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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16866.txt b/16866.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ca5e13 --- /dev/null +++ b/16866.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14622 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Eclipse of Faith, by Henry Rogers + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Eclipse of Faith + Or, A Visit To A Religious Sceptic + +Author: Henry Rogers + +Release Date: October 13, 2005 [EBook #16866] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH *** + + + + +Produced by Michael John Madden + + + + + +THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH; + +OR + +A VISIT TO A RELIGIOUS SCEPTIC. + +FIFTH EDITION. + +BOSTON: CROSBY, NICHOLS AND COMPANY, +111 WASHINGTON STREET. + +1854. + +AMERICAN PREFACE. + +The effect of the perusal of this book, and the estimate put +upon it by a reader, will depend upon his taking with him a +right view of its design. That design seems in the mind of +the writer to have been very definite and very restricted. If +he should be thought to have intended an answer to all the +elaborate objections from criticism and philosophy recently or +renewedly urged against faith in the Christian revelation, +and, still more, if the reader should suppose that the author +had aimed to remove all the difficulties in the way of +such a faith, he would equally insure his own disappointment, +and wrong the writer. The book comes forth anonymously, but it +is ascribed to Mr. Henry Rogers, some of whose very able +papers in the Edinburgh Review have been republished in two +octavo volumes in England, and one of whose articles, that on +"Reason and Faith," dealt with some of the topics which form +the subject-matter of this volume. + +The author seems to have viewed with a keenly attentive and +anxious mind the generally unsettled state of opinion, equally +among the literary and some of the humbler classes in England, +concerning the terms and the sanction of a religious faith, +especially as the issue bears upon the contents and the +authority of the Bible. That he understands the state of things +in which he proposes himself as one who has a word to utter, +will be allowed by all candid judges, whatever criticism they +may pass upon the effectiveness of his own argument. There is +abundant evidence in this book of his large intimacy with +the freshest forms of speculation, as developed by the free +thought of our age. While he identifies these speculations with +the recent writers who have adopted them, he is not to be +understood as allowing that these writers have originated +any novel speculations, or excelled the sceptics of former +times in acuteness, or plausibility, or success in urging their +cause. He adopts the method of the Platonic dialogue, and +exhibits a dialectic skill in confounding by objections when +objections can be made to do service as arguments. His frank +admission that he leaves insurmountable objections and +unfathomable mysteries still involved in the theme, a portion +of whose range alone he traverses, should secure him from the +imputation of having attempted too much, or of boastfulness for +what he considers that he has accomplished. + +The truculent notice of this book in the Westminster Review +for July is wholly unworthy of the reputation and the claims +of that journal. Probably a careful perusal of the book is an +essential condition for enlightening the mind of the writer, +and for rectifying his judgment, so far as information has +power to promote candor. + +The Prospective Review for August, in an article on the work, +for the most part commendatory, though certainly without any +warmth of praise, makes the prominent stricture upon it to be, +a charge against the author of having evaded "the gravest, and +in one sense the only serious difficulty, with which the +evidences he supports have to contend." This difficulty is +defined to be in the question as to whether our four Gospels +are essentially and substantially documents from the pens of +Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, actual companions and +contemporaries of Him whose life and lessons are therein recorded. +The Reviewer professes to have satisfied his own mind +by an affirmative conclusion on this point. But regarding the +question as the very turning-point, the paramount and vital element +of the existing issue between faith and unbelief, and not finding +it to be dealt with in this volume, the Reviewer considers that +it is evaded. It might be urged in reply, that this question is not +to other minds of such paramount importance, and that its +affirmative answer would not be conclusive, as it would still +leave open other questions; such, for instance, as those which +enter into the theories of Paulus and other Rationalists, and +such as are not even excluded from the incidental adjuncts +of Strauss's mythical theory. It might also be urged, that, +allowing the question to be paramount in its relation to the +whole issue, it is one which is not so judiciously dealt with +in the discursiveness of dialogues after dinner, as in the +solitary study, with piles of huge tomes, lexicons, and +manuscripts that require a most deliberate examination. +But to leave the merits and the relative importance of this +question undebated, it might have been more generous in the +Reviewer to have confined his criticisms to a decision upon +what the author has endeavored to accomplish, instead of +impugning his judgment in the selection of the points on which +to employ his pen. How ever desirable it may be that we +should have in another form what Mr. Norton has presented +so thoroughly in his work on the Genuineness of the Gospels, +it is enough to answer to the Reviewer in the Prospective, +that the writer of this volume addressed himself to a different +course of argument, starting from other divergences of +opinion, philosophical rather than critical in their relations. +He certainly was free to select the method and the direction of +his argument, if he candidly represented the answering point +of view of those to whom he opposed himself. + +Amid many episodes and interludes of fancy and narrative, it +will be found that the volume arrays its force of argument +against two of the assumptions alike of modern and of ancient +scepticism; namely, that a revelation from God to men through +the agency of a book is an unreasonable tenet of belief; and +that it is impossible that a miracle should occur, and +impossible that its occurrence should be authenticated. There +is a vigorous and logical power displayed in the discussion +of these two points. The discomfiture of those who urge these +assumptions does not of course convince all scepticism, or +substitute faith for it, but it is something to discomfit +such pleas, and to expose the fallacies which confuse the +minds of their advocates. The matters of debate are lofty, +and there is no levity in their treatment. + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + +He who reads this book only superficially will +at once see that it is not all fiction; and he who +reads it more than superficially will as easily see +that it is not all fact. In what proportions it is +composed of either would probably require a very +acute critic accurately to determine. As the Editor +makes no pretensions to such acumen,--as +he can lay claim to only an imperfect knowledge +of the principal personage in the volume, and +never had any personal acquaintance with the singular +youth, some traits of whose character and +some glimpses of whose history are here given, +--he leaves the above question to the decision of +the reader. At the same time, it is of no consequence +in the world. The character and purport +of the volume are sufficiently disclosed in the +parting words of the Journalist. "It aspires," +as is justly said, "to none of the appropriate +interest either of a novel or a biography." It might +have been very properly entitled "Theological Fragments." + +March 31, 1852. + + +INTRODUCTION + +A GENUINE SCEPTIC + +A VERSATILE BELIEVER + +PURITAN INFIDELITY + +LORD HERBERT AND MODERN DEISM + +SOME CURIOUS PARADOXES + +PROBLEMS + +A DIALOGUE SHOWING THAT "THAT MAY BE POSSIBLE WITH +MAN WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD" + +SCEPTIC'S FAVORITE TOPICS + +UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM + +A SCEPTICS FIRST CATECHISM +SOME LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY + +BELIEF AND FAITH + +THE "VIA MEDIA" OF DEISM + +A SCEPTIC'S SELECT PARTY + +HOW IT WAS THAT INFIDELITY PREVENTED MY BECOMING AN +INFIDEL + +SKIRMISHES + +CHRISTIAN ETHICS + +THE BLANK BIBLE + +A DIALOGUE IN WHICH IT IS CONTENDED "THAT MIRACLES ARE +IMPOSSIBLE, BUT THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE IT" + +THE ANALOGIES OF AN EXTERNAL REVELATION WITH THE LAWS +AND CONDITIONS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT + +ON A PREVAILING FALLACY + +HISTORIC CREDIBILITY + +A KNOTTY POINT + +MEDICAL ANALOGIES + +HISTORIC CRITICISM + +THE "PAPAL AGGRESSION" PROVED TO BE IMPOSSIBLE + +THE PARADISE OF FOOLS + +A FUTURE LIFE + +A VARIABLE QUANTITY + +DISCUSSION OF THREE POINTS + +THE LAST EVENING + + +THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH. + +To E. B*****, Missionary in ------, South Pacific. + +Wednesday, June 18, 1851. + +My Dear Edward:-- + +You have more than once asked me to send you, +in your distant solitude, my impressions respecting the religious +distractions in which your native country has been of late years +involved. I have refused, partly, because it would take a volume +to give you any just notions on the subject; and partly, because +I am not quite sure that you would not be happier in ignorance. +Think, if you can, of your native land as in this respect what +it was when you left it, on your exile of Christian love, +some fifteen years ago. + +I little thought I should ever have so mournful a motive to +depart in some degree from my resolution. I intended to leave +you to glean what you could of our religious condition from such +publications as might reach you. But I am now constrained to write +something about it. My dear brother, you will hear it with +a sad heart;--your nephew and mine, our only sister's +only child, has, in relation to religion at least, become +an absolute sceptic! + +I well recollect the tenderness you felt for him, doubly endeared +by his own amiable dispositions and the remembrance of her whom +in so many points he resembled. What must be mine, who so long +stood to the orphan in the relations which his mother's love and +my own affection imposed upon me! It is hardly a figure to say I +felt for him as for a son. "Ah!" you will say as you glance at your +own children, "my bachelor brother cannot understand that even such +an affection is still a faint resemblance of parental love." + +It may be so. I know that that love is sui generis; and as I have +often heard from those who are fathers, its depth and purity were +never realized till they became such. But neither, perhaps, can you +know how nearly such a love as I have felt for Harrington, committed +to me in death by one I loved so well,--beloved alike for her sake +and for his own,--the object of so much solicitude during his +childhood and youth,--I say you can hardly, perhaps, conceive how +near such an affection may approach that of a parent; how closely +such a graft upon a childless stock may resemble the incorporate +life of father and son. + +You remember what hopes we both formed of his youth, from the +promise alike of his heart and of his intellect, How fondly we +predicted a career of future usefulness to others, and honor and +happiness to himself! You know how often I used to compare him, +for the silent ease with which he mastered difficult subjects, +and the versatility with which he turned his mind to the most +opposite pursuits, to the youthful Theaetetus, as described in +Plato's dialogue the movements of whose mind Theodorus compares +to the "noiseless flow of oil" from the flask. + +He was just fourteen and a half when you left England; he is +now, therefore, nearly twenty-nine. He left me four years ago, +when he was just twenty-five,--about a year after the termination +of his college course, which you know was honorable to him, and +gratifying to me. He then went to spend a year, or a year and a +half, as he supposed, in Germany. His stay (he was not all the +time in Germany, however) was prolonged for more than three years. +In the letters which I received from him, and which gradually +became more rare and more brief, there was (without one symptom +of decay of personal affection) a certain air of gradually +increasing constraint, in relation to the subject which I knew +and felt to be all-important. Alas! my prophetic soul took it +aright; this constraint was the faint penumbra of a disastrous +eclipse indeed! He was not, as so many profess to be, convinced +by any particular book (as that of Strauss, for example) that +the history of Christianity is false; nay, he declares that he +is not convinced of that even now; he is a genuine sceptic, and +is the subject, he says, of invincible doubts. Those doubts have +extended at length to the whole field of theology, and are due +principally, as he himself has owned, to the spectacle of the +interminable controversies which (turn where he would) occupied +the mind of Germany. Even when he returned home he does not appear +to have finally abandoned the notion of the possibility of +constructing some religious system in the place of Christianity;-- +this, as he affirms, is a later conviction formed upon him by +examining the systems of such men as have attempted the solution +of the problem. He declares the result wholly unsatisfactory; that, +sceptical as he was and is with regard to the truth of Christianity, +he is not even sceptical with regard to these theories; and he +declares that if 'the undoubtedly powerful minds which have +framed them have so signally failed in removing his doubts, and +affording him a rock to stand upon, he cannot prevail upon himself +to struggle further. + +And so, instead of stopping at any of those miserable road-side +inns between Christianity and scepticism, through whose ragged +windows all the winds of heaven are blowing, and whose gaudy "signs" +assure us there is "good entertainment within for man and beast,"-- +whereas it is only for the latter,--Harrington still travelled on in +hopes of finding some better shelter, and now, in the dark night, +and a night of tempest too, finds himself on the open heath. To +employ his own words, "he could not rest contented with one-sided +theories or inconsequential reasonings, and has pursued the +argument to its logical termination." He is ill at ease in mind, +I hear, and not in robust health; and I am just going to visit him. + +I shall have some melancholy scenes with him; I feel that. Do you +remember, when we were in Switzerland together, how, as we wound +down the Susten and the Grimsel passes, with the perpendicular +cliffs some thousand feet above us, and a torrent as many feet +below, we used to shudder at the thought of two men, wrestling upon +that dizzy verge, and striving to throw each other over! I almost +imagine that I am about to engage in such a strife now, with the +additional horror that the contest is (as one may say) between +father and son. Nay, it is yet more terrible; for in such a contest +there, I almost feel as if I could be contented to employ only a +passive resistance. But I must here learn to school my heart and +mind to an active and desperate conflict. I fear lest I should do +more harm than good; and I am sure I shall if I suffer impatience +and irascibility to prevail. I shall, perhaps, also hear from those +lips which once addressed me only in the accents of respect and +kindness, language indicative of that alienation which is the +inevitable result of marked dissimilarity of sentiment and +character, and which, according to Aristotle's most just +description, will often dissolve the truest friendship, at all +events, extinguish (just as prolonged absence will) all its +vividness. So impossible is it for the full sympathies of the heart +to coexist with absolute antipathy of the intellect! Nay, I shall, +perhaps, have to listen to the language which I cannot but consider +as "impiety" and "blasphemy," and yet keep my temper. +I half feel, however, that I am doing him injustice in much of this; +and I will not "judge before the time." It cannot be that he will +ever cease to regard me with affection, though, perhaps, no longer +with reverence; and I am confident that not even scepticism can +chill the natural kindness of his disposition. I am persuaded +that, even as a sceptic, he is very different from most sceptics. +They cherish doubts; he will be impatient of them. Scepticism is, +with them, a welcome guest, and has entered their hearts by an open +door; I am sure that it must have stormed his, and entered it by a +breach. + +"No," my heart whispers, "I shall still find you sincere, Harrington; +scorning to take any unfair advantage in argument, and impatient of +all sophistry, as I have ever found you. You will be fully aware of +the moral significance of the conclusion at which you have arrived, +--even that there is no conclusion to be arrived at; and you will be +miserable,--as all must be who have your power to comprehend it." + +Accept this, my dear brother, as a truer delineation of my wanderer +than my first thoughts prompted. But then all this will only make it +the more sad to see him. Still it is a duty, and it must be done. + +I have not the heart at present to give more than the briefest +answers to the queries which you so earnestly put to me. No doubt +you were startled to find, from the French papers that reached you +from Tahiti, and on no less authority than that of the "Apostolic +Letter of the Pope," and Cardinal Wiseman's "Pastoral," that this +enlightened country was once more, or was on the eve of becoming, a +"satellite" of Rome. Subsequent information, touching the course of +the almost unprecedented agitation which England has just passed +through, will serve to convince you, either that Pio Nono's +supplications to the Virgin and all the English saints, from +St. Dunstan downwards, have not been so successful as he flattered +himself that they would have been, or that the nation, if it be +about to embrace Romanism, has the oddest way of showing it. It +has acquired most completely the Jesuitical art of disguising +its real feelings; or, as the Anglicans would say, of practising +the doctrine of "reserve." To all appearance the country is more +indomitably Protestant than before. + +Nor need you alarm yourself--as in truth you seem too much inclined +to do--about the machinations and triumphs of the Tractarian party. +Their insidious attempts are no doubt a graver evil than the +preposterous pretensions of Rome, to which indeed they gave their +only chance of success. The evil has been much abated, however by +those very assumptions; for it is no longer disguised. Tractarianism +is seen to be what many had proclaimed it,--the strict ally of Rome. +The hopes it inspired were the causes of the Pope's presumption and +of Wiseman's folly; and, by misleading them, it has, to a large +extent, undone the projects both of Rome and itself. But even before +the recent attempts, its successes were very partial. + +The degree to which the infection tainted the clergy was no +criterion at all of the sympathy of the people. Too many of the +former were easily converted to a system which confirmed all their +ecclesiastical prejudices, and favored their sacerdotal pretensions; +which endowed every youngster upon whom the bishop laid hands +with "preternatural graces," and with the power of working +"spiritual miracles." But the people generally were in little +danger of being misled by these absurdities; and facts, even before +the recent outbreak, ought to have convinced the clergy, that, if +they thought proper to go to Rome, their flocks were by no means +prepared to follow them. Except among some fashionable folks here +and there,--young ladies to whom ennui, susceptible nerves, and a +sentimental imagination made any sort of excitement acceptable; +who turned their arks of embroidery and painting, and their love +of music, to "spiritual" uses, and displayed their piety and their +accomplishments at the same time,--except among these, I say, and +those amongst the more ignorant of our rural population whom such +people influenced, the Anglican movement could not boast of any +signal success. In the more densely peopled districts, and amongst +the middle classes especially, the failure of the thing was often +most ignominious. No sooner were the candles placed upon the +"altar" than the congregation began to thin; and by the time the +"obsolete" rubrics were all admirably observed, the priest +faultlessly arrayed, the service properly intoned, and the entire +"spiritual" machine set in motion, the people were apt to desert +the sacred edifice altogether. It was a pity, doubtless, that, +when such admirable completeness in the ecclesiastical, equipments +had been attained, it should be found that the machine would not +work; that just when the Church became perfect, it should fail for +so insignificant an accident as the want of a congregation. Yet so +it often was. The ecclesiastical play was an admirable rehearsal, +and nothing more. Not but what there are many priests who would +prefer a "full service," and an ample ceremonial in an empty +church, to the simple Gospel in a crowded one; like Handel, who +consoled himself with the vacant benches at one of his oratorios +by saying that "dey made de music sound de ner." And, in truth, +if we adopt to the full the "High Church" theory, perhaps it +cannot much matter whether the people be present or not; the opus +operatum of magic rites and spiritual conjuration may be equally +effectual. The Oxford tracts said ten years ago, "Before the +Reformation, the Church recognized the seven hours of prayer; +however these may have been practically neglected, or hidden +in an unknown tongue, there is no estimating what influence this +may have had on common people's minds secretly." Surely you must +agree that there is no estimating the efficacy of nobody's +hearing services which, if heard by any body, would have been +in an unknown tongue. + +I repeat, that the people of England will never yield to Romanism, +--unless, indeed, it shall hereafter be as a reaction from +infidelity; just as infidelity is now spreading as a reaction from +the attempted restoration of Romanism. That England is not prepared +at present is sufficiently shown by the result of the recent +agitation. Could it terminate otherwise? Was it possible that +England, in the nineteenth century, could be brought to adopt the +superstitions of the Middle Age? If she could, she would have +deserved to be left to the consequences of her besotted folly. We +may say, as Milton said, in his day, to the attempted restoration +of superstitions which the Reformers had already cast off; "O, if +we freeze at noon, after their easy thaw, let us fear lest the sun +for ever hide himself, and turn his orient steps from our +ungrateful horizon justly condemned to be eternally benighted." +No, it is not from this quarter that England must look for the +chief dangers which menace religion, except, indeed, as these +dangers are the inevitable, the uniform result of every attempt +to revive the obsolete past. The principal peril is from a subtle +unbelief, which, in various forms, is sapping the religion of our +people, and which, if not checked, will by and by give the Romish +bishops a better title to be called bishops in partibus infidelium +than has always been the case. The attempt to make men believe +too much naturally provokes them to believe too little; and such +has been and will be the recoil from the movement towards Rome. +It is only one, however, of the causes of that widely diffused +infidelity which is perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon of our +day. Other and more potent causes are to be sought in the +philosophic tendencies of the age, and especially a sympathy, in +very many minds, with the worst features of Continental speculation. +"Infidelity!" you will say. "Do you mean such infidelity as +that of Collins and Bolingbroke, Chubb and Tindal?" Why, we have +plenty of those sorts too, and--worse; but the most charming +infidelity of the day, a bastard deism in fact, often assumes a +different form,--a form, you will be surprised to hear it, which +embodies (as many say) the essence of genuine Christianity! Yes; +be it known to you, that when you have ceased to believe all that +is specially characteristic of the New Testament,--its history, +its miracles, its peculiar doctrine--you may still be a genuine +Christian. Christianity is sublimed into an exquisite thing +called modern "spiritualism." The amount and quality of "faith" +are, indeed, pleasingly diversified when come to examine individual +professors thereof; but it always based upon the principle that +man is a light to himself; that his oracle is within; so clear +either to supersede the necessity--some say even possibility--of +all external revelation in any sense of that term; or, when such +revelation is in some sense allowed, to constitute man the absolute +arbiter how much or how little of it is worthy to be received. + +This theory we all perceive, of course, cannot fail to recommend itself +by the well-known uniformity and distinctness of man's religious +notions and the reasonableness of his religious practices! We all +know there has never been any want of a revelation;--of which have +doubtless had full proof among the idolatrous barbarians you +foolishly went to enlighten and reclaim. I wish, however, you had +known it fifteen years ago; I might have had my brother with me +still. It is a pity that this internal revelation--the "absolute +religion," hidden, as Mr. Theodore Parker felicitously phrases it, +in all religions of all ages and nations, so strikingly avouched +by the entire history of world--should render itself suspicions +by little discrepancies in its own utterances among those who +believe in it. Yet so it is. Compared with the rest of the world, +few at the best can be got to believe in the sufficiency of the internal +light and the superfluity all external revelation; and yet hardly +two of the flock agree. It is the rarest little oracle! Apollo +himself might envy its adroitness in the utterance ambiguities. +One man says that the doctrine of "future life" is undoubtedly a +dictate of the "religious sentiment,"--one of the few universal +characteristics of all religion; another declares his "insight" +tells him nothing of the matter; one affirms that the supposed +chief "intuitions" of the "religious faculty"--belief in the +efficacy of prayer, the free will of man, and the immortality of +the soul--are at hopeless variance with intellect and logic; others +exclaim, and surely not without reason, that this casts upon our +faculties the opprobrium of irretrievable contradictions! As for those +"spiritualists"--and they are, perhaps, at present the greater +part--who profess, in some sense, to pay homage to the New Testament, +they are at infinite variance as to how much--whether 7 1/2, 30, or +50 per cent of its records--is to be received. Very few get so far +as the last. One man is resolved to be a Christian,--none more +so,--only he will reject all the peculiar doctrines and all the +supernatural narratives of the New Testament; another declares that +miracles are impossible and "incredible, per se"; a third thinks +they are neither the one nor the other, though it is +true that probably a comparatively small portion of those narrated in +the "book" are established by such evidence as to be worthy of credit. +Pray use your pleasure in the selection; and the more freely, as a +fourth is of opinion that, however true, they are really of little +consequence. While many extol in vague terms of admiration the deep +"spiritual insight" of the founders of Christianity, they do not trouble +themselves to explain how it is that this exquisite illumination left +them to concoct that huge mass of legendary follies and mystical +doctrines which constitute, according to the modern "spiritualism," +the bulk of the records of the New Testament, and by which its authors +have managed to mislead the world; nor how we are to avoid regarding +them either as superstitious and fanatical fools or artful and +designing knaves, if nine tenths, or seven tenths, of what they record +is all to be rejected; nor, if it be affirmed that they never did +record it, but that somebody else has put these matters into their +mouths, how we can be sure that any thing whatever of the small +remainder ever came out of their mouths. All this, ever, is of the +less consequence, as these gentlemen descend to tell us how we are +to separate the "spiritual" gold which faintly streaks the huge mass +of impure ore of fable, legend, and mysticism. Each man, it seems +has his own particular spade and mattock in his "spiritual faculty"; +so off with you to the diggings in these spiritual mines of Ophir. You +will say, Why not stay at home, and be content at once, with the +advocates of the absolute sufficiency of the internal oracle, listen to +its responses exclusively? Ask these men--for I am sure I do not know; +I only know that the results are very different--whether the +possessor of "insight" listens to its own rare voice, or puts on +spectacles and reads aloud from the New Testament. Generally, as I +say, these good folks are resolved that all that is supernatural +and specially inspired in sacred volume is to be rejected; and as +to the rest, which by the way might be conveniently published as +the "Spiritualists' Bible" (in two or three sheets, 48mo, say), +that would still require a careful winnowing; for, while one man +tells us that the Apostle Paul, in his intense appreciation of +the "spiritual element," made light even of the "resurrection of +Christ," and everywhere shows his superiority to the beggarly elements +of history, dogma, and ritual, another declares that he was so +enslaved by his Jewish prejudices and the trumpery he had picked up +at the feet of Gamaliel, that he knew but little or next to nothing +of the real mystery of the very Gospel he preached; that while he +proclaims that it is "revealed, after having been hidden from ages +generations," he himself manages to hide it afresh. This you will be +told is a perpetual process, going on even now; that as all the +"earlier prophets" were unconscious instruments of a purpose beyond +their immediate range of thought, so the Apostles themselves +similarly illustrated the shallowness of their range of thought; +that, in fact, the true significance of the Gospel lay beyond them, +and doubtless also, for the very same reasons, lies beyond us. In +other words, this class of spiritualists tell us that Christianity +is a "development," as the Papists also assert, and the New Testament +its first imperfect and rudimentary product; only, unhappily, as the +development, it seems, may be things so very different as Popery and +Infidelity, we are as far as ever from any criterion as to which, out +of the ten thousand possible developments, is the true; but it is a +matter of the less consequence, since it will, on such reasoning, be +always something future. + +"Unhappy Paul!" you will say. Yes, it is no better with him than it +was in our youth some five-and-twenty years ago. Do you not remember +the astute old German Professor in his lecture-room introducing the +Apostle as examining with ever-increasing wonder the various +contradictory systems which the perverseness of exegesis had +extracted from his Epistles, and at length, as he saw one from which +every feature of Christianity had been erased, exclaiming in a +fright, "Was ist das?" But I will not detain you on the vagaries of +the new school of spiritualists. I shall hear enough of them, I have +no doubt, from Harrington; he will riot in their extravagances and +contradictions as a justification of his own scepticism. In very +truth their authors are fit for nothing else than to be recruiting +officers for undisguised infidelity; and this has been the consistent +termination with very many of their converts. Yet, many of them tell +us, after putting men on this inclined plane of smooth ice, that it +is the only place where they can be secure against tumbling into +infidelity, Atheism, Pantheism, Scepticism. Some of Oxford Tractarians +informed us, a little before Crossing the border, that their system +was the surest bulwark against Romanism; and in the same way is this +site "spiritualism", a safeguard against infidelity. + +Between many of our modern "spiritualists" and Romanists there is a +parallelism of movement absolutely ludicrous. You may chance to hear +both claiming, with equal fervor, against "intellect" and "logic" +as totally incompetent to decide on "religion" or "spiritual" truth, +and in favor of a "faith" which disclaims all alliance with them. You +may chance hear them both insisting on an absolute submission to +an "infallible authority" other than the Bible; the one external,--that +is, the Pope; the other internal,--that is, "Spiritual Insight"; both +exacting absolute submission, the one to the outward oracle, the +Church, the other to the inward oracle, himself; both insisting that +the Bible is but the first imperfect product of genuine Christianity, +which is perfected by a "development," though as to the direction of +that development they certainly do not agree. Both, if I may judge by +some recent speculations, recoil from the Bible even more than they +do from one another; and both would get rid of it,--one by locking +it up, and the other tearing it to tatters. Thus receding in opposite +directions round the circle, they are found placed side by side at +the same extremity of a diameter, at the other extremity of which +is the--Bible. The resemblances, in some instances, are so striking, +that one is reminded of that little animal, the fresh-water polype, +whose external structure is so absolutely a mere prolongation of +the internal, that you may turn him inside out, and all the +functions of life go on just as well as before. + +It is impossible to convey to you an adequate idea of the +bouleversement which has taken place in our religious relations, +--even in each man's little sphere. It is as if the religious +world were a masquerade, where you cease to feel surprise at +finding some familiar acquaintance disguised in the most +fantastical costume. There is our old friend W----, rigorously, +as you know, educated in his old father's Evangelical notions, +ready to be a confessor for the two wax candies, even though +unlighted, and to be a martyr for them if but lighted. His +cousin in the opposite direction has found even the most meagre +naturalism too much for him, and avows himself a Pantheist. +L----, the son, you remember, of an independent minister, is +ready to go nobly to death in defence of the prerogatives of +his "apostolic succession"; and has not the slightest doubts that +he can make out his spiritual genealogy, without a broken link, +from the first Bishop of Rome, downwards!--though, poor fellow, +it would puzzle him to say who was his great-grandfather. +E----, you are aware, has long since joined the Church of Rome, +and has disclosed such a bottomless abyss of "faith," that whole +cart-loads of mediaeval fables, abandoned even by Romanists (who, +by the way, stand fairly aghast at his insatiable appetite), have +not been able to fill it. All the saints in the Roman Hagiography +cannot work miracles as fast as he can credit them. On the other +hand, his brother has signalized himself by an equal facility of +stripping himself, fragment by fragment, of his early creed, till +at last he walks through this bleak world in such a gossamer gauze +of transparent "spiritualism," that it makes you both shiver and +blush to look at him. Your old acquaintance P----, true to his +youthful qualities (which now have most abundant exercise), who +has the "charity which believeth all, things," though certainly +not that which "bareth all things," goes about apologizing for all +religious systems, and finding truth in every thing;--our beloved +Harrington, on the other hand, bewildered by all this confusion, +finds truth--in nothing. + +Yet you must not imagine that our religious maladies are at present +more than sporadic; or that the great bulk of our population are at +present affected by them: they still believe the Bible to be the +revealed Word God. Should these diseases ever become epidemic, they +will soon degenerate into a still worse type. Many apostles of +Atheism and Pantheism amongst our classes say (and perhaps truly), +that this modern "spiritualism" is but a transition state. In that +case, you will have to recall, with a deeper meaning, the song of +Byron, which you told me gave you such anguish, as you paced the deck +on the evening in which lost sight of Old England,--"My native land, +night!" + +I have sometimes mournfully asked myself, whether the world may not +yet want a few experiments as to whether it cannot get on better +without Christianity and the Bible; but I hope England is not +destined be the laboratory. + +I almost envy your happier lot I picture to myself your +unsophisticated folks, just reclaimed from the grossest barbarism +and idolatry, receiving the simple Gospel (as it ought to be +received) with grateful wonder, as Heaven's own method of making man +wise and happy; reverencing the Bible as what it is,--an infallible +guide through this world to a better; "a light shining in a dark +place." They listen with unquestioning simplicity to its disclosures, +which find an echo in their own hearts, and with a reverence which +is due to a volume which has transformed them from savages into men, +and from idolaters into Christians. They are not troubled with doubts +of its authenticity or its divinity; with talk of various readings and +discordant manuscripts; with subtle theories for proving that its +miracles are legends, or its history myths, or with any other of +the infinite vagaries of perverted learning. Neither are they +perplexed with the assurances of those who tell them that, though +divine, the Bible is, in fact, a most dangerous book, and who would +request them, in their new-born enlightenment, to be pleased to shut +their eyes, and to return to a religion of ceremony quite as absurd +and almost as cruel as the polytheism they have renounced. I imagine +you and your little flock in the Sabbath stillness of those mountains +and green valleys, of which you give me such pleasant descriptions, +exhibiting a specimen of a truly primitive Christianity; I imagine +that the peace within is as deep as the tranquillity without. + +Yet I know it cannot be; for you and your flock are men,--and that +one word alone suffices to dissolve the charm. You and they have +cares, and worse than cares, which make you like all the rest of +the world; for guilt and sorrow are of no clime, and the "happy +valley" never existed except in the pages of Rasselas. You are, +doubtless, plagued by every now and then finding that some +half-reclaimed cannibal confesses that he has not quite got over +his gloating recollections of the delicacies of his diabolical +cuisine; or that fashionable converts turn with a yearning heart, +not to theatres and balls, but to the "dear remembrance" of the +splendors 'of tattoo and amocos; or that some unlucky wretch who +has not mastered the hideous passions of his old paganism has almost +battered out the brains of a fellow disciple in a sudden paroxysm +of anger; or that some timid soul is haunted with half-subdued +suspicions that some great goggle-eyed idol, with whose worship his +whole existence has been associated, is not, what St Paul declares +it is, absolutely "nothing in world." And then you vex your soul +about these things, and worry yourself with apprehensions lest "you +should have labored in vain and spent your strength for naught"; and +lastly, trouble yourself still more lest you should lose your temper +and your patience into the bargain. + +Yes, your scenery is doubtless beautiful, as the sketches you have +sent me sufficiently show; especially that scene at the foot of the +mountain Moraii or Mauroi, for I cannot quite make out the pencil-marks. +But, beautiful as they are, they are not more so than those which greet +my eye even now from my study window. No, there is no fault to be +found with external nature; it is man only who spoils it all. I see +nothing in sun, moon, or stars, in mountain, forest, or stream, that +needs to be altered; we are the blot on this fair world, "O man," +I am sometimes ready to exclaim, "what a--"; but I check myself, +for as Correggio whispered to himself exultingly, "I also am a painter," +so I, though with very different feelings, say, "I also am a man." +Johnson said, that every man probably worse of himself than he certainly +knows of most other men; and so I am determined that misanthropy, if +is to be indulged at all, shall, like its opposite charity, "begin +at home." + +Yet, now I think better of it, it shall not begin at all; for I +recollect that HE also was a "man," who was infinitely more; who has +penetrated even this cloudy shrine of clay with the effulgence of His +glory and so let me resolve that our common humanity shall be held +sacred for His sake, and pitied for its own. Thus ends my little, +transient fit of spleen, and may it ever end. + +May we feel more and more, my dearest brother, the interior presence +of that "guest of guests," that Divine Impersonation of Truth, +Rectitude, and Love, whose image has had more power to soothe and +tranquillize, stimulate and fortify, the human heart, than all the +philosophies ever devised by man; who has not merely left us rules of +conduct, expressed with incomparable force and comprehensiveness, +and illustrated by images of unequalled pathos and beauty; who was +not merely (and yet, herein alone, how superior to all other masters) +the living type of His own glorious doctrine, and affects us as we gaze +upon Him with that transforming influence which the studious +contemplation of all excellence exerts by a necessary law of our +nature; but whose Life and Death include all motives which can enforce +His lessons on humanity;--motives all intensely animated by the +conviction that He is a Living Personality, in communion with our own +spirits, and attracted towards us by all the sympathies of a friendship +truly Divine; "who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, +though Himself without sin." May He become so familiar to our souls, +that no suggestions of evil from within, no incursion of evil from +without, shall be so swift and sudden that the thought of Him shall +not be at least as near to our spirits, intercept the treachery of +our infirm nature, and guard that throne which He alone deserves to +fill; till, at every turn and every posture of our earthly life, we +may realize a mental image of that countenance of divine compassion +bent upon us, and that voice of gentle instruction murmuring in our +ears its words of heavenly wisdom; till, whenever tempted to deviate +from the "narrow path," we may hear Him whispering, "Will ye also go +away?" when hated by the world,--"Ye know that it hated me before +it hated you"; when called to perform some difficult duty,--"If ye +love me, keep my commandments"; when disposed to make an idol of any +thing on earth,--"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not +worthy of me"; when in suffering and trial,--"Whom I love I rebuke +and chasten"; when our way is dark,--"What I do thou knowest not now, +but thou shalt know hereafter"; till, a word, as we hear His faintest +footsteps approaching our hearts, and His gentle signal there according +to His own beautiful image, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," +our souls may hasten to welcome the heavenly guest. + +So may it ever be with you and me! And now I find the very thought +of these things has cured all my dark and turbulent feelings, as +indeed it ever does; and I can say before I go to rest, "O man, my +brother, I am at peace with thee!" + +Ah! what an empire is His! How, even at the antipodes, will these +lines touch in your heart a chord responsive to that which vibrates +in mine! .... I go to Harrington in a few days, and as our +conversation (perhaps, alas! our controversies) will turn upon some +of the most momentous religious topics of the day, I shall keep +an exact journal--Boswellize, in fact--for you, as well as I can; and +how well some of my earlier days have practised my memory for this +humble office you know. I shall have a pleasure in this, not only +because you will be glad to hear all I can communicate respecting one +you love so well, but also because in this way, perhaps, I shall in +part fulfil your earnest request to let you know the state of +religion amongst us. You will expect, of course, to find only that +portion of our conversations reported which relates to these +subjects; but I anticipate, in discussing others, some compensation +for the misery which will, I fear, attend the discussion of these. + +Thank your convert Outai for his present of his grim idol. It is +certainly "brass for gold," considering what I sent him; but do +not tell him so. If a man gives us his gods, what more can he do? +And yet, it seems, he may be the richer for the loss. Never was +a question more senseless than that of the idolatrous fool,--"Ye +have taken away my gods, and what else have I left?" His godship was +a little injured in his transit; but he was very perfect in +deformity before, and his ugliness could not, by any accident, be +improved. I have put him into a glass case with some stuffed birds, at +which he ogles, with his great eyes, in a manner not altogether divine. +His condition, therefore, is pretty nearly that to which prophecy has +doomed all his tribe; if not cast to the "moles and the bats," it is +to the owls and parrots. I cannot help looking at him sometimes with +a sort of respect as contrasted with his worshippers; for though they +have been fools enough to worship him, he has, at least, not been fool +enough to worship them. Yet even they are better than the Pantheist, +who must regard it and every thing else, himself included, as a +fragment of divinity. I fear that, if I could regard either the Pantheist +or myself as divine, nothing in the world could keep me from blasphemy +every day and all day long. + +"Again!" you will say, "my brother; is not that old vein of bitterness +yet exhausted?" But be it known to you that that last sarcasm was +especially for my own behoof. She is a sly jade,--conscience; like +many other folks, she has a trick of expressing her rebukes in +general language; as thus: "What a contemptible set of creatures the +race of men are!"