foreign language, or a name, or some artistic expression, although I
know it very well. After I have bothered myself in vain about it for a
longer or a shorter time, I give up thinking about it altogether. An
hour or two afterwards, in rare cases even later still, sometimes only
after four or five weeks, the word I was trying to recall occurs to me
while I am thinking of something else, as suddenly as if some one had
whispered it to me. After noticing this phenomenon with wonder for very
many years, I have come to think that the probable explanation of it is
as follows. After the troublesome and unsuccessful search, my will
retains its craving to know the word, and so sets a watch for it in the
intellect. Later on, in the course and play of thought, some word by
chance occurs having the same initial letters or some other resemblance
to the word which is sought; then the sentinel springs forward and
supplies what is wanting to make up the word, seizes it, and suddenly
brings it up in triumph, without my knowing where and how he got it; so
it seems as if some one had whispered it to me. It is the same process
as that adopted by a teacher towards a child who cannot repeat a word;
the teacher just suggests the first letter of the word, or even the
second too; then the child remembers it. In default of this process, you
can end by going methodically through all the letters of the alphabet.
In the ordinary man, injustice rouses a passionate desire for vengeance;
and it has often been said that vengeance is sweet. How many sacrifices
have been made just to enjoy the feeling of vengeance, without any
intention of causing an amount of injury equivalent to what one has
suffered. The bitter death of the centaur Nessus was sweetened by the
certainty that he had used his last moments to work out an extremely
clever vengeance. Walter Scott expresses the same human inclination in
language as true as it is strong: "Vengeance is the sweetest morsel to
the mouth that ever was cooked in hell!" I shall now attempt a
psychological explanation of it.
Suffering which falls to our lot in the course of nature, or by chance,
or fate, does not, _ceteris paribus_, seem so painful as suffering which
is inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another. This is because we
look upon nature and chance as the fundamental masters of the world; we
see that the blow we received from them might just as well have fallen
on another. In the case of suffering which springs from this source, we
bewail the common lot of humanity rather than our own misfortune. But
that it is the arbitrary will of another which inflicts the suffering,
is a peculiarly bitter addition to the pain or injury it causes, viz.,
the consciousness that some one else is superior to us, whether by force
or cunning, while we lie helpless. If amends are possible, amends heal
the injury; but that bitter addition, "and it was you who did that to
me," which is often more painful than the injury itself, is only to be
neutralized by vengeance. By inflicting injury on the one who has
injured us, whether we do it by force or cunning, is to show our
superiority to him, and to annul the proof of his superiority to us.
That gives our hearts the satisfaction towards which it yearns. So where
there is a great deal of pride and vanity, there also will there be a
great desire of vengeance. But as the fulfillment of every wish brings
with it more or less of a sense of disappointment, so it is with
vengeance. The delight we hope to get from it is mostly embittered by
compassion. Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the
conscience: the motive to it is no longer active, and what remains is
the evidence of our malice.
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM.
When the Church says that, in the dogmas of religion, reason is totally
incompetent and blind, and its use to be reprehended, it is in reality
attesting the fact that these dogmas are allegorical in their nature,
and are not to be judged by the standard which reason, taking all things
_sensu proprio_, can alone apply. Now the absurdities of a dogma are
just the mark and sign of what is allegorical and mythical in it. In the
case under consideration, however, the absurdities spring from the fact
that two such heterogeneous doctrines as those of the Old and New
Testaments had to be combined. The great allegory was of gradual growth.
