that at first he could in no way influence Ahriman; but that
afterwards he united with him and that at last he finished
by subjugating him and changing him to such a degree that
the Universe existed without evil for a duration of
centuries.[567] When the end of the world comes [he said in
another place] the wickedest of the infernal spirits will be
pure, excellent, celestial: yes [he adds], he will become
celestial, this liar, this evil doer; he will become holy,
celestial, excellent, this cruel one: vice itself, breathing
only virtue, will make long offerings of praise to Ormuzd
before all the world.[568]
These words are the more remarkable when one considers that the dogma
relating to the downfall of the rebellious angel has passed from the
cosmogony of the Parsees into that of the Hebrews, and that it is upon
this dogma alone, imperfectly interpreted by the vulgar, that the
contradictory doctrine of the eternity of evil and the torments that
follow it, have been founded. This doctrine, but little understood,
has been sharply attacked.[569] Simon, very inappropriately surnamed
the _Magician_, forced St. Peter himself, disputing with him, to
acknowledge that the Hebraic writings had said nothing positive on
this subject.[570] This is certain. These writings, interpreted as
they have been by the Hellenic Jews and given out under the name of
_Version of the Septuagint_, shed no light upon this important
point; but it is well to know that these interpreters have designedly
concealed this light, in order not to divulge the meaning of their
sacred book. If one understood thoroughly the language of Moses, one
would see that, far from setting aside the theosophical traditions
which he had received in Egypt, this theocratic legislator remained
constantly faithful to them. The passage in his Sepher where he speaks
of the annihilation of Evil, in the meaning of Zoroaster, is in
chapter iii., v. 15, of the part vulgarly called _Genesis_, as I hope
one day to show.[571] But without entering at this time, into the
discussion where the real translation of this passage would lead me,
let it suffice to say that the early Christians were very far from
admitting the eternity of evil; for without speaking of Manes and his
numerous followers who shared the opinion of Zoroaster,[572] those who
are versed in these sorts of matters know that Origen taught that
torments will not be eternal, and that demons, instructed by
chastisement, will be converted at last and will obtain their
pardon.[573] He was followed in this by a great number of learned men,
by the evidence of Beausobre who quotes, on this subject, the example
of a philosopher of Edessa, who maintained that after the consummation
of the ages, all creatures would become consubstantial with God.[574]
One thing worthy of notice is that Zoroaster, who has made prayer one
of the principal dogmas of his religion, has been imitated in this by
Mohammed, who, unknowingly, perhaps, has borrowed a great number of
things from this ancient legislator of the Parsees. It is presumable
that the followers of Manes, having retired to Arabia, were
responsible for these borrowings, by the opinions that they circulated
there. But, it must be frankly stated, this dogma, quite in its place
in the _Zend-Avesta_, does not appear so consistent in the _Koran_,
for, of what use is it in a cult where the predestination of men,
necessitated by the Prescient and All-Powerful Divine, delivers
irresistibly the greatest part of them to an eternal damnation, on
account of the original stain imprinted upon mankind by the sin of the
first man? One cannot be prevented, in reflecting upon this manifest
contradiction, from believing that the theosophical tradition
pertaining to the free will of man, and the influencing action of
Providence operating the progressive augmentation of good and the
gradual diminution of evil, announced openly by Zoroaster, must have
acted secretly in the mind of the theocratic legislator of Arabia. If
it had not been thus, the prayers that he ordered as one of the first
and most essential duties of the religion, would have been without
object.
According to the doctrine of Pythagoras revealed by Hierocles, two
things agree in the efficacy of prayer: the voluntary movement of our
soul, and aid from heaven. The first of these things is that which
seeks goodness; and the other that which shows it. Prayer is a medium
between our quest and the celestial gift. One seeks, one prays in
vain, if one adds not prayer to research and research to prayer.