--hoping that some folks will practically take it to +heart. Sometimes I do; and sometimes, I suppose, like my fellows, I look +very grave, and approvingly say, "It is but too true," with the air of +one who philosophically assents to a proposition in which he is totally +uninterested; whereupon conscience becomes outrageous and--personal. + +I can easily imagine what you tell me, that you hardly know the +difference between the missionaries of different denominations, and +are very much troubled to remember, at times, which is which. It +is a natural consequence of the relations in which you stand to +heathenism. I fancy the sight of men worshipping an idol with four +heads and twice as many hands must considerably abate impressions of +the importance some of the controversies nearer home. Do you remember +the passage in "Woodstock," in which our old favorite represents the +Episcopalian Rochecliffe and the Presbyterian Holdenough meeting +unexpectedly in prison, after many years of separation, during which +one had thought the other dead? How sincerely glad they were, and +how pleasantly they talked; when lo! an unhappy reference to the +"bishopric of Titus" gradually abated the fervor of their charity, +and inflamed that of their zeal, even till they at last separated in +mutual dudgeon, and sat glowering at each other in their distant +corners with looks in which the "Episcopalian" and "Presbyterian" +were much more evident than the "Christian";--and so they persevered +till the sudden summons to them and their fellow-prisoners, to +prepare for instant execution, dissolved as with a charm the anger +they had felt, and "Forgive me, O my brother," and "I have sinned +against thee, my brother," broke from their lips as they took what +they thought would be a last farewell. + +I imagine that a feeling a little resembling this, though from a +different cause, makes it impossible for you to remember, in the +presence of such spiritual horrors as heathenism presents, the immense +importance of many of the controversies so hotly waged at home, I +can conceive (as some of our zealots would say) that you are tempted +to a certain degree of insensibility and defection of heart; that +you no longer discern the momentous superiority of "sprinkling" over +"immersion," or of "immersion" over "sprinkling"; that the "wax +candles," "lighted" and "unlighted," appear to you alike insignificant; +that even the jus divinum of any system of ecclesiastical government +is sometimes not discerned with absolute precision; and, in short, that +you look with contemptuous wonder on half our "great controversies." +If I mistake not, things are coming to that pass amongst us, that we +shall soon think of them almost with contemptuous wonder too. + +Vale,--et ora pro me,--as old Luther used to say at the end of his +letters. I will write again soon. + +Your affectionate Brother, +F.B. + +---- + + +Grange, July 7, 1851. + +My Dear Brother:-- + +I have been with Harrington a week: I am glad to say that I was +under some erroneous impressions when I wrote my letter. He is not +a universal sceptic,--he is only a sceptic in relation to +theological and ethical truth. "Alas!" you will say, "it is an +exception which embraces more than the general rule; it little +matters what else he believes." + +True; and yet there is consolation in it; for otherwise it would +have been impossible to hold intercourse with him at all. If he had +reasoned in order to prove to me that human reason cannot be +trusted, or I to convince one who affirmed its universal falsity, +it were hard to say whether he or I had been the greater fool. +Your universal sceptic--if he choose to affect that character,--no +man is it--is impregnable; his true emblem is the hedgehog ensphered +in his prickles; that is, as long as you are observing him. For if +you do not thus irritate his amour propre, and put him on the +defensive, he will unroll himself. Speaking, reasoning, acting, +like the rest of the world, on the implied truthfulness of the +faculties whose falsity he affirms, he will save you the trouble of +confuting him, by confuting himself. + +And I am glad, for another reason, that Harrington does not affect +this universal scepticism: for whereas, by the confession of its +greatest masters, it is at best but the play of a subtle intellect, so +it does not afford a very flattering picture of an intellect that +affects it. I should have been mortified, I confess, had Harrington +been chargeable with such a foible. + +It is true that, in another aspect, all this makes the case more +desperate; for his scepticism, so far as it extends, is deep and +genuine; it is no play of an ingenious subtilty, nor the affectation +of singularity with him;--and my prognostications of the misery +which such a mind must feel from driving over the tempestuous ocean +of life under bare poles, without chart or compass, are, I can see, +verified. One fact, I confess, gives me hopes, and often affords me +pleasure in listening to him. He is an impartial doubter; he doubts +whether Christianity be true; but he also doubts whether it be false; +and, either from his impatience of the theories which infidelity +proposes in its place, as inspiring yet stronger doubts, or in revenge +for the peace of which he has been robbed, he never seems more at home +than in ridiculing the confidence and conceit of that internal oracle, +which professes to solve the problems which, it seems, Christianity +leaves in darkness; and in pushing the principles on which infidelity +rejects the New Testament to their legitimate conclusion. + +I told you, in general, the origin and the progress of his scepticism. +I suspect there are causes (perhaps not distinctly felt by him) which +have contributed to the result These, it may be, I shall never know; +but it is hardly possible not to suppose that some bitter experience has +contributed to cloud, thus portentously, the brightness of his youth. +Something, I am confident, in connection with his long residence abroad, +has tended to warp his young intellect from its straight growth. The +heart, as usual, has had to do with the logic; and "has been whispering +reasons which the reason cannot comprehend." I suspect that passionate +hopes have been buried,--whether in the grave, I know not. I must add, +that an indirect and most potential cause, not indeed of the origination, +yet of the continuance, of his state of mind, must be sought in what +the world would call his good fortune. His maiden aunt by the father's +side left her favorite nephew her pleasant, old-fashioned, somewhat +gloomy, but picturesque and comfortable house in ---shire, about fifty +or sixty acres in land, and three or four hundred a year into the +bargain. Poor old lady! I heartily wish she had kept him out of +possession by living to a hundred; or, dying, had left every farthing +to "endow a college or a--cat." To Harrington she has left a very +equivocal heritage. For with this and his little patrimony he is +entirely placed above the necessity of professional life and fully +qualified to live (Heaven help him!) as a gentleman;--but, unhappily, +as a gentleman whose nature is deeply speculative,--whose life has been +one of study,--and who has no active tastes or habits to correct the +morbid portions of his character, and the dangers of his position. +With his views already unsettled, he retired a few months ago to this +comparative solitude; (for such it is, though the place is not many +miles from the learned city of-----;) and partly from the tendencies +of his own mind, partly from want of some powerful stimulus from +without, he soon acquired the pernicious habit of almost constant +seclusion in his library, where he revolves, as if fascinated, the +philosophy of doubt, or some equally distressing themes; all which +has now issued as you see. The contemplative and the active life are +both necessary to man, no doubt; but in how different proportions! + +To live as Harrington has lived of late, is to breathe little but +azote. I believe that all these ill effects would have been, though +not obviated, at least early cured, had he been compelled to mingle +in active life,--to make his livelihood by a profession. The bracing +air of the world would have dissipated these vapors which have +gathered over his soul. In very truth, I half wish that he could +now be stripped of his all, and compelled to become hedger and ditcher. +It would almost be a kindness to ruin him by engaging him in some +of the worst railway speculations! + +I found him all that I had promised to find him; unchanged towards +myself; sometimes cheerful, though oftener melancholy, or, at least, +to all appearances ennuye; with more causticity and sarcasm in his humor, +but without misanthropy; and I must add, with the same logical fairness, +the same abhorrence of sophistry, which, were his early characteristics. + +But the journal of my visit, which I am most diligently keeping, will +more fully inform you of his state of mind. + +F.B. + +JOURNAL OF A VISIT, ETC. + +July 1, 1851. + +I arrived at ----Grange this day. In the evening, as Harrington and +myself were conversing in the library, I availed myself of a pause +in the conversation to break the ice in relation to the topic which +lay nearest my heart, by saying:-- + +"And so you have become, they tell me, a universal sceptic?" + +"Not quite," he replied, throwing one of his feet over the edge of +the sofa on which he was reclining and speaking rather dogmatically +(I thought) for a sceptic. "Not quite: but in relation to religion I +certainly become convinced that certainty, like pride, was not made for +man, and that it is in vain for man to seek it." + +I was amused at the contradiction of a certainty of universal +uncertainty, as well as at the discovery there was nothing to be +discovered. + +He noticed my smile, and divined its cause. + +"Forgive me," he said, "that, like you Christians and believers +of all sorts, I sometimes find theory discordant with practice. The +generality of people are, you know, a little inconsistent with their +creed; suffer me to be so with mine." + +"I have no objection, Harrington, in the world; the more inconsistent +you are, the better I shall like you; you have my free leave to be, in +relation to scepticism, just what the Antinomian is in relation to +Christianity or as true a sceptic as he was a true Churchman who showed +his good principles, according to Dr. Johnston, by never passing a +church without taking off his hat, though he never went into it; or +even as Falstaff, who had forgotten 'what the inside of a church was +made of.' I shall be contented indeed to see you as little attached +to your no-truth, as the generality of Christians are to their truth." + +"I thank you," said he, a little sarcastically, "I doubt if I shall +ever be able to reach so perfect a pitch of inconsistency. But are +you wise, my dear uncle, in this taunt? What an argument have you +suggested to me, if I thought it worth while to make use of it! +How have you surrendered, without once thinking of the consequences, +the practical power of Christianity!" + +I began to fear that there would be a good deal of sharp-shooting +between us. + +"I have surrendered nothing," I replied. "If every thing is to be +abandoned, which, though professedly the subject of man's conviction, +he fails to reduce to practice, his creed will be short enough. +Christianity, however, will be in no worse condition than morals, +the theory of which has ever been in lamentable advance of the +practice. And least of all can scepticism stand such it test, of +which you have just given a passing illustration. Of this system, +or rather no-system, there has never been a consistent votary, if we +except Pyrrho himself; and whether he were not an insincere sceptic, +the world will always be most sincerely sceptical. But forgive me my +passing gibe. In wishing you to be as inconsistent as nine tenths +of Christians are, I did not mean to prejudice your arguments, such +as they are. I know it is not in your power to be otherwise than +inconsistent; and I shall always have that argument against you, so +far as it is one." + +"And so far as it is one," he replied, "I shall always have the same +argument against you." + +"Be it so," I replied, "for the present: I am unwilling to engage in +polemical strife with you, the very first evening on which I have +seen you for so long a time. I would much rather hear a chapter of +your past travels and adventures, which you know your few and brief +letters--but I will not reproach you--left me in such ignorance of." + +He complied with my request; and in the course of conversation +informed me of many circumstances which had formed steps in that slow +gradation by which he had reached his present state of mind; a state +which he did not affect to conceal. But still I felt sure there were +other causes which he did not mention. + +At length I said, "You must give me the title of an old friend, +--a father, Harrington, I might almost say,"--and the tears came +into my eyes,--"to talk hereafter fully with you of your so certain +uncertainty about the only topics which supremely affect the +happiness of man." + +I told him, and I spoke it in no idle compliment, that I was +convinced he was far enough from being one of those shallow fools +who are inclined to scepticism because they shrink from the trouble +of investigating the evidence; who find so much to be said for this, +and much for that, that they conclude that there is no truth, +simply because they are too indolent to seek it. "This," said I, +"is the plea of intellectual Sybarites with whom you have nothing +in common. And as little do you sympathize with those dishonest, +though not always shallow thinkers, who take refuge in alleged +uncertainty of evidence, because they are afraid of pursuing it +to unwelcome conclusions; who are sceptics on the most singular and +inconsistent of all grounds, presumption. I know you are none +of these." + +"I am, I think, none of these," said he quietly. + +"You are not: and your manner and countenance proclaim it yet more +strongly than your words. The only genuine effect of a sincere +scepticism is and must be, not the complacent and frivolous humor +which too often attaches to it, but a mournful confession of the +melancholy condition to which, if true, the theory reduces the +sceptic himself and all mankind." + +Of all the paradoxes humanity exhibits, surely there are none more +wonderful than the complacency with which scepticism often utters +its doubts, and the tranquillity which it boasts as the perfection +of its system! Such a state of mind is utterly inconsistent with +the genuine realization and true-hearted reception of the theory. +On such subjects such a creature as man cannot be in doubt, and +really feel his doubts, without being anxious and miserable. When I +hear some youth telling me, with a simpering face, that he does +not know, or pretend to say, whether there be a God, or not, or +whether, if there be, He takes any interest in human affairs; or +whether, if He does, it much imports us to know; or whether, if He +has revealed that knowledge, it is possible or impossible for us +to ascertain it; when I hear him further saying, that meantime he +is disposed to make himself very easy in the midst of these +uncertainties, and to await the great revelation of the future +with philosophical, that is, being interpreted, with idiotic +tranquillity, I see that, in point of fact, he has never entered +into the question at all; that he has failed to realize the terrible +moment of the questions (however they may be decided) of which he +speaks with such amazing flippancy. + +It is too often the result of thoughtlessness; of a wish to get +rid of truths unwelcome to the heart; of a vain love of paradox, +or perhaps, in many cases, (as a friend of mine said,) of an +amiable wish to frighten "mammas and maiden aunts." But let us be +assured that a frivolous sceptic,--a sceptic indeed,--after duly +pondering and feeling the doubts he professes to embrace, is an +impossibility. What may be expected in the genuine sceptic is a +modest hope that he may be mistaken, a desire to be confuted; a +retention of his convictions as if they were a guilty secret; or +the promulgation of them only as the utterance of an agonized heart, +unable to suppress the language of its misery; a dread of making +proselytes,--even as men refrain from exposing their sores or +plague-infected garments in the eyes of the world. The least we can +expect from him is that mood of mind which Pascal so sublimely says +becomes the Atheist ... "Is this, then, a thing to be said with +gayety? Is it not rather a thing to be said with tears as the saddest +thing in the world?" + +The current of conversation after a while, somehow swept us round +again to the point I had resolved to quit for this evening. "But +since we are there," said I, "I wish you would in brief tell me why, +when you doubted of Christianity, you did not stop at any of those +harbours of refuge which, in our time especially, have been so +plentifully provided for those who reject the New Testament? +You are not ignorant, I know, of the writings of Mr. Theodore +Parker, and other modern Deists. How is it that none of them +even transiently satisfied you? An ingenious eclecticism founded +on them has satisfied, you see, your old college friend, George +Fellowes, of whom I hear rare things. He is far enough from +being a sceptic," + +"Why," said he, laughing, "it is quite true that George is not a +sceptic, He has believed more and disbelieved more, and both one +and the other for less reason, than any other man I know. He +used to send me the strangest letters when I was abroad, and almost +every one presented him under some new phase. No, he is no sceptic. +If he has rejected almost every thing, he has also embraced almost +every thing; at each point in his career, his versatile faith has +found him some system to replace that he had abandoned; and he is +now a dogmatist par excellence, for he has adopted a theory of +religion which formally abjures intellect and logic, and is as +sincerely abjured by them. If the difficulties he has successively +encountered had been seen all at once, I fancy he would have been +much where I am. Poor George! 'Sufficient unto the day,' with him, +is the theology 'thereof'! I picture him to myself going out of a +morning, with his new theological dress upon him, and, chancing to +meet with some friend, who protests there is some thing or other +not quite 'comme il faut,' he proceeds with infinite complacency +to alter that portion of his attire; the new costume is found +equally obnoxious to the criticism of somebody else, and off it +goes like the rest." + +This was a ludicrous, but not untrue, representation of George +Fellows's mind; only the "friend" in the image must be supposed to +mean his own wayward fancy; for he is not particularly amenable +(though very amiable) to external influences. So dominant, however, +is present feeling and impulse, or so deficient is he in +comprehensiveness, that he often takes up with the most trumpery +arguments; that is, for a few days at a time. Yet he does not want +acuteness. I have known him shine strongly (as has been said of +some one else) upon an angle of a subject; but he never sheds over +its whole surface equable illumination. Where evidence is complicated +and various, and consists of many opposing or modifying elements, +he never troubles himself to compute the sum total, and strike a fair +balance. He stands aghast in the presence of an objection which he +cannot solve, and loses all presence of mind in its contemplation. +He seldom considers whether there are not still greater objections +on the other side, nor how much farther, if a principle be just, +it ought to carry him. The mode in which he looks at a subject often +reminds me of the way in which the eye, according to metaphysicians, +surveys an extensive landscape. It sees, they say, only a point at +a time, punctum visibile, which is perpetually shifting; and the +impression of the whole is in fact a rapid combination, by means +of memory, of perceptions all but coexistent; if the attention be +strongly fixed upon some one object, the rest of the landscape +comparatively fades from the view. Now George Fellowes seemed to me, +in a survey of a large subject, to have an incomparable faculty of +seeing the minimum visibile, and that so ardently, that all the +rest of the landscape vanished at the moment from his perceptions. + +"Well," said I, smiling, "you must not blame him for his not +reaching at once and per saltum your position. He has been more +deliberate in stripping himself. Yet he has come on pretty well. +You ought not to despair of him. I wonder at what point he is now." + +"You may ask him to-morrow," said he, "for I am expecting him here +to spend a few weeks with me. At whatever point he may be in these +days of 'progress,' as they are called, he does not know that I am +already arrived at the ne plus ultra; for my letters to him were +yet briefer and rarer than to you: and I never touched on these +topics. Where would have been the use of asking counsel of such an +oracle?" + +I said I should be glad to see him. "But I shall be still better +pleased to hear from you, why you are dissatisfied with any such +system as his; and especially why you say he ought in consistency to +go much farther." + +"I am far from saying that my reasons will be satisfactory, but I +will endeavor, if you wish it, to justify my opinion." + +"I shall certainly expect no less," replied I. "You are strangely +altered, if you are willing to assert without attempting to prove; +and if you were altered, I am not. When will you let me hear you?" + +"O, in a day or two, when I have had time to put my thoughts on +paper; but, if I mistake not, some of the most important points will +be discussed before that, for Fellowes, I hear, is a very +knight-errant of 'spiritualism,' and it is a thousand to one but he +attempts to convert me. I intend to let him have full opportunity." + +"I hardly know," said I. "Harrington, whether I wish him success or +not. But one thing, surely, all must admire in him: I mean his +candor. What less than this can prompt him, after abandoning with +such extraordinary facility so many creeds and fragments of creeds, +after travelling round the whole circle of theology, to confess with +such charming simplicity the whole history of his mental revolutions, +and expose himself to the charge of unimaginable caprice,--of +theological coquetry? I protest to you that, a priori, I should have +thought it impossible that any man could have made so many and such +violent turns in so short a time without a dislocation of all the +joints of his soul.--without incurring the danger of a 'universal +anchylosis.'" + +"One would imagine," said Harrington, with a laugh, "that, in your +estimate, his mind resembles that ingenious toy by which the union +of the various colored rays of light is illustrated: the red, the +yellow, the blue, the green, and so forth, are distinctly painted on +the compartments of a card: but no sooner are they put into a state +of rapid revolution than the whole appears white. Such, it seems, +is the appearance of George Fellowes in that rapid gyration to +which he been subjected: the part-colored rays of his various creeds +are lost sight of and the pure white of his 'candor' is alone +visible!" + +"For myself," said I, "I feel in some measure incompetent to +pronounce on his present system. When I saw him for a short time a +few months ago, he told that, though his versatility of faith had +certainly been great, he must remind me (as Mr. Newman had said) that +he had seen both sides; that persons like myself, for example, have +had but one experience; whereas he has had two." + +"If he were to urge me with such an argument," replied Harrington, "I +should say we are even then. But I think even you could reply: 'You +yourself injustice, Mr. Fellowes, in saying you have had two +experiences. You have had two dozen, at least; but whether that can +qualify you for speaking with any authority on these subjects I much +doubt; to give any weight to the opinions of any man some stability +at least is necessary.'" + +This I could not gainsay. Slow revolutions on momentous subjects, +when there has been much sobriety as well as diligence of investigation, +are, perhaps, not despised as authority. Some superior weight may even +be attached to the later and maturer views. But man changes them +every other day; if they rise and fall with the barometer; if his +whole life has been one rapid pirouette, it is impossible with gravity +to discuss the question, whether at some point he may not have been +right. Whoever be in the right, he cannot well be who has never long +been any thing; and to take such a man for a guide would be almost as +absurd as to mistake a weathercock for a signpost. + +"In seeking religious counsel of George Fellows," said Harrington. +"I should feel much as Jeannie Deans, when she went to the +Interpreter's House.' as Madge Wildfire calls it, in company with +that fantastical personage. But he is a kind-hearted, amiable fellow, +and, in short, I cannot help liking him." +____ + +July 2. Mr. Fellowes arrived this day about noon. He is about a year +younger than Harrington. The afternoon was spent very pleasantly in +general conversation. In the evening, after tea, we went into the +library. I told the two friends that, as they had doubtless much to +talk of, and as I had plenty of occupation for my pen, I would sit +down at an adjoining table with my desk, and they might go on with +their chat. They did so, and for some time talked of old college +days and on indifferent subjects; but my attention was soon +irresistibly attracted by finding them getting into conversation in +which, on Harrington's account, I felt a deeper interest. I found my +employment impossible, and yet, desiring to hear them discuss their +theological differences without constraint, I did not venture to +interrupt them. At last the distraction became intolerable; and, +looking up, I said, "Gentlemen, I believe you might talk on the most +private matters without my attending to one syllable you said; but +if you get upon these theological subjects, such is my present +interest in them," glancing at Harrington, "that I shall be +perpetually making blunders in my manuscript. Let me beg of you to +avoid them when I am with you, or let me go into another room." +Harrington would not hear of the last; and as to the first he said, +and said truly, that it would impede the free current of conversation, +"which," said he, "to be pleasurable at all, must wind hither and +thither as the fit takes us. It is like a many-stringed lyre, and +to break any one of the chords is to mar the music. And so, my good +uncle, if you find us getting upon these topics, join us; we shall +seldom be long at a time upon them. I will answer for it; or if you +will not do that, and yet, though disturbed by our chatter, are too +polite to show it, why, amuse yourself (I know your old tachygraphic +skill, which used to move my wonder in childhood), I say, amuse +yourself, or rather avenge yourself, by jotting down some fragments +of our absurdities, and afterwards showing us what a couple of fools +we have been." I was secretly delighted with the suggestion; and, when +the subjects of dispute were very interesting, threw aside my work, +whatever it was, and reported them pretty copiously. Hence the +completeness and accuracy of this admirable journal. I cannot of +course always, or even often, vouch for the ipsissima verba; and some +few explanatory sentences I have been obliged to add. But the substance +of the dialogues is faithfully given. I need not say, that they refer +only to subjects of a theological and polemical nature. + +I hardly know how the conversation took the turn it did on the present +occasion; but I think it was from Mr. Fellowes's noticing Harrington's +pale looks, and conjecturing all sorts of reasons for his occasional +lapses into melancholy. + +His friend hoped this and hoped that, as usual. + +Harrington at last, seeing his curiosity awakened, and that he would +go on conjecturing all sorts of things, said, "To terminate your +suspense, be it known to that I am a bankrupt!" + +"A bankrupt!" said the other, with evident alarm; "you surely have +not been so unwise as to risk recently acquired property, or to +speculate in----" + +"You have hit it," said Harrington; "I have speculated far more +deeply than you suppose." + +The countenance of his friend lengthened visibly. + +"Be not alarmed." resumed Harrington, with a smile; "I mean that +I have speculated a good deal in--philosophy, and when I +said I was a bankrupt, I meant only that I was a bankrupt--in faith; +having become in fact, since I saw you last, thoroughly sceptical." + +The countenance of Fellowes contracted to its proper dimensions. He +looked even cheerful to find that his friend had merely lost his +faith, and not his fortune. + +"Is that all?" said he, "I am heartily glad to hear it. Sceptic! No, +no; you must not be a sceptic either, except for a time," continued +he, musing very sagely. "It is no bad thing for a while: for it at +least leaves the house 'empty, swept and garnished.'" + +"Rather an unhappy application of your remnant of Biblical knowledge," +said Harrington; "I hope you do not intend to go on with the text." + +"No, no, my dear friend; I warrant you we shall find you worthier +guests than any such fragments of supposed revelation. If you are in +'search of a religion,' how happy should I be to aid you!" + +"I shall be infinitely obliged to you," said Harrington, gravely; +"for at present I do not know that I possess a farthing's worth of +solid gold in the world. Ah! that it were but in your power to lend +me some: but I fear" (he added half sarcastically) "that you have +not got more than enough for yourself. I assure you that I am far +from happy." + +He spoke with so much gravity, that I hardly knew whether to +attribute it to some intention of dissembling a little with his +friend, or to an involuntary expression of the experience of a mind +that felt the sorrows of a genuine scepticism. It might be both. + +However, it brought things to a crisis at once. His college friend +looked equally surprised and pleased at his appeal. + +"I trust," said he, with becoming solemnity, "that all this is +merely a temporary reaction from having believed too much; the +languor and dejection which attend the morrow after a night's +debauch. I assure you that I rejoice rather than grieve to hear +that you have curtailed your orthodoxy. It has been just my +own case, as you know: only I flatter myself, that, perhaps having +less subtilty than you, I have not passed the 'golden mean' between +superstition and scepticism,--between believing too much and +believing too little." + +I looked up for a moment. I saw a laugh in Harrington's eyes, but +not a feature moved. It passed away immediately. + +"I tell you," said he, "that I believe absolutely no one religious +dogma whatever; while yet I would give worlds, if I had them, to set +my foot upon a rock. I should even be grateful to any one, who, if he +did not give me truth, gave me a phantom of it, which I could mistake +for reality." He again spoke with an earnestness of tone and manner, +which convinced me that, if there were any dissimulation, it cost him +little trouble. + +"If you merely meant," said Fellowes, "that you do not retain any +vestige of your early 'historical' and 'dogmatical' Christianity, why, +I retain just as little of it. Indeed, I doubt," he continued, with +perhaps superfluous candor, "whether I ever was a Christian"; and he +seemed rather anxious to show that his creed had been nominal. + +"If it will save you the trouble of proving it." said Harrington, +"I will liberally grant you both your premises and your conclusion, +without asking you to state the one or prove the other." + +"Well, then, Christian or no Christian. there was a time, at all +events, when I was orthodox, you will grant that; when I should hate +been willing to sign the Thirty-nine Articles: or three hundred and +thirty-nine; or the Confession of Faith: or any other compilation, or +all others; though perhaps, if strictly examined, I might have been +found in the condition of the infidel Scotch professor, who, being +asked on his appointment to his Chair, whether the 'Confession of +Faith' contained all that he believed, replied, 'Yes, Gentlemen, and +a great deal more.' I have rejected all 'creeds'; and I have now +found what the Scripture calls that 'peace which passeth all +understanding.'" + +"I am sure it passes mine," said Harrington, "if you really have found +it, and I should be much obliged to you if you would let me participate +in the discovery." + +"Yes," said Fellowes, "I have been delivered from the intolerable +burden of all discussions as to dogma, and all examinations of evidence. +I have escaped from the 'bondage of the letter,' and have been +Introduced into the 'liberty of the spirit.'" + +"Your language, at all events, is richly Scriptural," said Harrington; +"it is as though you were determined not to leave the 'letter' of the +Scripture, even if you renounce the 'spirit' of it." + +"Renounce the spirit of it! say rather, that in fact I have only now +discovered it. Though no Christian in the ordinary sense, I am, I hope, +something better; and a truer Christian in the spirit than thousands of +those in the letter." + +"Letter and spirit! my friend," said Harrington, "you puzzle me +exceedingly; you tell me one moment that you do not believe in +historical Christianity at all, either its miracles or dogmas,--these +are fables; but in the next, why, no old Puritan could garnish +such discourse with a more edifying use of the language of Scripture. +I suppose you will next tell me that you understand the 'spirit' of +Christianity better even than Paul." + +"So I do," said our visitor complacently, "'Paulo majora canamus'; +for after all he was but half delivered from his Jewish prejudices; +and when he quitted nonsense of the Old Testament,--though in fact he +never did thoroughly,--he evidently believed the fables of the New +just as much as the pure truths which lie at the basis of 'spiritual' +Christianity. We separate the dross of Christianity from its fine gold. +'The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life,'--'the fruit of the +spirit is joy, peace,' not---" + +"Upon my word," said Harrington, laughing, "I shall begin to fancy +presently that Douce Davie Deans has turned infidel, and shall expect +to hear of 'right-hand failings off and left-hand defections.' But +tell me, if you would have me think you rational, is not your meaning +this:--that the New Testament contains, amidst an infinity of rubbish, +the statement of certain 'spiritual' truths which, and which alone, +you recognize." + +"Certainly." + +"But you do not acknowledge that these are derived from the New +Testament." + +"Heaven forbid; they are indigenous to the heart of man, and are +anterior to all Testaments, old or new." + +"Very well; then speak of them as your heart dictates, and do not, +unless you would have the world think you a hypocrite, willing to +cajole it with the idea that you are a believer in the New +Testament, while you in fact reject it, or one of the most barren +uninventive of all human beings, or fanatically fond of mystical +language,--do not, I say, affect this very unctuous way of talking. +And, for another reason, do not. I beseech you, adopt the phraseology +of men who, according to your view, must surely have been either the +most miserable fanatics or the most abominable impostors; for if they +believed all that system of miracle and doctrine they professed, and +this were not true, they were certainly the first; and if they did +not believe it. They were as certainly the second." + +"Pardon me; I believe them to have been eminently holy men,--full of +spiritual wisdom and of a truly sublime faith, though conjoined with +much ignorance and credulity, which it is unworthy of us to tolerate." + +"Whether it could be ignorance and credulity on your theory," retorted +Harrington, "is to my mind very doubtful. Whether any men can untruly +affirm that they saw and did the things the Apostles say they saw and +did, and yet be sincere fanatics, I know not; but even were it so, +since it shows (as do also the mystical doctrines you reject as false) +that they could be little less than out of their senses; and as you +further say that the spiritual sentiments you retain in common with +them were no gift of theirs, but are yours and all mankind's, by +original inheritance, uttered by the oracle of the human heart before +any Testaments were written,--why, speak your thoughts in your +own language." + +"Ay, but how do we know that these original Christians said that +they had seen and done the things you refer to? which of course they +never did see and do, because they were miraculous. How do we know +what additions and corruptions as to fact, and what disguises of +mystical doctrine, 'the idealizing biographers and historians' (as +Strauss truly calls them) may have accumulated upon their +simple utterances?" + +"And how do you know, then, whether they ever uttered these simple +'utterances'? or whether they are not part of the corruptions? or +how can you separate the one from the other? or how can you ascertain +these men meant what you mean, when you thus vilely copy their +language?" + +"Because I know these truths independently of Bible, to be sure." + +"Then speak of them independently of the Bible. If you profess to +have broken the stereotype-plates of the 'old revelation' and +delivered mankind from their bondage, do not proceed to express +yourself only in fragments from them; if you profess freedom of +soul, and the possession of the pure truth, do not appear to be so +poverty-stricken as to array your thoughts in the tatters of +the cast-off Bible." + +"Ay, but the 'saints' of the Bible," replied Fellows, "are, even +by Mr. Frank Newman's own confession, those who have entered, after +all, most profoundly the truths of spiritual religion, and stand +almost alone in the history of the world in that respect." + +"If it be so, it is certainly very odd, considering the mountain-loads +of folly, error, fable, fiction, from which their spiritual religion +did not in your esteem defend them, and which you say you are +obliged to reject. It is a phenomenon of which, I think, you are +bound to give some account." + +"But what is there so wonderful in supposing them in possession of +superior 'spiritual' advantages, with mistaken history and fallacious +logic, and so forth?" + +"Why" answered Harrington, "one wonder is, that they alone, and +amidst such gross errors, should possess these spiritual advantages. +But it also appears to me that your notions of the 'spiritual' are +not the same theirs, for you reject the New Testament dogmas as well +as its history; if so, it is another reason for not misleading us by +using language in deceptive senses. But, at all events, I cannot help +pitying your poverty of thought, or poverty of expression,--one or +both; and I beg you, for my sake, if not for your own, to express your +thoughts as much as possible in your own terms, and avail yourself +less liberally of those of David and Paul, whose language ordinary +Christians will always associate with another meaning, and can never +believe you sincere in supposing that it rightfully expresses the +doctrines of your most; spiritual' infidelity. They will certainly +hear your Scriptural and devout language with the same feelings +with which they would nauseate that most oppressive of all odors, +--the faint scent of lavender in the chamber of death. My good uncle +here, who cannot be prevailed upon to reject the Bible will not, I +am sure, hear you, without supposing that you resemble those +Rationalists of whom Menzel says, 'These gentlemen smilingly taught +their theological pupils that unbelief was the true apostolic, +primitive Christian belief; they put all their insipidities into +Christ's month, and made him, by means of their exegetical jugglery, +sometimes a Kantian, sometimes a Hegelian, sometimes one ian and +sometimes another, 'wie es dem Herrn Professor beliebt': neither +will he be able to imagine that you are not resorting to this +artifice for the same purpose. 'The Bible,' says Menzel, 'and +their Reason being incompatible, why do they not let them remain +separate? Why insist on harmonizing things which do not, and +never can harmonize? It is because they are aware that the Bible +has authority with the people; otherwise they would never trouble +themselves about so troublesome a book.' I cannot suspect you of +such hypocrisy; but I must confess I regard your language as cant. +As I listen to you I seem to see a hybrid between Prynne and +Voltaire. So far from its being true that you have renounced +the 'letter' of the Bible and retained its 'spirit,' I think it +would be much more correct to say, comparing your infidel +hypothesis with your most spiritual dialect, that you have renounced +the 'spirit' of the Bible and retained its 'letter.'" + +"But are you in a condition to give an opinion?" said Fellowes, with +a serious air. "Mr. Newman says in a like case, 'The natural man +discerneth not things of the spirit of God, because they are +foolishness unto him'; it is the 'spiritual man only who search +the deep things of God.' At the same time I freely acknowledge that +I never could see my way clear to employ an argument which looks +so arrogant; and the less, as I believe, with Mr. Parker, that +the only revelation is in all men alike. Yet, on the other hand, +I cannot doubt my own consciousness." + +"Why, no man doubts his own consciousness," said Harrington, laughing. +"The question is, What is its value? What is the criterion of universal +'spiritual truth,' if there be any? Those words in Paul's mouth were +well, and had a meaning. In yours, I suspect they would have none, +or a very different one. He dreamt that he was giving to mankind +(vainly, as seems) a system of doctrines and truths which were, +many of them, transcendental to the human intellect and conscience, +and which when revealed were very distasteful (and not least to +you); but the assertion of a spiritual monopoly would assuredly +sound rather odd in one who professes, if I understand you, that +has given to man (for it is no discovery of any individual) an +internal and universal revelation! But of your possible limitations +of your universal spiritual revelation,--which all men 'naturally' +possess, but which the 'natural man' receiveth not,--we will talk +after. Sceptic as I am, I am not a sceptic who is reconciled to +scepticism. Meantime, you reject the Bible in toto, as an external +revelation of God, if I understand you." + +"In toto; and I believe that it has received in this age its +death-blow." + +"Ay, that is what the infidel has been always promising us; meantime, +they somehow perish, and it laughs at them. You remember, perhaps, +the words of old Woolston, so many fragments of whose criticism, +as those of many others, have been incorporated by Strauss. He had, +as he elegantly expresses it, 'cut out such a piece of work for the +Boylean lectures as should hold them tug as long as the ministry of +the letter should last'; for he too, you see, masked his infidelity +by a distinction between the 'letter' and the 'spirit,' though he +applied the convenient terms in a totally different sense. Poor soul! +The fundamental principles of his infidelity are surrendered by +Strauss himself. Similarly, a score of assailants of the Bible have +appeared and vanished since his day; each proclaiming, just as he +himself went to the bottom, that he had given the Bible its death-blow! +Somehow, however, that singular book continues to flourish, to +Propagate itself, to speak all languages, to intermingle more and +more with the literature of all civilized nations; while mankind +will not accept, slaves as they are, the intellectual freedom you +offer them. It is really very provoking; of what use is it to destroy +the Bible so often, when it lives the next minute? I have little doubt +your new attempts will end just like the labors of the Rationalists +of the Paulus school, so graphically described by the German writer +whom I have already referred to. 