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in Alexandria or in Athens of old。  Ficinus and Picus of Mirandola worked no deliverance; either for Italian morals or polity; at a time when such deliverance was needed bitterly enough。  Neoplatonism was petted by luxurious and heathen popes; as an elegant play of the cultivated fancy; which could do their real power; their practical system; neither good nor harm。  And one cannot help feeling; while reading the magnificent oration on Supra…sensual Love; which Castiglione; in his admirable book 〃The Courtier;〃 puts into the mouth of the profligate Bembo; how near mysticism may lie not merely to dilettantism or to Pharisaism; but to sensuality itself。  But in England; during Elizabeth's reign; the practical weakness of Neoplatonism was compensated by the noble practical life which men were compelled to live in those great times; by the strong hold which they had of the ideas of family and national life; of law and personal faith。 And I cannot but believe it to have been a mighty gain to such men as Sidney; Raleigh; and Spenser; that they had drunk; however slightly; of the wells of Proclus and Plotinus。  One cannot read Spenser's 〃Fairy Queen;〃 above all his Garden of Adonis; and his cantos on Mutability; without feeling that his Neoplatonism must have kept him safe from many a dark eschatological superstition; many a narrow and bitter dogmatism; which was even then tormenting the English mind; and must have helped to give him altogether a freer and more loving conception; if not a consistent or accurate one; of the wondrous harmony of that mysterious analogy between the physical and the spiritual; which alone makes poetry (and I had almost said philosophy also) possible; and have taught him to behold alike in suns and planets; in flowers and insects; in man and in beings higher than man; one glorious order of love and wisdom; linking them all to Him from whom they all proceed; rays from His cloudless sunlight; mirrors of His eternal glory。

But as the Elizabethan age; exhausted by its own fertility; gave place to the Caroline; Neoplatonism ran through much the same changes。  It was good for us; after all; that the plain strength of the Puritans; unphilosophical as they were; swept it away。  One feels in reading the later Neoplatonists; Henry More; Smith; even Cudworth (valuable as he is); that the old accursed distinction between the philosopher; the scholar; the illuminate; and the plain righteous man; was growing up again very fast。  The school from which the 〃Religio Medici〃 issued was not likely to make any bad men good; or any foolish men wise。

Besides; as long as men were continuing to quote poor old Proclus as an irrefragable authority; and believing that he; forsooth; represented the sense of Plato; the new…born Baconian philosophy had but little chance in the world。  Bacon had been right in his dislike of Platonism years before; though he was unjust to Plato himself。  It was Proclus whom he was really reviling; Proclus as Plato's commentator and representative。 The lion had for once got into the ass's skin; and was treated accordingly。  The true Platonic method; that dialectic which the Alexandrians gradually abandoned; remains yet to be tried; both in England and in Germany; and I am much mistaken; if; when fairly used; it be not found the ally; not the enemy; of the Baconian philosophy; in fact; the inductive method applied to words; as the expressions of Metaphysic Laws; instead of to natural phenomena; as the expressions of Physical ones。  If you wish to see the highest instances of this method; read Plato himself; not Proclus。  If you wish to see how the same method can be applied to Christian truth; read the dialectic passages in Augustine's 〃Confessions。〃  Whether or not you shall agree with their conclusions; you will not be likely; if you have a truly scientific habit of mind; to complain that they want either profundity; severity; or simplicity。

So concludes the history of one of the Alexandrian schools of Metaphysic。  What was the fate of the other is a subject which I must postpone to my next Lecture。



LECTURE IVTHE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT



I tried to point out; in my last Lecture; the causes which led to the decay of the Pagan metaphysic of Alexandria。  We have now to consider the fate of the Christian school。

You may have remarked that I have said little or nothing about the positive dogmas of Clement; Origen; and their disciples; but have only brought out the especial points of departure between them and the Heathens。  My reason for so doing was twofold:  first; I could not have examined them without entering on controversial ground; next; I am very desirous to excite some of my hearers; at least; to examine these questions for themselves。

I entreat them not to listen to the hasty sneer to which many of late have given way; that the Alexandrian divines were mere mystics; who corrupted Christianity by an admixture of Oriental and Greek thought。 My own belief is that they expanded and corroborated Christianity; in spite of great errors and defects on certain points; far more than they corrupted it; that they presented it to the minds of cultivated and scientific men in the only form in which it would have satisfied their philosophic aspirations; and yet contrived; with wonderful wisdom; to ground their philosophy on the very same truths which they taught to the meanest slaves; and to appeal in the philosophers to the same inward faculty to which they appealed in the slave; namely; to that inward eye; that moral sense and reason; whereby each and every man can; if he will; 〃judge of himself that which is right。〃  I boldly say that I believe the Alexandrian Christians to have made the best; perhaps the only; attempt yet made by men; to proclaim a true world…philosophy; whereby I mean a philosophy common to all races; ranks; and intellects; embracing the whole phenomena of humanity; and not an arbitrarily small portion of them; and capable of being understood and appreciated by every human being from the highest to the lowest。  And when you hear of a system of reserve in teaching; a disciplina arcani; of an esoteric and exoteric; an inner and outer school; among these men; you must not be frightened at the words; as if they spoke of priestcraft; or an intellectual aristocracy; who kept the kernel of the nut for themselves; and gave the husks to the mob。  It was not so with the Christian schools; it was so with the Heathen ones。  The Heathens were content that the mob; the herd; should have the husks。  Their avowed intention and wish was to leave the herd; as they called them; in the mere outward observance of the old idolatries; while they themselves; the cultivated philosophers; had the monopoly of those deeper spiritual truths which were contained under the old superstitions; and were too sacred to be profaned by the vulgar eyes。  The Christian method was the exact opposite。  They boldly called those vulgar eyes to enter into the very holy of holies; and there gaze on the very deepest root…ideas of their philosophy。  They owned no ground for their own speculations which was not common to the harlots and the slaves around。  And this was what enabled them to do this; this was what brought on them the charge of demagogism; the hatred of philosophers; the persecution of princesthat their ground was a moral ground; and not a merely intellectual one; that they started; not from any notions of the understanding; but from the inward conscience; that truly pure Reason in which the intellectual and the moral spheres are united; which they believed to exist; however dimmed or crushed; in every human being; capable of being awakened; purified; and raised up to a noble and heroic life。  They concealed nothing moral from their disciples:  only they forbade them to meddle with intellectual matters; before they had had a regular intellectual training。  The witnesses of reason and conscience were sufficient guides for all men; and at them the many might well stop short。  The teacher only needed to proceed further; not into a higher region; but into a lower one; namely; into the region of the logical understanding; and there make deductions from; and illustrations of; those higher truths which he held in common with every slave; and held on the same ground as they。

And the consequence of this method of philosophising was patent。  They were enabled to produce; in the lives of millions; generation after generation; a more immense moral improvement than the world had ever seen before。  Their disciples did actually become righteous and good men; just in proportion as they were true to the lessons they learnt。 They did; for centuries; work a distinct and palpable deliverance on the earth; while all the solemn and earnest meditation of the Neoplatonists; however good or true; worked no deliverance whatsoever。  Plotinus longed at one time to make a practical attempt。  He asked the Emperor Gallienus; his patron; to rebuild for him a city in Campania; to allow him to call it Platonopolis; and put it into the hands of him and his disciples; that they might there realise Plato's ideal republic。 Luckily for the reputation of Neoplatonism; the scheme was swamped by the courtiers of Gallienus; and the earth was saved the 

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