Virtue is an emanation from God; it is like a reflected image of the
Divinity, the resemblance of which alone constitutes the good and the
beautiful. The soul which is attached to this admirable type of all
perfection is aroused to prayer by its inclination to virtue, and it
augments this inclination by the effusion of the goodness which it
receives by means of prayer; so that it does precisely what it demands
and demands what it does.[575] Socrates was not far from the doctrine
of Pythagoras in this respect; he added only, that prayer exacted much
precaution and prudence, lest, without perceiving it, one demand of
God great evils, in thinking to ask great blessings.
The sage [he said] knows what he ought to say or do; the
fool is ignorant of it; the one implores in prayer, what can
be really useful to him; the other desires often things
which, being granted him, become for him the source of
greatest misfortunes. The prudent man [he adds], however
little he may doubt himself, ought to resign himself to
Providence who knows better than he, the consequences that
things must have.
This is why Socrates cited as a model of sense and reason this prayer
of an ancient poet:
Grant us good whether prayed for or unsought by us;
But that which we ask amiss, do thou avert.[576]
The prayer was, as I have said, one of the principal dogmas of the
religion of Zoroaster[577]: the Persians also had the greatest
confidence therein. Like the Chaldeans, they founded all magical power
upon its efficacy. They still possess today certain kinds of prayers
for conjuring maladies and driving away demons. These prayers, which
they name _tavids_, are written upon strips of paper and carried after
the manner of talismans.[578] It is quite well-known that the modern
Jews use them in the same way. In this they imitate, as in innumerable
other things, the ancient Egyptians whose secret doctrine Moses has
transmitted to them.[579] The early Christians were inclined to
theosophical ideas on this subject. Origen explains it clearly in
speaking of the virtue attached to certain names invoked by the
Egyptian sages and the most enlightened of the magians of Persia.[580]
Synesius, the famous Bishop of Ptolemaïs, initiated into the
mysteries, declares that the science, by means of which one linked the
intelligible essences to sentient forms, by the invocation of spirits,
was neither vain nor criminal, but on the contrary quite innocent and
founded upon the nature of things.[581] Pythagoras was accused of
magic. Ignorance and weakness of mind have always charged science with
this banal accusation.[582] This philosopher, rightly placed in the
rank of the ablest physicians of Greece,[583] was, according to his
most devoted disciples, neither of the number of the gods, nor even of
those of the divine heroes; he was a man whom virtue and wisdom had
adorned with a likeness to the gods, by the complete purifying of his
understanding which had been effected through contemplation and
prayer.[584] This is what Lysis expressed by the following lines:
27. _Instructed by them, naught shall then deceive thee;
Of diverse beings thou shalt sound the essence;
And thou shalt know the principle and end of All._
That is to say, that the true disciple of Pythagoras, placed _en
rapport_ with the gods through contemplation, arrived at the highest
degree of perfection, called in the mysteries, autopsy; saw fall
before him the false veil which until then had hidden Truth, and
contemplated Nature in its remotest sources. It is necessary, in order
to attain to this sublime degree, that the intelligence, penetrated by
the divine ray of inspiration, should fill the understanding with a
light intense enough to dissipate all the illusions of the senses, to
exalt the soul and release it wholly from things material. Thus it was
explained by Socrates and Plato.[585] These philosophers and their
numerous disciples put no limit to the advantages of autopsy, or
theophany, as they sometimes named this highest degree of the telestic
science. They believed that the contemplation of God could be carried
so far during this same life, that the soul became not only united to
this Being of beings, but that it was mingled and blended with it.
Plotinus boasted having experienced the joy of this beatific vision
four times, according to Porphyry, who himself claimed to have been
honoured with it at the age of sixty-eight.[586] The great aim of the
mysteries was to teach the initiates the possibility of this union of
man with God, and to indicate to them the means. All initiations, all
mythological doctrines, tended only to alleviate the soul of the
weight of material things, to purify it, so that, desirous of
spiritual welfare, and being projected beyond the circle of
generations, it could rise to the source of its existence.[587] If one
examines carefully the different cults which still dominate upon
earth, one will see that they have not been animated by any other
spirit. The knowledge of the Being of beings has been offered
everywhere as the aim of wisdom; its similitude, as the crown of
perfection; and its enjoyment, as the object of all desires and the
goal of all efforts. The enumeration of its infinite faculties has
varied; but when one has dared fix one’s attention upon the unity of
its essence, one has always defined it as has Pythagoras: the
principle and the end of all things.