Suggested by external and adventitious circumstances, it was developed
by the interpretation put upon them, an interpretation in quiet touch
with certain deep-lying truths only half realized. The allegory was
finally completed by Augustine, who penetrated deepest into its meaning,
and so was able to conceive it as a systematic whole and supply its
defects. Hence the Augustinian doctrine, confirmed by Luther, is the
complete form of Christianity; and the Protestants of to-day, who take
Revelation _sensu proprio_ and confine it to a single individual, are in
error in looking upon the first beginnings of Christianity as its most
perfect expression. But the bad thing about all religions is that,
instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to
conceal it; accordingly, they parade their doctrine in all seriousness
as true _sensu proprio_, and as absurdities form an essential part of
these doctrines, you have the great mischief of a continual fraud. And,
what is worse, the day arrives when they are no longer true _sensu
proprio_, and then there is an end of them; so that, in that respect, it
would be better to admit their allegorical nature at once. But the
difficulty is to teach the multitude that something can be both true and
untrue at the same time. And as all religions are in a greater or less
degree of this nature, we must recognize the fact that mankind cannot
get on without a certain amount of absurdity, that absurdity is an
element in its existence, and illusion indispensable; as indeed other
aspects of life testify. I have said that the combination of the Old
Testament with the New gives rise to absurdities. Among the examples
which illustrate what I mean, I may cite the Christian doctrine of
Predestination and Grace, as formulated by Augustine and adopted from
him by Luther; according to which one man is endowed with grace and
another is not. Grace, then, comes to be a privilege received at birth
and brought ready into the world; a privilege, too, in a matter second
to none in importance. What is obnoxious and absurd in this doctrine may
be traced to the idea contained in the Old Testament, that man is the
creation of an external will, which called him into existence out of
nothing. It is quite true that genuine moral excellence is really
innate; but the meaning of the Christian doctrine is expressed in
another and more rational way by the theory of metempsychosis, common to
Brahmans and Buddhists. According to this theory, the qualities which
distinguish one man from another are received at birth, are brought,
that is to say, from another world and a former life; these qualities
are not an external gift of grace, but are the fruits of the acts
committed in that other world. But Augustine's dogma of Predestination
is connected with another dogma, namely, that the mass of humanity is
corrupt and doomed to eternal damnation, that very few will be found
righteous and attain salvation, and that only in consequence of the gift
of grace, and because they are predestined to be saved; whilst the
remainder will be overwhelmed by the perdition they have deserved, viz.,
eternal torment in hell. Taken in its ordinary meaning, the dogma is
revolting, for it comes to this: it condemns a man, who may be, perhaps,
scarcely twenty years of age, to expiate his errors, or even his
unbelief, in everlasting torment; nay, more, it makes this almost
universal damnation the natural effect of original sin, and therefore
the necessary consequence of the Fall. This is a result which must have
been foreseen by him who made mankind, and who, in the first place, made
them not better than they are, and secondly, set a trap for them into
which he must have known they would fall; for he made the whole world,
and nothing is hidden from him. According to this doctrine, then, God
created out of nothing a weak race prone to sin, in order to give them
over to endless torment. And, as a last characteristic, we are told that
this God, who prescribes forbearance and forgiveness of every fault,
exercises none himself, but does the exact opposite; for a punishment
which comes at the end of all things, when the world is over and done
with, cannot have for its object either to improve or deter, and is
therefore pure vengeance. So that, on this view, the whole race is
actually destined to eternal torture and damnation, and created
expressly for this end, the only exception being those few persons who
are rescued by election of grace, from what motive one does not know.
Putting these aside, it looks as if the Blessed Lord had created the
world for the benefit of the devil! it would have been so much better
not to have made it at all. So much, then, for a dogma taken _sensu
proprio_. But look at it _sensu allegorico_, and the whole matter
becomes capable of a satisfactory interpretation. What is absurd and
revolting in this dogma is, in the main, as I said, the simple outcome
of Jewish theism, with its "creation out of nothing," and really foolish
and paradoxical denial of the doctrine of metempsychosis which is
involved in that idea, a doctrine which is natural, to a certain extent
self-evident, and, with the exception of the Jews, accepted by nearly
the whole human race at all times. To remove the enormous evil arising
from Augustine's dogma, and to modify its revolting nature, Pope Gregory
I., in the sixth century, very prudently matured the doctrine of
_Purgatory_, the essence of which already existed in Origen (cf. Bayle's
article on Origen, note B.). The doctrine was regularly incorporated
into the faith of the Church, so that the original view was much
modified, and a certain substitute provided for the doctrine of
metempsychosis; for both the one and the other admit a process of
purification. To the same end, the doctrine of "the Restoration of all
things" [Greek: apokatastasis] was established, according to which, in
the last act of the Human Comedy, the sinners one and all will be
reinstated _in integrum_. It is only Protestants, with their obstinate
belief in the Bible, who cannot be induced to give up eternal punishment
in hell. If one were spiteful, one might say, "much good may it do
them," but it is consoling to think that they really do not believe the
doctrine; they leave it alone, thinking in their hearts, "It can't be so
bad as all that."