'It is sad, no doubt,' says he, or +something to the same effect, 'that, after fifty years' exegetical +grubbing, weeding, and pruning at 'the mighty primitive forest of +the Bible, the next generation should persist in saying that the +Rationalist had destroyed the forest only in his own addled +imagination, and that it is just as it was.'" + +"Yes; but the new weapons will not be so easily evaded as those +of a past age." + +"Will they not? We shall see. You must not prophesy; in that, +you know, you do not believe." + +"No; but nevertheless we shall see so-called sacred dogma and +history exploded, for Mr. Newman--" + +"Thinks so, of course; and he must be right, because he has never +been known to be wrong in any of his judgments, or even to vary +in them. But we have had enough, I think, of these subjects this +evening, and it is too bad to give you only a controversial welcome. +I want to have some conversation with you about very different +things, and more pleasant just now. We shall have plenty of +opportunity to discuss theological points." + +To this Fellowes assented: they resumed general conversation, and +I finished my letters. + +---- + +July 3. We were all sitting, as on the previous day, in the library. + +"Book-faith!" I heard Harrington say, laughing; "why, as to that I must +needs acknowledge that the whole school of Deism, 'rational' or +'spiritual,' have the least reason in the world to indulge in +sneers at book-faith; for, upon my word, their faith has consisted +in little else. Their systems are parchment religions, my friend, +all of them;--books, books, for ever, from Lord Herbert's time +downwards, are all they have yet given to the world. They have ever +been boastful and loud-tongued, but have done nothing; there are no +great social efforts, no organizations, no practical projects, +whether successful or futile, to which they can point. The old +'book-faiths' which you venture to ridicule have been something at +all events; and, in truth, I can find no other 'faith' than what is +somehow or other attached to a 'book,' which has been any thing +influential. The Vedas, the Koran, the Old Testament Scriptures,-- +those of the New,--over how many millions have these all reigned! +Whether their supremacy be right or wrong, their doctrine true +or false, is another question; but your faith, which has been +book-faith and lip-service par excellence, has done nothing that I +can discover. One after another of your infidel Reformers passes +away, and leaves no trace behind, except a quantity of crumbling +'book-faith.' You have always been just on the eve of extinguishing +supernatural fables, dogmas, and superstitions,--and then +regenerating the world! Alas! the meanest superstition that crawls +laughs at you; and, false as it may be, is still stronger than you." + +"And your sect," retorted Fellowes, rather warmly, "if you come to +that, is it not the smallest of all? Is that likely to find favor +in the eyes of mankind?" + +"Why, no," said Harrington, with provoking coolness; "but then it +makes no pretensions to any thing of the kind. It were strange if it +did; for as the sceptic doubts if any truth can be certainly attained +by man on those subjects on which the 'rational' or the 'spiritual' +deist dogmatizes, it of course professes to be incapable of +constructing any thing." + +"And does construct nothing," retorted Fellowes. + +"Very true," said Harrington, "and therein keeps its word; which is +more, I fear, than can be said with your more ambitious spiritualists, +who profess to construct, and do not." + +"But you must give the school of spiritualism time: it is only just +born. You seem to me to be confounding the school of the old, dry, +logical deism with the young, fresh, vigorous, earnest school' which +appeals to 'insight' and 'intuition.'" + +"No," said Harrington, "I think I do not confound. The first and +the best of our English deists derived his system as immediately +from intuitions as Mr. Parker or you. You know how it sped--or, if +you do not, you may easily discover--with his successors: they +continually disputed about it, curtailed it, added to it, altered +it, agreed in nothing but the author's rejection of Christianity, +and forgot more and more the decency of his style. So will it be with +your Mr. Newman and his successors. They will acquiesce in his +rejection Christianity; depend upon it, in nothing more. He may get +his admirers to abandon the Bible, but they will have naught to do +with the 'loves, and joys, and sorrows, and raptures, which he +describes in the 'Soul'; they would just as soon read the +'Canticles.'" + +"I really cannot admit," said Fellowes, "that we modern spiritualists +are to be confounded with Lord Herbert." + +"Not confounded with him, certainly," replied Harrington, "but +identified with him you may be; except to be sure, that he was convinced +of the immortality of man as one of the few articles of all religion; +while many of you deny, or doubt it. The doctrines--" + +"Call them sentiments, rather; I like that term better." + +"O, certainly, if you prefer it; only be pleased to observe that a +sentiment felt is a fact, and a fact is a truth, and a truth may +surely be expressed in a proposition. That is all I am anxious about +at present. If so far, at least, we may not patch up the divorce +which Mr. Newman has pronounced between the 'intellect and the 'soul,' +it is of no use for us to talk about the matter. I say that Lord +Herbert's articles--" + +"There again, 'articles,'" said Fellowes; "I hate the word; I could +almost imagine that you were going to recite the formidable Thirty-nine." + +"Rather, from your outcry, one would suppose I was about to inflict +the forty save one: but do not be alarmed. The articles neither of +Lord Herbert's creed nor of your own, I suspect, are thirty-nine, or +any thing like it. The catalogue will be soon exhausted." + +"Here again, 'creed': I detest the word. We have no creed. Your very +language chills me. It reminds me of the dry orthodoxy of the 'letter,' +'logical processes,' 'intellectual propositions,' and so forth. Speak +of 'spiritual truths' and 'sentiments,' which are the product of +immediate 'insight,' of 'an insight into God,' a 'spontaneous impression +on the gazing soul,' to adopt Mr. Newman's beautiful expressions, and I +shall understand you." + +"I am afraid I shall hardly understand myself then," cried Harrington. +"But let us not be scared by mere words, nor go into hysterics at the +sound of 'logic' and 'creed,' lest 'sentimental spirituality' be found, +like some other 'sentimental' things, a bundle of senseless affectations." + +"But you forget that there is all the difference in the world between +Herbert and his deistical successors. They connected religion with the +'intellectual and sensational,' and we with the 'instinctive and +emotional' sides of human nature." + +"If you think," said the other, "(the substance of your religious +system being, as I believe, precisely the same as that of Lord Herbert +and the better deists,) that you can make it more effective than it +has been in the past, by conjuring with the words 'sensational and +intellectual,' 'instinctive and emotional,' or that the mixture of +chalk and water will be more potent with one label than with the other, +I fancy you will find yourself deceived. The distinctions you refer +to have to do with the theory of the subject, and will make din enough, +no doubt, among such as Mr. Newman and yourself; but mankind at large +will be unable even to enter into the meaning of your refinements. +They will say briefly and bluntly, 'What are the truths, whether, as +Lord Herbert says, they are "innate," or, as you say, "spiritual +intuitions," (we care nothing for the phraseology of either or both +of you,) which are to be admitted by universal humanity, and to be +influential over the heart and conscience?' Now, I suspect that, when +you come to the enumeration of these truths, your system and that +of Lord Herbert will be found the same; only as regards the +immortality of the soul his tone is firmer than perhaps I shall find +yours. But I admit the policy of a change of name: 'Rationalist' and +'Deist' have a bad sound; 'Spiritualist' is a better nom de guerre +for the present." + +"We shall never understand one another," said Fellowes: "the +spiritual man--" + +"Pshaw!" said Harrington; "you can immediately bring the matter to +the test by telling me what you maintain, and then I shall know +whether your system is or is not identical with Lord Herbert's; +or rather tell me what you do not believe, and let us come to it that +way. Do you believe a single shred of any of the supernatural +narratives of the Old and New Testament?" + +"No," said Fellowes; "a thousand times no." + +"Very well, that gets rid of at least four sevenths of the Bible. Do +you believe in the Trinity, the Atonement, the Resurrection of Christ, +in a general Resurrection, in the Day of Judgment?" + +"No, not in one of them," said Fellowes; "not in a particle of one +of them." + +"Pretty well again. You reject, then, the characteristic doctrines +of Christianity?" + +"Not one of them," was the answer. + +"We are indeed in danger of misunderstanding one another," said +Harrington. "But tell me, is it not your boast, as of Mr. Parker, +that the truths which are essential to religion are not peculiar to +Christianity, but are involved in all religions?" + +"Assuredly." + +"If I were to ask you what were the essential attributes of a man, +would you assign those which he had in common with a pig?" + +"Certainly not." + +"But if I asked you what were those of an animal, I presume you would +give those which both species possessed, and none that either +possessed exclusively." + +"I should." + +"Need I add, then, that you are deceiving yourself when you say that +you believe all the characteristic doctrines of Christianity, since you +say that you believe only those which it has in common with every +religion? If I were to ask you what doctrines are essential to +constitute any religion, then you would do well to enumerate those +which belong to Christianity and every other. But when we talk of the +doctrines peculiar to Christianity, we mean those which discriminate it +from every other, and not those which are common to it with them." + +"But however," said Fellowes, "none of the doctrines you have enumerated +are a part of Christianity, but are mere additions of imposture or +fanaticism." + +"Then what are the doctrines which, though common to every other +religion, are characteristic of it? What is left that is essential or +peculiar to Christianity, when you have denuded it of all that you +reject? Is it not then assimilated, by your own confession, to every +other religion? How shall we discriminate them?" + +"By this, perhaps," said Fellowes, "(for I acknowledge some difficulty +here,) that Christianity contains these truths of absolute religion +alone and pure. As Mr. Parker says, This is the glory of genuine +Christianity." + +"Do you not see that this is the very question,--you yourself being +obliged to reject nine tenths of the statements in the only records in +which we know anything about it? Might not an ancient priest of Jupiter +say the same of his religion, by first divesting it of all but that +which you say it had in common with every other? However, let us now +look at the positive side. What is the residuum which you condescend +to leave to your genuine Christianity?" + +"Christianity," said Fellowes, rather pompously, "is not so much a +system as a discipline,--not a creed, but a life: in short, a divine +philosophy." + +"All which I have heard from all sorts of Christianity a thousand +times," cried Harrington; "and it is delightfully vague; it may mean +any thing or nothing. But the truths, the truths, what are they, my +friend? I see I must get them from you by fragments. Your faith includes, +I presume, a belief in one Supreme God, who is a Divine Personality; +in the duty of reverencing, loving, and obeying him,--whether you know +how that is to be done or not; that we must repent of our sins,--if +indeed we duly know what things are sins in his sight; that he will +certainly forgive to any extent on such repentance, without any +mediation; that perhaps there is a heaven hereafter; but that it is +very doubtful if there are any punishments." + +"I do believe," said Fellowes, "these are the cardinal doctrines of +the 'Absolute Religion,' as Mr. Parker calls it. Nor can I conceive +that any others are necessary." + +"Well," said Harrington, "with the exception of the immortality of the +soul, on which Lord Herbert has the advantage of speaking a little more +firmly, the Deists and such 'spiritualists' as you are assuredly +identical. I have simply abridged his articles. The same project as +yours spiritualism' or 'naturalism,' in all its essential features, +has been often tried before, and found wanting; that is, of guaranteeing +to man a sufficient and infallible internal oracle, independent of all +aid from external revelation, and of proving that he has, in effect, +possessed and enjoyed it always; only that, by a slight inadvertence +(I suppose), he did not know it. The theory, indeed, is rather +suspiciously confined to those who have previously had the Bible. No +such plenary confidence is found in the ancient heathen philosophers, +who, in many not obscure places, acknowledge that the path of mortal +man, by his internal light, is a little dim. Many, therefore, say, +that the 'Naturalists' and 'Spiritualists' are but plagiarists from +the Bible, and of course, like other plagiarists, depreciate the +sources from which they have stolen their treasures. I think unjustly; +for, whatever their obligations to that mutilated volume, I acknowledge +they have transformed Christianity quite sufficiently to entitle +themselves to the praise of originality; and if the Battle of the +Books were to be fought over again, I doubt whether Moses or Paul +would think it worth while to make any other answer than that of Plato +in that witty piece, to the Grub Street author, who boasted that he had +not been in the slighest deuce indebted to the classics: Plato declared +that, upon his honor, he believed him! Whether the successors of the +Herberts and Tindals of a former day are not plagiarists from them, +is another question, and depends entirely upon whether the writings +of their predecessors are sufficiently known to them. Probably, the +hopeless oblivion which, for the most part, covers them (for the +perverse world has been again and again assured of its infallible +internal light, and has persisted in denying that it has it) will +protect our modern authors from the imputation of plagiarism; but +that the systems in question are essentially identical can hardly +admit of doubt. The principal difference is as to the organon by which +the revelation affirmed to be internal and universal is apprehended; +it affects the metaphysics of the question, and, like all metaphysics, +is characteristically dark. But about this you will not get the mass +of mankind to, any more than you can get yourselves to agree; no, +nor will you agree even about the system itself. Nay, you modern +spiritualists, just as the elder deists, are already quarrelling about +it. In short, the universal light in man's soul flickers and wavers +most abominably." + +"I see," said Fellowes, "you are profoundly prejudiced against the +spiritualists." + +"I believe not," said Harrington; "the worst I wish them is that they +may be honest men, and appear what they really are." + +"I suppose next," exclaimed the other, "you will attribute to the modern +spiritualists the scurrility of the elder deists,--of Woolston, Tindal, +and Collins?" + +"No," said Harrington, "I answer no; nor do I (remember) compare Lord +Herbert in these respects with his successors. He was an amiable +enthusiast; in many respects resembling Mr. Newman himself. Do you +remember, by the way, how that most reasonable rejecter of all 'external' +revelation prayed that he might be directed by Heaven whether he should +publish or not publish his 'book'? about which, if Heaven was very +solicitous, this world has since been very indifferent. Having distinctly +heard 'a sound as of thunder,' on a very 'calm and serene day,' he +immediately received it as a preternatural answer to prayer, and an +indubitable sign of Heaven's concurrence'." + +"No such taint of superstition, however, will be found clinging to +Mr. Newman. He has most thoroughly abjured all notion of an external +revelation; nay, he denies the possibility of a 'book-revelation of +spiritual and moral truth'; and I am confident that his dilemma on that +point is unassailable." + +"Be it so," answered Harrington; "you will readily suppose I am not +inclined to contest that point very vigorously; yet I confess that, as +usual, my inveterate scepticism leaves me in some doubts. Will you assist +me in resolving them?--but not to-night; let us have a little more talk +about old college days,--or what say you to a game at chess?" +____ + +July 4. I thought this day would have passed off entirely without +polemics; but I was mistaken. In the evening Harrington, after a very +cheerful morning, relapsed into one of his pensive moods. Conversation +flagged; at last I heard Fellowes say, "I have this advantage of you, +my friend, that my sentiments have, at all events, produced that peace +of which you are in quest, and which your countenance at times too +plainly declares you not to possess. If you had it, you would not take +so gloomy a view of things. Like him from whom I have derived some of +my sentiments, I have found that they tend to make me a happier man. +The Christian, like yourself, looks upon every thing with a jaundiced or +distorted eye, and is apt to underrate the claims and pleasures of +this present scene of our existence. I can truly say that I now enter +into them much more keenly than I could when I was an orthodox +Christian. I can say with Mr. Newman, I now, with deliberate approval, +'love the world and the things of the world.' The New Testament, as +Mr. Newman says, bids us watch perpetually, not knowing whether the +Lord will return at cock-crowing or midday; 'that the only thing +worth spending one's energies on, is the forwarding of men's salvation.' +Now I must say with him, that, while I believed this, I acted an +eccentric and unprofitable part." + +"Only then?" said Harrington. "You were fortunate." + +"He says, that to teach the certain speedy destruction of earthly things, +as the New Testament does, is to cut the sinews of all earthly progress; +to declare against intellect and imagination, against industrial and +social advancement." + +My gravity was hardly equal to the task of listening to the first +part of Mr. Fellowes's speech. To hear that the common and just +reproach against all mankind, but especially against all Christians, +of taking too keen an interest in the present, was in a large measure +at least founded upon a mistake; to find, in fact, that there was some +danger of an excessive exaggeration of the claims of the future, +which required a corrective; that the Christian world, owing to the +above pernicious doctrine, might possibly evince too faint a relish +for the pleasures or too diminished an estimate for the advantages of +the present life; that, their "treasure being in heaven," it was not +impossible but "their heart" might be too much there also,--there, +perhaps, when it was imperatively demanded in the counting-house, on +the hustings, at the mart or the theatre; all this, being, as I say, +so notoriously contrary to ordinary opinion and experience, seemed to +me so exquisitely ludicrous that I could hardly help bursting into +laughter, especially as I imagined one of our new "spiritual" doctors +ascending the pulpit under the new dispensation, to indulge in +exhortations to a keener chase, of this world, and "the things of +this world." I found afterwards similar thoughts were passing through +Harrington's mind, rendered more whimsical by the recollection that, +during college life, his friend (though very far from vicious) +had certainly never seemed to take any deficient interest in the +affairs of this world, nor to exhibit any predilection for an +ascetic life. Indeed, he acknowledged that, after all, he could not +sympathize with Mr. Newman's extreme sensitiveness in relation to +this matter. (See Phases, p. 205.) + +Harrington answered, with proper gravity, "I am glad to find that +any undue austerity of character--of which, however, I assure you, +upon my honor, I never suspected you--has received so invaluable a +corrective. Still, it is obvious to remark, that, if the chief effect +of this new style of religion is to abate any excessive antipathy +which the New Testament has fostered, or was likely to foster, to +the attractions of this life, it has, I conceive, an easy task. I +never remarked in Christians any superfluous contempt of the present +world or its pleasures; any indication of an extravagant admiration +of any sublimer objects of pursuit. In truth, the tendencies of +human nature, as it appears to me, are so strong the other way, that +the strongest language of a hundred New Testaments would be little +heeded. Your corrective is something like that of a moralist who +should seriously prove that man was to take care that his appetites +and passions are duly indulged, of which ethical writers have, alas! +condescended to say but little, supposing that every body would feel +that there was no need of solemn counsels on such a subject. It +reminds one of the Christmas sermon mentioned in the 'Sketch Book,' +preached by the good little antiquarian who elaborately proved, and +pathetically enforced on reluctant auditors, the duty of a proper +devotion to the festivities of the season. However, every one must +like the complexion of your theology, though its counsels on this +subject do not seem to me of urgent necessity." + +"Perhaps," said Fellowes, "I ought rather to have said that +Christians inculcate, theoretically, a contempt of the present life, +while, practically, they enter as keenly into its pleasures as the +'worldling,'"--uttering the last word with an approach to a sneer. + +"You may be sure," said Harrington, "I shall leave the Christian to +defend himself; but if the case be as you now represent it, your new +religious system seems to be superfluous as a corrective of any +tendencies to Christian asceticism, and can do nothing for us. It +appears that your Reformation was begun and ended before your +'spiritual' Luthers appeared." + +"Not so," said Fellowes, "for the eagerness with which the Christian +pursues the world, while he condemns it, is, as Mr. Greg has +recently insisted, gigantic hypocrisy': it is founded on a lie. They +say this world is not to be the great object for which we are to +live and in which we are to find our happiness; we say it is: they +say it is not our 'country' or our 'home'; we say it is: they say +that we are to live supremely for the future, and in it; we say, +for and in the present; that if there be a future world (of which +many doubt, and I, for one, have not been able to make up my mind), +we are to hope to be happy there, but that the main business is to +secure our happiness here,--to embellish, adorn, and enjoy this our +only certain dwelling-place,--and, in fact, to live supremely for +the present. Such is the constitution of human nature." + +"I shall not be at the trouble," replied Harrington, "to defend the +inconsistencies of the Christian; but your system, I fear, is +essentially a brutal theology, and, I am certain, a false philosophy. +All the analogies of our nature cry out against it. All, even with +regard to the 'present,' as you call this life, man is perpetually +living for and in the future. This 'present' (minute as it is) is +itself broken up into many futures, and it is these which man truly +lives for, when he is not a beast; and not for the passing hour. It +is not to-day, it is always to-morrow, on which his eye is fixed; and +his ever-repining nature perpetually confesses its impatient want of +something (it knows not what) to come. The child lives for his youth, +and the youth is discontented till he is a man; every attainment and +every possession pails as soon as it is reached, and we still sigh for +something that we have not. It is simply in analogy with all this that +the Christian and every other religion says (absurdly, if you will, +but certainly with a deeper knowledge of human nature than you), that, +as every little present has its little future for which we live, so +the whole present of this life has its great future, which must, all +the way through, be made the supreme object of forethought and +solicitude; just as we should despise any man who, for a moment's +gratification to-day, perilled the happiness of the whole of to-morrow. +If Christians are inconsistent in this respect, that is their affair; +but I am sure their theory is more in accordance with the constitution +of human nature than yours." He might have added, that there is nothing +in the New Testament which forbids to Christians any of the innocent +pleasures of this life: the Christian may lawfully appropriate them. +His system does not constrain him to hermit-like austerity or Puritanic +grimace. He may enjoy them, just as a wise man, who will not sacrifice +any of the interests of next year for a transient gratification of +the passing hour, does not deny himself any legitimate pleasure which +is not inconsistent with the more momentous interest. The pilgrim drinks +and rests at the fountain though he does not dream of setting up his +tent there. + +"Nay," said Fellowes, "but think again of the 'gigantic lie' of making +the future world the supreme object, and yet living wholly for this." + +"If that be the case," said I, joining in their talk, "there is no +doubt a 'gigantic lie' somewhere; but the question is, Who tells it? +It does not follow that it is Christianity. You may see every day men +nay, losing, some important advantages by loitering away the very +hour which is to secure them,--in reading a novel, enjoying a social +hour, lying in bed, and what not. You do not conclude that the man's +estimate of the future--his philosophy of that--is any the more +questionable for this folly? The ruthless future comes and makes +his heart ache; and so may it be with Christianity for aught any +such considerations imply. Your argument only proves that, if +Christianity be true, man is an inconsistent fool; and, in my +judgment, that was proved long before Christianity was born or +thought of." + +"Your theology," cried Harrington, "fairly carried out, would lead +most men to the 'Epicurean sty' which, sceptic as I am, I loathe +the thought of; it deserves the rebuke which Johnson gave the man +who pleaded for a 'natural and savage condition,' as he called it. +'Sir,' said the Doctor, 'it is a brutal doctrine; a bull might as +well say, I have this grass and this cow,--and what can a creature +want more?' No, I am sure that the Christian or any other +religionist--inconsistent though he is--appeals in this point +deeper analogies of our nature than you." + +"But the fact is," said Fellowes, "that the Christian depreciates +the innocent pleasures of this life." + +And my uncle would say it is his own fault then." + +"Nay, but hear me. I conceive that nothing could be more natural, +as several of our writers have remarked, than the injunctions of +the Apostles to the primitive Christians to despise the world, and +so forth, under the impression of that great mistake they had +fallen into, that the world was about to tumble to pieces, and----" + +"I am not sure," said Harrington, who seemed resolved to evince a +scepticism provoking enough, "that they did make the mistake, on +your principles. For I know not, nor you either, whether the +expressions on which you found the supposition be not amongst +the voluminous additions with which you are pleased to suppose +their simple and genuine 'utterances' have been corrupted. But, +leaving you to discuss that point, if you like, with my uncle here, +I must deny that the mistake, supposing it one, makes any thing +in relation to our present discussion. You say that the Apostles +did well and naturally to inculcate a light grasp on the world, +on the supposition that it was about to pass away; and therefore, +I suppose, you (under a similar impression) would do the same; if +so, ought you not still to do it? for can it make any conceivable +difference to the wisdom or the folly of such exhortations, whether +the world passes away from us, or we pass away from the world?-- +whether it 'tumbles to pieces,' as you express it, or (which is too +certain) we tumble to pieces? I think, therefore, your same +comfortable theology cannot be justified, if you justify the conduct +of the Apostles under their impression, let it be ever so erroneous. +You ought to feel the same sentiments; you being, to all practical +purposes, under a precisely similar impression." + +Fellowes looked as if he were a little vexed at having thus +hypothetically justified the conduct of the Apostles. + +But he was not without his answer, adopted from Mr. Newman. +"Yes," said he, "practically, no doubt, death is the end of the +world to us; but to urge this,--what is it, as Mr. Newman says, +but abominable selfishness preached as religion'? If we are to +labor for posterity, will not our work remain, though we die? +But if the world is to perish in fifty years, or a century, +what then?" + +"Far be it from me," said Harrington, "to compete with your +spiritual philanthropy, which, doubtless, will not be content +to work unless under a lease of a million of years. I suppose +even if you thought the would come to an end in a hundred years, +(and really I have no proof that the Apostles thought it would +end sooner,--they spoke of their death as coming first,) you +would not think it worth while to do any thing; the welfare of +your children and grandchildren would appear far too paltry for +so ambitious a benevolence as yours! Most people--Christians, +sceptics, or otherwise--are contented to aim at the welfare of +his generation and the next, and think as little of their +great-great-grandchildren as of their great-great-grandfathers. +That little vista terminates the projects of their philanthropy, +just as their own death is to them the end of the world. Meantime, +it appears, you would be tempted to neglect the practical little +you could do, because you could not do more than for a century or +so! Pray, which is really the more benevolent? Moreover, as not +one man in a million can or does think of benefiting any but his +immediate generation, you ought, upon your principles, still to +sit down inactive; for they for whom alone you can work will soon +pass away too. But the whole argument is too refined. No mortal-- +except you or Mr. Newman--would be wrought upon by it." + +"Well, but," said Fellowes, "as to the mistake of the Apostles, +there can be no doubt of that; it really appears to me grossly +disingenuous"--looking towards me--"to deny it. What do you say, +Mr. B.?" repeating his assertion that the Apostles clearly thought +that the end of the world was close at hand,--in fact, that it +would happen in their generation. + +I told him I was afraid I must run the risk of appearing in his +eyes "grossly disingenuous"; not that I deemed it necessary to +maintain that the Apostles had any idea of the period of time which +was to intervene between the first promulgation of the Gospel and +the consummation of all things; for when I found our Lord himself +acknowledging, "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, not even +the angels, nor even the Son, but the Father only," I could not +wonder that the Apostles were left to mere conjectures on a subject +which was then veiled even from his humanity. I said I even thought +it probable that their vivid feeling anticipated the day,--that the +interval between, so to speak, was "foreshortened" to them; but that +I could not see how the question of their inspiration, or the +truth of Christianity, was at all involved in their ignorance on +that point; unless, indeed, it could be proved that they had +positively stated that the predicted event would take place in their +own time. This, I acknowledged, I could not find,--but much to the +contrary; that the charge, indeed, had been so often repeated by +the infidel school, that they had persuaded themselves of it, and +spoke of it as if it were a decided point; but that as long as the +second Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians remained, in which +the Apostle expressly corrected misapprehensions similar to those +which infidelity still professes to found on the first Epistle, I +should continue to doubt whether Paul did not know his own mind +better than his modern commentators. I told him that we do not +hear that the Thessalonians persisted in believing that they had +rightly interpreted Paul's words after he had himself disowned the +meaning they had put upon them; that this was a degree of assurance +only possible to modern critics; and that I was surprised that +Mr. Newman should have quietly assumed the alleged "mistake" in +his "Phases of Faith," without thinking it worth while even to state +the opposing argument from the Second Epistle. I added, that the +repeated references which both Paul and Peter make to their own +deaths, as certain to take place before the dissolution of all +things, sufficiently prove that, however their view of the future +might be contracted, they did not expect the world to end in their +day, and ought to have silenced the perverse criticism on the +popular expression, "Then we which are alive and remain," &c. + +Having briefly stated my opinion, Fellowes said he saw that he and +I were as little likely to agree as Harrington and he. "However," he +continued, turning to his friend, "to go back to the point from which +we digressed. My new faith, at all events, makes me happy, which it +is plain--too plain--that your want of all faith does not make you." + +"Whether it is your new faith," said the other, "makes you happy, +--whether you were not as happy in your old faith--whether there are +not thousands of Christians who are as happy with their faith (they +would say much happier, and I should say so too, if they not only +say they believe it, but believe it and practise it.), I will not +inquire; that my want of faith does not make me happy is a sad truth, +which I do not think it worth while to deny; though I must confess +that there have been many who have shared in my scepticism who have +not shared in my misery. It is just because they have not realized +what they did not believe; even as there are thousands of soi-disant +Christians who do not realize what they say they do believe; neither +the one nor the other are the happier or the more sorrowful for their +pretended tenets. This is simply because they stand in no need of +the admirable correctives supplied by your new theology; the present +engrosses their solicitudes and affections; and the mere talk of the +belief or the no-belief suffices to hush and tranquillize the heart +in relation to those most momentous subjects, on which if man has +not thought at all, he is a fool indeed. In either case the 'future' +and the 'eternal' seem so far removed that they seem to be an 'eternal +futurity.' Such parties look at that distant future much as children +at the stars; it is a point, an invisible speck, in the firmament. +A sixpence held near the eye appears larger; and brought sufficiently +close shuts out the universe altogether. But let us also forget the +future, and have a little talk of the past." + +They resumed their conversation on subjects indifferent as far as this +journal is concerned, and I bade them good night. + +--- + +July 5. We were sitting in the library after breakfast. The two +college friends soon fell into chat, while I sat writing at my +separate table, but ready to resume my capacity of reporter, should +any polemical discussion take place. I soon had plenty of employment. +After about an hour I heard Harrington say:-- + +"But I shall be happy, I assure you, to fill the void whenever you +will give me something solid wherewith to fill it." + +It was impossible that even a believer in the doctrine that no +"creed" can be taught, and that an "external revelation" is an +impossibility, could be insensible to the charm of making a +proselyte. + +"What is it," said Fellowes, "that you want?" + +"What do I want? I want certainty, or quasi-certainty, on those +points on which if a man is content to remain uncertain, he is a +fool or a brute; points respecting which it is no more possible +for a genuine sceptic--for I speak not of the thoughtless lover +paradox, or the queer dogmatist who resolves that nothing is +true--to still the soul, than nakedness can render us insensible +to cold; or hunger cure its own pangs by saying, 'Go to, now; I have +nothing to eat.' The generality of mankind are insensible to these +questions only because they imagine, even though it may be falsely, +that they possess certainty. They are problems which, whenever there +is elevation of mind enough to appreciate their importance, engage +the real doubter in a life-long conflict; and to attempt to appease +restlessness of such a mind by the old prescriptions,--the old +quackish Epicurean nostrum of 'Carpe diem,'--'Let us eat, drink, +and be merry, for to-morrow die,'--'We do not know what the morrow may +bring--is like attempting to call back the soul from a moral syncope +by applying to the nostrils a drop of eau de Cologne. 'Enjoy to-day, +we do not know what the morrow will bring!' Why, that is the very +thought which poisons to-day. No, a soul of any worth cannot but +feel an intense wish for the solution of its doubts, even while it +doubts whether they can be solved." + +"'Carpe diem' certainly would not be my sole prescription," said +Fellowes; "you have not told me yet what you want." + +"No, but I will. The questions on which I want certainty are indeed +questions about which philosophers will often argue just to display +their vanity, as human vanity will argue about any thing; but they +are no sooner felt in their true grandeur, than they absorb the soul." + +"Still, what is it you want?" + +"I want to know---whence I came; whither I am going. Whether there be, +in truth, as so many say there is, a God,--a tremendous personality, +to whose infinite faculties the 'great' and the 'little' (as we call +them) equally vanish,--whose universal presence fills all space, +in any point of which he exists entire in the amplitude of all his +infinite attributes,--whose universal government extends even to me, +and my fellow-atoms, called men,--within whose sheltering embrace +even I am not too mean for protection;--whether, if there be such +a being, he is truly infinite; or whether this vast machine of the +universe may not have developed tendencies or involved consequences +which eluded his forethought, and are now beyond even his control; +--whether, for this reason, or for some other necessity, such infinite +sorrows have been permitted to invade it;--whether, above all, He be +propitious or offended with a world in which I feel too surely, in +the profound and various misery of man, that his aspects are not all +benignant;--how, if he be offended, he is to be reconciled;--whether +he is at all accessible, or one to whom the pleasures and the +sufferings of the poor child of dust are equally subjects of horrible +indifference;--whether, if such Omnipotent Being created the world, he +has now abandoned it to be the sport of chance, and I am thus an orphan +in the universe;--whether this 'universal frame' be indeed without a +mind, and we are, in fact, the only forms of conscious existence; +--whether, as the Pantheist declares, the universe itself be God,-- +ever making, never made,--the product of an evolution of an infinite +series of 'antecedents' and 'consequents'; a God of which--for I +cannot say of whom--you and I are bits; perishable fragments of a +Divinity, itself imperishable only because there will always be bits +of it to perish;--whether, even upon some such supposition, this +conscious existence of ours is to be renewed; and, if under what +conditions; or whether, when we have finished our little day, no +other dawn is to break upon our night;--whether the vale, vale in +eternum vale, is really the proper utterance of a breaking heart as it +closes the sepulchre on the object of its love." + +His voice faltered; and I was confirmed in my suspicions, that some +deep, secret sorrow had had to do with his morbid state of mind. In +a moment, he resumed:-- + +"These are the questions, and others like the them, which I have +vainly toiled to solve. I, like you, have been rudely driven out +of my old beliefs; my early Christian faith has given way to doubt; +the little hut on the mountain-side, in which I thought to dwell in +pastoral simplicity, has been scattered to the tempest, and I am +turned out to the blast without a shelter. I have wandered long and +far, but have not found that rest which you tell me is to be obtained. +As I examine all other theories, they seem, to me, pressed by at +least equal difficulties with that I have abandoned. I cannot make +myself contented, as others do, with believing nothing, and yet I +have nothing to believe; I have wrestled long and hard with my +Titan foes,--but not successfully. I have turned to every quarter +of the universe in vain; I have interrogated my own soul, but it +answers not; I have gazed upon nature, but its many voices speak no +articulate language to me; and, more especially, when I gaze upon +the bright page of the midnight heavens, those orbs gleam upon +me with so cold a light, and amidst so portentous a silence, that +I am, with Pascal, terrified at the spectacle of the infinite +solitudes,--'de ces espaces infinis.' I declare to you that I know +nothing in nature so beautiful or so terrible as those mute oracles." + +"They are indeed mute," said Fellowes; "but not so that still voice +which whispers its oracles within. You have but to look inwards, and +you may see, by the direct gaze of 'the spiritual faculty,' bright +and clear, those great 'intuitions' of spiritual truth which the +gauds and splendors of the external universe can no more illustrate +than can the illuminated characters of an old missal;--just as little +can any book teach these truths. You have truly said, the stars will +shed no light upon them; they, on the contrary, must illumine the +stars; I mean, they must themselves be seen before the outward +universe can assume intelligible meaning; must utter their voices +before any of the phenomena of the external world can have any real +significance!" + +"How different," said Harrington, "are the experiences of mankind! +You well described those internal oracles, if there are indeed such, +as whispering their responses; if they utter them at all, it is to +me in a whisper so low that I cannot distinctly catch them. Strange +paradoxes! the soul speaks, and the soul listens, and the soul cannot +tell what the soul says. That is, the soul speaks to itself, and says, +'What have I said?' I assure you that the ear of my soul (if I may so +speak) has often ached with intense effort to listen to what the tongue +of the soul mutters, and yet I cannot catch it. You tell me I have +only to look down into the depths within. Well, I have. I assure you +that I have endeavoured to do so, as far as I know, honestly; and, +so far from seeing clear and bright those splendors which you speak +of, I can only see as in the depths of a cavern occasional gleams of +a tremulous flickering light, which distinctly shows me nothing, and +which, I half suspect, comes from without into these recesses: or I +feel as if gazing down an abyss, the bottom of which is filled with +water; the light--and that, too, for aught I know, reflected from +without--only throws a transient glimpse of my own image on the +surface of the dark water; that image itself broken and renewed as +the water boils up from its hidden fountain. Or, if I may recur to +your own metaphor, instead of hearing in those deep caverns the +clear oracles of which you boast, I can distinguish nothing but +a scarcely audible murmur; I know not whether it be any thing more +than the lingering echoes of what I heard in my childhood: or, +rather, my soul speaks to me on all these momentous subjects much +as one in sleep often does; the lips move, but no sound issues +from them. I retire from these attempts, as those of old from the +cave of Trophonius, pale, terrified, and dejected. In short," he +continued, "I feel much as Descartes says he did when he had denuded +himself of all his traditional opinions,--a condition so graphically +described in the beginning of the second of his Meditations. There is +this difference, however, and in his favor: that he imposed upon +himself only a self-inflicted doubt, which he could terminate at any +time. His opinions had been but temporarily laid aside. They were on +the shelf, close at hand, ready to be taken down again when wanted. But +enough of this. You will, I know, aid me, if you can. And, now I think +of it, do so on one point, by justifying your assertion, made the +other evening, as to Mr. Newman's dilemma of the 'impossibility of +a book-revelation.'" + +"I said, I think, that Mr. Newman has satisfactorily proved to me +that a book-revelation of moral and spiritual truth is impossible; +that God reveals himself to us within, and not from without." + +"As to what is impossible," said the other, "I fancy it would be +difficult to get one thoroughly convinced of his ignorance and +feebleness to be other than very cautious how he used the word. +Perhaps, however, Mr. Newman may be more readily excused than most +men for the strength with which he pronounces his opinions; for, +as he has passed through an infinity of experiences, it may have +given him 'insight' into many absurdities which, to the generality +of mankind, do not appear such. I think if I had believed half so +many things, I should have lost all confidence in myself. What a +strong mind, or what buoyant faith, he must have!" + +"Both,--both," said Fellowes. + +"Well, be it so. But let us, as you promised yesterday, examine this +very point." This led on to a dialogue in which it was distinctly +proved that + +THAT MAY BE POSSIBLE WITH MAN, WHICH IS +IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. + +"Mr. Newman affirms, you say," said Harrington, "that in his judgment +every book-'revelation' is an absurdity and a contradiction; or, in +the words quoted by you, 'impossible.'" + +"Yes,--of 'moral and spiritual truth.'" + +"And of any other truth--as of historical truth--you say such +revelation is unnecessary?" + +"Yes." + +"Moreover, as you and Mr. Newman affirm, the bulk of mankind are +not competent to investigate the claims of such an historic +revelation?" + +"Certainly." + +"And, therefore, it is impossible in fact, if not per se, unless +God is to be supposed doing something both unnecessary and futile." + +"I think so, of course," said Fellowes. + +"So that all book-revelation is impossible." + +"I affirm it." + +"Very well,--I do not dispute it. There still remain one or two +difficulties on which I should like to have your judgment towards +forming an opinion: and they are on the very threshold of the subject. +And, first, I suppose you do not mean to restrict your term of a +'book-revelation' to that only which is literally consigned to a +book in our modern sense. You mean an external revelation?" + +"Certainly." + +"If, for example, you could recover a genuine manuscript of Isaiah +or Paul, you would not think it entitled to any more respect, as +authority, than a modern translation in a printed book,--though it +might be free from some errors?" + +"I should not." + +"You would not allow that parchment, however ancient, has any +advantage in this respect over paper, however modern?" + +"Certainly not." + +"Nor Hebrew or Greek over English or German? + +"No." + +"All such matters are in very deed but 'leather and prunella'?" + +"Nothing more." + +"And for a similar reason, surely, you would reject at once the oral +teaching of any such man as Paul or Matthew, or any body else, if +he professed that what he said was dictated by divine inspiration, +concurrently or not with the use of his own faculties? You would +repudiate at once his claims, however authenticated, to be your +infallible guide; to tell you what you are to believe, and how you +are to act? For surely you will not pretend that there is any +difference between statements which are merely expressed by the +living voice, and those same statements as consigned to a book; +except that, if any difference be supposed at all, one would, for +some reasons, rather have their in the last shape than in the first." + +"Of course there is no difference: to object to a book-revelation +and grant a 'lip-revelation' from God, or to deny that lip-revelation +(when it is made permanent and diffusible) the authority it had when +first given, would be a childish hatred of a book indeed," answered +Fellowes. + +"I perfectly agree with you," replied Harrington. + +"I understand you, then, to deny that any revelation professedly +given to you or to me does, or ever can, come to us through any +external channel, printed or on parchment, ancient or modern, by the +living voice or in a written character; and that this is a proper +translation, in a generalized form, of the phrase 'a book-revelation'?" + +"I admit it. For surely, as already said, it would be truly ridiculous +to allow that Paul, if we could but hear his living voice, was to be +listened to with implicit reverence as an authorized teacher of divine +truth; but that his deliberate utterances, recorded in a permanent +form, were to be regarded not merely as less authoritative, but of +no authority at all." + +"So that if you saw Peter or Paul to-morrow, you would tell him the +same story?" + +"Of course I should," replied Mr. Fellowes. + +"And you would of course also reject any such revelation, coming +from any external source, even though the party proclaiming it +confirmed it by miracles? For I cannot see how, if it be true that +an external revelation is impossible, and that God always reveals +himself 'within us' and never 'out of us,' (which is the principle +affirmed,)--I say I cannot see how miracles can make any difference +in the case." + +"No, certainly not. But surely you forget that miracles are impossible +on my notion: for, as Mr. Newman says---" + +"Whatever he says, I suppose you will not deny that they are +conceivable; and that is all I am thinking of at present. Their +impossibility or possibility I will not dispute with you just now. +I am disposed to with you; only, as usual, I have some doubts, which +I wish you would endeavor to solve; but of that another time. Meantime, +my good friend, be so obliging as to give me an answer to my +question,--whether you would deem it to be your duty to reject any +such claims to authoritative teaching, even if backed by the +performance of miracles? for, admitting miracles never to have +occurred, and even that they never will, you, I think, would hesitate +to affirm that you clearly perceive that the very notion involves a +contradiction. They are, at least, imaginable, and that is sufficient +to supply you with an answer to my question. I once more ask you, +therefore, whether, if such a teacher of a book-revelation, in the +comprehensive sense of these words already defined, were to authenticate +(as he affirmed) his claims to reverence by any number, variety, or +splendor of miracles,--undoubted miracles,--you would any the more feel +bound to believe him?" + +"What! upon the supposition that there was any thing morally +objectionable in his doctrine?" + +"I will release you on that score too." said Harrington, in a most +accommodating manner. "Morally, I will assume there is nothing in his +doctrine but what you approve; and as for the rest,--to confirm which +I will suppose the revelation given,--I will assume nothing in it +which you could demonstrate to be false or contradictory; in fact, +nothing more difficult to be believed than many undeniable phenomena of +the external universe,--matters, for example, which you acknowledge you +do not comprehend, but which may possibly be true for aught you can +tell to the contrary." + +"But if the supposed revelation contain nothing but what, appealing +thus to my judgment, I can approve, where is the necessity of a +revelation at all?" + +"Did I say, my friend, that it was to contain nothing but what is +referred to your judgment? nothing but what you would know and approve +just as well without it? or even did I concede that you could have +known and approved without it that which, when it is proposed, you do +approve? I simply wish an answer to the question, whether, if a teacher +of an ethical system such as you entirely approved, with some doctrines +attached, incomprehensible it may be, but not demonstratively false or +immoral, were to substantiate (as he affirmed) his claims to your +belief by the performance of miracles, you would or would not feel +constrained any the more to believe him?" + +"But I do not see the use of discussing a question under circumstances +which it is admitted never did nor ever can occur?" + +"You 'fight hard,' as Socrates says to one of his antagonists on a +similar occasion; but I really must request an answer to the question. +The case is an imaginable one; and you may surely say how, upon the +principles you have laid down, you think those principles would compel +you to act in the hypothetical case." + +"Well, then, if I must give all answer, I should say that upon the +principles on which Mr. Newman has argued the question,--that all +revelation, except which is internal, is impossible,--I should not +believe the supposed envoy's claims." + +"Whatever the number or the splendor of his miracles?" + +"Certainly," said Fellowes, with some hesitation however, and +speaking slowly. + +"For that does not affect the principles we are agreed upon?" + +"No,"--not seeming, however, perfectly satisfied. + +"Very well," resumed Harrington, "that is what I call a plain answer +to a plain question. I fancy (waverer that I am!) that I should +believe the man's claims. I should be even greatly tempted to think +that those things which I could not entirely see ought to be +contained in the said revelation, were to be believed. But all that +is doubtless only because I am much weaker in mind and will than +either Mr. Newman or yourself. You must pardon me; it will in no degree +practically affect the question, except on the supposition that the +same infirmity is also a characteristic of man in general; that not +I, from my weakness, am an exception to rule; but you, in your strength. +But to dismiss that. You have agreed that a book-revelation is +impossible, and not to be believed, even if avouched by miracles. +Have men in general been disposed to believe a book-revelation +impossible? for if not, I am afraid they would be very liable to run +into error, if they share in my weaknesses." + +"Liable to run into error!" said Fellowes. "Man has been perpetually +running into this very error, always and everywhere." + +"If it be true, as you say, that man has always and everywhere manifested +a remarkable facility of falling into this error, many will be tempted +to think that the thing is not so plainly impossible. It seems so +strange that men in general should believe things to be possible when +they are impossible. However, you admit it as a too certain fact." + +"I do, for I can not honestly deny it; but it has been because they +have confounded what is historical or intellectual with moral and +spiritual truth." + +"I am afraid that will not excuse their absurdity, because, as you +admit, all book-revelation is impossible.