; the keynote of the
universe sounding in our ears; and everlasting possession spread
before our eyes。'18'
'18' Once more; there are plenty of men; constitutionally sombre
men; in whose religious life this rapturousness is lacking。 They
are religious in the wider sense; yet in this acutest of all
senses they are not so; and it is religion in the acutest sense
that I wish; without disputing about words; to study first; so as
to get at its typical differentia。
This sort of happiness in the absolute and everlasting is what we
find nowhere but in religion。 It is parted off from all mere
animal happiness; all mere enjoyment of the present; by that
element of solemnity of which I have already made so much
account。 Solemnity is a hard thing to define abstractly; but
certain of its marks are patent enough。 A solemn state of mind is
never crude or simpleit seems to contain a certain measure of
its own opposite in solution。 A solemn joy preserves a sort of
bitter in its sweetness; a solemn sorrow is one to which we
intimately consent。 But there are writers who; realizing that
happiness of a supreme sort is the prerogative of religion;
forget this complication; and call all happiness; as such;
religious。 Mr。 Havelock Ellis; for example; identifies religion
with the entire field of the soul's liberation from oppressive
moods。
〃The simplest functions of physiological life;〃 he writes may be
its ministers。 Every one who is at all acquainted with the
Persian mystics knows how wine may be regarded as an instrument
of religion。 Indeed; in all countries and in all ages some form
of physical enlargementsinging; dancing; drinking; sexual
excitementhas been intimately associated with worship。 Even the
momentary expansion of the soul in laughter is; to however slight
an extent; a religious exercise。 。 。 。 Whenever an impulse from
the world strikes against the organism; and the resultant is not
discomfort or pain; not even the muscular contraction of
strenuous manhood; but a joyous expansion or aspiration of the
whole soulthere is religion。 It is the infinite for which we
hunger; and we ride gladly on every little wave that promises to
bear us towards it。〃'19'
'19' The New Spirit; p。 232。
But such a straight identification of religion with any and every
form of happiness leaves the essential peculiarity of religious
happiness out。 The more commonplace happinesses which we get are
〃reliefs;〃 occasioned by our momentary escapes from evils either
experienced or threatened。 But in its most characteristic
embodiments; religious happiness is no mere feeling of escape。
It cares no longer to escape。 It consents to the evil outwardly
as a form of sacrificeinwardly it knows it to be permanently
overcome。 If you ask HOW religion thus falls on the thorns and
faces death; and in the very act annuls annihilation; I cannot
explain the matter; for it is religion's secret; and to
understand it you must yourself have been a religious man of the
extremer type。 In our future examples; even of the simplest and
healthiest…minded type of religious consciousness; we shall find
this complex sacrificial constitution; in which a higher
happiness holds a lower unhappiness in check。 In the Louvre
there is a picture; by Guido Reni; of St。 Michael with his foot
on Satan's neck。 The richness of the picture is in large part
due to the fiend's figure being there。 The richness of its
allegorical meaning also is due to his being therethat is; the
world is all the richer for having a devil in it; SO LONG AS WE
KEEP OUR FOOT UPON HIS NECK。 In the religious consciousness;
that is just the position in which the fiend; the negative or
tragic principle; is found; and for that very reason the
religious consciousness is so rich from the emotional point of
view。'20' We shall see how in certain men and women it takes on
a monstrously ascetic form。 There are saints who have literally
fed on the negative principle; on humiliation and privation; and
the thought of suffering and deaththeir souls growing in
happiness just in proportion as their outward state grew more
intolerable。 No other emotion than religious emotion can bring a
man to this peculiar pass。 And it is for that reason that when
we ask our question about the value of religion for human life; I
think we ought to look for the answer among these violenter
examples rather than among those of a more moderate hue。
'20' I owe this allegorical illustration to my lamented colleague
and Friend; Charles Carroll Everett。
Having the phenomenon of our study in its acutest possible form
to start with; we can shade down as much as we please later。 And
if in these cases; repulsive as they are to our ordinary worldly
way of judging; we find ourselves compelled to acknowledge
religion's value and treat it with respect; it will have proved
in some way its value for life at large。 By subtracting and
toning down extravagances we may thereupon proceed to trace the
boundaries of its legitimate sway。
To be sure; it makes our task difficult to have to deal so muck
with eccentricities and extremes。 〃How CAN religion on the whole
be the most important of all human functions;〃 you may ask; 〃if
every several manifestation of it in turn have to be corrected
and sobered down and pruned away?〃
Such a thesis seems a paradox impossible to sustain
reasonablyyet I believe that something like it will have to be
our final contention。 That personal attitude which the
individual finds himself impelled to take up towards what he
apprehends to be the divineand you will remember that this was
our definitionwill prove to be both a helpless and a
sacrificial attitude。 That is; we shall have to confess to at
least some amount of dependence on sheer mercy; and to practice
some amount of renunciation; great or small; to save our souls
alive。 The constitution of the world we live in requires it:
〃Entbehren sollst du! sollst entbehren!
Das ist der ewige Gesang
Der jedem an die Ohren klingt;
Den; unser ganzes Leben lang
Uns heiser jede Stunde singt。〃
For when all is said and done; we are in the end absolutely
dependent on the universe; and into sacrifices and surrenders of
some sort; deliberately looked at and accepted; we are drawn and
pressed as into our only permanent positions of repose。 Now in
those states of mind which fall short of religion; the surrender
is submitted to as an imposition of necessity; and the sacrifice
is undergone at the very best without complaint。 In the
religious life; on the contrary; surrender and sacrifice are
positively espoused: even unnecessary givings…up