The rigid and systematic character of his mind led Augustine, in his
austere dogmatism and his resolute definition of doctrines only just
indicated in the Bible and, as a matter of fact, resting on very vague
grounds, to give hard outlines to these doctrines and to put a harsh
construction on Christianity: the result of which is that his views
offend us, and just as in his day Pelagianism arose to combat them, so
now in our day Rationalism does the same. Take, for example, the case as
he states it generally in the _De Civitate Dei_, Bk. xii. ch. 21. It
comes to this: God creates a being out of nothing, forbids him some
things, and enjoins others upon him; and because these commands are not
obeyed, he tortures him to all eternity with every conceivable anguish;
and for this purpose, binds soul and body inseparably together, so that,
instead, of the torment destroying this being by splitting him up into
his elements, and so setting him free, he may live to eternal pain. This
poor creature, formed out of nothing! At least, he has a claim on his
original nothing: he should be assured, as a matter of right, of this
last retreat, which, in any case, cannot be a very evil one: it is what
he has inherited. I, at any rate, cannot help sympathizing with him. If
you add to this Augustine's remaining doctrines, that all this does not
depend on the man's own sins and omissions, but was already predestined
to happen, one really is at a loss what to think. Our highly educated
Rationalists say, to be sure, "It's all false, it's a mere bugbear;
we're in a state of constant progress, step by step raising ourselves to
ever greater perfection." Ah! what a pity we didn't begin sooner; we
should already have been there.
In the Christian system the devil is a personage of the greatest
importance. God is described as absolutely good, wise and powerful; and
unless he were counterbalanced by the devil, it would be impossible to
see where the innumerable and measureless evils, which predominate in
the world, come from, if there were no devil to account for them. And
since the Rationalists have done away with the devil, the damage
inflicted on the other side has gone on growing, and is becoming more
and more palpable; as might have been foreseen, and was foreseen, by the
orthodox. The fact is, you cannot take away one pillar from a building
without endangering the rest of it. And this confirms the view, which
has been established on other grounds, that Jehovah is a transformation
of Ormuzd, and Satan of the Ahriman who must be taken in connection with
him. Ormuzd himself is a transformation of Indra.
Christianity has this peculiar disadvantage, that, unlike other
religions, it is not a pure system of doctrine: its chief and essential
feature is that it is a history, a series of events, a collection of
facts, a statement of the actions and sufferings of individuals: it is
this history which constitutes dogma, and belief in it is salvation.
Other religions, Buddhism, for instance, have, it is true, historical
appendages, the life, namely, of their founders: this, however, is not
part and parcel of the dogma but is taken along with it. For example,
the Lalitavistara may be compared with the Gospel so far as it contains
the life of Sakya-muni, the Buddha of the present period of the world's
history: but this is something which is quite separate and different
from the dogma, from the system itself: and for this reason; the lives
of former Buddhas were quite other, and those of the future will be
quite other, than the life of the Buddha of to-day. The dogma is by no
means one with the career of its founder; it does not rest on individual
persons or events; it is something universal and equally valid at all
times. The Lalitavistara is not, then, a gospel in the Christian sense
of the word; it is not the joyful message of an act of redemption; it is
the career of him who has shown how each one may redeem himself. The
historical constitution of Christianity makes the Chinese laugh at
missionaries as story-tellers.