--But further, supposing +men to have made this strange blunder, it only shows that the 'moral +and spiritual' could not be very clearly revealed within; and no +wonder men began to think that perhaps it might come to them +from without! When men begin to mistake blue for red, and square for +round, and chaff for wheat, I think it is high time that they repair +to a doctor outside them to tell them what is the matter with their +poor brains. Meantime an external revelation is impossible?" + +"Certainly." + +"But men, however, have somehow perversely believed it very possible, +and that, in some shape or other, it has been given?" + +"They have, I must admit." + +"Unhappy race! thus led on by some fatality, though not by the +constitution of their nature (rather by some inevitable perversion +of it), to believe as possible that which is so plainly impossible. +O that it did not involve a contradiction to wish that God would +relieve them from such universal and pernicious delusions, by giving +them a book-revelation to show them that all book-revelations are +impossible!" + +"That," said Fellowes, laughing, "would indeed be a novelty. Miracles +would hardly prove that." + +"I think not," said Harrington. "But, as the poet says, 'some god or +friendly man' may show the way. Pray, permit me to ask, did you +always believe that a book-revelation was impossible?" + +"How can you ask the question?--you know that I was brought up, like +yourself, in the reception of the Bible as the only and infallible +revelation of God to mankind." + +"To what do you owe your emancipation from this grievous and universal +error, which still infects, in this or some other shape, the myriads +of the human race?" + +"I think principally to the work of Mr. Newman on the 'Soul,' and his +'Phases of Faith.'" + +"These have been to you, then, at least, a book-revelation that a +'divine book-revelation is impossible'; a truth which I acknowledge +you could not have received by divine book-revelation, without a +contradiction. You ought, indeed, to think very highly of Mr. Newman. +It is well, when God cannot do a this that man can; though I confess, +considering the wide prevalence of this pernicious error, it would +have been better, had it been possible, that man should have had a +divine book-revelation to tell him that a divine book-revelation +was impossible. Great as is my admiration of Mr. Newman, I should, +myself, have preferred having God's word for it. However, let us lay +it down as an axiom that a human book-revelation, showing you that +'a divine book-revelation is impossible,' is not impossible; and +really, considering the almost universal error of man on this +subject,--now happily exploded,--the book-revelation which convinces +man of this great truth ought to be reverenced as of the highest value; +it is such that it might not appear unworthy of celestial origin, if +it did not imply a contradiction that God should reveal to us in a +book that a revelation in a book is impossible." + +Fellowes looked very grave, but said nothing. + +"But yet," continued Harrington, very seriously, "I know not whether +I ought not, upon your principles, to consider this book-revelation +with which you have been favored, about the impossibility of such +a thing, as itself a divine revelation; in which case I am afraid +we shall be constrained to admit, in form, that contradiction which +we have been so anxious to avoid, by making 'possible with man what +is impossible with God.'" + +"I know not what you mean," said Fellowes, rather offended. + +"Why," said Harrington, quite unmoved, "I have heard you say you do +not deny, in some sense, inspiration, but only that inspiration is +preternatural; that every 'holy thought,' every 'lofty and sublime +conception,' all 'truth and excellence,' in any man, come from the +'Father of lights,' and are to be ascribed to him; that, as Mr. Parker +and Mr. Foxton affirm on this point, the inspiration of Paul or Milton, +or even of Christ and of Benjamin Franklin, is of the same nature, +and in an intelligible sense from the same source,--differing only +in degree. Can you deem less, then, of that great conception by which +Mr. Newman has released you, and possibly many more, from that +bondage to a 'book-revelation' in which you were brought up, and +in which, by your own confession, you might have been still enthralled? +Can you think less of this than that it is an 'inspired' voice which +has proclaimed 'liberty to the captive,' and made known to you +'spiritual freedom'? If any thing be divine about Mr. Newman's +system, surely it must be this. Ought you not to thank God that he +has been thus pleased to 'open your eyes,' and to turn you from +'darkness to light,'--to raise up in these last days such an apostle +of the truth which had lain so long 'hidden from ages and generations'? +Can you do less than admire the divine artifice by when it was +impossible for God directly to tell man that he could directly tell +him nothing, He raised up his servant Newman to perform the office?" + +"For my part," said Fellowes, "I am not ashamed to say, that I think +I ought to thank God for such a boon as Mr. Newman has, in this +instance at least, been the instrument of conveying to me: I +acknowledge it most momentous truth, without which I should still +have been in thraldom to the 'letter.'" + +"Very well; then the book-revelation of Mr. Newman is, as I say, in +some sort to you, perhaps to a divine 'book-revelation.'" + +"Well, in some sense, it is so." + +"So that now we have, in some sense, a divine book-revelation to +prove that a divine book-revelation is impossible." + +"You are pleased to jest on the subject," said Fellowes. + +"I never was more serious in my life. However, I will not press +this point any further. You shall be permitted to say (what I +will not contradict) that, though Mr. Newman may be inspired, for +aught I know, in that modified sense in which you believe in any +phenomenon,--inspired as much (say) as the inventor of Lucifer +matches,--yet that his book is not divine,--that it is purely human; +and even, if you please, that God has had nothing to do with it. But +even then I must be allowed to repeat, that at least you have +derived from a 'book-revelation' what it would not have been a +unworthy of a divine book-revelation to impart, if it could have +been imparted without contradiction. Such book-revelation, in this +case, must be of inestimable value to man, because, without it, he +must have persisted in that ancient and all but inveterate and +universal delusion of which we have so often spoken. There is only +one little inconvenience, I apprehend, from it in relation to +the argument of such a book; and that is, that I am afraid that +men, so far from being convinced thereby that a divine revelation +is impossible, will rather argue the contrary way, and say, 'If Mr. +Newman can do so much, what might not God do by the very same +method?' If he can thus break the spiritual yoke of his fellow-men +by only teaching them negative truth, surely it may be possible for +God to be as useful in teaching positive truth. I almost tremble, +I assure you, lest, by his most conspicuous success in imparting +to you such important truth, and reclaiming you from such a +fundamental error, which lay at the very threshold of your +'spiritual' progress, he may, so far from convincing mankind of the +truth of his principle, lead them rather to believe that a +'book-revelation' may have been very possible, and of singular +advantage. But, to speak the truth, I am by no means sure that +Mr. Newman has not done something more than what we have attributed +to him, and whether his book-revelation be not a true divine +revelation to you also." + +Fellowes looked rather curious, and I thought a little angry. + +"My good friend," said Harrington, "I am sure you will not refuse +me every satisfaction you can, in my present state of doubt and +perplexity; that you will render me (as indeed you have promised) +all the assistance in your power, by kindly telling me what you +know of your own religious development and history. I cannot +sufficiently admire your candor and frankness hitherto." + +"You may depend upon it," said Fellowes, "I will not hesitate to +answer any questions you choose to put. I am not ashamed of the system +I have adopted,--or rather selected, for I do not agree with any one +writer--although I confess I wish I were a better advocate of it." + +"O, rest assured that 'spiritualism' can lose nothing by your +advocacy. As to your independence of mind, you act, I am sure, upon +the maxim in verba nullius jurare. Your system seems to me quite a +spices of eclecticism. There is no fear of my confounding you with +the good old lady who, after having heard the sermon of some +favorite divine, was asked if she understood him. 'Understand him!' +said she; 'do you think I would presume?--blessed man! Nor with +the Scotchwoman who required, as a condition of her admiration, that +a sermon should contain some things at least which transcended her +comprehension. 'Eh. it is a' vara weel,' said she, on hearing one +which did not fulfil this reasonable condition; 'but do ye call that +fine preaching?--there was na ae word that I could na explain mysel.'" + +Fellowes smiled good-naturedly, and then said, "I was going to +observe, in relation to the present subject, that it is 'moral and +spiritual' truth which Mr. Newman says it is impossible should be the +subject of a book-revelation." + +Harrington, apparently without listening to him, suddenly said, "By +the by, you agree with Mr. Newman, I am sure, that God is to be +approached by the individual soul without any of the nonsense of +mediation, which has found so general--all but universal--sanction +in the religious systems of the world?" + +"Certainly," said Fellowes, "nor is there probably any 'spiritualist' +(in whatever we may be divided) who would deny that." + +"Supposing it true, does it not seem to you the must delightful and +stupendous of all spiritual truths?" + +"It does, indeed," said Fellowes. + +"Could you always realize it, my friend?" said Harrington. + +"Nay, I was once a firm believer in the current orthodoxy, as you +well know." + +"Now you see with very different eyes. You can say, with the man in +the Gospel, 'This I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." + +"I can." + +"And you attribute this happy change of sentiment to the perusal of +those writings of Mr. Newman from which you think that I also might +derive similar benefits?" + +"I do." + +"It appears, then, that to you, at least, my friend, it is possible +that there may be a book-revelation of 'moral and spiritual truth' +of the highest possible significance and value, although you do not +consider the book to be divine; now, if so, I fancy many will be +again inclined to say, that what Mr. Newman has done in your case, +God might easily do, if he pleased, for mankind in general; and with +this advantage, that He would not include in the same book which +revealed truth to the mind, and rectified its errors, an assurance +that any such book-revelation was impossible." + +"But, my ingenious friend." cried Fellowes, with some warmth, "you are +inferring a little too fast for the premises. I do not admit that +Mr. Newman or any other spiritualist has revealed to me any truth, +but only that he has been the instrument of giving shape and distinct +consciousness to what was, in fact, uttered in the secret oracles of +my own bosom before; and, as I believe, is uttered also in the hearts +of all other men." + +"I fear your distinction is practically without a difference. It will +certainly not avail us. You say you were once in no distinct conscious +possession of that system of spiritual truth which you now hold; on +the contrary, that you believed a very different system; that the +change by which you were brought into your present condition of mind +--out of darkness into light--out of error into truth--has been produced +chiefly by Mr. Newman's deeply instructive volumes. If so, one will be +apt to argue that a book-revelation may be of the very utmost use and +benefit to mankind in general,--if only by making that which would else +be inarticulate mutter of the internal oracle distinct and clear; and +that if God would but give such a book, the same value at least might +attach to it as to a book of Mr. Newman's. It little matters to this +argument, the question of the possibility, value, or utility of an +external revelation,--whether the truths it is to communicate be +absolutely unknown till it reveals them only not known, which you +confess was your own case. If your natural taper of illumination is +stuck into a dark lantern, and its light only can flash upon the +soul when some Mr. Newman kindly lifts up the slide for you; or if +your internal oracle, like a ghost, will not speak till it is spoken +to; or, like a dumb demon, awaits to find a voice, and confess +itself to be what it is at the summons of an exorcist;--the same +argument precisely will apply for the possibility and utility of a +revelation from God to men in general. What has been done for you by +man, even though no more were done, might, one would imagine, be done +for the rest of mankind, and in a much better manner, by God. If that +internal and native revelation which both you and Mr. Newman say has +its seat in the human soul, be clear without his aid, why did he +write a syllable about it? If, as you say, its utterances were not +recognized, and that his statements have first made them familiar to +you, the same argument (the Christian will say) will do for the Bible. +It is of little use that nature teaches you, if Mr. Newman is to +teach nature." + +Fellowes was silent; and, after a pause, Harrington resumed; he could +not resist the temptation of saying, with playful malice,-- + +"Perhaps you are in doubt whether to say that the internal +revelation which you possess does teach you dearly or darkly. It +is a pity that nature so teaches as to leave you in doubt till +some one else teaches you what she does teach you. She must be like +some ladies, who keep school indeed, but have accomplished +masters to teach every thing. Shall we call Mr. Newman the +Professor of 'Spiritual Insight'? Would it not be advisable, if +you are in any uncertainty, to write to him to ask whether the +internal truths which no external revelation can impart be +articulate or not; or whether, though a book from God could not +make them plainer, you are at liberty to say that a book of Mr. +Newman's will? It is undoubtedly a subtile question for him to +decide for you; namely, what is the condition of your own +consciousness? But I really see no help for it, after what you have +granted; nor, without his aid, do I see whether you can truly affirm +that you have an internal revelation, independently of him or not. +And whichever way he decides, I am afraid lest he should prove both +himself and you very much in the wrong. If he decides for you, that +your internal revelation must and did anticipate any thing he might +write, and that it was perfectly articulate, as well as inarticulately +present to your 'insight' before, it will be difficult to determine +why he should have written at all; he would also prove, not only how +superfluous is your gratitude, but that he understands your own +consciousness better than you do. If he decides it the other way, and +says you had a 'revelation' before he revealed it, yet that he made +it utter articulate language, and interpreted its hieroglyphics,-- +then it more seems very strange that either you or he should contend +that a 'book-revelation' is impossible, since Mr. Newman has produced +it. If, however, he should in the first of these two ways, I fear, +my good friend, that we shall fall into another paradox worse than +all for it will prove that the 'internal revelation' which you +possess is better known to Mr. Newman than to yourself, which will +be a perfectly worthy conclusion of all this embarrass. It would be +surely droll for you to affirm that you possess an internal revelation +which renders all 'external revelation' impossible, but yet that its +distinctness is unperceived by yourself, and awaits the assurance +of an external authority, which at same time declares all 'external +revelation' impossible!" + +"There is still another word," said Fellowes, "which you forget +that Mr. Newman employs; he says that an authoritative book-revelation +of moral and spiritual truth is impossible." + +"Why" said Harrington, laughing, "while you were without the truth, +as you say you were, it was not likely to be authoritative: if, +when you have it, it is recognized as authoritative, which you say +is the case with the truth you have got from Mr. Newman,--if +you acknowledge that it ought to have authority as soon as known, +--that is all (so far as I know) that is contended for in the case +of the Bible. If you mean by 'authoritative' a revelation which not +only ought to be, but which is so, I think mankind make it pretty +plain that neither the 'external' nor the 'internal' revelation is +particularly authoritative. In short," he concluded "I do not see +how we can doubt, on the principles on which Mr. Newman acts and yet +denies, that a book-revelation of moral and spiritual truth is very +possible; and if given, would be signally useful to mankind in general. +If Mr. Newman, as you admit, has written a book which has put you in +possession of moral and spiritual truth, surely it may be modestly +contended that God might dictate a better. Either you were in +possession of the truths in question before he announced them, or you +were not; if not, Mr. Newman is your infinite benefactor, and God may +be at least as great a one; if you were, then Mr. Newman, like Job's +comforters, 'has plentifully declared the thing as it is.' If you say, +that you were in possession of them, but only by implication; that +you did not see them dearly or vividly till they were propounded, +--that is, that you saw them, only practically you were blind, and +knew them, only you were virtually ignorant; still, whatever Mr. +Newman does (and it amounts, in fact, to revelation), that may the +Bible also do. If even that be not possible, and man naturally +possesses these truths explicitly, as well as implicitly, then, +indeed, the Bible is an impertinence,--and so is Mr. Newman." + +After a pause, Harrington suddenly asked,-- + +"Do you not think there is some difference between yourself and +a Hottentot?" + +"I should hope so," said Fellowes, with a laugh. + +"But still the Hottentot has all the 'spiritual faculties' of which +you speak so much?" + +"Certainly." + +"What makes this prodigious difference?--for of that, as a fact, +we cannot dispute." + +"Different culture and education, I suppose." + +"This culture and education is a thing external?" + +"It is." + +"This culture and education, however, must be of immense importance +indeed, since it makes all the difference between the having or the +not having, practically, any just religious notions, or sentiments, +or practices, (even in your estimation,) whatever our eternal +revelation." + +"But still I hold, with Mr. Parker, that the 'absolute religion' is the +same in all men. The difference is in circumstantials only, as +Mr. Parker says." + +"Then it serves his turn," said Harrington; "and he says the contrary, +when it serves his turn; then the depraved forms of religion are +hideous enough: when he wishes to commend his 'absolute religion,' +they differ in circumstantials. Circumstantials! I have hardly +patience to hear these degrading apologies for all that is most +degrading in humanity. If the 'absolute religion,' as he vaguely +calls it, be present in these of gross ignorance and unspeakable +pollution, it is so incrusted and buried that it is indiscernible +and worthless. Rightly, therefore, have you expressed a hope that +there is a 'prodigious difference' between you a Hottentot. You adhere +to that, I presume." + +"Of course I shall," said Fellowes. + +"Well, let us see. Would you think, if you were turned into a Hottentot +to-morrow, you had a religion worthy of the name, or not?" + +"I am afraid I should not." + +"You hope it, you mean. Well, then, it appears that culture and +education do somehow make all difference between a man's having a +religion worthy of the name, and the contrary?" + +"I must admit it, for I cannot deny it in point of fact." + +"And you also admit that, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out +of a thousand, or in a much larger proportion, taking all the nations +of the world since time began, the said culture and education have +been wanting, or ineffably bad?" + +"Yes." + +"So that there have been very few, in point of fact, who have attained +that 'spiritual' religion for which you and our spiritualists contend; +and those few chiefly, as Mr. Newman admits, amongst Jews and +Christians, though they too have had their most grievous errors, which +have deplorably obscured it?" + +"Yes" + +"It appears, then, I think, that if we allow that the internal +revelation without a most happy external culture and development +will not form any religion at all worthy of the name, and that that +happy culture and development (from whatsoever cause) are not the +condition of our race,--it appears, I say, rather odd to affirm that +any divine aid in this absolutely necessary external education of +humanity is not only superfluous, but impossible." + +Another pause ensued, when Harrington again said, "You will think +me very pertinacious, perhaps, but I must say that, in my judgment, +Mr. Newman's theory of progressive religion (for he also admits a +doctrine of progress) favors the same sceptical doubts as to the +impossibility of a book-revelation. You do not deny, I suppose, that +he does think the world needs enlightening?" + +"Had he not believed that, he would not have written.' + +"I suppose not. However, how the world should need it, if your +principles be true, and every man brings into the world his own +particular lantern,--'Enter Moonshine,'--I do not quite understand; +or, if it is in need of such illumination not withstanding, why it +should not be possible for an external revelation to supply it +still better than your illuminati, I am equally unable to understand. +But let that pass. Mr. Newman concludes that the world does stand +in need of this illumination, and that it has had it at various +times. In is his opinion, is it not, that men began by being +polytheists and idolaters?" + +"It is so; and surely all history bears out the theory." + +"Many doubt it. I will not venture to give any opinion, except that +there are inexplicable difficulties, as usual, on both sides. Just now +I am quite willing to take his statement for granted, and suppose +that man in the infancy of his race was, in spite of the aid of his +very peculiar illumination,--which seems to have 'rayed out darkness,' +--as very a Troglodyte in civilization and religion as you (for the +special glory of his Creator, I suppose, and the honor of your +species) can wish him to have been. Well, man began by being a +polytheist, and very gradually emerged out of that pleasant condition +--or rather an infinitesimal portion of the race has emerged out of +it, into the better forms of idolatry--(poor wretch!), and from +thence to monotheism; that, in short, his polytheism is not the +corruption of his monotheism, but his monotheism an elevation of his +polytheism. Yet it is, after all, a cheerless 'progress,' which often +'advances backward.' Mr. Newman says that 'the law of God's moral +universe, as known to us, is that of progress; that we trace it from +old barbarism to the methodized Egyptian idolatry, to the more flexible +polytheism of Syria and Greece,' and so forth; and so in Palestine, +from the 'image-worship in Jacob's family to the rise of spiritual +sentiment under David, and Hezekiah's prophets.' (Phases, p. 223) + +Yet he also tells us, 'Ceremonialism more and more incrusted the +restored nation, and Jesus was needed to spur and stab the consciences +of his contemporaries, and recall them to more spiritual perceptions.' +Well, thus came Christ to 'stab and spur'; and faith, I think 'stab +and spur' were again needed by the end of the third century. Successive +reformers are needed to 'stab and spur' the thick hide of humanity, +without which it will not, it seems, go forward, but perversely go +backward; and even with this perpetual application of the goad of some +spiritual mohoul, man crawls on at an intolerably slow pace. However, +'stab' and 'spur' are needed which is all I am now intent upon." + +"Yes; but each of those great souls who have stimulated the dull mind +of ordinary humanity derived from its own internal illumination that +spiritual light which they have communicated to the rest of mankind!" + +"For themselves, perhaps, my friend," said Harrington, "and if they +had kept it to themselves in many instances, probably the world would +have been no loser. That they had it from within, is true,--if your +theory is true. But to others, to the bulk of mankind, they have +imparted this light; it has been to mankind an 'external revelation'; +it is from without, not from within, that this light has been received, +and that the boasted 'progress' of the race has been secured. It +remains, therefore, only for your Christian opponent to ask, how it +should be impossible that mankind should be indebted to an external +revelation by God, when it is plain that they are indebted for the +like from man! And whether it is not conceivable that, if Moses and +Socrates and Paul could do so much for them, God could do a trifle +more? You will say, perhaps, on the old plea, that these profounder +spirits only made articulate that which already existed inarticulately +in the hearts of those whom they addressed; that they only chafed into +life the marble statue of Pygmalion,--the dormant principles and +sentiments which had a home in the human heart before, only they were +unluckily treated as strangers. Well; the same thing may the apologist +for the Bible say,--merely adding, that it does more effectually the +business of thus awakening 'dormant' powers, and giving a substantive +form to the shadowy conceptions of mankind. But it is still, in either +case, to the bulk of the world an external revelation, an outward aid +which gives them the actual conscious possession of spiritual light, and +secures the vaunted progress of humanity. Such are some of my +difficulties respecting your theory of the impossibility and inutility +of any and all external revelations. I must, in candor, say that our +discussion has left them where they were." + +"There is one thing," he added, "about your system which I acknowledge +would be consolatory to me if it were but true. If man be really in +possession of an internal and universal revelation of moral and spiritual +truth, you neither can nor need take any trouble to enlighten and +convert him. It relieves one of all superfluous anxiety on that score." + +"Pardon me," said Fellowes, "it is Mr. Newman's spiritual theory alone +which does allow the prospect of success to any such efforts. As he +truly says, when the spiritual champion has thrown off the burden of an +historical Christianity, he advances, as lightly equipped as Priestley +himself. I should say much more lightly. 'What,' says he, 'may we now +expect from the true theologian when he attacks sin, and vice, and +gross spirituality?' 'The weapon he uses,' to employ Mr. Newman's own +language, 'is as lightning from God, kindled from the spirit within +him, and piercing through the unbeliever's soul, convincing his +conscience of sin, and striking him to the ground before God; until +those who believe receive it not as the word of man but as what it +is, in truth, the word of God. Its action is directly upon the conscience +and upon the soul, and hence its wonderful results; not on the critical +faculties, upon which the spirit is powerless.'(Soul, p. 244) Again, +he says that such a preacher 'will have plenty to say, alike to the +vulgar and to the philosophers, appreciable by the soul.' Hear him +again: 'Then he may speak with confidence of what he knows and feels; +and call on his hearers of themselves to try and prove his words. +Then the conversion of men to the love of God may take place by hundreds +and thousands, as in some former instances. Then, at length, some hope +may dawn that Mohammedans and Hindoos may be joined in one fold with +us, under one Shepherd, who will only have regained his older name of +the Lord God.'" (Soul, p. 258) + +"By all the gods and goddesses of all the nations," said Harrington, +"I cannot understand it. How mankind should need such teaching, if +your theory be true; how, if they need it, it is possible that you +should give it if all external revelation of moral and spiritual +truth be impossible; how, if it is impossible, it should be +impossible for a God, by a Bible, to give the like; how you can get +at the souls of people at all except through the intervention of the +senses and the intellect,--the latter of which you say has nothing to +do with the 'soul,' and surely the former can have as little; or how, +if you can get at them by this intervention, it is impossible that +a Bible should,--is all to me a mystery. But let that pass. If your +last account be true, one thing is clear; that a splendid career +is open to you and your friends. You can immediately employ this +irresistible 'weapon' for the verification of your views and the +conversion of the human race. You can renew, or rather realize, the +triumphs of early Christianity;--I say realize, for you and Mr. +Newman believe them to be, for the most part, fabulous, and that it +was the army of Constantine that conquered the Empire for +Christianity; but you can turn such fables into truths. Surely the +least you can do is to be off as a missionary to China or India. Go +to Constantinople, my dear fellow, and take the Great Turk by the +beard. Nor can Mr. Newman do less than repair to Bagdad, upon a +second and more hopeful mission. You will know when you have demolished +Mohammedanism, and got fairly into Thibet. Alexander's career will +be nothing to it. But alas! I fear it will be only another variety +of that impossible thing,--a book-revelation!" + +"Nay," said Fellowes, "we must first finish our mission at home, and +try our weapons upon you and such as you. We must subdue such as +you first." + +"Then you will never go," said Harrington. + +"Never mind," I said, "Mr. Fellowes; Harrington is very mischievous +to-day. But, as he said he would not contest the ground of your +dictum, that a book-revelation of moral and spiritual truth is +impossible, so he has not entered into it. Will you let me, on a +future day, read to you a brief paper upon it? I have no skill--or +but little--in that erotetic method of which Harrington is so fond." He +assented, and here this long conversation ended. +____ + +July 7. Harrington and I spent a portion of this morning alone +(Fellowes was gone out for a day or two), conversing on various +subjects. I hardly know how it was, but I felt a strong reluctance +to enter with formality on that one which yet lay nearest my heart, +--whether from the fear lest I should do more harm than good; lest +controversy should, as so often happens, indurate rather than soften +the heart: or perhaps I had some secret distrust of my own temper or +his. Yet, if I felt any thing of the last, I am sure I did him +injustice; and (I hope) myself. Be it as it may, I thought it better +just to exchange a shot now and then,--sometimes it was a red-hot +shot too on both sides,--as we passed and repassed, in the current +of conversation, than come to a regular set-to, yard-arm to yard-arm. +From whatever cause, he gave me abundant opportunity of recurring to +the subject, for he was perpetually, and I believe unconsciously, +leading the conversation towards it; not, I think, from confidence in +his logical prowess, but from the restlessness in which (he did not +pretend to disguise it) his state of scepticism had plunged him. +It was curious, indeed, to see how every thing, sooner or later, +fell into one channel. For example, I happened to remark, that a +cottage in the valley which we saw from his library window would +make a pretty object in a picture,--it was the only sign of life in +the little valley. "I should like the view itself all the better +without it," said he. I observed that a painter would feel very +differently; and if there were no such object, he would be sure to +put one in. "O, certainly," he replied, "a painter would, and justly; +there is no doubt that the shadow of animated existence is very +admirable; a picture, I admit, is wonderfully more picturesque +with such a picture of life; especially as the painter can and +does remove every thing offensive to his fastidious art. He is +very apt to regard the objects in his landscapes much as a poet +does a cottage, according to Cowper's confession. 'By a cottage,' +says he to Lady Hesketh, 'you must always understand, my dear, that +a poet means a house with six sashes in front, comfortable parlors, +a smart staircase, and three rooms of convenient dimensions.' As I +have looked sometimes down a mountain glen, and seen the most +picturesque huts upon its sides, I have thought how little the +painter could dispense with them. But, then, how easily the +philosopher can: for, alas! I have taken wing from my station, and +looked in through the miserable easement, and seen, not only what +is disgusting to the senses,--which is a small matter,--but ignorance +and disease, and fear, and guilt, and racking pain, and doubt, and +death; and I have not been able to help saying, in pity, 'O for +absolute solitude!--how much nature would be improved if the human +race were annihilated!'" + +"The human race," said I, laughing, "is very much obliged to the +pity which would thus exterminate them; but as one of them, I should +decidedly object to so sweeping a mode of improving the picturesque. +Besides, I suppose you make an exception in favor, yourself, otherwise +the picturesque would vanish just when it was brought to perfection. +I am often inclined to say with Paley, though I remember well having +sometimes felt as you do, 'It is a happy world after all.' I admit, +however, that a buoyant, cheerful, habitual conviction of this will +depend on the constitution of the mind, and even vary with the same +in its different moods. But I am sure it may be a really happy world, +whatever its sorrows, to any one who will view it as he ought." + +"I wish you could teach me the art." + +"It is," said I, "to exercise the faith and the hope of a Christian, +humbly to regard this life as what it is,--a scene of discipline and +schooling, a pilgrimage to a better. It is an old remedy, but it has +been often tried; and to millions of our race has made this world +more than tolerable, and death tranquil, nay, triumphant. Do you +remember Schiller's 'Walk among the Linden-Trees'?" + +"Perfectly well." + +"Do you not remember how the two youths differ in their estimate of +the beautiful in nature? 'Is it possible,' says Edwin, 'you can thus +turn from the cup of joy, sparkling and overflowing as it is?'--'Yes,' +said Wollmar, 'when one finds a spider in it; and why not? In your +eyes, to be sure, Nature decks herself out like a rosy-checked maiden +on her bridal day. To me she appears an old, withered beldame, with +sunken eyes, furrowed cheeks, and artificial ornaments in her +hair. How she seems to admire herself in this her Sunday finery! But +it is the same worn and ancient garment, put off and on some hundreds +of thousands of times.' But how natural is the explanation of all +given at the beautiful close of the dialogue! 'Here,' said the jocund +Edwin, 'I first met my Juliet.'--'And it was under these linden-trees,' +says Wollmar, 'that I lost my Laura' It was their mood of mind, and +not the outward world, that made all the difference. All nature, +innocent thing! must consent to take her hue from it. You have, I +fear, lost your Laura,"--simply alluding to his early faith; "or +shall I suppose, from your present mood, that you have just met with +your Juliet?" I spoke, of course, of his philosophy. + +He was looking out of the window; but on my turning my gaze towards him, +I saw such a look of peculiar anguish, that I felt I had inadvertently +touched a terrible chord indeed. I turned the conversation hastily, +by remarking (almost without thinking of what I said) on the +beautiful contrast between the light blue of the sky and the green +of the lawn and trees; and proceeded to remark on the degree in +which the mere organic or sensational pleasures of vision formed an +ingredient in the pleasurable associations of the complex "beautiful." + +He gradually resumed conversation; and we discussed the subject of +the "beautiful" for some time. Yet I know not how it was, nor can +I trace the steps by which we deviated,--only that Rousseau's summer +-day dreams on the Lake of Bienne was a link in the chain,--we +somehow soon found ourselves on the brink of the great controversy +respecting the "origin of Evil." "I have read many books on that +subject," said I; "but I intend to read no more; and I should think +you have had enough of them." + +"Why, yes," said he, laughing; "whatever philosophers may have thought +of the origin of evil, it is a great aggravation of it to read their +speculations. The best thing I know on the subject--and it exhausts +it--is half a dozen lines in 'Robinson Crusoe.'" + +"Robinson Crusoe!" said I. + +"Certainly," he replied; "do you not remember that when he caught +his man Friday, the 'intuitional consciousness'--the 'insight'--the +'inward revelation' of that worthy savage not being found quite so +perfect as Mr. Parker would fancy, Robinson proceeds to indoctrinate +him in the mysteries of theology? Friday is much puzzled, as many +more learned savages have been before him, to find that the infinite +power, wisdom, and goodness of God had made every thing good, and +that good it would have continued had not been for the opposition +of the Devil. 'Why God not kill Debbil?' asks poor Friday. On which +says Robinson, 'Though I was a very old man, I found that I was but +a young doctor in divinity.' Ah! if all doctors in divinity had +been equally candid, the treatises on that dread subject would not +have been quite so voluminous; for we close them all alike with the +unavailing question, 'Why God not kill Debbil?'" + +Observing this tendency to gravitate towards the abyss, I at last +said to him, 'I think, if I were you, having decided that there is +no religious truth to be found, I should dismiss the subject from +my thoughts altogether. Do as the Indian did, who struggled as +long as he could to right his canoe when he found he was in the +stream of Niagara; but, finding his efforts unavailing, sat himself +down with his arms folded, and went down the falls without stirring +a muscle. Let us talk no more on the subject. Why should you perplex +yourself, as you apparently do, about a thing so hopeless to be +found out as truth? 