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final spiritual estimate of a religious phenomenon; why threaten



us at all with so much existential study of its conditions?  Why



not simply leave pathological questions out?







To this I reply in two ways。  First; I say; irrepressible



curiosity imperiously leads one on; and I say; secondly; that it



always leads to a better understanding of a thing's significance



to consider its exaggerations and perversions its equivalents and



substitutes and nearest relatives elsewhere。  Not that we may



thereby swamp the thing in the wholesale condemnation which we



pass on its inferior congeners; but rather that we may by



contrast ascertain the more precisely in what its merits consist;



by learning at the same time to what particular dangers of



corruption it may also be exposed。







Insane conditions have this advantage; that they isolate special



factors of the mental life; and enable us to inspect them



unmasked by their more usual surroundings。  They play the part in



mental anatomy which the scalpel and the microscope play in the



anatomy of the body。  To understand a thing rightly we need to



see it both out of its environment and in it; and to have



acquaintance with the whole range of its variations。  The study



of hallucinations has in this way been for psychologists the key



to their comprehension of normal sensation; that of illusions has



been the key to the right comprehension of perception。  Morbid



impulses and imperative conceptions; 〃fixed ideas;〃 so called;



have thrown a flood of light on the psychology of the normal



will; and obsessions and delusions have performed the same



service for that of the normal faculty of belief。







Similarly; the nature of genius has been illuminated by the



attempts; of which I already made mention; to class it with



psychopathical phenomena。  Borderland insanity; crankiness;



insane temperament; loss of mental balance; psychopathic



degeneration (to use a few of the many synonyms by which it has



been called); has certain peculiarities and liabilities which;



when combined with a superior quality of intellect in an



individual; make it more probable that he will make his mark and



affect his age; than if his temperament were less neurotic。 



There is of course no special affinity between crankiness as such



and superior intellect;'7' for most psychopaths have feeble



intellects; and superior intellects more commonly have normal



nervous systems。 But the psychopathic temperament; whatever be



the intellect with which it finds itself paired; often brings



with it ardor and excitability of character。  The cranky person



has extraordinary emotional susceptibility。  He



is liable to fixed ideas and obsessions。  His conceptions tend to



pass immediately into belief and action; and when he gets a new



idea; he has no rest till he proclaims it; or in some way 〃works



it off。〃  〃What shall I think of it?〃 a common person says to



himself about a vexed question; but in a 〃cranky〃 mind 〃What must



I do about it?〃 is the form the question tends to take。  In the



autobiography of that high…souled woman; Mrs。 Annie Besant; I



read the following passage:  〃Plenty of people wish well to any



good cause; but very few care to exert themselves to help it; and



still fewer will risk anything in its support。  'Someone ought to



do it; but why should I?' is the ever reechoed phrase of



weak…kneed amiability。 'Someone ought to do it; so why not I?' is



the cry of some earnest servant of man; eagerly forward springing



to face some perilous duty。  Between these two sentences lie



whole centuries of moral evolution。〃  True enough! and between



these two sentences lie also the different destinies of the



ordinary sluggard and the psychopathic man。  Thus; when a



superior intellect and a psychopathic temperament coalesceas in



the endless permutations and combinations of human faculty; they



are bound to coalesce often enoughin the same individual; we



have the best possible condition for the kind of effective genius



that gets into the  biographical dictionaries。  Such men do



not remain mere critics and understanders with their intellect。 



Their ideas possess them; they inflict them; for better or worse;



upon their companions or their age。  It is they who get counted



when Messrs。 Lombroso; Nisbet; and others invoke statistics to



defend their paradox。







'7'  Superior intellect; as Professor Bain has admirably shown;



seems to consist in nothing so much as in a large development of



the faculty of association by similarity。















To pass now to religious phenomena; take the melancholy which; as



we shall see; constitutes an essential moment in every complete



religious evolution。  Take the happiness which achieved religious



belief confers。  Take the trancelike states of insight into truth



which all religious mystics report。'8'  These are each and all of



them special cases of kinds of human experience of much wider



scope。  Religious melancholy; whatever peculiarities it may have



qua religious; is at any rate melancholy。  Religious happiness is



happiness。 Religious trance is trance。  And the moment we



renounce the absurd notion that a thing is exploded away as soon



as it is classed with others; or its origin is shown; the moment



we agree to stand by experimental results and inner quality; in



judging of valueswho does not see that we are likely to



ascertain the distinctive significance of religious melancholy



and happiness; or of religious trances; far better by comparing



them as conscientiously as we can with other varieties of



melancholy; happiness; and trance; than by refusing to consider



their place in any more general series; and treating them as if



they were outside of nature's order altogether?







I hope that the course of these lectures will confirm us in this



supposition。  As regards the psychopathic origin of so many



religious phenomena; that would not be in the least surprising or



disconcerting; even were such phenomena certified from on high to



be the most precious of human experiences。  No one organism can



possibly yield to its owner the whole body of truth。  Few of us



are not in some way infirm; or even diseased; and our very



infirmities help us unexpectedly。  In the psychopathic



temperament we have the emotionality which is the sine qua non of



moral perception; we have the intensity and tendency to emphasis



which are the essence of practical moral vigor; and we have the



love of metaphysics and mysticism which carry one's interests



beyond the surface of the sensible world。 What; then; is more



natural than that this temperament should introduce one to



regions of religious truth; to corners of the universe; which



your robust Philistine type of nervous system; forever offering



its biceps to be felt; thumping its breast; and thanking Heaven



that it hasn't a single morbid fiber in its composition; would be



sure to hide forever from its self…satisfied possessors?







'8'  I may refer to a criticism of the insanity theory of genius



in the Psychological Review; ii。 287 (1895)。















If there were such a thing as inspiration from a higher realm; it



might well be that the neurotic temperament would furnish the



chief condition of the requisite receptivity。 And having said



thus much; I think that I may let the matter of religion and



neuroticism drop。







The mass of collateral phenomena; morbid or healthy; with which



the various religious phenomena must be compared in order to



understand them better; forms what in the slang of pedagogics is



termed 〃the apperceiving mass〃 by which we comprehend them。  The



only novelty that I can imagine this course of lectures to



possess lies in the breadth of the apperceiving mass。  I may



succeed in discussing religious experiences in a wider context



than has been usual in university courses。






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