I may mention here another fundamental error of Christianity, an error
which cannot be explained away, and the mischievous consequences of
which are obvious every day: I mean the unnatural distinction
Christianity makes between man and the animal world to which he really
belongs. It sets up man as all-important, and looks upon animals as
merely things. Brahmanism and Buddhism, on the other hand, true to the
facts, recognize in a positive way that man is related generally to the
whole of nature, and specially and principally to animal nature; and in
their systems man is always represented by the theory of metempsychosis
and otherwise, as closely connected with the animal world. The important
part played by animals all through Buddhism and Brahmanism, compared
with the total disregard of them in Judaism and Christianity, puts an
end to any question as to which system is nearer perfection, however
much we in Europe may have become accustomed to the absurdity of the
claim. Christianity contains, in fact, a great and essential
imperfection in limiting its precepts to man, and in refusing rights to
the entire animal world. As religion fails to protect animals against
the rough, unfeeling and often more than bestial multitude, the duty
falls to the police; and as the police are unequal to the task,
societies for the protection of animals are now formed all over Europe
and America. In the whole of uncircumcised Asia, such a procedure would
be the most superfluous thing in the world, because animals are there
sufficiently protected by religion, which even makes them objects of
charity. How such charitable feelings bear fruit may be seen, to take an
example, in the great hospital for animals at Surat, whither Christians,
Mohammedans and Jews can send their sick beasts, which, if cured, are
very rightly not restored to their owners. In the same way when a
Brahman or a Buddhist has a slice of good luck, a happy issue in any
affair, instead of mumbling a _Te Deum_, he goes to the market-place and
buys birds and opens their cages at the city gate; a thing which may be
frequently seen in Astrachan, where the adherents of every religion meet
together: and so on in a hundred similar ways. On the other hand, look
at the revolting ruffianism with which our Christian public treats its
animals; killing them for no object at all, and laughing over it, or
mutilating or torturing them: even its horses, who form its most direct
means of livelihood, are strained to the utmost in their old age, and
the last strength worked out of their poor bones until they succumb at
last under the whip. One might say with truth, Mankind are the devils of
the earth, and the animals the souls they torment. But what can you
expect from the masses, when there are men of education, zoologists
even, who, instead of admitting what is so familiar to them, the
essential identity of man and animal, are bigoted and stupid enough to
offer a zealous opposition to their honest and rational colleagues, when
they class man under the proper head as an animal, or demonstrate the
resemblance between him and the chimpanzee or ourang-outang. It is a
revolting thing that a writer who is so pious and Christian in his
sentiments as Jung Stilling should use a simile like this, in his
_Scenen aus dem Geisterreich_. (Bk. II. sc. i., p. 15.) "Suddenly the
skeleton shriveled up into an indescribably hideous and dwarf-like form,
just as when you bring a large spider into the focus of a burning glass,
and watch the purulent blood hiss and bubble in the heat." This man of
God then was guilty of such infamy! or looked on quietly when another
was committing it! in either case it comes to the same thing here. So
little harm did he think of it that he tells us of it in passing, and
without a trace of emotion. Such are the effects of the first chapter of
Genesis, and, in fact, of the whole of the Jewish conception of nature.
The standard recognized by the Hindus and Buddhists is the Mahavakya
(the great word),--"tat-twam-asi" (this is thyself), which may always be
spoken of every animal, to keep us in mind of the identity of his inmost
being with ours. Perfection of morality, indeed! Nonsense.
The fundamental characteristics of the Jewish religion are realism and
optimism, views of the world which are closely allied; they form, in
fact, the conditions of theism. For theism looks upon the material world
as absolutely real, and regards life as a pleasant gift bestowed upon
us. On the other hand, the fundamental characteristics of the Brahman
and Buddhist religions are idealism and pessimism, which look upon the
existence of the world as in the nature of a dream, and life as the
result of our sins. In the doctrines of the Zendavesta, from which, as
is well known, Judaism sprang, the pessimistic element is represented by
Ahriman. In Judaism, Ahriman has as Satan only a subordinate position;
but, like Ahriman, he is the lord of snakes, scorpions, and vermin. But
the Jewish system forthwith employs Satan to correct its fundamental
error of optimism, and in the _Fall_ introduces the element of
pessimism, a doctrine demanded by the most obvious facts of the world.