'What is truth?' said Pilate; and, as Bacon says, +'he would not wait for an answer.' It was a question to which, most +probably, he, like you, thought no answer could be given. If I were +you, I should do the same. Why perplex yourself to no purpose?" + +"I should answer," said he, "as Solon did when asked why he grieved +for his son, seeing all grief was unavailing.' It is for that very +reason that I grieve,' was the reply. And in like manner I dwell on +the impossibility of discovering truth because it is impossible." + +I acknowledged that it was a sufficient reason, and that it went to +account in some degree for a fact I had remarked in the few sceptics +I had come across,--genuine or otherwise,--that they seemed less +capable of reposing in their professed convictions than any one +else: it is of no avail, they say, to reason on such subjects; and +yet they are perpetually reasoning! They will neither rest themselves +nor let any one else rest. He confessed it, and said, "The state of +mind is very much as you have described it; and you have described +it so exactly, that I almost think you, my dear uncle, must know the +heart of a sceptic, and have been one yourself some time or other!" + +We wound up the morning, which was beautiful, by taking a ride, in the +course of which I was amused with an instance of the sensitiveness with +which Harrington's cultivated mind recoiled from the grossness of vulgar +and ignorant infidelity. We called at the cottage of a little farmer, a +tenant of his, somewhat notorious both for profanity and sensuality. +Presuming, I suppose, on his young landlord's suspected heterodoxy, and +thinking, perhaps, to curry favor with him, he ventured (I know not what +led to it) to indulge in some stupid joke about the legion and the herd +of swine. "Sir," said he, scratching his head, "the Devil, I reckon, +must have been a more clever fellow than I thought, to make two thousand +hogs go down a steep place into the sea; it is hard enough even to make +them go where they will, and almost impossible make them go where they +won't." + +"The Devil, my good friend," said Harrington, very gravely, "is a very +clever fellow; and I hope you do not for a moment intend to compare +yourself with him. As to the supposed miracle, it would, no doubt, +be hard to say which were most to be pitied, the devils in the swine, +or the swine with the devils in them; but has it never struck you that +the whole may be an allegorical representation of the miserable and +destructive effects of the union of the two vices of sensuality and +profanity? They also (if all tales be true) lead to a steep place, but +I have never heard that it ends in the water. Now," he continued, "I +dare say you would laugh at that story which the Roman Catholics +tell of St. Antony; namely, that he preached to the pigs'! +--yet it has had a very sound allegorical interpretation; we are +told that it meant merely that he preached to country farmers; which, +you see, is more than I have been doing." + +It was one of the many things which made me a sceptic as to whether +he was one. "Harrington," said I, "at times I find it impossible to +believe that you doubt the truth of Christianity." + +"Suppose I were to answer, that at times I doubt whether I doubt it +or not, would not that be a thorough sceptic's answer?" I admitted +that it would be indeed. + +____ + +July 8. I was already in the library, writing, when Harrington came +in to breakfast. "You seem busy early," said he. I told him I was +merely endeavoring to manifest my love for his future children. + +"You know," said I, "what Isocrates says, that it is right that +children, as they inherit the other possessions, should also inherit +the friendships of their fathers." + +"My children!" said he, very gravely; "I shall never have any." + +"O, yes, you will, and then these sullen vapors of doubt will roll +off before the sunlight of domestic happiness. It will allure you to +love Him who has given you so much to love. Yes," said I, gayly, +"I shall visit you one day in happier moods; when you will wonder +how you could have indulged all your present thoughts of God and +the universe. As you gaze into the face of innocent childhood, which +shows you what faith in God is by trust in you, you will say, +'Heaven shield the boy from being what his father has been?'--you +will feel that such thoughts as yours will not do, as the world +says; and we shall all go together, you with your wife on your arm, +to church there in the in the bright sun and deep quiet of a Sabbath +morning, and amidst the music of the Sabbath bells; and as the +tranquil scene steals into your very soul, you will say, 'No, +scepticism was not made for man.'" + + "It is a pleasant romance," he replied, gloomily, "and nothing more. +I shall never love, and shall therefore never wed; though, I suppose, +that does not logically follow. However, it does with me; and, +consequently, I presume the children are also only in posse. However, +what is this instance of your kindness to my possible children?" +he added, more cheerfully. + +"I was endeavoring," said I, "on the bare possibility of your retaining +as a father all the feelings you seem to entertain at present, to +compile for your children (as they must be taught something, and you +would wish them, as you say, to know the truth) a short catechism. I +think the questions in Watts's First Catechism might do for the poor +little souls. The answers (as usual) might not be wholly intelligible +till they got older, but still might awaken some notion which in time +might ripen into confirmed scepticism." + +"Well," said he, laughing, "let me hear what sort of 'religious' +instruction you have provided." + +"I had only finished one question," I replied, "when you came in: +but I almost think it may be considered a 'Summa Theologiae' of itself. +It is this:-- + +"'Can you tell me, child, who made you?' + +"'I cannot, certainly, tell who made me; neither can my father; but +from the continual misery, confusion, and doubt which I feel in myself +and see around me'--here the little pupil is to be cautioned not to +laugh; the mirth in the eye, perhaps, cannot be extinguished,--I am +led to doubt whether I was made by one who cares for me or takes any +interest in me.'(Good child.)" + +"As I looked up, after reading this first truth of sceptical theology, +I observed in Harrington's face something of the same look of sorrow +which I had noted the day before. Suddenly be said, as if to prevent +any chance recurrence to painful topics:-- + +"I very gradually became a doubter. I was perhaps becoming so when, two +years ago, I became an idolater, and my idol crumbled to pieces at my +feet. That transient vision of the beautiful half reclaimed me from my +doubts; the darkness of the succeeding night taught me juster views +of the miseries of man and the incomprehensible riddle of his existence; +and I half blushed at my glimpse of selfish happiness." + +So saying, he suddenly left the room. Some part of the mystery I felt +was unravelled. Alas! the logic of the head,--how fatally fortified by +the logic of the heart! And so, thought I to myself, even Harrington +too is in part the dupe of that cunning spirit of delusion which in +various forms is resolved to cast God and a Redeemer and Immortality +out of the universe, in compliment to man's wonderful elevation, +purity, unselfishness, and philanthropy! One man tells me, with +Shaftesbury, that he does not want any "immortal hopes," or any such +"bribes" of "prudence" to make him virtuous or religious,--delicate, +noble-minded creature!--that he can serve and love God equally well, +though he were sure of being annihilated to-morrow morning! Another +declares that he would not accept heaven itself if purchased by a +single pang, voluntary or involuntary, endured by any other being in +God's universe? Another swears that such is his sympathetic benevolence, +that he "would not accept that same heaven if he thought any other +being was to be shut out of it"; I wonder whether he condescends to +accept any blessing now, while a single fallow-creature remains +destitute of it? A fourth (a lady too) declares "there is no theory +God, of an author of nature, of an origin of the universe which is +not utterly repugnant to her faculties, which is not (to her feelings) +so irreverent as to make her blush, so misleading as to make her +mourn"; and now Harrington, instead of being thankful for his glimpse +of happiness, and yielding to the better instincts and convictions +it partly awakened, and learning patience, submission, and faith +under his shattered hopes, is taken captive on the same weak side; +and (all unconscious that he shares in the prophet's feeling, "I +do well to be angry") fancies that his present gloom is more truly +in unison with the condition of the universe, and that he is bound +to be most philanthropically misanthropical. O, well does the Book +say of this heart of ours, "DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS"! Such are +our mingled follies and wickedness, so ludicrous, so sorrowful, are +the features presented in this great tragi-comedy,--THE LIFE OF MAN, +--that it is impossible to play consistently either Democritus +or Heraclitus. +____ + +July 9. Mr. Fellowes returned this morning. We had a very pleasant +day,--theology being excluded. In the evening my companions were +again pleased to disturb my occupations; but it was only a short +skirmish. Fellowes was endeavoring to enlighten his friend +respecting the mysteries of "belief" and "faith," as expounded by +some of his favorite writers: he contended, (making that sheer +separation between "the intellectual" and "spiritual," which so +many of the spiritual school affect.) not only that there may be +correct belief without true faith, which, in an intelligible sense, +few will deny; but that there may be a true faith with a false belief', +or even with none, in the strict sense of the word. Referring to a +recent acute writer in one of our religious periodicals, he argued +that belief is properly an intellectual process, founded on a presumed +preponderance of reasons or supposed reasons, for it; and that whether +those reasons amount to demonstration, or whether the scale be +turned by a grain, matters not; the product is purely logical, and +has no more to do with "faith" than a "belief" in any proposition +of Euclid. + +"But, at all events," he proceeded, "whether you choose to call some +of these acts of reason by the name of belief or not, faith is +something quite independent of it. As Mr. Newman says, in his 'Phases,' +'Belief is one thing and faith another': 'belief is purely intellectual; +faith is properly spiritual.' 'Nowhere from any body of priests, +clergy, or ministers, as an order, is religious progress to be +anticipated till intellectual creeds are destroyed.' See, too, how +tenderly he speaks even of atheism. 'I do not know,' he says, 'how to +avoid calling this a moral error; but I must carefully guard against +seeming to overlook that it may still be a merely speculative error, +which ought not to separate our hearts from any man.' Similarly he +charitably restricts 'idolatry' in any 'bad sense' to a voluntary +worshipping of what the worshipper feels not to deserve his adoration; +and as I, for one, doubt whether this is ever the case, this delightful +charity is comprehensive indeed. Mr. Parker's discourse is full of +the same beautiful and tolerant maxims. 'Each religious doctrine,' he +says, 'has some time stood for a truth ...... Each of these forms of +religion (polytheism and fetichism, to wit) did the world service +in its day.' No one form of religion is absolutely true; faith may +be compatible with them all." + +"Let me understand you, if possible," said Harrington; "for at present +I fear I do not. That there may be belief without faith in a very +Intelligible sense, I can understand. You say there can be faith without +belief, and a true faith that is connected with any belief, however +erroneous, do you not?" + +"Provided it contains the absolute religion." + +"Well, and even the lowest fetichism does that, according to Mr. Parker, +whom you defend. Now this Protean faith is what I do not understand." + +"That," said Fellowes, "I can easily conceive; and, let me add, no +sceptic can understand it." +"I see no reason why he should not," said Harrington, laughing, "if, +as you and Mr. Newman suppose, the 'spiritual' can be so perfectly +divorced from the 'intellectual.' According to your reasoning, the +and the idolater cannot be incapable of exercising this mysterious +'faith,'--when their errors are supposed purely speculative,--since +faith has nothing to do with the intellect; neither therefore ought +the sceptic to be quite beyond the pale of your charity. Nay, his +intellect being a rasa tabula in these matters, I should think he is +in more favorable circumstances than they can be. But, seriously, let +me try, if possible, to fathom this curious dogma,--I beg your +pardon,--sentiment, I mean. Belief without faith in an intelligible +sense (if by this last we mean a condition of the emotions or +affections), I can understand; though if the truth believed be of a +nature to excite to emotion and to dictate action, and fail to do so, +I doubt whether men in general would not call that belief spurious. For +example, if a man, on being told that his house was on fire, sat still +in his neighbor's chimney-corner, and took no notice of the matter, +most persons would say that his assent was no true belief; for it did +not produce its effects, did not produce faith. But whether faith can +ever exist independently of belief,--whether it is not always involved +with it,--and whether there can be a faith worth a farthing that is +not based on a true belief,--that is the point on which I want light. +If I understand you, an acceptable faith may or may not coexist +with a true belief; and men who believe in Jupiter or Jehovah, in one +God or a thousand, who worship the sun, or an idol, or a cat, or a +monkey, all may have an equally acceptable faith." + +"I affirm it." + +"That as there may be belief in a truth without faith, so there may +be faith, though the intellect believes in a falsehood;--that faith, +in fact, is independent of knowledge, or of any particular condition +of the intellect?" + +"I do not like the terms in which you express the sentiment, but I, +for one, believe it substantially correct." + +"Never mind the form; I am quite willing to employ other terms, if you +will supply them" + +"Well, then," said Fellowes, "I should say, with Mr. Parker, that +the principle of true faith may be found to coexist with the grossest +and most hideous misconceptions of God, while the absence of it may +coexist with the truest and most elevated belief." + +"That, I think, comes to much the same as I said. Now about the latter +we have no dispute. It is the former that I want light upon: the +latter only shows that a belief, which ought to be practical, and if +not practical is nothing, is but a species of hypocrisy; and, of +course, I have nothing to say for it. My uncle here, who is still one +of the orthodox, who believes that an 'acceptable faith' and a +belief in the divinity of a monkey or a cat are somehow quite +incompatible, would be among the first to acknowledge the latter +position. He would say, 'No doubt there has often been such a +thing as "dead orthodoxy,"--a creed of the "letter,"--a religion +exclusively dependent on logic, and nothing to do with the feeling's; +--belief that is not sublimated into faith;--a system of arteries and +veins infiltrated with some colored substance, like the specimens +in an anatomical museum, but in which none of the lifeblood of +religion circulates. But surely,' he would say, 'it does not follow, +that, because there has been belief without faith, there is or can +be any independent of some belief, or an acceptable faith without +a true belief.'" + +"I affirm," said Fellowes, "that 'faith' has nothing to do with +the intellect, but is a state of the affections exclusively. I affirm, +with a recent acute writer, that there is, properly speaking, no +belief at all that is distinguishable from reason. For what is meant +by belief of a proposition, but the receiving that proposition +true upon evidence, from a supposed preponderance of reasons in +its favor? Now, whether that preponderance be a ton weight or a single +grain, down goes the balance, and reason as strictly decides that it +is to be received as if it were a mathematical demonstration. If the +arguments, whether abstract or otherwise, absolutely demonstrative or +only probable, are supposed to be exactly balanced, there is no reason +for deciding in favor of one side more than the other; and there is, +therefore, no belief, for the very reason that reason cannot +be exercised." + +"Very well indeed," said Harrington, "so far as it goes; but I +forthwith see, that, so far from deriving any benefit from this +ingenious reasoning, there is no such thing as either faith or belief: +belief and faith have both vanished at the same time; the first is +resolved into reason, and the second becomes impossible." + +"Belief may," said Fellowes, "but faith never. Its divine beauty is +all the brighter, when happily divorced from logic and syllogisms, +its misalliance with which can only be compared to that cruel punishment +by which the living was chained to the dead. Say what you will, it +still reigns and triumphs in the soul in spite of all." + +"I am perfectly convinced," said Harrington, "that the modern +spiritualist will not bring his 'faith' into any ignominious slavery +to intellect or syllogism. But clear up my doubts if you can. I know +that the writers you are fond of quoting very generally give an +illustration of the nature of faith by pointing to the ingenuous +trust of a child in the wisdom and kindness of a parent." + +"They do; and is it not a beautiful illustration? That is genuine +faith indeed!" + +"I am willing to take the illustration. The child has faith, we see, +in his father's superior wisdom and experienced kindness." + +"Yes." + +"He believes them, therefore." + +"Certainly." + +"But belief is reason." + +"Certainly; but faith is more than that." + +"No doubt; but he does believe these things." + +"Yes, certainly." + +"And if he did not believe them, he would cease to have faith. If, +for instance, he be convinced that his father is mad, or cruel, or +unjust, the state of affections which you call faith will diminish, +and at last cease." + +"Perhaps so," said Fellowes. + +"Perhaps so, my friend! I really cannot receive your answer, because +I am convinced that it does not express your sentiments." + +"Well, I believe that the state of affection which call 'faith' would +be impossible under such circumstances." + +"But belief is reason." + +"Yes." + +"Must we not say, then, that the child's faith depends on the condition +of his belief, that is, on his reason, so that the 'faith' is possible +when he believes and so long as he believes, that his father is wise +and kind, but is impossible when he believes, and as soon as he believes, +the contrary?" + +"Yes, I admit that." + +"It appears, then, that faith in this,--perhaps the best illustration +that could be selected,--so far from being a state of the affections +exclusive of the intellect, is not exclusive of it, but absolutely +dependent on it, inasmuch as it is absolutely dependent on belief, and +that is dependent on reason. It exists in connection with it, and is +never independent of it. If the contrary be affirmed, I doubt whether +there can be any such thing as 'faith' in the world. Belief becomes +reason, and faith, having nothing, you say, to do with the intellect, +becomes impossible. But now let it be supposed (as, indeed, I cannot +but suppose) that some belief, that is, reason, enlightened or not +(generally the last), is involved in every act of faith; you yet affirm +most distinctly that it is a state of the affections quite unconnected +with the truth or falsehood of any intellectual propositions." + +"I do." + +"It ought to follow, then, that it matters not what is the object of +belief, provided there is 'faith'; and this, if you observe: is very +much what the language of Mr. Newman would imply, while it is the very +essence of Mr. Parker's teaching." + +"You mean Father Newman, perhaps?" + +"Why no, I did not; but, to tell you the truth. I now mean either; +there not appearing to me much difference between them in this respect. +Whether you worship an image of a 'winking virgin,' or, according to +the other Dromio, the 'ideal' of an idolater,--whether (provided +always it be with sincerity and trust!) you adore the Jehovah of +the Hebrews, or 'the image which fell down from Jupiter,' ought to +make, upon this theory, no great difference." + +"Well, in whatever difficulty the controversy may involve us, can we +deny this conclusion?" + +"Truly," replied Harrington, "I think it does not involve me in any +difficulty; it shows me that, if this be the 'faith' to which you +attach so much importance, it really is not worth the powder and shot +that must be expended in the controversy. For my own part, I do +not hesitate to say that I would rather be absolutely destitute of +'faith' altogether, than exercise the most absolute faith ever bestowed +upon a tawdry image of the Virgin, or some misshapen beast of an idol +of Hindoo or Hottentot workmanship." + +"Ah! my friend," cried Fellowes, "do not thus blaspheme the most holy +feelings of humanity, however misapplied!" + +"I do not conceive that I do, in declaring abhorrence and contempt of +such perversions of 'sentiment,' however 'holy' you may call them. +Hideous as they are, however, they are less hideous than the +half-length apologies for them on the part of cultivated and civilized +human beings, like our 'spiritual' infidels. Your tenderness is +ludicrously misplaced. I wonder whether the same apology would extend +to those exercises of simple-minded 'faith' in which it is said that +the Spanish and Portuguese pirates sometimes indulged, when they +implored the benediction of their saints on their predatory +expeditions! And yet I see not how it could be avoided; for the +exorbitancies of these pirates were not more hateful to humanity than +are the rites practices, and the duties enjoined, by many forms of +religion. What delightful, ingenuous 'faith' and genuine 'simplicity' +of mind did these pirates manifest!" + +"How can you talk so, when we make it a mark of a false revelation, +that it contradicts any intuition of our moral nature?" + +"Then cease to talk of your 'absolute religion,' as capable in any +way of consecrating the hateful forms of false and cruel superstition for +which you and Mr. Parker condescend to be the apologists. The +fanaticism of such pious and devout beasts as those saint-loving +pirates is not a more flagrant violation of the principle of morality, +than the acts which flow directly as the immediate and natural +expression of the infinitely varied but all-polluting forms of +idolatry with which you are pleased to identify your 'absolute +religion,' and in all of which you suppose an acceptable 'faith' to +be very possible. You see how Mr. Parker extends the apology to +the foulest sets of his Tartar and Calmuck scoundrels; acts +called murders in the codes of Christendom and civilization, but +varnished over by the beautiful 'faith' which somehow still lurks +under the most frightful practices of a simple-minded barbarian. If +this faith will shelter the abominations of a gross idolatry, I see +not what else it may not sanctify.--But, in fact, neither in the +case of idolaters, nor any other religionists, is it true that +'faith' is independent of 'belief'; in the case of your Calmuck, for +example, the 'belief' is vile, and therefore the 'faith' vile too; +faith practical enough, certainly, but one that as certainly does not +'work by love'; and which, I think, would be well exchanged for a +dead orthodoxy, or any thing else." + +It is not difficult to see the source of the fallacy into which +Mr. Fellowes had fallen. It lies in the attempt to make a +distinction in fact, as well as in theory, between the +"intellectual" and "emotional" parts of our nature. It is very well +for the spiritual and mental analyst to consider separately the +several principles which constitute humanity, and which act, and +react, and interact, in endless involution. That there may be acts +of belief that terminate chiefly in the intellect, and may be wholly +worthless, who denies? The drunkard, for example, may admit that +sobriety is a duty; but yet, if he gets drunk every night of his +life, we shall, of course, think little of that act of belief,--of +his daily repetition of moral orthodoxy. In the same manner, a man +may admit that it is his duty to exercise implicit love, gratitude, +and obedience towards the great object of worship; but if his +habitual conduct shows that he has no thought of acting in accordance +with this maxim, he must be regarded, in spite of the orthodoxy of +his speculative creed, as no better than a heathen; or worse. + +But though it is very possible that a true belief may not involve +true faith, does the converse follow,--that therefore true faith is +essentially different from it, and independent of it? All history +shows, that when religion is practical at all,--that is, issues in +faith,--such faith is as the truth or falsehood believed; the emotional +and active conditions of the soul are colored, as usual, by knowledge +and intellect. These, again, are not independent of the will and the +affections, as we all familiarly know. And hence the fallacy of +supposing that no man is to be thought better or worse for his +"intellectual creed." His "creed" may be his "crime"; and surely none +ought to see this more clearly than the writers who deny it; for +why their eternal invectives against "dogmas,"--and especially the +tolerably universal dogmas that men are responsible for the formation +of their opinions,--except upon the supposition that men are +responsible for framing and maintaining them? If they are not, men +should be left alone; if they are, they are to be thought of as +"worse and better" for their "intellectual creed." + +Before the conclusion of the conversation, Mr. Fellowes asked me for +my opinion. + +"If," said I, "faith be defined independent of an act of intellect, +then I think, with our sceptical friend here, there can be no such +thing at all. For I neither know nor can conceive of any such +unreasonable exercise of the emotions or affections. If it be meant, +on the other hand, that, though some act of the intellect be indeed +uniformly involved, yet that it matters not what it is, and that +faith does not take its complexion, as of moral value, from it, then +I also think, with Harrington, that it is impossible to deny that +such a doctrine will sanctify any sort of worship, and any sort of +deity, provided men be sincere; are you prepared to contend for much?" + +Mr. Fellowes put an adroit objection here. "Why," said he, "you will +not deny, surely, that even Scripture often commends, as good, a faith +which is founded on a very imperfect conception of the spiritual +realities to which it is directed?" + +"It is ingeniously put, I admit. I grant that there are here, as in +so many other cases, limits which, though it may not be very easy +to assign them, as plainly exist. But that does not answer my +question. I want to know whether the principle is to be applied +without limits at all, as your speculative theory demands? In other +words, will it or not sanctify acts of the most degrading and +pernicious idolatry, of the most debasing superstition, because +allied to that state of the affections in which you make the essence +of faith consist? If it will not, then your objection to me is +nothing; it merely asks me to assign limits within which the exercise +of the affection in question may be acceptable, or almost equally +acceptable, in cases of a partially enlightened understanding. If it +will, then it leaves you open, as I conceive, and fairly open, to all +the objections which have been so brusquely urged against you by your +friend, in whose indignant protest against the detestable apologies for +the lowest forms of religious degradation, in which so many 'spiritual' +writers indulge, I for one heartily sympathize." + +I ventured to add, that the account of "faith" as a state of the +emotions exclusively, given by some of his favorite writers, is +perfectly arbitrary. "Belief," say they, "is wholly intellectual: faith +is wholly moral." Now it would be of very little consequence, if the +terms be generally so understood, whether they be so used or not; men +would, in that case, suppose that faith, thus restricted, implies a +previous process of mind which is to be called exclusively belief. I +added, however, that I did not believe that the word faith was ever +thus understood in popular use; but that, on the contrary, it was +employed to imply belief founded on knowledge, or supposed knowledge, +and, where the belief was, in its very nature, practical, or involved +emotion, a conduct and a state of the affections corresponding thereto. +"But this," said I, "merely respects the Popular use of the words, and +if is hardly worth while to prolong discussion on it. As to the +reasoning which would show that belief does not properly exist at +all, because it may be all resolved into reason, founded on the +preponderance of evidence, where it does not matter whether that +preponderance be a ton or a scruple,--surely it is over-refined. Men +will always feel that there is a marked difference between the states +of mind in which they assent to a proposition of which they have no +more doubt than they have of their own existence, or to a proposition +in the mathematics, and to one in which they feel that only a few +grains turn the scale. To this conscious difference in the condition +of mind, they have given (and I suppose will not give) very different +names; and though they will continue to say that they believe that two +and two make four, but that they know it, they will say that they +believe that they will die before the end of the century, though they +will not say that they know that. The distinction between the certain +and the probable is felt to be far too important not to be marked by +corresponding varieties of speech; and speech has made them according." + +____ + +July 10. This morning Harrington fulfilled his promise of acquainting +me with a few of the reasons which prevented his taking refuge in the +"half-way houses" between the Bible and Religious Scepticism. Mr. Fellowes +was an attentive listener. Harrington had entitled his paper,-- + +REASONS FOR DECLINING THE VIA MEDIA BETWEEN REVEALED RELIGION AND +ATHEISM--OR SCEPTICISM WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE THEORIES OF +MR. THEODORE PARKER AND MR. FRANCIS NEWMAN. + +I shall be brief; not being solicitous to suggest doubts to others, +but merely to justify my own. + +Both Mr. Parker and Mr. Newman make themselves very merry with a +"book-revelation," as they call it; and if they had given any thing +better,--more rational or more certain than the Bible,--how gladly +could I have joined in the ridicule! As it is, I doubt the solidity +of the theories they support, and hardly doubt that, if the principles +on which they reject the Bible be sound, they ought to go much farther. +Both affirm the absurdity of a special external revelation to man; +both, that the fountain of spiritual illumination is exclusively +from within, and not from without. A few brief citations will set +this point in a clear light. "Religion itself." says Mr. Parker, +"must be the same thing in each man; not a similar thing, but just +the same; differing only in degree."* "The Idea of God, as a fact +given in man's nature, is permanent and alike in all; while the +sentiment of God, though vague and mysterious, is always the same in +itself." (ibid. p. 21)--"Of course, then, there is no difference but +of words between revealed Religion and natural Religion; for all actual +Religion is revealed in us, or it could not be felt." (ibid. p. 33). The +Absolute Religion, which he affirms to be universally known, he defines +as "Voluntary Obedience to the Law of God,--inward and outward Obedience +to that law he has written on our nature, revealed in various ways +through Instinct, Reason, Conscience, and the Religious Sentiment." +(ibid. p. 34). Similarly, Mr. Newman says, "What God reveals to us he +reveals within, through the medium of our moral and spiritual senses." +(Soul, p. 59) "Christianity itself has practically confessed, what is +theoretically clear,"--you must take his word for both,--"that an +authoritative external revelation of moral and spiritual truth is +essentially impossible to man." (Soul, p. 59) "No book-revelation can +(without sapping its own pedestal) authoritatively dictate laws of human +virtue, or alter our a priori view of the Divine character." (Ibid. p. +58) + +---- +* Discourses of Matters pertaining to Religion, p. 36. +---- + +"Happy race of men," one is ready to exclaim, with this Idea of God, +one and the same in all; this "Absolute Religion," which is also +"universal"; this internal revelation, which supersedes, by +anticipating, all possible disclosures of an external revelation, +and renders it an "impertinence." Men in all ages and nations must +exhibit a delightful unanimity in their religious notions, sentiments, +and practices! + +"They would do so," cries Mr. Parker; but unhappily, though the "idea" +of God is "one and the same, and perfect" in all "when the proper +conditions" are complied with, yet practically, if, in the majority of +these proper "conditions are not observed"; (Discourses, p. 19) "the +conception, which men universally form of God is always imperfect, +sometimes self-contradictory and impossible"; "the primitive +simplicity and beauty" of the "idea" are lost. And thus it is, he +tells us, that, owing to this awkward "conceptions" the vast majority +of the human race have been, and are, and for ages will be, sunk in +the grossest Fetichism,--Polytheism,--and every form of absurd and +misshapen Monotheism;--the horrors of all which he proceeds faithfully, +but not too faithfully, to describe, and sometimes, when he is in the +mood, to soften and extenuate; in order that he may find that the +"grim Calmuck," and even the savage, "whose hands are smeared over +with the blood of human sacrifices," are yet in possession of the +"absolute Idea" and the "absolute religion." + +And what must we infer from Mr. Newman? The unanimity anticipated +would, doubtless, be obtained, only that, unfortunately, there are +various principles of man's nature which traverse the legitimate action +and impede the due development of the "spiritual faculty"; and so +man is apt to wander into a variety of those "degraded types" of +religious development, which the dark panorama of this world's +religions has ever presented to us, and presents still. "Awe," +"wonder," "admiration," "sense of order," "sense of design," may +all mislead the unhappy "spiritual faculty" into quagmires; and, in +point of fact, have wheedled and corrupted it ten thousand times +more frequently than it has hallowed them. This all history, past and +present, shows. + +It is certainly unfortunate, and as mysterious, that those unlucky +"conceptions" of God should have the best of it,--or rather, that the +"idea" of God should have the worst of it; nor less so that Awe, +Reverence, and so forth, should thus put the "spiritual faculty" so +hopelessly hors de combat. + +Nevertheless, two questions naturally suggest themselves. Since the +destructive "conceptions" have almost everywhere impaired the "Idea," +and the "degraded types" seduced the "spiritual faculty,"--1st. What +proof have we that man has an original and universal fountain of +spiritual illumination in himself? and 2dly. If he have, but under +such circumstances, is its utility so unquestionable that no space is +left for the offices of an external revelation? + +First. What is the evidence of the uniform existence in man of any +such definite faculty? + +When we say that any principle or faculty is common to the whole +species, do we not make the proof of this depend upon the uniformity +of the phenomena which exhibit it? When we say, for example, that +hunger and thirst are universal appetites, is it not because we find +them universal? or if we say that the senses of sight and hearing are +characteristic of the race, do we not contend that these are so, +because we find them uniform in such an immense variety of instances, +that the exceptions are not worth reckoning? If men sometimes saw +black where others saw white, some objects rectilinear which others +saw curved, objects small which others saw large,--nay, the very same +men at different times seeing the same objects differently colored, +and of varying forms and attitudes, and every second man almost +stone-blind into the bargain,--I rather think that, instead of saying +men were endowed with one and the same power of vision, we should say +that our nature exhibited only an imperfect and rudimentary tendency +towards so desirable a faculty; but that a clear, uniform, faculty of +vision there certainly was not. As I gaze upon the spectacle of the +infinite diversities of religion, which variegate, but, alas! do not +beautify the what is there to remind me of every uniformity of which +I do see the indelible traces in every faculty really characteristic +of our nature; as, for example, our senses and our appetites? Powerfully +does Hume urge this argument in his--"Natural History of Religions." +(Introduction) + +I have my doubts--admire the modesty of a sceptic--whether the entire +phenomena of religion do not favor the conclusion, that man, in this +respect, only the traces of an imperfect, truncated creature; that, +he is in the predicament of the half-created lion so graphically +described by Milton:-- + +"Now half appeared +The tawny lion, pawings to get free +His hinder parts"; + +only, unfortunately, man's "hinder parts"--his lower nature--have +come up first, and appear, unhappily, prominent; while his nobler +"moral and spiritual faculties" still seem stuck in the dust! + +There is, indeed, another hypothesis, which squares, perhaps, equally +well with the phenomena,--I mean that of the Bible:--that man is not +in his original state; that the religions constitution of his nature, +in some way or other, has received a shock. But either this, or the +supposition that man has been insufficiently equipped for the uniform +elimination of religious truth, is, I think, alone in harmony with +the facts; and to those facts, patent on the page of the whole world's +history, I appeal for proof that man has not on these highest subjects, +the certitude of any internal revelation, marked by the remotest +analogy to those other undoubted principles and faculties which exhibit +themselves with undeniable uniformity. + +It will perhaps be said, that the spiritual phenomena are not so +uniform as those of sense,--as Mr. Parker and Mr. Newman both +abundantly admit,--but that there is an approximate uniformity. And +you must seek it, says Mr. Parker, in the "Absolute Religion" +which animates every form of religion, and is equally found in all. +I know the chatters about this incessantly; but when I attempt thus +to "hunt the one in the many," as Plato would call it.--to seek the +elusive unity in the infinite multiform,--to discover what it is +which equally embalms all forms, from the Christianity of Paul to the +religion of the "grim Calmuck," I acknowledge myself as much at +loss as Martinus in endeavoring to catch the abstraction of a +Lord Mayor; Mr. Parker, on the other hand, is like Crambe, "Who, +to show his acuteness, swore that he could form an abstraction +of a Lord Mayor, not only without his horse, gown, and gold chain, +but even without stature, feature, color, hands, head, feet, or any +body, which he supposed was the abstract of a Lord Mayor." Or if +it be vain to attempt to abstract this Absolute Religion from all +religions, as Mr. Parker indeed admits,--though it is truly in +them,--and I take his definition from his "direct consciousness," +--which direct consciousness we can see has been directly affected +by his abjured Bible,--namely, "that it is voluntary obedience to +will of God, outward and inward,"--why, what on earth does this +vague generality do for us? What of God? Is he or it one or many? +of infinite attributes or finite? of goodness and mercy equal to +his power, or not? What is his will? How is he to be worshipped? +Have we offended him? Is he placable or not? Is he to be approached +only through a mediator of some kind, as nearly all mankind have +believe but which Mr. Parker denies,--a queer proof, by the way, +of the clearness of the internal oracle, if he be right,--or is he +to be approached, as Mr. Parker believes, and Mr. Newman with him, +without any mediator at all? Is it true that man is immortal, and +knows it by immediate "insight," as Mr. Parker contends, or does +the said "insight," as Mr. Newman believes, tell us nothing about +the matter? Surely the "Absolute Religion," after having removed +from it all in which different religions differ, is in danger of +vanishing that imperfect susceptibility of some religion, which I +have already conceded, and which is certainly not such a thing as +to render an external revelation very obviously superfluous. It +may be summed up in one imperfect article. All men and each may say, +"I believe there is some being, superior in some respects to man, +whom it is my duty or my interest to"--caelera desunt. + + +To affirm that every man has this "Absolute Religion" without +external revelation is much as if a man were to say that we have +an "Absolute Philosophy" on the same terms, in virtue of man's +having faculties which prompt him to philosophize in some way. All +religions contain the Absolute Religion, says Mr. Parker: Just, I +reply, as all philosophies contain the absolute philosophy. The +philosophy of Plato, of Aristotle of Bacon, of Locke, of Leibnitz, +of Reid, are all philosophies, no doubt; but that is all that is +to be said. Even contraries must resemble one another in one point, +or they could not be contrasted. In truth, there is, I think, a +striking analogy between man's spiritual and intellectual condition; +only his intellect is a little less variable than his "spiritual +faculty"; far more so, however, than his senses. His animal nature +is more defined than his intellectual, his intellectual than his +spiritual and moral. All the phenomena point either to an imperfect +organization of his nobler faculties, or to the doctrine of +the "Fall." + +But further, surely if this internal oracle exists in man, every +sincere and earnest soul, on interrogating his consciousness, would +hear the indubitable response,--would enjoy the beatific vision of +"spiritual insight." If this be asserted, I for one have to say to +this representation, that, so far as my own consciousness informs +me, I have honestly, sincerely, and with utmost diligence, +interrogated my spirit; and I solemnly protest, that, apart from +those external influences and that external instruction which the +revelation from within is supposed to anticipate and supersede, I am +not conscious that I should have any of the sentiments which either +of these writers make the sum of religion. Even as to that fundamental +position,--the existence of a Being of unlimited power and wisdom, (as +to his unlimited goodness, I believe nothing but an external revelation +can absolutely certify us,) I feel that I am much more indebted to +those influences from design, which these writers made so light of, +than to any clearness in the imperfect intuition: for if I found--and +surely this is the true test--the traces of design less conspicuous +in the external world, confusion there, as in the moral and in both +greater than is now found in either; I extremely doubt whether the +faintest surmise of such a Being would have suggested itself to me. +But be that as it may; as to their other cardinal sentiments,--the +nature of my relations to this Being,--his placability; if offended, +--the terms of forgiveness, if any,--whether, as these gentlemen +affirm, he is accessible to all, without any atonement or +mediator;--as to all this, I solemnly declare, that, apart from +external instruction; I cannot by interrogating my racked spirit, +catch even a murmur. That it must be faint, indeed, in other men, +so faint as to render the pretensions of the certitude of the +internal revelation, and its independence of all external revelation, +perfectly preposterous, I infer from this,--that they have, for the +most part, arrived at diametrically opposite conclusions from those +of these interpreters of the spiritual revelation. As to the +articles, indeed; of man's immortality and a future state, it would +be truly difficult for my "spiritual insight" to verify theirs; for, +according to Mr. Parker, his "insight" affirms that man is immortal, +and Mr. Newman's "insight" declares nothing about the matter! + +Nor is my consciousness, so far as I can trace it, mine only. This +painful uncertainty has been the confession of multitudes of far +greater minds; they have been so far from contending that we have +naturally a clear utterance on these great questions, that they +have acknowledged the necessity of an external revelation; and +mankind in general, so far from thinking or feeling such light +superfluous, have been constantly gasping after it, and adopted +almost any thing that but bore the name. + +What, then, am I to think of this all-sufficient revelation from +within? + +There is, indeed, an amusing answer of Mr. Newman's to the difficulty: +but then it formally surrenders the whole argument. He says to those +who say they are unconscious of those facts of spiritual pathology +which he describes in his work on the "Soul," that the consciousness +of the spiritual man is not the less true, that the unspiritual man is +not privy to it; and this most devout gentleman somewhere quotes, with +much unction, the words, "For the spiritual man judgeth all things, +but himself is judged of no man." + +"I shall be curious to know," said I, interrupting him, "what you will +reply to that argument?" + +Reply to it, said he, eagerly; does it require any reply?--However, I +will read what I have written. Is it not plain, that while Mr. Newman +is professedly anatomizing the spiritual nature of man, as man,--the +functions and revelations of that inward oracle which supersedes and +anticipates all external revelations--he is, in fact, anatomizing his +own? What title has he, when avowedly explaining the phenomena of the +religious faculty which he asserts to be inherent in humanity,--though +how they should need explaining, if his theory be true, I know not,--what +title has he, when men deny that they are conscious of the facts he +describes, to raise refuge in his own private revelations, and that of +the few whose privilege it is to be "born again" by a mysterious law +which he says it is impossible for us to investigate? "We cannot +pretend," he says, "to sound the mystery whence comes the new birth, +in certain souls. To reply, 'The Spirit bloweth where He listeth,' +confesses the mystery, and declines to explain it. But it is evident +that individuals in Greece, in the third century before the Christian +era, were already moving towards an intelligent heart-worship or +had even begun to practise it!" (Soul, p.64) +High time, I think, that after some thousands of years some few +individuals should begin to manifest the phenomena of the universal +revelation from within, if such a thing be! + +This is not to delineate the religions nature of humanity, but to +reveal--yes, and to reveal externally--the religious nature of the +elect few,--and few they are indeed,--who, by a mysterious infidel +Calvinism, are permitted to attain, by direct intuition, and +independent of all external revelation, the true sentiments and +experiences of "spiritual insight." It this be Mr. Newman's solution +of our difficulties, it is utterly nugatory. It is not to dissect +the soul, "its sorrows and aspirations"; it is merely to give us +the pathology--perhaps the morbid pathology--of Mr. Newman's soul; +its sorrows and its aspirations. If the answer merely respected the +practical value of a theory of spiritual sentiments, which all +acknowledged, then Mr. Newman's answer might have some force; for +certainly, only he who reduced that theory to practice, or attempted +to do so, would have a right to conclude against the experience of +him who did. But it is obvious that the question affects the theory +itself, and especially the consciousness of those terms of possible +communion with God, those relations of the soul to him, on the +reception of which all the said spiritual experience must depend. + +How, then, stands the argument? I ask how I shall know the intimation +of the spiritual faculty, which renders all "external revelation" an +impertinence? I am told, with delicious vagueness, that I must gaze on +the phenomena of spiritual consciousness; I say I exercise earnest and +sincere self-scrutiny, and that I can discern nothing but shadowy forms, +most of which do not answer to those which these new spiritualists +describe; and then Mr. Newman turns round and says, that the unspiritual +nature cannot discern them! What is this but to give up the only +question of any importance to humanity,--which is not what are Mr. +Newman's spiritual phenomena; if they are known to himself, it is +well; he has been very long in discovering them, in spite of the +clearness of the internal revelation;--but what are those of man? In +the former be all, Mr. Newman is safe indeed; he is intrenched in his +own peculiar consciousness, of which I am quite willing to admit +that all other men (as well as I) are inadequate judges. But the +monograph of a solitary enthusiast is of the least possible consequence +to humanity. For reasons similar to those which render us +incompetent to pronounce on his experience, he is incapable of judging +of ours. There is only one other answer that I know of, and that is +the answer which Fellowes made to me the other day, when you were not +by:--"O, but you have the same spiritual consciousness as I have, +only you are not aware of it?" I contented myself with saying, that +I was just as able to comprehend a perception which is not perceived, +as a consciousness which when sought was not to be found. The question +is one of consciousness; you say you have it, I do not deny it; I have +it not. Now, if we are not disputing as to whether it be a +characteristic of humanity, it little matters: if we are, I plainly +have the best of it, because want of uniformity in the phenomenon +is destructive of the hypothesis. + +But I proceed to ask my second question. Is the "absolute religion" +of Mr. Parker, or the "spiritual faculty" of Mr. Newman, of such +singular use as to supersede all external revelation, since by the +unfortunate "conceptions" of the one, and the "degraded types" of the +other, it has for ages left man, and does, in fact, now leave him, +to wallow in the lowest depths of the most debasing idolatry and +superstition; since, by the confession of these very writers, the +great bulk of mankind have been and are hideously mal-formed, in +fact, spiritual cripples, and have been left to wander in infinitely +varied paths of error, but always paths of error?