The Spirit whence proceed the created beings [say the
Brahmans], by which they live after being emanated from it,
toward which they aspire, and in which they are finally
absorbed, this Spirit is that, to the knowledge of which
thou shouldst aspire, the Great Being.[588]――The Universe is
one of its forms.[589]――It is the Being of beings: without
form, without quality, without passion; immense,
incomprehensible, infinite, indivisible, incorporal,
irresistible: no intelligence can conceive of its operations
and its will suffices to move all intelligences.[590]――It is
the Truth and the Science which never perish.[591]――Its
wisdom, its power, and its plan, are as an immense and
limitless sea which no being is in condition either to
traverse or to fathom. There is no other God than it. The
Universe is filled with its immensity. It is the principle
of all things without having principles.[592] God is
one,[593] eternal, like unto a perfect sphere which has
neither beginning nor end. He rules and governs all that
exists by a general providence, resultant of fixed and
determined principles. Man ought not to seek to penetrate
the nature or the essence of this Ineffable Being: such a
research is vain and criminal.――
Thus do the Hindu sages express themselves in sundry places. They
commend aspiring to the knowledge of the Being of beings, making
oneself worthy to be absorbed in its bosom; and forbid, at the same
time, seeking to penetrate its nature. I have already said that such
was the doctrine of the mysteries. I am about to add an important
reflection in order to cast some light upon a doctrine which, at first
glance, appears contradictory.
Man, who aspires by the inner movement of his will, to attain to the
highest degree of human perfection, and who, by the purification of
his understanding, and the acquisition of celestial virtues, puts
himself in a state to receive the truth, must observe that the higher
he rises in the intelligible sphere, the nearer he approaches to the
unfathomable Being whose contemplation must make his happiness, the
less he can communicate the knowledge of it to others; for truth,
coming to him under intelligible forms more and more universalized,
can never be contained in the rational or sentient forms that he might
give it. Here is the point where many mystic contemplators have gone
astray. As they had never adequately fathomed the triple modification
of their being, and as they had not known the intimate composition of
the human Quaternary, they were ignorant of the manner in which the
transformation of ideas was made, as much in the ascendant progression
as in the descendant progression; so that, confusing continually
understanding and intelligence, and making no difference between the
products of their will according as it acted in one or the other of
its modifications, they often showed the opposite of what they
intended to show; and instead of the seers that they might, perhaps,
have been, they became visionaries. I could give a great many examples
of these aberrations; but I will limit myself to a single one, because
the man who furnishes it for me, immeasurably great on the side of
intelligence, lacked understanding and felt keenly himself, the
weakness of his reason. This man, whose audacious gaze has penetrated
as far as the divine sanctuary, is a German shoemaker of obscure
birth, called Jacob Boehme. The rusticity of his mind, the roughness
of his character, and more than all that, the force and the number of
his prejudices, render his works almost unintelligible and therefore
repel the savants. But when one has the patience and talent necessary
to separate the pure gold from its dross and from its alloy, one can
find there things which are nowhere else. These things, which present
themselves nearly always under the oddest and most absurd forms, have
taken them by passing from his intelligence to his instinct, without
his reason having had the force to oppose itself. This is how he
artlessly expresses this transformation of ideas: “Now that I have
raised myself so high, I dare not look back for fear that giddiness
may seize me … for as long as I ascend, I am convinced of my impulse;
but it is not the same when I turn my head and when I wish to descend;
then I am troubled, I am bewildered, it seems to me that I shall
fall.”[594] And in truth he fell so rapidly that he did not perceive,
either the terrible disparity between his ideas and his expressions,
nor the manifest contradictions into which his prejudices had drawn
him.