There is no truer idea in Judaism than this, although it transfers to
the course of existence what must be represented as its foundation and
antecedent.
The New Testament, on the other hand, must be in some way traceable to
an Indian source: its ethical system, its ascetic view of morality, its
pessimism, and its Avatar, are all thoroughly Indian. It is its morality
which places it in a position of such emphatic and essential antagonism
to the Old Testament, so that the story of the Fall is the only possible
point of connection between the two. For when the Indian doctrine was
imported into the land of promise, two very different things had to be
combined: on the one hand the consciousness of the corruption and misery
of the world, its need of deliverance and salvation through an Avatar,
together with a morality based on self-denial and repentance; on the
other hand the Jewish doctrine of Monotheism, with its corollary that
"all things are very good" [Greek: panta kala lian]. And the task
succeeded as far as it could, as far, that is, as it was possible to
combine two such heterogeneous and antagonistic creeds.
As ivy clings for the support and stay it wants to a rough-hewn post,
everywhere conforming to its irregularities and showing their outline,
but at the same time covering them with life and grace, and changing the
former aspect into one that is pleasing to the eye; so the Christian
faith, sprung from the wisdom of India, overspreads the old trunk of
rude Judaism, a tree of alien growth; the original form must in part
remain, but it suffers a complete change and becomes full of life and
truth, so that it appears to be the same tree, but is really another.
Judaism had presented the Creator as separated from the world, which he
produced out of nothing. Christianity identifies this Creator with the
Saviour, and through him, with humanity: he stands as their
representative; they are redeemed in him, just as they fell in Adam, and
have lain ever since in the bonds of iniquity, corruption, suffering and
death. Such is the view taken by Christianity in common with Buddhism;
the world can no longer be looked at in the light of Jewish optimism,
which found "all things very good": nay, in the Christian scheme, the
devil is named as its Prince or Ruler ([Greek: ho archon tou
kosmoutoutou.] John 12, 33). The world is no longer an end, but a means:
and the realm of everlasting joy lies beyond it and the grave.
Resignation in this world and direction of all our hopes to a better,
form the spirit of Christianity. The way to this end is opened by the
Atonement, that is the Redemption from this world and its ways. And in
the moral system, instead of the law of vengeance, there is the command
to love your enemy; instead of the promise of innumerable posterity, the
assurance of eternal life; instead of visiting the sins of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth generations, the Holy Spirit
governs and overshadows all.
We see, then, that the doctrines of the Old Testament are rectified and
their meaning changed by those of the New, so that, in the most
important and essential matters, an agreement is brought about between
them and the old religions of India. Everything which is true in
Christianity may also be found in Brahmanism and Buddhism. But in
Hinduism and Buddhism you will look in vain for any parallel to the
Jewish doctrines of "a nothing quickened into life," or of "a world made
in time," which cannot be humble enough in its thanks and praises to
Jehovah for an ephemeral existence full of misery, anguish and need.
Whoever seriously thinks that superhuman beings have ever given our race
information as to the aim of its existence and that of the world, is
still in his childhood. There is no other revelation than the thoughts
of the wise, even though these thoughts, liable to error as is the lot
of everything human, are often clothed in strange allegories and myths
under the name of religion. So far, then, it is a matter of indifference
whether a man lives and dies in reliance on his own or another's
thoughts; for it is never more than human thought, human opinion, which
he trusts. Still, instead of trusting what their own minds tell them,
men have as a rule a weakness for trusting others who pretend to
supernatural sources of knowledge. And in view of the enormous
intellectual inequality between man and man, it is easy to see that the
thoughts of one mind might appear as in some sense a revelation to
another.