--for Judaism and +Christianity, though better forms, are, as well as other forms, +--according to these writers,--full of fables and fancies, of lying +legends and fantastical doctrines. Think for a moment of a "spiritual +faculty," so bright as to anticipate all essential spiritual verities, +--the universal possession of humanity,--which yet terminates in +leaving the said humanity to grovel in every form of error, between +the extremes of Fetichism, which consecrates a bit of stone, and +Pantheism, which consecrates all the bits of stone in the universe, in +fact, a sort of comprehensive Fetichism;--which leaves man to erect +every thing into a God, provided it is none,--sun, moon, stars, a cat, +a monkey, an onion, uncouth idols, sculptured marble; nay, a shapeless +trunk,--which the devout impatience of the idolater does not stay to +fashion into the likeness of a man, but gives it its apotheosis at +once! Think of the venerable, wide-spread empire of the infinite forms +of polytheism, the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, and Hindoo +mythologies; and then acknowledge, that, if man has this faculty, it +is either the most idle prerogative ever bestowed on a rational +creature, or that, somehow or other, as the Bible affirms, it has +been denaturalized and disabled. If, on the other hand, man has this +faculty, and yet has never fallen, it can only be because he never +stood; and then, no doubt, as John Bunyan hath it, "He that is down +need fear no fall!" + +There is an answer, indeed, but it is one which, in my judgment, +covers those who resort to it with the deepest shame. It is that +which apologizes for all these abominations,--so humiliating and +odious, by representing them as less humiliating and odious than +they are. It is true that Mr. Parker, when it is his cue, is most +eloquent in his denunciations of the infinite miseries and degradation +which have followed the exorbitancies of the religious principle. +Thus he says of superstition (and there are other innumerable +passages to a similar effect), "To dismember the soul, the very +image of God,--to lop off the most sacred affections,--to call Reason +a liar, Conscience a devil's oracle, and cast Love clean out from +the heart,--this is the last triumph of superstition, but one often +witnessed in all the three forms of Religion, Fetichism, Polytheism, +Monotheism; in all ages before Christ, in all ages after Christ." Far +be it from me to deny it, or the similar horrors which he liberally +shows flow from fanaticism. But then, at other times, that quintessence +of all abstractions which all religions alike contain--the "absolute +religion"--imparts such perfume and appetizing relish to the whole +composition, that, like Dominie Sampson in Meg Merrilies's cuisine, +Mr. P. finds the Devil's cookery-book not despicable. The things he +so fearfully describes are but perversions of what is essentially +good. The "forms," the "accidentals," of different religions become +of little consequence; whether it be Jehovah or Jupiter, the infinite +Creator or a divine cat, a holy and gracious God that is loved, or +an impure demon that is feared,--all this is secondary, provided +the principles of faith, simplicity, and earnestness--that is, +blind credulity and idiotic stupidity--inspire the wretched votary; +as if the perversions he deplores and condemns were not the necessary +consequences of such religions themselves, or, rather, as if they +were aught but the religions! In virtue of the "absolute religion," +"many a savage smeared with human sacrifice," and the Christian +martyr perishing with a prayer for his persecutors, are hastening +together to the celestial banquet. I hope the "savage" will not +go with "unwashen hands," I trust he may be Pharisee enough for +that; I also hope the two will not sit next one another; otherwise +the savage may be tempted to offer up a second sacrifice, and the +Christian martyr be a martyr a second time. Hear him:--"He that +worships truly, by whatever form,"--that is, who is sincere in his +Fetichism, his idolatry, his sacrifices, though they may be human, +--"worships the only God; he hears the prayer, whether called Brahma, +Pan, or Lord, or called by no name at all. Each people has its +prophets and its saints; and many a swarthy Indian who bowed down +to wood and stone,--many a grim-faced Calmuck, who worshipped the +great God of Storms,--many a Grecian peasant who did homage to +Phoebus Apollo when the sun rose or went down,--yes, many a savage, +his hands smeared all over with human sacrifice,--shall come from +the East and the West, and sit down in the kingdom of God, with Moses +and Zoroaster, with Socrates and Jesus." (Discourses, p. 83) The +charity which hopes that men may be forgiven the crime of "religions" +which, if there be a God at all, must be "abominations," one can +understand; but these maudlin apologies for the religions themselves, +--as if they were not themselves crimes, and involved crimes in +their very practice,--I do not understand. According to this, all +that man has to do is to be sincere in any thing, however diabolical, +and it is at once transmuted into a virtue which nothing less than +heaven can reward! + +Mr. Newman sometimes follows closely in Mr. Parker's steps in the +exercise of this bastard toleration, this spurious charity; though, +in justice, I must say, he does not go his length. Yet who can read +without laughter that definition of idolatry, made apparently for +the same preposterous purpose,--to sanctify the hideous absurdities +of the "religious sentiment," and to save the credit of the "internal +oracle"? He says,--"To worship as perfect and infinite one whom we +know to be imperfect and finite, this is idolatry, and (in any bad +sense) this alone ...... A man can but adore his own highest ideal; +to forbid this is to forbid all religion to him. If, therefore, +idolatry is to mean any thing wrong and bad, the word must be reserved +for the cases in which a man degrades his ideal by worshipping +something that falls short of it." (Soul, pp. 55, 56) + +So that the most degraded idolater, if he but come up to his own +ideal of the Divinity, is none at all, but a respectable worshipper! +It may be; but the idolater's ideal of God is, generally, the reality +of what others call the Devil!--Only think of the divine ideal of a +man who worships an image of his own making, with ten heads and twenty +hands! The definition reminds me of that passage in which Pascal's +Jesuit Father defines the moral sin of "idleness":--"It is," says +he, "a grief that spiritual things should be spiritual, as if +it should be regretted that the sacraments are the source of grace; +and it is a mortal sin." "O Father!" said I, "I cannot imagine that +any one can be idle in such a sense." "So Escobar says, 'I confess +it is very seldom that any person fails into the sin of idleness.' +Now, surely, you must see the necessity of a good definition!" + +No, no; few but Mr. Parker will affirm that the various religions +which have overshadowed the world are essentially more one in virtue +of the "absolute religion," than they are different in virtue of +their principles, tendencies, practices, and forms; while in none +--if we except Judaism and Christianity--is there enough of the +"absolute religion" to keep them sweet. + +These apologies, odious as they are, are necessary if the credit of +the "spiritual faculty" and the "absolute religion" is to be at +all preserved. But, unhappily, it is not a tone which can be +consistently preserved. Sometimes the religions of mankind are all +tolerable enough, from the presence of the all-consecrating element; +and sometimes, in spite of this great antiseptic, they are represented +as the rotten, putrid things they are! And then another answer, equally +empty with the former, is hinted to save the credit of the darling +oracle. Its due influence has been perverted, its just expansion +prevented, by the influence of national religions, by the +intervention of the "historical" and "traditional," by false and +pernicious education;--these things, it seems, have poisoned the +waters of spiritual life in their source, else they had gushed out +of the hidden fountains of the heart pure as crystal! + +Yes, it is too plain; "Bibliolatry" and "Historical Religion," in +some shape,--Vedas, Koran, or Bible,--have been the world's bane. +Had it not been for these, I suppose, we should everywhere have +heard the invariable utterance of "spiritual religion" in the one +dialect of the heart. + +It is too certain that the world has found its spiritual "Babel": +the one dialect of the heart is yet to be heard. + +But I am not sure that the apologetic vein would not be wiser. For +what is this plea, but to acknowledge that man is so constituted +that the boasted "religious sentiment," the "spiritual faculty,"--if +it exist at all, and is any thing more than an ill-defined tendency, +--instead of being a glorious light which anticipates all external +revelation, and renders it superfluous, is, in fact, about the feeblest +in our nature; which everywhere and always is seduced and debauched +by the most trumpery pretensions of the "historical" and +"traditional"! It is not so with people's eyes; it is not so with +people's appetites; no parental influence or early instruction can +make men think that green is blue, or stones and chalk good for food. +Yet this glorious faculty uniformly yields,--goes into shivers in the +encounter! I, at least, will grant to Mr. Parker all he says of the +pernicious and detestable character of the infinite variety of "false +conceptions of God," and to Mr. Newman all he says of the "degraded +types" of religion; but then it was Man himself that framed all +those "false conceptions," and all those "degraded types." How came +he thus universally to triumph over that divinely implanted faculty +of spiritual discernment, which, if it exist, must be the most +admirable feature of humanity; which these writers tell us anticipates +all external truth, but which, it seems, greedily swallows all +external error? It almost universally submits to the most +contemptible pretensions of a revelation, and acknowledges that it +dares not to pronounce on that, even when false, of which, even +when true, it is to be the sole source! There never was an +"historical" religion, however contemptible, that did not make +its thousands of proselytes. Man has been easily led to embrace +the most absurd systems of mythology and superstition, and is +willing even to go to death for them. + +So far from venturing to set up the claims of the internal oracle +in competition, man all but uniformly takes his religion from his +fathers (no matter what), just as he takes his property; only the +former, however worthless, he holds as infinitely the more precious. +Even when he surrenders it, he still surrenders it to some other +"historical" religion: it is to that he turns. Such men as Mr. Newman +and Mr. Parker--though every one can see that their system too has +been derived from without, that it is, in fact, nothing but a +distorted Christianity--may be numbered by units. The vast bulk of +mankind are unresisting victims of the "traditional" and +"historical"; nay, rather eagerly ask for it, and willingly submit +to it. What, then, can I infer, but either, 1st, that this vaunted +internal faculty which supersedes all necessity of an external +revelation is a delusion, and exists only as a vague and imperfect +tendency; or, 2dly, that, as Christians say, it lies in ruins, and +needs that external revelation, the possibility of which is denied; +or, 3dly, that God has somehow made a great mistake in mingling the +various elements of man's composition, and miscalculating the +overmastering power of the "historical" and "traditional "; or, +4thly, that man, having the original faculty still bright and strong, +and that brightness and strength sufficient for his guidance and +support, is more hopelessly, deliberately, and diabolically wicked, +in thus everywhere and always substituting error for truth, and +superstition for religion,--in thus giving the historical and +traditional the uniform ascendency over the moral and +spiritual,--than even the most desperate Calvinist ever ventured +to represent him! Surely he is the most detestable beast that ever +crawled on the face of the earth, and, in a new and more portentous +sense, "loves darkness rather than light." The fact is, that--so +far from having even a suspicion that an external revelation is +useless or impossible--he, as already said, greedily seeks for it, +and devours it. + +Nay, so far from its being authenticated by the history, or vouched +by the consciousness of the race, this very proposition--that man +stands in no need of an external revelation--first comes to him, +and rather late too, by an external revelation; even the revelation +of such writers as Mr. Parker and Mr. Newman. The last has been a +student of theology for twenty years, and has only just arrived at +this conviction, that he needed no light, inasmuch as he had plenty +of light "within." Brilliant, surely, it must have been! I can only +say for myself, that I do not, even with such aid, find myself in any +superfluous illumination, and would gladly accept, with Plato, some +divine communication, of which, heathen as he was, he acknowledged the +necessity. + +The mode of accounting for man's universal aberrations, from the +tyranny of "Bibliolatry" and superstitious and pernicious "education," +--seeing that it is a tyranny of man's own imposing,--is exactly +like that by which some theologians seek to elude the argument +of man's depravity; it is owing, they say, to the influence of +a universally depraved education! But whence that universally +depraved education they forget to tell us. Meantime, the inquirer +is apt to put that universal proclivity in the matter of education +to that very depravity for which it is to account. + +Similarly, one is apt to infer, from man's tendency to deviate into +any path of religious superstition and folly, that the spiritual +lantern he carries within casts but a feeble light upon hit path. +This plea, therefore, is utterly worthless; for if it were true, +that the influence of tradition and historic association, when +once set up, could thus darken and debauch the natural faculty, +whose specific office it was to convey, like the eye, specific +intelligence, it would not account for the first tendencies of man +to disown its authority in favor of an absurd and uniform submission +to the usurpations of tradition and priestcraft. The faculty is +universally feeble against this influence; it staggers; whether +from weakness or drunkenness little matters, except that the last +is the viler infirmity of the two. If we find a river turbid, it +is of no consequence whether it was so as it issued from its +fountain, or from pollutions which have been infused into its +current lower down,--it is a turbid river still. + +On the whole, so far from admitting the principle of Mr. Newman, +that a "book-revelation" of moral and spiritual truth is unnecessary, +I should rather be disposed to infer the very contrary, from the +uncertainty, vacillation, and feebleness of man's spiritual nature. +I should be disposed to infer it, whether I look at the lessons +which experience and history teach, or those taught by my own anxious +and sincere scrutiny of my own consciousness. If it be, on the other +hand, as he says, "impossible," mankind are in a very hopeless +predicament, since it only proves that, the "spiritual insight" of +man having unhappily failed the great majority of our race, it cannot +be supplied by any external aid; that the malady, which is but too +apparent, is also as apparently without a remedy. + +For myself, I must say that I find myself hopelessly at issue with +him in virtue of the above axiom, whether I receive or reject his +theory of religious truth; for, if that axiom be true, I must +reject his theory of religion,--since it is nothing but a +book-revelation to me,--issued by Mr. Newman, instead of the Bible +or the Koran. On the other hand, if that theory be true, and I accept +it, his maxim must be false, for the very same reason; since he +himself will have given me a double book-revelation,--a revelation +at once of the theory and of the genesis of religion, both of which +are in many respects absolute novelties to my consciousness. + +But further; if we take the genesis of religion as described by +either of these writers, and consider the infinite corruptions to +which they both acknowledge a perverted, imperfect "development" of +the "religious sentiment" and the "spiritual faculty" has led, one +would imagine that an external communication from Heaven might be +both very possible and very useful; useful, if only by cautioning +men against those "false conceptions" which have so uniformly swamped +the "idea," and those "degraded types," into which all the various +principles of our nature have wheedled the "spiritual faculty." +Only listen to a brief specimen of the "by-path meadows" which +entice the poor soul from the direct course of its development, +and judge whether a communication from Heaven, if it were only to +the extent of a sign-post by the way-side, might not be of use! +First comes "awe." "But even in this early stage," says Mr. Newman, +"numberless deviations take place, and mark especially the rudest +Paganism. We may embrace them under the general name of Fetichism, +which here claims attention ...... But even in the midst of +enlightened science, and highly literate ages, errors fundamentally +identical with those of Fetichism may and do exist, and with the +very same results." (Soul, pp. 7, 10.) Then comes wonder: "But of +this likewise we find numerous degraded types in which the rising +religion is marred ...... Of this we have eminent instances in +the gods of Greece, and in the fairies of the German and Persian +tribes ...... Under the same head will be included the grotesque +devil-stories and other legends of the Middle Ages ...... Yet the +dreadful alternative of gross superstition is this, that the graver +view tends to cruel and horrible rites, while the fanciful and +sportive sucks out the life-blood of devout feeling." (Ibid. pp. 14-16.) +Then comes the sense of beauty: "This was strikingly illustrated in +Greek sculpture. A statue of exquisite beauty, representing some hero, +or an Apollo, because of its beauty, seemed to the Greeks a fit object +of worship ...... An opposite danger is often remarked to accompany +the use of all the fine arts as handmaids to religion; namely, that +the would-be worshipper is so absorbed in mere beauty as never to +rise into devotion." (Ibid. pp. 21, 23.) Then comes the sense of +order; but, alas! Atheism and Pantheism, and other "degrading types," +may be begotten of it! + +As I look at men thus tumbling into error along this wretched +causeway to heaven, I seem to be viewing Addison's bridge of human +life, with its broken arches, at each of which thousands are falling +through. This way to the "celestial city" ought to be called the +"Northwest Passage"; it has one, and only one, trait of your +Christian path: "there will be few that find it." + +If, then, by the confession of these writers, the "false conceptions" +and the "degraded types"--the result of what are as truly "principles" +of man's nature as the supposed "spiritual faculty," only that this +last always has the worst in the conflict--have universally, and +for unknown ages, involved man in the darkest abysses of superstition, +crime, and misery, surely external revelation is any thing but +superfluous; and if impossible, so much the worse. + +The same truth is even formally evinced by the self-destructive +course which both writers employ; for as the conditions of the +development of our "spiritual nature," when not complied with, +lead to all the deplorable consequences which they acknowledge, +how do they propose to rectify them? Why, by "external" +culture, proper discipline and training, judicious instruction, +by enlightening mankind,--as we may suppose they are doing by these +hopeful books of theirs! If man can do so much by his books, is +it impossible that a book from God might do something more? But +on this I will say nothing, since you tell me that you have heard +attentively the conversation I had with my friend Fellowes the other +day. I will therefore omit what I had written on this point ...... + +But I proceed to another, maintained by these writers, on which I +confess I am equally sceptical. If they concede (as how can they +help it?) that the "religious sentiment" and the "spiritual faculty" +have somehow left humanity involved in the most deplorable +perplexities and the most humiliating errors, they yet assure us +that there is "a good time coming,"--an auspicious "progress" in +virtue and religion, very gradual indeed, but sure and illimitable +for the race collectively! Yes, "progress," that is 'the word; +and a "progress" for the world at large, of which they speak +as certainly as if they had received, at least on that point, +that external revelation, the possibility of which they deny. A +matter of spiritual "insight" I presume none will declare it to +be, and the data are certainly far too meagre and unsatisfactory +to make it calculation. Is Saul among the prophets? Yes; but, as +usual, the truth (if it be a truth) for which they contend is, as +with other parts of their system, a plagiarism from the abjured +Bible. Now, if I must believe prophecy, I prefer the magnificent +strains of Isaiah to the sentimental prose either of Mr. Parker +or of Mr. Newman. + +I must modestly doubt whether, apart from the representations of +the "books" they abjure as special "revelations," there is any +thing in the history of the world which will justly a sober-minded +man in coming to any positive conclusion as to this promised +"progress" this infidel millennium, either the one way or the +other. The chief facts, apart from such special information, +would certainly point the other way. Look at the condition of the +immense majority of the race in every age,--so far as we can gather +any thing from history,--compare it with that of the immense +majority at the present moment;--what does it tell us? Why, surely, +that, if there be a destiny of indefinite "progress" in religion +and virtue for the race collectively, the hand of the great clock +moves so immeasurably slow that it is impossible to note it. The +experience of the individual, nay, of recorded history,--if we +can say there is any such thing,--fails to trace the movement of +the index on the huge dial. If there be this progress for the race +collectively, it must be accomplished in a cycle vast as those of +the geological eras;--a deposit of a millionth of an inch of +knowledge and virtue over the whole race in fifty million years +or so! Mr. Newman is pleased to say, "Some nations sink, while others +rise; but the lower and higher levels are both generally ascending." +Has this level for the whole race been raised perceptibly within the +memory of so-called history? + +Observe; I am not denying that the notion may be true: I am +literally the sceptic I profess to be: I know not--apart from special +information from a superhuman source--whether it be true or false. I +am only venturing to laugh at men, who, denying any such information, +affect to speak with any confidence on the solution of this prodigious +problem, the data for solving which I contend we have not: while those +we have, apart from the direct assurance of supposed inspiration, +more plausibly point to an opposite conclusion. The conclusion +which would more naturally suggest itself from the history of the +past would be that of perpetual advance and perpetual retrogression, +contemporaneously going on in different portions of the race,-- +perpetual flux and reflux of the waves of knowledge and science +an different shores; though, alas! as to "religion and virtue;" I +fear that these, like the Mediterranean, are almost without their +tides. For a "progress" in the former,--in the race collectively.--far +more plausible arguments can be adduced than for a progress in the +latter; yet how much might be said that appears to militate even +against that. Think of the frequent and signal checks to +civilization; its transference from seat to seat; the decay of races +once celebrated for knowledge and art; the inundations of barbarism +from time to time;--these things alone might make a sober mind +pause before he predicted for the entire race a certain progress +even in art and science. Experience would at most justify a +philosopher in saying. "Perhaps, yes; perhaps no." But the argument +becomes incomparably more doubtful when we come to "religion," and +especially that particular form of it which such writers as Messrs. +Parker and Newman believe will be preeminent and universal; towards +which consummation it does not appear at present that the smallest +conceivable advance has been made; since, with the exception of that +infinitesimal party, of which they are among the chief, the immense +majority of mankind persist in rejecting the sufficiency of the +"internal" oracle, and are still found as strongly convinced as ever +both of the possibility and necessity of an "external" revelation, +and that, in some shape or other, it has been given! Nay, the facts, +so far as we have any, seem all the other way; for no sooner had men +been put approximately in possession of the pure "spiritual truth," +which both Mr. Newman and Mr. Parker suppose to be characteristic +in larger measure of Judaism and Christianity than of any other +religion, than they busily began the work, not of improvement, but +of corruption. The Jews corrupted their pure monotheistic truths +into what these writers believe the fables, legends, miracles, and +absurd dogmas of the Old Testament: and, as if that were not enough, +proceeded to bury them in the huge absurdities of the Rabbinical +traditions; the Christians, in like manner, corrupted the yet purer +truths, which these writers affirm Christianity teaches, with what +they also affirm to be the load of myth, fiction, false history, +and monstrous doctrine, which make up nine tenths of the New +Testament: and, as if that were not enough, proceeded, just as did +the Jews, to "expand" the New Testament itself into the worse than +Rabbinical traditions of the Papacy! From approximate "spiritual +truth" to the supposed legends and false dogmas of the Pentateuch, +from the supposed legends and dogmas of the Pentateuch to the +absurdities of the Talmud;--again, from the approximate "spiritual +truth" of Christianity to the supposed legends and fanciful doctrines +of the New Testament, and from the legends and doctrines of the New +Testament to the corruptions the Papacy;--surely these are queer +proofs of a tendency to progress! A tendency to retrogradation is +rather indicated. No sooner, it appears, does man proceed to obtain +"spiritual truth" tolerably pure, as tested by such writers, than +he proceeds incontinently to adulterate it! This unhappy and uniform +tendency is also a curious comment on the impotence of the internal +spiritual oracle, as against the ascendency of the "historical" +and "traditional." + +Similar arguments of doubt may be derived from other facts. + +Over how many countries did primitive Christianity soon degenerate +into such odious idolatry, that even the delusions of the "false +prophet" have been considered (like the doom to "labor") as a sort +of beneficent curse in comparison! What, again, for ages, was the +history of those "Shemitic races," in which, of all "races," was +found, according to Mr. Parker, the happiest "religious organization," +by which they discovered, earlier than other "races," the great truths +of Monotheism? One incessant bulimia for idolatry was their +master-passion for ages; while for many ages past, as has been remarked +by a countryman of Mr. Parker, their "happy religious organization" has +been in deplorable ruins. + +I humbly venture, then, once again, to doubt whether any sober-minded +man, apart from "special inspiration," can affirm that he has any +grounds to utter a word about a "progress" in religion or virtue for +the race collectively. But it is easy to see where these writers +obtained the notion; they have stolen it from that Bible which as a +special revelation they have abjured. + +I cannot help remarking here, that it is a most suspicious +circumstance, if there be, indeed, any universal and sufficient +"internal revelation," that these writers find every memorable advance +of what they deem religious truth in unaccountable connection either +with the happy "religious organization of one race," according to +Mr. Parker, or in equally strange connection with the records of +"two books" originating among that race; according to Mr. Newman. +"The Bible," says the latter, "is pervaded by a sentiment which is +implied everywhere, namely, the intimate sympathy of the Pure and +Perfect God with the heart of each faithful worshipper. This is that +which is wanting in Greek philosophers, English Deists, German +Pantheists, and all formalists. This is that which so often edifies +me in Christian writers and speakers, when I ever so much disbelieve +the letter of their sentences." (Phases, p. 188.) + +It is unaccountably odd that the universal spiritual faculty should +act thus capriciously, and equally odd that Mr. Newman does not +perceive, that, if it were not for the "Bible," his religion would +no more have assumed the peculiar task it has, than that of Aristotle +or Cicero. Sentiments due to the still active influences of his +Christian education he imputes to the direct intuitions of spiritual +vision, just as we are apt to confound the original and acquired +perceptions of our eyesight. He is in the condition of one who +mistakes a reflected image for the object itself, or a forgotten +suggestion of another for an original idea. In the camera obscura of +his mind, he flatters himself that the colored forms there traced are +the original inscriptions on the walls, forgetful of the little +aperture which has let in the light; and not even disturbed by the +untoward phenomenon, that the ideas thus contemplated are all upside +down. + +But, surely, it is natural to ask,--How is it that Greek philosophers, +Hindoo sages, Egyptian priests, English Deists,--that men of all other +religions,--having always had access to the fountain of natural +illumination within, have not also had their "Baxters, Leightons, +Watts, Doddridges"? that the whole style of thought on this subject +is so totally different in them all, by his own confession? If man +possess the "spiritual faculty" attributed to him,--if it be a +characteristic of humanity,--it will be surely generally manifested; +and even if those disturbing causes, which he and Mr. Parker so +plentifully provide, by which the genesis of religion is so +unhappily marred, but which, alas! no revelation from without can +ever counteract--prevent its uniform, or nearly uniform display, +still its principal indications (partial though they may be +everywhere) ought, at least, to be everywhere indifferently +diffused throughout the race. Its manifestation may be sporadic, +but it will be in one race as in another; it will not be suspiciously +confined to one race with a peculiarly felicitous "religious +organization," or to "two books" exclusively originating with that +favored race. + +For his "spiritual" illumination, it is easy to see Mr. Newman's +exclusive dependence on that Bible which he abjures as a special +revelation. If it has not been so to mankind, it has, at least, been +so to Mr. Newman. To it he perpetually runs for argument and +illustration. Among those who will accept his infidelity I apprehend +there will be few who will not recoil from his representations of +spiritual experience, so obviously nothing more than a disguised and +mutilated Christianity. They will say, that they do not wish the +"new cloth sewed on to the old garment"; scarcely a soul amongst +them will sympathize with his soul's "sorrows," or share his soul's +"aspirations"! + +But, however these things may be, I now proceed to what I acknowledge +is the most weighty topic of my argument; which is to prove that, if +I acquiesce, on Mr. Newman's grounds, in the rejection of the Bible +as a special revelation of God, I am compelled on the very same +principles to go a few steps further, and to express doubts of the +absolutely divine original of the World, and the administration +thereof, just as he does of the divine original of the Bible. If I +concede to Mr. Newman, however we may differ as to the moral and +spiritual faculties of man, that these are yet the sole and ultimate +court of appeal to us; that from our "intuitions" of right and wrong, +of "moral and spiritual, truth," be they more perfect according to him, +or more rudimentary and imperfect according to me, we must form a +judgment of the moral bearings of every presumed external revelation +of God,--I cannot do otherwise than reject much of the revelation of +God in his presumed Works as unworthy of him, just as Mr. Newman +does very much in his supposed Word as equally unworthy of him. Mr. +Newman says, "Only by discerning that God has Virtues, similar in kind +to human Virtues, do we know of his truthfulness and his goodness...... +The nature of the case implies, that the human mind is competent to sit +in moral and spiritual judgment on a professed revelation, and to decide +(if the case seem to require it) in the following tone:--'This doctrine +attributes to God that which we should all call harsh, cruel, or unjust +in man: it is therefore intrinsically inadmissible; for if God may be +(what we should call) cruel, he may equally well be (what we should +call) a liar; and, if so, of what use is his word to us?'" (Soul, p. 58) +Similarly Mr. Newman continually affirms that God reveals himself, +when he reveals himself at all, within, and not without; as he says +in his "Phases,"--"Of our moral and spiritual God we know nothing +without,--every thing within. It is in the spirit that we meet him +not in the communications of sense." (p. 52.) If I acquiesce in this +judgment, I must apply the reasoning of the above passage to the +"external revelation" of God in his Works, as well as to that in +his Word; and the above reasoning will be equally valid, merely +substituting one word for the other. We are to decide, if the case +seem to require it, in the following tone:--"These phenomena--this +conduct--implies what we should call in man harsh, or cruel, or +unjust; it is, therefore, intrinsically inadmissible as God's work +or God's conduct." + +Acting on his principles, Mr. Newman refuses to "depress" his +conscience (as he says) to the Bible standard. He affirms, that +in many cases the Bible sanctions, and even enjoins, things which +shock his moral sense as flagrantly immoral, and he must therefore +reject them as supposed to be sanctioned by God. He in different +places gives instances;--as the supposed approbation of the +assassination of Sisera by the wife of Heber, the command to Abraham +to sacrifice his son, and the extermination of the Canaanites. Now, +whether the Bible represents God, or not, in all these cases, as +sanctioning the things in question, I shall not be at the pains to +inquire, because I am willing to take it for granted that Mr. Newman's +representation is perfectly correct. I only think that he ought, +in consistency, to have gone a little further. Let him defend, as +in perfect harmony with his "intuitions" of right and wrong, the +undeniably similar instances which occur in the administration of +the universe; or, if it be found impossible to solve those difficulties, +let him acknowledge, either that our supposed essential "intuitions" of +moral rectitude are not to be trusted, as applicable to the Supreme +Being, and that therefore the argument from them against the Bible +is inconclusive; or, that no such being exists; or, lastly, that he +has conferred upon man an intuitive conception of moral equity and +rectitude,--of the just and the unjust,--in most edifying +contradiction to his own character and proceedings! + +Here Fellowes broke in:-- + +"If indeed there be any such instances; but I think Mr. Newman +would reply, that they will be sought for in vain in the 'world,' +however plentiful, as I admit they are, in the Bible." + +"I know not whether he would deny them or not," said Harrington; +"but they are found in great abundance in the world notwithstanding, +and this is my difficulty. If Mr. Newman were the creator of the +universe, no question, none of these contradictions between +'intuitions' within, and stubborn 'facts' without, would be found. +He has created a God after his own mind; if he could but have created +a universe also after his own mind, we should doubtless have been +relieved from all our perplexities. But, unhappily, we find in it, +as I imagine, the very things which so startle Mr. Newman in the +Scriptural representations of the divine character and proceedings. +Is he not, like all other infidels, peculiarly scandalized, that God +should have enjoined the extermination of the Canaanites? and yet +does not God do still more startling things every day of our lives, +and which appear less startling only because we are familiar with +them,--at least, if we believe that the elements, pestilence, famine, +in a word, destruction in all its forms, really fulfil his bidding? +Is there any difference in the world between the cases, except that +the terrible phenomena which we find it impossible to account for +are on an infinitely larger scale, and in duration as ancient as the +world? that they have, in fact, been going on for thousands of weary +years, and for aught you or I can tell, and as Mr. Newman seems to +think probable, for millions of years? Does not a pestilence or a +famine send thousands of the guilty and the innocent alike--nay, +thousands of those who know not their right hand from their left--to +one common destruction? Does not God (if you suppose it his doing) +swallow up whole cities by earthquake, or overwhelm them with volcanic +fires? I say, is there any difference between the cases, except that +the victims are very rarely so wicked as the Canaanites are said to +have been, and that God in the one case himself does the very things +which he commissions men to do in the other? Now, if the thing be wrong, +I, for one, shall never think it less wrong to do it one's self than +to do it by proxy." + +"But," said Fellowes, rather warmly, for he felt rather restive at +this part of Harrington's discourse, "it is absurd to compare such +sovereign acts of inexplicable will on the part of God with his +command to a being so constituted as man to perform them." + +"Absurd be it," said Harrington, "only be so kind as to show it to be +so, instead of saying so. I maintain that the one class of facts are +just as 'inexplicable,' as you call it, as the other, and only appear +otherwise because, in the one case, we daily see them, have become +accustomed to them and, what is more than all, cannot deny them,--which +last we can so promptly do in the other case; for Moses is not here to +contradict us. But I rather think, that a being constituted morally +and intellectually like us, who had never known any but a world of +happiness, would just as promptly deny that God could ever perform +such feats as are daily performed in this world! I repeat, that, if +for some reasons ('inexplicable,' I grant you) God does not mind +doing such things, he is not likely to hesitate to enjoin them; for +reasons perhaps equally inexplicable. I say perhaps; for, as I +compare such an event as the earthquake in Lisbon, or the plague in +London, with the extermination of the Canaanites, I solemnly assure +you that I find a greater difficulty, as far as my 'intuitions' go, +in supposing the former event to have been effected by a divine +agency than the latter. If we take the Scripture history, we must at +least allow that the race thus doomed had long tried the patience +of Heaven by their flagrant impiety and unnatural vices; that they +had become a centre and a source (as we sometimes see collections of +men to be) of moral pestilence, in the vicinage of which it was unsafe +for men to dwell; that, as the Scriptures say (whether truly or falsely, +I do not inquire), they had, filled up the measure of their iniquities.' +Let this be supposed as fictitious as you please, still the whole +proceeding is represented as a solemn judicial one; and supposing the +events to have occurred just as they are narrated, it positively seems +to me much less difficult to suppose them to harmonize with the +character of a just and even beneficent being, than those wholesale +butcheries which have desolated the world, in every hour of its long +history, without any discrimination whatever of innocence or guilty; +which, if they have inflicted unspeakable miseries on the immediate +victims, have produced probably as much or more in the agony of the +myriad myriads of hearts which have bled or broken in unavailing +sorrow over the sufferings they could not relieve. Such things +(I speak now only of what man has not in any sense inflicted) are, +in your view, as undeniably the work of God as is the extermination +of the Canaanites according to the Bible. Why, if God does not mind +doing such things, are we to suppose that he minds on some occasions +ordering them to be done; unless we suppose that man--delicate +creature!