These grave disadvantages, which do not strike the vulgar, were
perfectly understood and appreciated by the sages. The institutors of
the mysteries were not ignorant of them and it is for this that they
had imposed the most absolute silence upon the initiates and
particularly upon the epopts, to whom they gave their highest
teachings. They made them feel readily that intelligible things can
only become sentient by being transformed, and that this
transformation requires a talent and an authority even, which cannot
be the appanage of all men.
I am now at the close of my reflection. The diverse cults established
upon earth are but the transformations of ideas; that is to say,
particular forms of religion, by means of which a theocratic
legislator or theosophic sage renders sentient that which is
intelligible, and puts within reach of all men what, without these
forms, would have been only within reach of a very small number; now,
these transformations can only be effected in three ways, according to
the three faculties of the human Ternary; the fourth, which concerns
its Quaternary or its relative unity, being impossible. I beg the
reader to recall what I have said, touching the intimate composition
and movement of this Quaternary, and grant me a little attention.
The aim of all the cults being to conduct to the knowledge of the
Divinity, they differ only by the route that they travel in its
attainment, and this route depends always upon the manner in which the
Divinity has been considered by the founder of the cult. If this
founder has considered it in his intelligence, he has seen the
Divinity in its universal modifications, and, therefore, triple, as
the Universe; if he has considered it in his understanding, he has
seen it in its creative principles, and, therefore, double as Nature;
if he has considered it in his instinct, he has seen it in its
faculties and its attributes, and, therefore, infinite, as Matter; if
he has considered it, finally, in its proper volitive unity, acting at
once in its three modifications, he has seen this same Divinity
according to the force and movement of his thought, either in its
absolute essence or in its universal essence; that is, One in its
cause, or One in its effects. Examine closely what I have said and see
if there exists a single cult upon the face of the earth that you may
not connect with one of the kinds whose origin I have indicated.
I have said that the Divinity, considered in the human intelligence,
is shown under the emblem of the universal Ternary; hence all the
cults which are dominated by three principal gods as in India,[595] in
Greece and in Italy,[596] three principal modifications in the same
God, as in China,[597] in Japan, in Tibet and among the considerable
followers of Fo-Hi or Buddha.[598] This cult, which has been called
that of the _Tritheists_, is one of the most widespread on earth, and
one which has mingled most easily with the others. It pleases the
imagination and gives to wisdom great power to rise to intelligible
truths.
I have said that the Divinity, considered in the human understanding,
is manifest under the emblem of two natural principles: hence, all the
cults wherein two opposed beings appear, as in the cult of Zoroaster.
This cult, which is rarely encountered as pure as among the ancient
Persians, or among the followers of Manes, mingles readily with
tritheism and even polytheism: it was quite recognizable in Egypt and
among the Scandinavians, and much more involved among the Indians,
Greeks, and Latins. This cult could be considered as a natural
_Diarchy_, and those who follow it, _Diarchists_. Judgment and reason
conform very well in it; one also sees ordinarily, profound reasoners
and skeptics, inclining there _nolens volens_.[599] Its abuse leads to
atheism; but it offers great means, when one knows how to make good
use of it, to penetrate the essence of things and succeed to the
explanation of natural phenomena.
Again I say, that the Divinity considered in the instinct is presented
under the emblem of material infinity: hence, all cults where, by a
contrary movement, the intelligible becomes sentient and the sentient
intelligible; as when the attributes and faculties of the Divinity are
particularized and personified, and as the agents of Nature, the parts
of the Universe and the individual beings themselves, are deified.
This cult, to which I have given the name of _Polytheism_, is
everywhere, under different forms and under different names, the
portion of the vulgar. More or less apparent it insinuates itself in
the midst of the other two, multiplies the images of the intellectual
modifications and the natural principles, and whatever attentions the
theosophists bring to forestall its invasion, end by stifling utterly
the spirit of it beneath the material covering which envelops them.