--has more refined intuitions of right and wrong, and knows +better what they are, than God himself? Now, Mr. Newman and you +affirm, that to suppose God should have enjoined the destruction of +the Canaanites is a contradiction of our moral intuitions; and that +for this and similar reasons you cannot believe the Bible to be the +word of God. I answer, that the things I have mentioned are in still +more glaring contradiction to such 'intuitions'; than which none +appears to me more clear than this,--that the morally innocent +ought not to suffer; and I therefore doubt whether the above +phenomena are the work of God. I must refuse, on the very same +principle on which Mr. Newman disallows the Bible to be a true +revelation of such a Being, to allow this universe to be so. +In equally glaring inconsistency is the entire administration of +this lower world with what appears to me a first principle of moral +rectitude,--namely, that he who suffers a wrong to be inflicted on +another, when he can prevent it, is responsible for the wrong itself. +The whole world is full of such instances." + +"Ay," said Fellowes, eagerly, "we ought to prevent a wrong, provided +we have the right as well as the power to interfere." + +"I am supposing that we have the right as well as the power; as, for +example, to prevent a man from murdering his neighbor, or a thief from +entering his dwelling. There are, no doubt, many acts which, from our +very limited right, we should have no business to prevent; as, for +example, to prevent a man from getting tipsy at his own table with his +own wine. But no such limitation can apply to Him who is supposed to +be the Absolute Monarch of the universe; and yet He (according to your +view) notoriously does not interpose to prevent the daily commission of +the most heinous wrongs and cruelties under which the earth has groaned, +and hearts have been breaking, for thousands of years. You will say, +perhaps, that in all such instances we must believe that there are some +reasons for His conduct, though we cannot guess what they are. Ah! my +friend, if you come to believing, you may believe also that the +difficulties involved in the Scriptural representations of the Divine +character and proceedings are susceptible of a similar solution. If you +come to believing, I think the Christian can believe as well as you, and +rather more consistently. But let me proceed." He then read on. + +It is plain, that, in accordance with our primitive "moral intuitions" +(if we have any), we should hold him who had the power to prevent a +wrong, and did not use it, as a participator and accomplice in the +crime he did not prevent. Applying, therefore, the principles of +Mr. Newman, I must refuse to acknowledge such conduct on the part of +the Divine Being, and to say, that such things are not done by him. +If I may trust my whisper of him, derived from analogous moral qualities +in myself, I must believe that an administration which so ruthlessly +permits these things is not his work; but that his power, wisdom, and +goodness have been thwarted, baffled, and overmastered by some +"omnipotent devil," to use Mr. Newman's expression; if it be, then that +whisper of him cannot be trusted: the heathen was right, "Sunt superis +sua jura." In other words, I feel that I must become an Atheist, a +Pantheist, a Manichaean, or--what I am--a sceptic. + +All these perplexities are increased when I trace them up to that +profound mystery in which they all originate,--I mean the permission +of physical and moral evil. Either evil could have been prevented or +not; if it could, its immense and horrible prevalence is at war with +the intuition already referred to; if it could not, who shall prove it? +I am no more able to contradict the intuitions of the intellect than +those of the conscience; and if any thing can be called a contradiction +of the former, it is to be told that a Being of infinite power, wisdom, +and beneficence could not construct a world without an immensity of evil +in it; no reason being assignable or even imaginable for such a +proposition, except the fact that such a world has not been created! +I am therefore compelled to doubt, whether such a universe be really +the fabrication of such a Being. It is impossible to express my +astonishment at the ease with which Mr. Newman disposes of the +difficulties connected with the origin and perpetuation of physical +and moral evil. His arguments are just two of the most hackneyed +commonplaces with which metaphysicians have attempted to evade these +stupendous difficulties; and it is not too much to say, that there +never was a man who was not resolved that his theory must stand, who +pretended to attach any importance to them. They are most gratuitously +assumed, and even then are most trivial alleviations; a mere +plaster of brown paper for a deep-seated cancer. + +I certainly know of no other man who has stood so unabashed in front +of these awful forms. One almost envies him the truly childlike faith +with which he waves his hand to these Alps, and says, "Be ye removed, +and east into the sea"; but the feeling is exchanged for another, when +he seems to rub his eyes, and exclaim, "Presto, they are gone +sure enough!" while you still feel that you stand far within the +circumference of their awful shadows. + +As to physical evil, Mr. Newman tells us, "Here may be sufficient to +remark, that the difficulty on the Epicurean assumption, that physical +case and comfort is the most valuable thing in the universe: but that +is not true even with brutes. There is a certain perfection in the +nature of each, consisting in the full development of all their powers, +to which the existing order manifestly tends ...... As for +susceptibility to pain, it is obviously essential to every part of +corporeal life, and to discuss the question of degree is absurd. On the +other hand, human capacity for sorrow is equally necessary to our +whole moral nature, and sorrow itself is a most essential process +for the perfecting of the soul." (Soul, pp. 43, 44.) + +This, then, is the fine balm for all the anguish under which the +world has been groaning for these thousands of years! But, first, +how does suffering tend to the perfection of the whole lower creation? +It enfeebles, and at last destroys them, I know; but I am yet to +Learn that it is essential to the perfection of animal life. +Again, how does it minister to that of man, except he be more than +the insect of the day, of which Mr. Newman's theology leaves him in +utter doubt? And if he be immortal, how does it operate beneficially +except as an instrument of moral improvement? And how rarely +(comparatively) do we see that it has that effect! How often is it +most prolonged and torturing in those who seem least to need it, and +in those who are absolutely as yet incapable of learning from it; or, +alas! are too evidently past learning from it! How often do we +see, slowly sinking under the protracted agonies of consumption, +cancer, or stone, all these various classes of mortals, without our +being able to assign, or even conjecture, the slightest reason for +such experiments! I acknowledge freely, all, at we can give no +reasons for them; but it is to mock miserable humanity to give +such reasons as these; doubly to mock it, if men be the ephemeral +creatures which Mr. Newman's theology leaves in such doubt: since +in that case we see not only (what we see at any rate) that physical +evil does not always, nor even in many instances, produce a salutary +moral effect, but that it hardly matters whether it does or not; for +just as the poor patient may be beginning to be benefited by his +discipline, and generally in consequence of it, he is unluckily +annihilated; he dies of his medicine! Surely, if physical evil be +this grand elixir, never was such a precious balm so improvidently +expended. We may well say, only with much more reason, what the Jews +said of Mary's box of ointment,--"Why was all this waste?" To be +sure it is "given" in abundance "to the poor." + +And, at the best, this exquisite reasoning gives no account whatever +of that suffering which falls upon innocent infancy and childhood. It +destroys them, however, and effectually prevents their attaining the +"perfection" which it is so admirable an instrument of developing, and +that too before they can be morally benefited by the "salutary" sorrow +it brings! + +"Susceptibility to pain," says Mr. Newman, "is essential to corporeal +being." + +Yes, susceptibility to pain; just as a created being must be liable to +annihilation. Must he be annihilated? Just as a hungry stomach must be +liable to starvation. Must it be starved? The primary office of +susceptibilities to pain would seem to be to forewarn us to provide +against it. They certainly have that effect. Does it necessarily +follow that they must involve anguish and death? Unless it be supposed, +indeed, that nature, having provided such an admirable apparatus of +"susceptibilities" of pain, thought it a thousand pities that they +should not be employed. + +But when it comes to "moral evil," which Mr. Newman acknowledges cannot +be so lightly disposed of, what then? + +Why, then he says, "Let the Gordian knot be cut." + +Well, what then? Why, then Mr. Newman frankly "assumes" that it is +"transitory and finite," (Soul, p. 45.) and will one day vanish from +the universe, a supposition for which he condescends to give no reason +whatever. + +Stat pro ratione voluntas. + +That this "moral evil" should have existed at all, much more to so +immense an extent, under the administration of supposed infinite power, +wisdom, and benevolence, is the great difficulty; that it will ever +cease to be, is a pure assumption for the nonce; but if it will one +day entirely vanish, it is gratuitous to suppose it might not have +been prevented. + +I, of course, acknowledge that we can give no answer to the questions +involved in this transcendent mystery,--that our ignorance is absolute; +but I do say, that, if I am to trust to those "intuitions" of the +Divine Goodness, on whose warranty Mr. Newman and Mr. Parker reject +the Bible, as containing what is unworthy of their conceptions of God, +I am compelled to proceed further in the same direction; and repudiate, +as unworthy of Him, not merely some of the phenomena of the Book which +men profess to be His word, but also some of the phenomena of that +universe which men profess to be His work. If I can only judge, as +these gentlemen urge, of such a Being by the analogies of my own +nature, no "intuition" of theirs can possibly seem stronger than do +mine, that beings absolutely innocent ought not to suffer; that to +inflict suffering upon them is injustice; that to permit any evils +which we can prevent is in like manner to be accomplices in the +crime. On those very principles of all moral judgment which Mr. Newman +says are innate and our only rule, I say I am compelled to these +conclusions; for if God does those things which are ordinarily +attributed to Him, He acts as much in contravention of these +intuitions as in any acts attributed to Him in the Bible. If it be +said, that there may be reasons for such apparent violations of +rectitude, which we cannot fathom, I deny it not: but that is to +acknowledge that the supposed maxims derived from the analogies of +our own being are most deceptive as applied to the Supreme; it is to +remit us to an act of absolute faith, by which, with no greater effort, +nor so great, we may be reconciled to similar mysteries of the Bible. +But above all is it to do this, to say that the origin and permission +of physical and moral evil are inexplicable; and it is to double this +demand on faith, to declare that it was all necessary, and could not +be evaded in the construction of the universe even by infinite power, +directed by infinite wisdom, and both animated by an infinite benevolence! +As far as I can trust my reason at all, nothing seems more improbable; +and if I receive it by a transcendent exercise of faith, I may, as +before, give the Bible the benefit of a like act. I am compelled, +therefore, on such principles, either to adopt a Manichaean hypothesis +of the universe, or do what I have done,--adopt none at all. + +I was talking to a friend on these subjects the other day: "Ah! but," +said he, "many of those difficulties you mention oppress every +hypothesis,--Christianity just as much as the rest." + +This, I replied, is no answer to me nor to you, if you have a +particle of candor; still less is it one to the Christian, who +consistently applies the same principle of absolute faith to things +apparently a priori incredible, whether found in the works or in the +word of God. But if you think the argument of any force, apply it to +the next Christian you meet, and see what answer he will make to you; +it will not trouble him. But it is far more ridiculous addressed to me. +I ask for something in the place of that Bible of which the faithful +application of your own principles deprives me; and when I affirm that +the difficulties of the universe are no less than those of the Bible I +have surrendered, you tell me that the perplexities of my new position +are no greater than those of the old! That clearly will not do. I must +go further. If I am to yield to pretensions of any kind, I would +infinitely prefer the yoke of the Bible to that of Messrs. Parker and +Newman; for it is to nothing else than their dogmatism I must yield, +if I admit that the difficulties which compel me to doubt in the one +case are less than those which compel me to doubt in the other. + +But it is not even true that the difficulties in question are left +where they were by the adoption of any such theory as that of either +Mr. Parker or Mr. Newman. I contend that they are all indefinitely +increased. The Bible does at least give me a plausible account of +some of the mysteries which baffle me: it tells me that man was created +holy and happy; that he has fallen from his "excellent estate"; and +hence the misery, ignorance, and guilt in which he is involved, and +which have rendered revelation necessary. + +But--and it brings me to the last step of my argument--if I accept +the theory of the universe propounded by these writers, not only am +I left without any such approximate solutions, or, if that be thought +too strong a term, without any such alleviations, but all the +difficulties as regards the character, attributes, and administration +of God, are increased a thousand-fold. The Scripture account of the +"fall,"--however inexplicable it may be that God should have permitted +it,--yet does expressly assert that, somehow or other, it is man's +fault, not God's; that man is not in his normal condition, nor in the +condition for which he was created. Dark as are the clouds which +envelop the Divine Ruler, "their skirts are tinged with gold,"--pervaded +and penetrated throughout their dusky depths by that mercy which assures +us that, in some intelligible sense, this condition of man is contrary +to the Divine Will, which, from the first, resolved to remedy it; and +that a day is coming when what is mysterious shall be explained,--so +far, at least, that what has been "wrong" shall be "righted." But what +is the theory of the universe propounded by these writers? So hideous +(I solemnly declare it) that I feel ten times more compelled to reject +the universe as a work of an infinitely gracious, wise, and powerful +Creator, than if the difficulties had been simply left where the Bible +leaves them. According to their theory, man is now, just what he was +at first,--as he came from his Creator's hand; or rather in some parts +of the world (thanks to himself though) a little better than he was +originally; that God cast man forth, so constituted by the unhappy +mal-admixture of the elements of his nature,--with such an inevitable +subjection of the "idea" to the "conception," of the "spiritual +faculty" to "the degraded types,"--that for unnumbered ages--for +aught we know, myriads of ages--man has been slowly crawling up, +a very sloth in "progress" (poor beast!), from the lowest Fetichism +to Polytheism,--from Polytheism, in all its infinitude of degrading +forms, to imperfect forms of Monotheism; and how small a portion of +the race have even imperfectly reached this last term, let the +spectacle of the world's religions at the present moment proclaim! +From the more imperfect forms of Monotheism, the race is gradually +to make "progress" to something else,--Heaven knows what! but +certainly something still far below the horizon,--still concealed in +the illimitable future. For this gradual transformation from the +veriest religions grub into the spiritual Psyche, man was expressly +equipped by the constitution of his nature,--he was created this +grub. For all this truly geological spiritualism, and for all the +infinitude of hideous superstitions and cruel wrongs involved in the +course of this precious development, Mr. Parker tells us there was a +necessity,--nothing less! It was necessary, no doubt for his logic, +that he should say so; but, apart from his own argumentative exigencies, +it is impossible even to imagine any necessity whatever. It was an +"ordeal," it seems, through which man was obliged to pass. What is all +this, but to acknowledge the unaccountable nature of the problem? + +With this "religious" theory admirably coincides the hypothesis of +man's having been originally created a savage, from which he was +gradually exalted to the lowest stages of civilization,--a theory +which I thought had (in mere shame) been abandoned to some few Deists +of the last century, or the commencement of this. It is true that these +writers do not expressly indorse it; but it is easy to see that they +favor it; and it is most certain that it alone is consistent with their +parallel theory of man's "religious development" from the vilest +Fetichism to (shall we say?) a mythical Christianity; though even +to that very few have yet arrived. According to this theory, the +Great Father--supposed a being of infinite power, wisdom, and +Goodness--threw his miserable offering on the face of the earth, +with an admirable "absolute religion," no doubt, and an "admirable +spiritual faculty," but the "idea" so inevitably subject to +thwarting "conceptions," and the "spiritual faculty" so perpetually +debauched by "awe and reverence," and the whole rabble of emotions +and affections with which it was to keep company,--in fact, with +the elements of his nature originally so ill poised and compounded, +--that everywhere and for unnumbered ages man has been doomed and +necessitated, and for unnumbered ages will be doomed and necessitated, +to wallow in the most hideous, degrading, cruel forms of superstition, +--inflicting and suffering reciprocally all the dreadful evils and +wrongs which are entailed by them. For this man was created; such a +thing he was,--through this "ordeal" he passes,--by original +destination. If this be the picture of the Father of All, he is less +kind to his off-spring than the most intimate "intuitions" teach +them to be to theirs. The voice of nature teaches them not to expose +their children; the Universal Father, according to this theory, +remorselessly exposed his! Such a God, projected by the "spiritual +faculties" of Mr. Newman and Mr. Parker, may be imagined to be a more +worthy object of worship than the "God of the Bible": he shall never +receive mine. If I am to abjure the Bible because it gives me +unworthy conceptions of the Deity, I must, with more reason, abjure, +on similar grounds, such a detestable theory of man's creation, +destination, and history. + +As to that "progress" which is promised for the future, it is like +the necessity for the past, purely an invention of Mr. Parker; if I +receive it, I must receive it simply as matter of prophecy. If the +necessity has continued so long, then, for aught I know, it may +continue for ever; the evil is all too certain,--the bright futurity +is still a futurity. But if it ever became a reality, it would not +neutralize one of the dark imputations which such a theory of the +original destination and creation of man casts on the Divine +character; not to say, that, if Mr. Newman's doubts of man's +immortality be well founded, that better future will be of no +more avail to the myriads of our race who have suffered under the +long iron regime of necessity, than a reprieve to the wretch who +was executed yesterday! + +I told Harrington I must have a copy of the paper he had just read. +I should like, with his leave, to publish it. + +"O, and welcome," said he. "Only remember that its tendency is to show +that there is no tenable resting place between a revealed religion +and none at all; between the Bible and scepticism. If you make men +sceptics,--mind, it is not my fault." + +"I will take the risk," said I. "I wish the controversy to be brought +to the issue you have mentioned. I know there will never be many +sceptics, any more than there will be many atheists; and if men are +convinced that the Via Media is as hard to find as you suppose,--or +as that between Romanism and Protestantism,--they will take refuge in +the BIBLE. And if it be the BOOK OF GOD indeed, this is the issue +to which the great controversy will and ought to come. But how is it +you were not tempted to become an atheist rather than a sceptic?" + +"Why," said he, with a smile, "the great master of the Modern +Academy had fortified me against that. Hume, you know, confesses +that, if men be discovered without any impression of a Deity,--genuine +atheists,--we may assume that they will be found the most degraded +of the species, and only one remove above the brutes. Now I have no +wish to be set down in that category." + +"Very different." said I, "is the account our modern atheists give +of themselves: they are contending that the banishment of God from +the universe, by one or other of the various theories of Atheism or +Pantheism (which I take to be the same thing, with different names), +is the tendency of all modern science? and that when that science +is perfect, God will be no more." + +"My dear uncle," replied Harrington, "you are insufficiently informed +in the mystery of modern theology. There are no atheists, properly +speaking; they who are so called merely deny any personal, conscious, +intelligent sovereign of the universe. Even those who call themselves +so, and will have it that they are so, are told that they are none. I +myself have perused statements of some of our modern 'spiritualists,' +who know every thing, even other people's consciousness quite as +well as their own (and perhaps better), that the said atheists are +mistaken in thinking themselves such; that such genuine love of the +spirit of universal nature is something truly divine, and that they +are animated by 'a deeply religious spirit,' though they never +suspected it!" + +"Well," said I. "if you had too much reason, as you flattered yourself +(adopting Hume's criterion), to become an atheist, could you not have +adopted such views as those of Mr. G. Atkinson and Miss Martineau, who +both possess surely (as they claim to possess) that 'religious reverence' +of nature of which you have just spoken?" + +"Why," he replied, "I am afraid that, if I had too much reason for +the one, I have not faith enough for the other. That the miracles and +prophecies of the Bible may possibly have been true,--only the effect +of mesmerism;--that things quite as wonderful, or more so, happen +every day by this wonderful agent;--that every phenomenon that takes +place does so in virtue a perfectly wise LAW, without any wise +LAWGIVER;--that this wise law has, it seems, prearranged that man +should generally exhibit an inveterate tendency to religious systems +of some kind, though all religions are absurd, and persist in believing +in his free will, though free from a downright impossibility;--that +these contradictions and absurdities of man are the result of an +irreversible necessity, and yet that Mr. Atkinson may hope to correct +them;--that, by the same necessity, man is in no degree culpable or +responsible, and yet that Mr. Atkinson may perpetually blame him; +--that no man can do any thing 'wrong,' and yet that till he believes +that, man will never cease to do it;--that people may read without +their eyes, and distinguish colors as colors though they are born +blind;--that Bacon was an atheist, and that this may be proved by +induction from his own writings;--these and other paradoxes, which +I must believe, if I believe Mr. Atkinson, require a faith which it +would really be unreasonable to expect from such a sceptic as I am." + +____ + + +July 18. Till three days ago, nothing since my last date has +occurred having any special relation to the sole object of this +journal. I was glad to escape on the 13th to a quiet church some +miles off; and, after a plain and simple, but earnest, sermon from +a venerable clergyman (of whom I should like to know a little more), +I further refreshed my spirit by a long and solitary ramble of +some hours through the beautiful scenery in the midst of which +Harrington's dwelling is situated. In the course of it, I reviewed +my own early conflicts, and augured from them happier days for +my beloved nephew. I went carefully over all the main points of the +argument for and against the truth of Christianity, which in youth +had so often occupied me, and resolved that on some fair opportunity +I would recount my story to him and Mr. Fellowes. I little thought +then that I should have a larger and very miscellaneous audience to +listen to me. But this will account for my not being to seek (as +they say) when the occasion presented itself. + +Three days ago (the 16th) a queer company assembled in Harrington's +quiet house. The conversations and incidents connected with that day +have led me to take refuge for the last two mornings in the solitude +of my own chamber, that I might, undisturbed, recall and record them +with as much accuracy and fulness as possible. Very much, indeed, +that I wished to remember has vanished; but the substance of what +too many said, as well as what I said myself made too deep an +impression to be easily obliterated. + +Be it known to you, my dear brother, that I have been not a little +amused, I may even say instructed, by a trick played by your madcap +nephew, for the honor and glory, I suppose, of his scepticism, or for +some other motive, not easily divined. He promised me significantly +an entertainment, in which I should enjoy the "feast of reason and +the flow of soul," by which I little thought that he was going to +collect a rare party of "Rationalists" and "Spiritualists," in fact, +representatives of all the more prominent forms, whether of belief +or unbelief. I may as well call it the + +SCEPTIC'S SELECT PARTY. + +You remember, I doubt not, the humorous paper in the Spectator, in +which Addison introduces the whimsical nobleman who used to invite to +his table parties of men (strangers to one another) all characterized +by some similar personal defect or infirmity. On one occasion, twelve +wooden-legged men found stumping into his dining-room, one after +another, making, of course, a terrible clatter; on another, twelve +guests, who all had the misfortune to squint, amused their host with +their ludicrous cross lights; and on a third, the same number of +stutterers entertained him still more, not only by their uncouth +impediment, but by the anger with which they began to sputter at +one another, on the supposition that each was mocking his neighbor. +A short-hand writer, behind the scenes, was employed to take down +the conversation, which, says the witty essayist, was easily done, +inasmuch as one of the gentlemen was a quarter of an hour in saying +"that the ducks and green peas were very good," and another almost +an equal time in assenting to it. At the conclusion, however, the +derided guests became aware of the trick their entertainer had played +upon them; and from their hands, quicker than their tongues, he was +obliged to make a precipitate retreat. Our dinner-party of yesterday +did not break up in any such fracas, nor was the conversation so +unhappily restricted. Yet the company was hardly better assorted. To +bring it together, Harrington ransacked his immediate circle, and +Fellowes unconsciously recruited for him in the university town. Our +host had provided for our mutual edification an Italian gentleman, +with whom he had had some pleasant intercourse on the Continent, (by +the way he spoke English uncommonly well,) and now staying with a +Roman Catholic in the neighborhood: this gentleman himself, with +whom Harrington, by means of his former friend, has knocked up an +acquaintance (he is a liberal Catholic of the true British species); +our acquaintance, Fellowes, with his love of "insight" and +"spiritualism"! a young surgeon from ----., a rare, perhaps unique, +specimen of conversion to certain crude atheistical speculations of +Mr. Atkinson and Miss Martineau; a young Englishman (an acquaintance +of Harrington's) just fresh from Germany, after sundry semesters +at Bonn and Tubingen, five hundred fathoms deep in German philosophy, +and who hardly came once to the surface during the whole entertainment; +three Rationalists (acquaintances of Fellowes), standing at somewhat +different points in the spiritual thermometer, one a devoted advocate +of Strauss: add to these a Deist, no unworthy representative of the +old English school; one or two others further gone still; a Roman +Catholic priest, an admirer of Father Newman, who therefore believes +every thing; our sceptical friend Harrington, who believes nothing; +and myself, still fool enough to believe the Bible to be "divine," +--and you will acknowledge that a more curious party never sat +down to edify one another with their absurdities and contradictions. + +Questionable as was the entertainment for the mind, that for the body +was unexceptionable. The dinner was excellent; our host performed his +duties with admirable tact and grace; and somehow speedily put +every body at his ease. Relieved, according to the judicious modern +mode, of the care of supplying the plates of his guests, he had eye, +ear, and tongue for every one, and leisure to direct the conversation +into what channel he pleased. He took care to turn it for some time on +indifferent topics; and each man lost his reserve and his frigidity +almost before he was aware; so that, by the time dinner was fairly +over, every one was ready for animated conversation. If any one began +to have queer suspicions of his neighbors, he felt, as on board ship, +that he was in for it, and bound, by common politeness, to make the +best of it. The Deist, addressing himself to the Italian gentleman, +asked him if he had heard lately from Italy. He replied in the +negative. + +"I can tell you some news, then," said he. "They say that the head +of the illustrious Guicciardini family has been just imprisoned at +Florence, having been detected reading in Diodati's Bible a chapter +in the Gospel of St. John. Supposing the fact true, for a moment, +may I ask if it would be the wish of the Roman Catholic Church, were +she to regain her power in England, to imprison every one who was +found reading a chapter in John? If so, England would have to enlarge +her prisons." + +"Not much," said one of the Rationalist gentlemen, laughing; "for if +things go on as they have done, there will not, in a few years, be +many who will be found reading a chapter in John." + +"Perhaps so," said Harrington, smiling, "but, if for the reason +you would assign, few will be found in church either; and the +ecclesiastical authorities might perhaps put you in prison for +that instead." + +"O, I will answer for him!" said the Deist, who knew something of +his plasticity; "our friend is very accommodating, and though he +would not like to go to go to church, he would still less like to +go to prison. And to church he would go; and look very devout into +the bargain. But, however, I should like to hear what your Italian +guest has to say to my question." + +The impatience of the English Catholic could not be repressed. + +"If," said he, "the Roman Catholic religion were to regain its +ascendency to-morrow, it would leave our entire code of laws, +liberties, and privileges just as it found them; it is one of the +many calumnies with which our Church is continually treated, to say +that she would act otherwise: and were it not so, I would +immediately desert her." + +The Catholic priest did not look well pleased with this frank avowal. + +"I quite believe you," said our host. "I believe you are too much of +an Englishman to say or to act otherwise." + +"So do I," said the Deist; "I moreover agree with you, that, if the +Roman Catholic religion were to regain her ascendency to-morrow, she +would leave all our privileges intact; but would she the next day, +and the day after that? In other words, is it an essential principle +with her to persecute,--as in this instance, to imprison for peeping +between the leaves of the Bible,--or is it not? Do you think, Signor, +that in such acts the principles of your Church are complied with +or violated?" + +The Italian gentleman looked perplexed; he presumed that the Catholic +Church complied with the actual laws of every country; and if such +Country chose to deny religious liberty, the Church did not deem +it requisite to declare opposition. + +"I fear that is no answer to my question," cried the other, a little +cavalierly. "It cannot serve you, Signor. It would not, indeed, serve +you anywhere for we know the anxiety with which Rome has expressly +secured, in her recent concordat with Spain, the recognition of the +most intolerant maxims. But least can it serve you in the Papal +States, where, unluckily for your observation, the Pope is monarch. +Your remark would imply that your Church favored the principles of +religious liberty rather than otherwise, but did not deem it right +to oppose the will of civil governments. Are we to understand by that, +that the chief of the Papal States abhors as a Pope what he does as +a sovereign? that in the one capacity he protests against what he +allows in the other? No, no," continued this brusque assailant, "It is +too late to talk in that way. If the Church of Rome really approve +of religious liberty,--of such principles as those which govern +England,--where are her protests and her efforts against intolerance +and persecution where she still retains power? It is the least that +humanity can expect of her. If not, let her plainly say that, when +she regains power in England, she will reform us to the condition +of Spain and Italy in this matter. For my part, I frankly +acknowledge, that I have more respect for a Roman Catholic who +proclaims that it is inconsistent for his Church to tolerate where +it has the power to repress, because I see that that is her uniform +practice, and therefore ought to be her avowed maxim." + +The Roman Catholic priest, who is a devoted admirer of Father Newman, +said that he thought so too; and quoted some candid recent admissions +to that effect from certain English Roman Catholic periodicals. +"To employ," said he, "the very words of a recent convert to us +from the Anglican Church, 'The Church of Rome may say, I cannot +tolerate you; it is inconsistent with my principles; but you can +tolerate me, for it is not inconsistent with yours." + +The Deist remarked that it was straightforward; that he admired it. +"Though as an argument," said he, "it is much as if a robber should +say to an honest man on the king's highway, 'How advantageously I +am situated! You cannot rob me, for it is inconsistent with your +principles; but I can rob you, for I have none.'" + +Another of the company observed that he feared it was in vain for +the Church of Rome to contend that she was favorable to freedom of +opinion, in any degree or form, so long as the "Index Expurgatorius" +was in existence, or such stringent means adopted to repress the +circulation and perusal of the Scriptures. + +The liberal English Catholic again chafed at this last indictment. +"It was," he said, "another of the calumnies with which his Church +was treated." + +"Hardly a calumny, my good sir," replied the other, "in the face of +such facts as that which gave rise to the present conversation, of +the encyclical letters of Pius VII., Leo XII., Gregory XVI., and +many other Popes, and the well-known fact that it is impossible +to obtain in Rome itself a copy of the Scriptures, except at an +enormous price, and even then it must be read by special license. +Pardon me," he continued, still addressing the English Catholic, +"I mean nothing offensive to you; but neither I nor any other English +Protestant can consent to admit you sincerely liberal English Roman +Catholics to be in a condition to give us the requisite information +touching the maxims and principles of your Church. You have been too +long accustomed to enjoy and revere religious liberty, not to imagine +your Church sympathizes with it; you do not realize what she is abroad; +and if you be sincere in condemning such acts as that which led to +this conversation, as inconsistent with her genuine principles, why +the ominous silence of you and your co-religionists in all such cases? +Where are your protests and efforts? How is it you do not denounce +maxims and practices so rife throughout Papal Christendom, since you +say you would denounce them, if it were attempted to realize them here? +When you protest with one voice against these things as inconsistent +(so you say) with the principles of your Church, and as therefore +deeply dishonoring her,--whether your views on this point be right +or wrong,--we shall at least admit you to have a title to give us an +opinion on the subject." + +"Even then, though," said the Deist, "we may think it safer to consult +the opinions, and, what is the practices, of the vast majority of +the Roman Catholic Church, and her conduct in the countries in which +she holds undisputed sway, and therefore I am anxious to hear whether +the Signor would justify imprisonment for reading the Bible." + +Our host seemed to think that the conversation proceeded in this +direction quite far enough; and his foreign guest should be made +uncomfortable by these close inquiries, observed, sarcastically, +that he was glad to find that the querists were so anxious to +secure the inestimable privilege of freely reading Scriptures. "It +is the more admirable," said he to last speaker, "as I am aware it +is most disinterested; you having too little value for the Scriptures +to read them yourself. Sic vos non vobis: you labor for others. +You remind me of the colloquy in the 'Citizen of the World,' between +the debtor in jail and the soldier outside his prison window. They +were discussing, you recollect, the chances of a French invasion. +'For my part,' cries the prisoner, 'the greatest of my apprehensions +is for our freedom; if the French should conquer, what would become +of English liberty? 'It is not so much our liberties,' says the +soldier, with a profane oath, 'as our religion, that would suffer +by such a change; ay, our religion, my lads!'" + +The company laughed, and the assailants forgot the former topics. Our +host went on further to encourage his foreign guest, though in a +left-handed way, with a gravity which, if I had not known him, would +not only have staggered, but even imposed upon me. + +"For my part," said he, "my good Sir, if I were you, I should not +hesitate to acknowledge at once that it is not only the true policy, +but the solemn duty, of the Church of Rome to seclude as much as +possible the Scriptures from the people." The gentleman looked +gratified, and the guests were all attention. "In my judgment much +more can be said on behalf of the practice than at first appears; and +if I sincerely believed all you do, I should certainly advocate the +most stringent measures of repression." + +The foreigner began to look quite at his ease. "For example," continued +Harrington, in a very quiet tone, "supposing I believed, as you do, +that the Holy Virgin is entitled to all the honors which you pay her, +so that, as is well known, in Italy and other countries, she even +eclipses her Son, and is more eagerly and fondly worshipped,--it +would be impossible for me to peruse the meagre accounts given in +the New Testament of this so prominent an object of Catholic +reverence and worship,--to read the brief, frigid, not to say harsh +speeches of Christ,--to contemplate the stolidity of the Apostles with +regard to her, throughout their Epistles,--never even mentioning her +name,--I say it would be impossible for me to read all this without +having the idea suggested that it was never intended that I should +pay her such homage as you demand for her, or without feeling +suspicious that the New Testament disowned it and knew nothing of it." + +"Very true," said the Italian: "I must say that I have often felt that +there is such a danger to myself." + +"Similarly, what a shock would it perpetually be to my deep reverence +for the spiritual head of the Church, and my conviction of his +undoubted inheritance, from the Prince of the Apostles, of his +august prerogatives, to find no trace of such a personage as the +Pope in the sacred page,--the title of 'Bishop of Rome' never +whispered,--no hint given that Peter was ever even there! I really +think it would be impossible to read the book without feeling my +flesh creep and my heart full of doubt. Similarly, take that single +mystery of 'transubstantiation'; though it seems sufficiently +asserted in one text, which therefore it well (as is, indeed, the +practice with every pious Catholic) continually to quote alone, yet, +when I look into other portions of the New Testament, I see how +perpetually Christ is employing metaphors equally strong, without +any such mystery being attached to them. I cannot but feel that I +and every other vulgar reader would be sure to be exposed to the +peril of suspecting that in that single case a metaphorical meaning +much more probable than so great a mystery." + +"You reason fairly, my dear Sir," said the Italian. + +"Again," continued Harrington, blandly bowing to the compliment, +"believing, as I should, in the efficacy of the intercessions of +the saints, in the worship of images, in seven sacraments, in +indulgences, and necessity of observing a ritual incomparably more +elaborate than an undeveloped Christianity admitted, how very, very +apt I should be to misinterpret many passages, both in the Old +Testament and the New! How is it possible that the vulgar reader +should be able to limit the command not to bow down 'to any graven +image' to its true meaning,--that is, 'to any image' except those +of the Virgin and all the saints; to interpret aright the passages +which speak so absolutely about the one Mediator and Intercessor, +when there are thousands! How will he be necessarily startled to +find 'seven' sacraments grown out of 'two'! How will he be shocked +at the apparent--of course only apparent--contempt with which +St. Paul speaks of ritual and ceremonial matters, of the futility of +'fasts' and distinctions of 'meats and drinks,' of observing 'days +and months and years.' and so on. His whole language, I contend, +would necessarily mislead the simple into heresies innumerable. Of +numberless texts, again, even if the meaning were not mistaken, the +true meaning would never be discovered unless the Church had +declared it. Who, for example, would have supposed that the doctrine +of the Pope's supremacy and universal jurisdiction lay hid under +expressions such as 'I say unto thee that thou art Peter,' and +'Feed my sheep'; or that the two swords of the Prince of the +Apostles meant the temporal and spiritual authority with which +he was invested? Under such circumstances, I must say, that, if I +were a devout Catholic, I should plead for the absolute suppression +of a book so infinitely likely--nay, so necessarily certain--to +mislead." + +"It is precisely on that ground," said the Italian, "and on that +ground only, the welfare of the Church, that our Holy Mother does +not approve of the Bible being read generally. The true theory of +the Roman Catholic Church would never be elicited from it." + +"Precisely so," said our host, gravely; "I am sure it could not." + +"But then," remarked our friend, the Deist, "since the Church of +Rome holds this book to be the inspired revelation of God to mankind, +is it not singular to say that this 'revelation' requires to be +carefully concealed from mankind; that the Bible is invaluable, +indeed, but only while it is unread; and that, in fact, the Church +knows herself better than Jesus Christ himself did? for in that +book we are supposed to have the words of Him and her founders, +and yet it seems they could only mislead! 'Never man spake like this +man,' may well be said of Christ, if this were true." + +"Never mind him, Signor," said our host. "He secretly cannot but +approve of your end, though he disapproves the means." The Deist +looked surprised. + +"Why, have you not sometimes said that you believe the Bible to be, +in many respects, a most pernicious book? that many of the most +obstinate and dangerous prejudices of mankind are principally +due to it? and that you wish it were in your power to destroy it?" + +"Well, I certainly have thought so, if not said so." + +"Then you approve of the end, though you disapprove of the means. +You ought to thank our friend here, and regret that his work is not +done more effectually. But enough of this. I must not have my +respected Roman Catholic guests alone put on the defensive. The +Signor fairly tells us what his system is in relation to the Bible +and why he would place it under lock and key; he tells you also what +better thing he substitutes when he removes the Bible. I really think +it is but fair and candid in you to do as much. I know you all +believe that you are not only in quest of religious truth, but have +found it to some extent or other:--for my own part I am exempted +from speaking; for I have given over the search in despair." + +This frank acknowledgment was followed by some highly curious +conversation, of which I regret my inability to recall all the +particulars. Suffice it to say, that there were not two who were +agreed either as to the grounds on which Christianity was deemed a +thing of naught, or on what was to be substituted in its place; one +even had his doubts whether any thing need be substituted, and +another thought that any thing might be. One of the Rationalists was +a little offended at being supposed willing to "abandon" the Bible +at all: he declared, on the contrary, his unfeigned reverence for +the New Testament at least, as containing, in larger mass and purer +ore than any other book in the world, the principles of ethical truth; +that he was willing even to admit--with exquisite naivete--that it +was inspired in the same sense in which Plato's Dialogues and the Koran +were inspired; he merely dispensed with all that was supernatural and +miraculous and mystical! The Deist laughed, and told him that he +believed just as much, if that constituted a Christian. "I believe," +said he, "that the New Testament is quite as much inspired as the +Koran of Mahomet; and that it contains more of ethical truth (however +it came there) than is to be found in any other book of equal bulk. +But," he proceeded, "if you dispense with all that is miraculous in +the facts, and all that is peculiar and characteristic in the +doctrines,--that is, all which discriminates Christianity from any +other religion,--I am afraid that your Christianity is own born +brother to my Infidelity. As for your reverence for this inspired +book, since you must reject ninety per cent. of the whole, it seems +to me very gratuitous; equally so, whether you suppose the compilers +believed or disbelieved the facts and doctrines you reject; if the +former, and they were deceived, they must have been inspired +idiots; if the latter, and were deceiving others, they were surely +inspired knaves. For my part," he continued, "while I hold that the +book somehow does unaccountably contain more of the morally true +and beautiful than any book of equal extent, I also hold that +Christianity itself is a pure imposture from beginning to end." + +This coarse avowal of adherence to the elder, and, after all, more +intelligible deism, brought down upon him at once two of the company. +One was the disciple of Strauss (I mean as regards his theory of the +origin of Christianity, not as regards his Pantheism); the other a +Rationalist, with about the same small tatters of Christianity +fluttering about him, but who was a little disposed, like so many +German theologians, to consider Strauss as somewhat passe. Unhappily, +got athwart each other's bows shortly after they into action. They +both enlarged--really in a edifying manner, I could have listened +to them an hour--on the absurdity of the Deist's argument! "What!" +cried one; "the purest system of ethics from the most shameless +impostors!" "And what do you make of the infinitely varied and +inimitable marks of simplicity and honesty in the writers?" cried +the other. "And who does not see the impossibility of getting up the +miracles so as to impose upon a world of bitter and prejudiced enemies +in open day?" exclaimed the Rationalist. "They were obviously mere +myths," cried the Straussian. "That I must beg to doubt," said the +other. And now, as they proceeded to give each his own solution of +the difficulty, the scene became comic in the extreme. The Rationalist +ridiculed the notion that nations and races, all of whom, in the nature +of things, must have been prejudiced against such myths as those of +Christianity, could originate or would believe them; and still more, +the notion that in so short a space of time these wildest of wild +legends (if legends at all) could induce the world to acquiesce +in them as historic realities! In his zeal he even said, that, +though not altogether satisfied with it, he would sooner believe +all the frigid glosses by which the school of Paulus had endeavored +to resolve the miracles into misunderstood "natural phenomena." As +the dispute became more animated between these three champions, they +exhibited a delicate trait of human nature, which I saw our sceptical +host most maliciously enjoyed. Each became more anxious to prove that +his mode of proving Christianity false was the true mode, than to +prove the falsehood of Christianity itself. "I tell you what," said +the Straussian, with some warmth, "sooner than believe all the +absurdities of such an hypothesis as that of Paulus, I could believe +Christianity to be what it professes to be." "I may say the same of +that of Strauss," said the other, with equal asperity; "if I had no +better escape than his, I could say to him, as Agippa to Paul, 'Almost +thou persuadest me to be a Christian.'" "For my part," exclaimed the +Deist, who was perfectly contented with his brief solution,--the +difficulties of the problem he had never had the patience to master, +--"I should rather say, as Festus to Paul, 'Much learning has made +you both mad': and sooner than believe the impossibilities of the +theory of either,--sooner than suppose men honestly and guilelessly +to have misled the world by a book which you and I admit to be a +tissue of fables, legends, and mystical non-sense,--I could almost +find it in my heart to go over to the Pope himself." + +"Good," whispered our host to me, who sat at his left hand; "we shall +have them all becoming Christians, by and by, just to spite one +another." The admirer of Mr. Atkinson and Miss Martineau here +reminded the company that the miracles of the New Testament might be +true,--only the result of mesmerism. "Christ," said he, "to employ +the words of Mr. Atkinson, was constitutionally a clairvoyant ..... +Prophecy and miracle and inspiration are the effects of abnormal +conditions of man ..... Prophecy, clairvoyance, healing by touch, +visions, dreams, revelations, .... are now known to be simple +matters in nature, which may be induced at will, and experimented +upon at our firesides, here in England (climate and other +circumstances permitting), as well as in the Holy Land."