This cult, the cradle of all religions, with which the other two can
never entirely dispense, which nourishes and lives in their life, is
also the tomb. It pleases singularly that faculty of man which is
developed first, sense perception; it aids the development of instinct
and can, by the sole medium of common sense, lead to the knowledge of
the natural principles. Its abuse precipitates peoples into idolatry
and superstition; its good use arouses the talents and gives birth to
heroic virtues. One becomes artist or hero through the exaltation of
Polytheism; savant or philosopher through that of Diarchy; and sage or
theosophist through that of Tritheism. These three cults, whether pure
or variously mixed, are the only ones in which transformation may be
possible; that is to say, which may be clothed in ostensible forms and
enclosed in any sort of ritual. The fourth cult, which is founded upon
the absolute unity of God, is not transformable. This is the reason.
The Divinity considered in the volitive unity of man, acting at the
same time in its principal faculties, is manifested finally, in its
absolute essence, or in its universal essence; One in its cause, or
One in its effects: thence, not only all public cults, but all secret
mysteries, all doctrines mystic and contemplative; for how can that
which has no likeness to anything be represented? How render sentient
that which is beyond all intelligence? What expressions will be
consistent with that which is inexpressible, with that which is more
ineffable than silence itself? What temples will one raise to that
which is incomprehensible, inaccessible, unfathomable? The
theosophists and sages have realized these difficulties; they have
seen that it was necessary to suppress all discourse, to set aside all
simulacra: to renounce all enclosures, to annihilate finally all
sentient objects or to be exposed to give false ideas of the absolute
essence of a Being that neither time nor space can contain. Many have
dared the undertaking. One knows, in delving into ages long since
past, that the ancient Magians of Persia erected no temple and set up
no statue.[600] The Druids acted in the same manner.[601] The former
invoked the Principle of all things upon the summits of mountains; the
latter, in the depths of the forests. Both deemed it unworthy of the
divine Majesty to enclose it within precincts and to represent it by a
material image.[602] It even appears that the early Romans shared this
opinion.[603] But this cult, entirely intellectual and destitute of
forms, could not subsist long. Perceptible objects were needed by the
people, on which they might place their ideas. These objects, even in
spite of the legislator who sought to proscribe them, insinuated
themselves.[604] Images, statues, temples were multiplied
notwithstanding the laws which prohibited them. At that time if the
cult did not undergo a salutary reform, it was changed, either into a
gross anthropomorphism, or into an absolute materialism: that is to
say, that a man of the people being unable to rise to the divine
Unity, drew it down to his level; and the savant, being unable to
comprehend it and believing nevertheless to grasp it, confused it with
Nature.
It was to evade this inevitable catastrophe that the sages and
theosophists had, as I have said, made a mystery of the Unity of God,
and had concealed it in the inmost recesses of the sanctuaries. It was
only after many trials, and not until the initiate was judged worthy
to be admitted to the sublime degree of autopsy, that the last veil
was lifted to his gaze, and the principle and end of all things, the
Being of beings, in all its unfathomable Unity, was delivered to his
contemplation.[605]
28. _If Heaven wills it, thou shalt know that Nature,
Alike in everything, is the same in every place._
I have already said that the homogeneity of Nature was, with the unity
of God, one of the greatest secrets of the mysteries. Pythagoras
founded this homogeneity upon the unity of the spirit by which it is
penetrated and from which, according to him, all our souls draw their
origin.[606] This dogma which he had received from the Chaldeans and
from the priests of Egypt was admitted by all the sages of antiquity,
as is proved at great length by Stanley and the astute Beausobre.[607]
These sages established a harmony, a perfect analogy between heaven
and earth, the intelligible and the sentient, the indivisible
substance and the divisible substance; in such a manner that that
which took place in one of the regions of the Universe or of the
modifications of the primordial Ternary was the exact image of that
which took place in the other. This idea is found very forcibly
revealed by the ancient Thoth, called _Hermes Trismegistus_,[608] by
the Greeks, in the table of Emerald which is attributed to him.
In truth, and without fiction, in truth, in truth, I say to
you, that things inferior are like unto the superior; both
unite their invincible forces to produce one sole thing, the
most marvellous of all, and as all things are emanated by
the will of one unique God, thus all things whatsoever must
be engendered by this sole thing,――by a disposition of
Universal nature.[609]