* But no +one seemed prepared to receive this hypothesis. At last, our host, +addressing the Deist, said, "But you forget, Mr. M., that, though +you find it insurmountably difficult to conceive a book full of +lies (as you express it) to have been, consciously or unconsciously, +the product of honest and guileless minds, you ought to find it a +little difficult to conceive a book (as you admit the New Testament +to be) of profound moral worth produced by shameless impostors. But +let that pass. Let us assume that Christianity, as a supernaturally +revealed and miraculously authenticated system, is false, though you +are dolefully at variance as to how it is to be proved so; let us +assume, I say, that this system is false, and dismiss it. I am much +more anxious to hear what is the positive system of religious truth, +which you are of course each persuaded is the true one. I have left +off to seek,' but if any one will find the truth for me without my +'seeking' it, how rejoiced shall I be!" + +--- +* He cited the substance of these sentiments. I have since referred +to, and here quote, the ipsissima verba. See "Letters," &c., +pp. 175, 212. +--- + +Painful as were the "revelations" which ensued, I would not have +missed them on any account. "In vino veritas," says the proverb +which on this occasion lied most vilely; yet it was true in the +only sense in which "veritas" is there used; for there was unbounded +candor and frankness, under the inspiring hospitality of our host, +aided by his skilful management of the conversation. Nor was there, +I am bound to say, much of coarse ribaldry, even from the free-spoken +representative of the Tindals and Woolstons of other days. But the +varieties of judgment and opinion in that small company were almost +numberless. Fellowes, and two of the Rationalists, were firm believers +in the theory of "insight"; that the human spirit derives, by immediate +intuition from the "depths" of its consciousness, a "revelation of +religious and spiritual truth." They differed, however, as to several +articles; but especially as to the little point, whether the fact +of man's future existence was amongst the intimations of man's +religious nature; one contending that it was, another that it was +not, and Fellowes, as usual, with several more of the company, +declaring that their consciousness told them nothing about the +matter either way. But when some one further declared, amidst these +very disputes, that this internal revelation was so clear and plain +as not only to anticipate and supersede any "external" revelation, +but to render it "impossible" to be given, our host suddenly broke +out into a fit of laughter. The disputants were silent, and every +one looked to him for an explanation. He seemed to feel that it was +due, and, after apologizing for his rudeness, said, that, while +some of them were asserting man's clear internal revelation, he +could not help thinking of the whimsical contrast presented by the +diversified speculations and opinions of even this little party, +and the infinitely more whimsical contrast presented by the gross +delusions of polytheism and superstition, which in such endless +variations of form and unchanging identity of folly had misled +the nations of the earth for so many thousands of years: "And just +then," said he, "it occurred to me what a curious commentary it +would be on the asserted unity and sufficiency of 'internal +revelation,' if the 'Great Exhibition of the Industry of all +Nations' were followed up by a 'Great Exhibition of the Idolatry +of all Nations' under the same roof. Thither night be brought +specimens of the ingenious handicraft of men in the manufacture +of deities; we might have the whole process, in all its varieties, +complete; the raw material of a God in a block of stone or wood, +and the most finished specimen in the shape of a Phidian Jupiter; +the countless bits of trumpery which Fetichism has ever consecrated; +the divine monsters of ancient Egypt, and the equally divine +monsters of modern India; the infinite array of grim deformities +hallowed by American, Asiatic, and African superstition. I imagined, +notwithstanding the vastness of that Crystal Pantheon, there would +still be crowds of their godships who would be obliged to wait +outside, having come too late to exhibit their perfections to +advantage. However, as I went in fancy up the long aisles, and saw, +to the right and the left, the admiring crowds of worshippers, +grimacing, and mowing, and prostrating themselves, with a folly +which might lead one reasonably to suppose, that, miserable as +were the gods, they were gods indeed compared with such worshippers, +I imagined my worthy friend Fellowes in the corner where the Bible, +in its 120 languages, is now kept, employed in delivering a lecture +on the admirable clearness of those intuitions of spiritual truth +which constitute each man's particular oracle, and the superfluity +of all 'external' revelation. This was, I confess, a little too +much for my gravity, and I was involuntarily guilty of the +rudeness for which I now apologize." It was certainly a ridiculous +vision enough; and we made ourselves very merry by pursuing it for +a little while. + +Presently the company resumed their solutions off the great problem. +The Deist remarked, "that one and only one thing was plain, and +indubitable,"--for he was a dogmatist in his way;--it was, "that +intellect and power to an indefinite extent had been at work in +the universe, but whether the Being to whom these attributes +belonged took any cognizance of man, or his actions, he had never +been able to make up his mind." "Yet surely it does make a slight +difference," said Harrington, "since if God takes no cognizance of +man, then, as Cicero long ago remarked of the idle dogs of Epicurus, +--I mean gods of Epicurus, I beg their pardon, but really it does +not matter which consonant comes first,--atheism and deism are much +the same thing." "Why," said the Deist, "there is as much difference +as in the theories of our 'intuitional' friends here, one of whom +admits, and another denies, the future existence of man; for if we +be the ephemeral insects the latter supposes, it little matters +what system of religion we espouse or abjure. However, I am clear +that, if God require any duty of us, it is that we should reverence +him as the Creator of all things,--prayer to him is an absurdity,--and +perform those offices of honest men which are so clearly the dictates +of conscience,--the reward and punishment being exclusively the +result of present laws." + +"Which laws," said his next neighbor, "often secure no reward or +punishment at all,--or rather, often give the reward to the vice of +man, and the punishment to his virtue." "Very true," rejoined the +Deist, "and I must say,"--sagely shaking his head,--"that such +things make me often suspect the whole of that slippery, uncertain +thing called 'natural religion,' whether as taught by the elder +deists or modified by our modern spiritualists. Surely they may be +abundantly charged with the same faults with which they tax the +Christian; for they are full of interminable disputes about the +'truths' or 'sentiments' of their theology." + +One of those who had gone further than our Deists felt disposed to +question all "immutable morality" original "dictates of conscience." +"I doubt," said he, "whether those dictates are any clearer than +those dogmas of 'natural religion' which have been so oppugned; and +I judge so for the same reason,--the endless disputes of men with +regard to the source, the rule, the obligation of what they call +duty; which are exactly similar to the disputes which we charge upon +the Natural Religionist and the Christian." And here he ran through +half a dozen of the two score theories which the history of ethics +presents, rare work with Plato and Aristotle, Hobbes, Cudworth, +Mandeville, and Bentham. "Meantime," he concluded, "we do see, in +point of fact, that the moral rule is most flexible, and to an +indeterminate degree the creature of association, custom, and +education, so that I am inclined to think that that alone is +obligatory which the positive laws and institutions of any society +render binding." "So that" cried Harrington, "a man both may and +ought to thieve in ancient Sparta, may expose his parents in +Hindostan, and commit infanticide in China!" "It is a pity," archly +whispered the Italian guest, "that this gentleman was not born +in China." + +"It is a respectable, but very old speculation," said Harrington, +"of which many ancient moralists avowed themselves the advocates, +but of which it is only fair to admit that Plato and many other +heathens were heartily ashamed." + +It seemed as if the bathos of theological and ethical absurdity could +not lie deeper; but I was mistaken. The admirer of Mr. Atkinson +declared with great modesty that he thought, as did his favorite +author, that the whole world had been mad on the subject of theology +and morality;--that the prime error consisted in the superficial +notion of a Personal Deity, and the foolish attribution of the notion +of "sin" and "crime" to human motives and conduct, instead of regarding +the former as a name of an absolutely unknown cause of the entire +phenomena of the universe, and the latter as part of a series of +rigidly necessary antecedents and consequents, for which man is no +more to be either blamed or praised than the sun for shining or the +avalanche for falling; he added, that only in this way could +man attain peace. "As Mr. Atkinson beautifully says, 'What a hopeful +and calming influence has such a contemplation of nature! At this moment +it is not I, but the nature within me, that dictates my speech and +guides my pen. I am what I am. I cannot alter my will, or be other +than what I am, and cannot deserve either reward or punishment.' But +I feel with him, 'We may preach these things, and men may think us +mad or something worse.'" (Pp. 190, 191.) + +"And perhaps justly," said Harrington, with a laugh, "for nature has +surely, after so many thousands of years, let you know what her law +is, and you say that that law is necessary and irreversible, and yet +you strive to alter it! You had better leave men to their +necessary absurdities." + +"Nay," said the other, "as Mr. Atkinson says, from the recognition of +a universal law we shall develop a universal love; the disposition and +ability to love without offence or ill-feeling towards any; or, as +Miss Martineau represents it,--When the mind has completely surmounted +every idea of a personal God, of a supreme will, 'what repose begins +to pervade the mind! What clearness of moral purpose naturally ensues! +and what healthful activity of the moral faculties!' (p. 219) .... What +a new perception we obtain of the "beauty of holiness,"--the loveliness +of a healthful moral condition,--accordant with the laws of natures, +and not with the requisitions of theology!'" (p. 219.) + +I got him afterwards to show me these passages, for I could hardly +believe that he had quoted them right. + +"And as for morality," continued he, "the knowledge which mesmerism +gives of the influence of body on body, and consequently of mind on +mind, will bring about a morality we have not yet dreamed of. And who +shall disguise his nature and his acts when we cannot be sure at any +moment that we are free from the clairvoyant eye of some one who is +observing our actions and most secret thoughts; and our whole +character and history may be read off at any moment!" (H. G. A. to +H. M., p. 280.) + +What an admirable substitute, thought I, for the idea of an omnipresent +and omniscient Deity! Who will not abstain from lying and stealing +when he thinks, there is possibly some clairvoyant at the antipodes +in mesmeric rapport with his own spirit, and perhaps, by the way, in +very sympathizing rapport, if the clairvoyant happen to be in Australia? + +It was at this point that our young friend from Germany broke in. +"I hold that you are right, Sir," he said to the last speaker, "in +saying that God is not a person; but then it is because, as Hegel +says, he is personality itself--the universal personality which +realizes itself in each human consciousness, as a separate thought of +the one eternal mind. Our idea of the absolute is the absolute itself; +apart from and out of the universe, therefore, there is no God." + +"I think we may grant you that," said Harrington, laughing. + +"Nor," continued the other, "is there any God apart from the +universal consciousness of man. He--" + +"Ought you not to say it?" said Harrington. + +"It, then," said our student, "is the entire process of thought +combining in itself the objective movement in nature with the +logical subjective, and realizing itself in the spiritual totality +of humanity. He (or it, if you will) is the eternal movement of the +universal, ever raising itself to a subject, which first of all in +the subject comes to objectivity and a real consistence, and +accordingly absorbs the subject in its abstract individuality. +God is, therefore, not a person, but personality itself." + +Nobody answered, for nobody understood. + +"Q. E. D.," said Harrington, with the utmost gravity. + +Thus encouraged, our student was going on to show how much more +clear Hegel's views are than those of Schelling. "The only real +existence," he said, "is the relation; subject and object, which +seem contradictory, are really one,--not one in the sense of +Schelling, as opposite poles of the same absolute existence, but +one as the relation itself forms the very idea. Not but what in +the threefold rhythm of universal existence there are affinities +with the three potencies of Schelling; but----" + +"Take a glass of wine." said Harrington to his young acquaintance, +"take a glass of wine, as the Antiquary said to Sir Arthur Wardour, +when he was trying to cough up the barbarous names of his Pictish +ancestors, 'and wash down that bead-roll of unbaptized jargon which +would choke a dog.'" + +We laughed, for we could not help it. + +Our young student looked offended, and muttered something about the +inaptitude of the English for a deep theosophy and philosophy. + +"It is all very well." said he, "Mr. Harrington; but it is not in +this way that the profound questions which, under some aspects, have +divided such minds as Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; and under others, +Gosehel, Hinrichs, Erdmann, Marheineke, Schaller, Gabler -----" + +Harrington burst out laughing. "They divide a good many philosophers +of that last name in England also," said he. + +"Why, what have I said?" replied the other, looking surprised and vexed. + +"Nothing at all," said Harrington, still laughing. "Nothing that I +know of; I am sure I may with truth affirm it. But I beg your pardon +for laughing; only I could not help it, at finding you like so many +other young philosophers born of German theology and philosophy, +attempting to frighten me by a mere roll-call of formidable names. +Why, my friend, it is because these things have, as you say, divided +these great minds so hopelessly, that I am in difficulty; if the +philosophers had agreed about them, it would have been another +story. One would think, to hear them invoked by many a youth here, +that these powerful minds had convinced one another; instead of that, +they have simply confounded one another. It was the very spectacle +of their interminable disputes and distractions in philosophy and +theology,--ever darker and darker, deeper and deeper, as system after +system chased each other away, like the clouds they resemble through +a winter sky;--I say it was the very spectacle of their distractions +which first made me a sceptic; and I think I am hardly likely to be +reconvinced by the mere sound of their names, ushered in by vague +professions of profound admiration of their profundity! The praise +is often oddly justified by citing something or other, which, +obscure enough in the original, is absolute darkness when translated +into English; and must, like some versions I have seen of the +classics, be examined in the original, in order to gain a glimpse of +its meaning." + +The student acknowledged that there was certainly much vague +admiration and pretension amongst young Englishmen in this matter; but +thought that profounder views were to be gathered from these sources +than was generally acknowledged. + +"Very well," replied Harrington; "I do not deny it, perhaps it is so; +and whenever you choose to justify that opinion by expressing in +intelligible English the special views of the special author you +think thus worthy of attention, whether he be from Germany or Timbuctoo, +I humbly venture to say that I will (so far from laughing) examine them +with as much patience as yourself. But if you wish to cure me of +laughing, I beseech you to refrain from all vague appeals to +wholesale authority. + +"The most ludicrous circumstance, however," he continued, "connected +with this German mania is, that in many cases our admiring countrymen +are too late in changing their metaphysical fashions; so that they +sometimes take up with rapture a man whom the Germans are just +beginning to cast aside. Our servile imitators live on the crumbs +that fall from the German table, or run off with the well-picked bone +to their kennel, as if it were a treasure, and growl and show their +teeth to any one that approaches them, in very superfluous terror of +being deprived of it. It would be well if they were to imitate the +importers of Parisian fashions, and let us know what is the philosophy +or theology a la mode, that we may not run a chance of appearing +perfect frights in the estimate even of the Germans themselves." + +Coffee was here brought in: and Harrington said, "Thank you, gentlemen, +for your candor, though your unanimity does not seem very admirable. +In one sentiment, indeed, you are pretty well agreed,--that the +Bible is to be discarded; though you are infinitely at variance, as +to the grounds on which you think so; Catholic friends deeming it +too precious to be intrusted to every body's hands, and the rest of +you, as a gift not worth receiving. But as to the systems you +would substitute in its place, they are so portentously various that they +are hardly likely to cure me of my scepticism; nor even my worthy +relative here"--pointing to me--"of his old-fashioned orthodoxy. +He will say, 'Much as we theologians differ as to the interpretation +of Scripture, our differences are neither so great nor so formidable +as those of these gentlemen. I had better remain where I am.'" + +Several of the guests stared at me as they would at the remains of +a megatherium. + +"Is it possible," said one at last, "that you, Sir, can retain a +belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible,--excluding incidental +errors of transcription and so on?" + +"It is not only possible," said I, "but certain." + +"Do you mean," said the other, "that you can give satisfactory answers +to the objections which can be brought against various parts of it?" + +"By no means," said I; "while I think that many may be wholly solved, +and more, partially, I admit there are some which are altogether +insoluble.' + +"Then why, in the name of wonder, do you retain your belief?" + +"Because I think that the evidence for retaining it is, on the whole, +stronger than the evidence for relinquishing it; that is, that the +objections to admitting the objections are stronger than the objections +themselves." + +"But how do you manage in a controversy with an opponent as to those +insoluble objections?" + +"I admit them." + +"Then you allow his position to be more tenable and reasonable than +yours?" + +"No," said I, "I take care of that." + +"How so?" + +"I transfer the war, My good Sir: a practice which I would recommend +to most Christians in these days. When I meet with an opponent of the +stamp you refer to, who thinks insoluble objections alone are +sufficient reasons for rejecting any thing. I say to him, 'My friend, +this Christianity, if so clearly false, is not worth talking about: let +us quit it. But as you admit, with me, that religious truth is of great +moment, and as you think you have it, pray oblige me by your system.' +To tell you the truth, I never found any difficulty in propounding +plenty of insoluble objections; but if you think differently, you or +any gentleman present can make experiment of the matter now." + +"Nay, my dear uncle," said Harrington, "you are invading my province. +It is I only who can consistently challenge all comers; like the +ancient Scythians, I have every thing to gain and nothing to lose." + +Whether it was out of respect for the host, or that each felt, after +the recent disclosures, that he would not only have Harrington and +myself, but every body else, down upon him, nobody accepted this +challenge. + +At last one of them said he could not even yet comprehend how it +was that I could remain an old-fashioned believer in these days +of "progress." "It was infidelity itself," I replied, "that early +robbed me of the advantages of being an infidel." + +Several expressed their surprise, and I told them that, after we had +taken tea in the drawing-room (to which we were then summoned), I +would, if they felt any curiosity upon the matter, and would allow +a little scope to the garrulity of an old man, tell them + +HOW IT WAS THAT INFIDELITY PREVENTED MY BECOMING AN INFIDEL. + +AFTER tea I gave my story, as nearly as I can recollect, in the +following way. Of course I cannot recall the precise words; but +the order of the thoughts--how often have they been pondered!--I +cannot be mistaken about. +____ + +It is now thirty years ago or more since I was passing through many +of the mental conflicts in which I see so many of the young in the +present day involved. I have no doubt that the majority of them will +come out, probably after an eclipse more or less partial, very +orthodox Christians,--so great are the revolutions of opinion +which an experience of human life and the necessities of the human +heart work upon us! As I look around me, I see few of my youthful +contemporaries who have not survived their infidelity. + +Far be it from me--(I spoke in a tone which, I imagine, they hardly +knew whether to take as compliment or irony)--to affirm that the +infidels of this day are like those I knew in my youth. I have no +hesitation in saying of us, that a perfectly natural recoil--partly +intellectual and partly moral--from the supernatural history, the +peculiar doctrines, but, above all, the severe morality of the +New Testament, was at the bottom of our unbelief. I have long felt +that the reception of that book on the part of any human being +is not the least of its proofs that it is divine, for I am persuaded +there never was a book naturally more repulsive either to the human +head or heart. All the prejudices of man are necessarily arrayed +against it. I felt these prejudice, I am now distinctly conscious; +nor was I insensible to the palpable advantages of infidelity;--its +accommodating morality; its Large margin for the passions and appetites; +its doubts of any future world, or its certainty that, if there were +one, it would prove a universal paradise (for doubts and certainties +are equally within the compass of human wishes); the absolute +abolition of hell and every thing like in. I say I saw clearly enough +the advantages which infidelity promised, and I acknowledge I was not +insensible to them. I think no young men are likely to be. + +I do not insinuate that similar advantages have any thing to do with +those many peculiar revelations of religion which different oracles +have in our day substituted for the New Testament. The arguments +against Christianity, indeed, I do not find much altered; the +substitutions for it, though distractingly various, are, I confess, +in some respects different. Nay, we see that many of our "spiritualists" +complain chiefly of the moral and spiritual deficiencies of +Christianity; they are afraid, with Mr. Newman, of the conscience +of man being DEPRESSED to the Bible standard! So that we must +suppose that the aim of some, at least, of our infidel reformers, +are prompted by a loftier ideal of "spiritual" purity than +Christianity presents! + +It certainly was not so then. I felicitate some of you, gentlemen, +on being so much holier and wiser, nor only than we were, but even +than Christ and his Apostles. + +I have said I was not insensible to the advantages of infidelity; +but nature had endowed me with prudence as well as passions; and I +wanted evidence for what appeared to me its most gratuitous +philosophy of the future,--for its too uncertain doubts of all +futurity, and its too doubtful certainty of none but a happy one! +I also wanted evidence of the falsehood of Christianity itself. As +to the former, I shall not trouble you with my difficulties; there +were indeed then, as now, an admirable variety of theories; but if +I could have been convinced of the futility of the claims of +Christianity, I believe I should have been easily satisfied as to +a substitute; or rather, unable to decide between Chubb and +Bolingbroke, Voltaire and Rousseau, I should most likely have tossed +up for my religion. + +It was the distractions with regard to the evidences of Christianity +that ruined me; and at last condemned me to be a Christian. + +I was first troubled, like so many in our day, about the miracles. I +could hardly bring my mind to believe them. One day, talking with a +jovial fellow whom I casually met (not of very strong mind indeed, but +who made up for it by very strong passions) over the improbability of +such occurrences, he exclaimed, as he mixed his third glass of brandy +and water, "I only wonder how any one can be such a fool as to believe +in any stuff of that sort? Do you think that, if the miracles had been +really wrought, there could have been any doubters of Christianity?" +He tossed off the brandy and water with a triumphant air; and I quite +forgot his argument in compassion for his bestiality. I expostulated +with him. "You may spare your breath, Mr. Solomon," said he. "May this +be my poison (as it will be my poison)," mixing a fourth glass, "if I +need any sermons on the subject. Hark ye,--I am perfectly convinced +that the habit I am chained to will be the destruction of health, +of reputation, of my slender means,--will reduce to beggary and +starvation my wife and children,--and yet," drinking again, "I know I +shall never leave it off." + +"Good heavens!" said I. "Why, you seem as plainly convinced of the +infatuation of your conduct as if miracle had been wrought to convince +you of it. + +"I am." he said, unthinkingly; "ten thousand miracles could not make it +plainer; so you may 'spare your breath to cool your porridge,' and +preach to one who is not already in the condemned cell." + +I was exceedingly shocked; but I thought within myself,--It appears, +then, that man may act against convictions, as strong as any that a +miracle could produce. It is clear there are no LIMITS to the +perversity with which a depraved will and passions can overrule +evidence, even where it is admitted by the reason to be invincible. +It does not follow, then, that a miracle (which cannot present +conclusions more clear) must triumph over them. If the passions can +defy the understanding, where it coolly acknowledges they cannot +pervert the evidence, how much more easily may they cajole it to +suggest doubts of the evidence itself! And what more easy than in +relation to miracles? Such a phenomenon might from novelty produce a +transient impression; but that would pass away, just as the vivid +feelings sometimes excited by a sudden escape from death pass away; +the half-roused debauchee resumes his old career, just as if he had +never looked over the brink of eternity and shuddered with horror as +he gazed. He who had seen a miracle might very soon, and probably +would, if he did not like the doctrine it was to confirm, persuade +himself that it was an illusion of his senses, for they have deceived +him; unless, indeed, he saw a new miracle every day, and then he +would be certain to get used to it. How much more easily could the +Jews do this, who both hated the doctrine of Him who taught, and, +not thinking miracles impossible, could conveniently refer them +to Beelzebub! + +I felt, therefore, that the brandy and water logic had perfectly +convinced me that this was far too precarious ground on which to +conclude that the miracles of the New Testament had been wrought. + +I was further confirmed in my convictions of the illogical nature of +all a priori views on the subject, by the whimsical differences of +opinion among my infidel friends. + +One told me that it was plain that miracles were "incredible," and +"impossible," per se; but he was immediately contradicted by a second, +who said that he really could not see any thing incredible or impossible +about them; that all that was wanting to make them credible was +sufficient evidence, which perhaps had in no case been given. + +A third said, that it was of little consequence; that no miracle could +prove a moral truth; and; taking a view just the opposite to that of +my first acquaintance, swore that, if he saw a score of miracles, he +should not be a bit the more inclined to believe in the authority of +a religion authenticated by them. + +Here was a fine beginning for an ingenuous neophyte, who was eager +to be fully initiated in infidel theology! + +It set me to examine the miracles themselves, and the evidence +for them. + +"They were the simple result of fraud practising upon simplicity," +said one of the genuine descendants of Bolingbroke and Tindal. + +I pondered over it a good deal. At last I said one day to another +infidel acquaintance, "You ask me to believe that the miraculous +events of the New Testament were contrivances of fraud; which, though +ventured upon in the very eyes of those who were interested in +detecting them, who must have been prejudiced against them, nay, the +majority of whom (as the events show) were determined, whether they +detected them or not, not to believe those who wrought them, +were yet successfully practised, not only on the deluded disciples +of the impostors, but on their unbelieving persecutors, who admitted +them to be miracles, only of Beelzebub's performing. I really know +not how to believe it. As I look at the general history of religion, +I see that this open-day appeal to miracles--especially such as +raising the dead--among prejudiced spectators interested in +unmasking them is, if unsupported by truth, just the thing under +which a religious enterprise inevitably fails." + +I reminded him that the French prophets in England got on pretty +well till their unlucky attempt to raise the dead, when the bubble +burst instantly; that for this reason the more astute impostors have +refrained from any pretensions of the kind, from Mahomet downwards; +(How discreetly cautious, again, have the Mormonites been on this point!) +that the miracles they professed to have wrought were conveniently +wrought in secret, on the safe theatre of their mental consciousness; +or that they were reserved for times when their disciples were +predetermined to believe them, because they were cordial believers +already in the religion which appealed to them! I said nothing of the +unlikelihood of the instruments--Galilean Jews--whom the theory invests +with such superhuman powers of deception; or of the prodigious +intellect and lofty ambition with which it also so liberally endows +these obscure vagabonds, who not only conceived, in spite of their +narrow-hearted Jewish bigotry, such a system as Christianity, but +proclaimed their audacious resolve of establishing it on the ruins +of every other religion,--Jewish or Heathen. I said nothing of the +still stranger moral attributes with which it invests them, (in spite +of their being such odious tricksters, in spite of all their +grovelling notions and exclusive prejudices,) as the teachers of a +singularly elevated and catholic morality; what is still stranger +as suffering for it,--strangest of all, as apparently practising +it. I said nothing of what is still more wonderful, their acting +this inconsistent part from motives we cannot assign or even imagine; +their encountering obloquy, persecution, death, in the prosecution of +their object, whatever it was. I said nothing of the innumerable and +one would think inimitable, traits of nature and sincerity in the +narrative of those who record these miracles, and which, if simulated +by such liars, would be almost a miracle itself; a narrative, in which +majestic indifference to human criticism is everywhere exhibited; +in which are no apologies for the extraordinary stories told, no +attempt to conciliate prejudice, no embellishment, no invectives (as +Pascal says) against the persecutors of Christ himself;--they are +simple witnesses, and nothing more, and are seemingly indifferent +whether men despise them or not. I repeat, I said nothing of all +these paradoxes; I insisted that the mere fact of the successful +machination of false miracles, of such a nature, at so many points, +in open day, in defiance of every motive and prejudice which must +have prompted the world to unmask the cheat,--of a conspiracy +successfully prosecuted, not by one, but by many conspirators, whose +fortitude, obstinacy, and circumspection, both when acting together +and acting alone, never allowed them to betray themselves,--was, +per se, incredible; "and yet," said I to my friend, "you ask +me to believe it?" + +"I ask you to believe it?" cried he, in surprise which equalled my +own. "I am not fool enough ask you to believe any thing of the +kind: and they are fools who do. The miracles fraudulent machinations! +no, no, it was, as you say, evidently impossible. And where shall we +look for marks of simplicity and truthfulness, if not in the records +which contain them. The fact is." said he (I should mention that it +was just about the time that the system of "naturalism" was +culminating under the auspices of Paulus of Heidelberg, from whom, +at second hand, my infidel friend borrowed as much as he wanted),--"the +fact is, that the compilers of the New Testament were pious, +simple-minded, excellent enthusiasts, who sincerely, but not the +less falsely, mistook natural phenomena for supernatural miracles. +What more easy than to suppose people dead when they were not, and +who were merely recovered from a swoon or trance? than to imagine +the blind, deaf, or dumb to be miraculously healed, when in fact +they were cured by medical skill? than to fancy the blaze of a flambeau +to be a star, and to shape thunder into articulate speech, and so on? +Christ was no miracle-worker, but he was a capital doctor." + +I pondered over this "natural" explanation for a long time. At last +I ventured to express to a third infidel friend my dissatisfaction +with it. "Not only," said I, "is such a perpetual and felicitous +genius for gross blundering, such absolute craziness of credulity, +in strange contrast with the intellectual and moral elevation which +the New Testament writers everywhere evince, and especially in the +conception of that Ideal of Excellence which even those who reject +all that is supernatural in Christianity acknowledge to be so +sublime a masterpiece,--in whose discourses the most admirable ethics +are illustrated, and in whose life they are still more divinely +dramatized,--not only is such ludicrous madness of fanaticism at +variance with the tone of sobriety and simplicity everywhere +traceable; but,--what is more,--when I reflect on the number and +grossness of these supposed illusions, I find it hard to imagine how +to image how even individual could have been honestly stupid enough +to be beguiled by them, and utterly impossible to suppose that a +number of men should on many occasions have been simultaneously +thus befooled! But, what is much more, how can those who must +often have managed the phenomena which were thus misinterpreted +into miracles,--how, especially, can the great Physician himself, +who knew that he was only playing the doctor, be supposed honestly +to have allowed the simple-minded followers to persist in so strange +an error? Either he, or they, or both, must, one would think, have +been guilty of the grossest frauds. But the mere number and +simultaneity of such strange illusions, under such a variety of +circumstances, render it impossible to receive this hypothesis. I +cannot see, I said, that it is so very easy for a number of men to +have been continually mistaking 'flambeaux' for 'stars,' 'thunder' +for 'human speech,' and 'Roman soldiers' for 'angels.'" + +My friend laughed outright. "I should think it is not easy, indeed!" +he exclaimed, "especially that last. For my part, I see clearly, on +this theory, that either the Apostles or their commentators were the +most crazy, addle-headed wretches in the world. Either Paulus of Tarsus +or Paulus of Heidelberg was certainly cracked: I believe the last. No, +my friend; depend upon it that the Gospels consist of a number of +fictions,--many of them very beautiful,--invented, I am inclined to +believe, for a very pious purpose, by highly imaginative minds." + +This sat me thinking again. And, in time, my doubts, as usual, assumed +a determinate shape, and I hastened to another oracle of infidelity in +hopes of a solution. + +If the New Testament be supposed a series of fictions, I argued,--the +work of highly imaginative minds for a pious purposes--there is perhaps +a slight moral anomaly in the case (but I do not insist upon it): I mean +that of supposing pious men writing fictions which they evidently wish to +impose on the world as simple history, and which they must have known +would, if received at all, be actually regarded as such; as, in fact, +they have been. I do not quite understand how pious men should thus +endeavor to cheat men into virtue, nor inculcate sanctity and truth +through the medium of deliberate fraud and falsehood. But let that pass; +perhaps one could forgive it. Other anomalies, far more inexplicable, +strike me. That Galilean Jews (such as the history of the time represents +them), with all their national and inveterate prejudices,--wedded not +more to the law of Moses than to their own corruptions of it, bigoted +and exclusive beyond all the nations that ever existed, eaten up with +the most beggarly superstitions,--should rise to the moral grandeur, +the nobility of sentiment, the catholicity of spirit, which characterize +the Gospel, and, above all, to such an ideal as Jesus Christ,--this is +a moral anomaly, which is to me incomprehensible: the improbability of +Christianity having its natural origin in such a source is properly +measured by the hatred of the Jews against it, both then and through +all time. I said I could as little understand the intellectual anomalies +of such a theory. Could men, among the most ignorant of a nation sunk +in that gross and puerile superstition of which the New Testament itself +presents a true picture, and which is reflected in the Jewish literature +of that age, and ever since,--a nation whose master minds then and ever +since (think of that!) have given us only such stuff as fills the Talmud, +--could such men, I said, have created such fictions as those of the New +Testament,--reached such elevated sentiments, or conveyed them in +perfectly original forms, embodied truth so sublime in a style so simple? +Throughout those writings is a peculiar tone which belongs to no other +compositions of man. While the individuality of the writers not lost, +there are still peculiarities which pervade the whole, and have, as I +think, justly been called a Scripture style. One of their most striking +characteristics, by the way, is a severely simple taste; a uniform +freedom from the vulgarities of conception, the exaggerated sentiment, +the mawkish nonsense and twaddle, which disfigure such an infinitude of +volumes of religious biography and fiction which have been written since. +Could such men attain this uniform elevation? Could such men have +invented those extraordinary fictions,--the miracles and the parables? +Could they, in spite of their gross ignorance, have so interwoven the +fictitious and the historical as to make the fiction let into the +history seem a natural part of it? Could they, above all, have conceived +the daring, but glorious, project of embodying and dramatizing the +ideal of the system they inculcated in the person of Christ? And yet +they have succeeded, though choosing to attempt the wonderful task in +a life full of unearthly incidents, which they have somehow wrought +into an exquisite harmony! But even if one such man in such an age +and nation could have been found equal to all this, could we, I argued, +believe that several (with undeniable individual varieties of manner) +were capable of working into the picture similarly unique, but +different materials, with similar success, and of reproducing the same +portrait, in varying posture and attitude, of the great Moral Idea? +Could we believe that, in achieving this task, not one, but several, +were intellectual magicians enough to solve that great problem of +producing compositions in a form independent of language,--of laying +on colors which do not fade by time; so that while Homer, Shakspeare, +Milton, suffer grievous wrong the moment their thoughts are transferred +into another tongue, these men should have written so that their +wonderful narrative naturally adapts itself to every dialect under +heaven? + +These intellectual anomalies, I confessed,--if these had been all,-- +staggered me. As Lord Bacon said that he would sooner believe "all the +fables of the Talmud, than that this universal frame was without a +mind," so I could sooner believe all those fables, than that minds +that can only produce Talmuds should have conceived such fictions as +the Gospel. I could as soon believe that some dull chronicler of the +Middle Ages composed Shakspeare's plays, or a ploughman had written +Paradise Lost; only that, to parallel the present case, we ought to +believe that four ploughmen wrote four Paradise Losts! Nay, I said, +I would as soon believe that most laughable theory of learned folly, +that the monks of the Middle Ages compiled all the classics! Nor could +it help me to say that it was Christians, not Jews, who compiled the +New Testament; for they must have been Jews before they were Christians: +and the twofold moral and intellectual problem comes back upon our +hands,--to imagine how the Jewish mind could have given birth to the +ideas of Christianity, or have embodied them in such a surpassing form. +And as to the intellectual part of the difficulty,--unhappily abundant +proof exists in Christian literature that the early Christians could as +little have manufactured such fictions as the Jews themselves! The +New Testament is not more different from the writings of Jews, or +superior to them, than it is different from the writings of the +Fathers, and superior to them. It stands alone, like the Peak of +Teneriffe. The Alps amidst the flats of Holland would not present a +greater contrast than the New Testament and the Fathers. And the further +we come down, the less capable morally, and nearly as incapable +intellectually, do the rapidly degenerating Christians appear, of +producing such a fiction as the New Testament; so that, if it be asked +whether it was not possible that some Christians of after times might +have forged these books, one must say with Paley, that they could not. + +And by the by, gentlemen, said I, (interrupting my narrative, and +addressing the present company,) I may remind some of you who are +great admirers of Professor Newman, that he admits (as indeed all +must, who have had an opportunity of comparing them) the infinite +inferiority of the Fathers, though he does not attempt to account, +as surely he ought, for so singular a circumstance. He says in his +Phases: "On the whole, this reading [of the Apostolical Fathers] +greatly exalted my sense of the unapproachable greatness of the New +Testament. The moral chasm between it and the very earliest Christian +writers seemed to me so vast, as only to be accounted for by the +doctrine ..... that the New Testament was dictated by the immediate +action of the Holy Spirit." (Phases, p. 25.) + +But to resume the statement of my early difficulties. I felt that +the anomalies involved in the theory of the fictitious origin of the +New Testament were almost endless; I said that, however hard to +believe that any men, much less such men as Jews of that age, were +capable of such achievements as I had already specified, I must +believe much more still; for the men, with all their wisdom, were +fools enough to make their enterprise infinitely more hazardous,--by +intrusting the execution of it to a league of many minds, thus +multiplying indefinitely their chances of contradiction; by adopting +every kind and style of composition, full of reciprocal allusions; and, +above all, by dovetailing their fabrications into true history, thus +encountering a perpetual danger of collision between the two; all as +if to accumulate upon their task every difficulty which ingenuity +could devise! Could I believe that such men as those to whom history +restricts the problem had been able, while thus giving every advantage +to the detection of imposture, to invent a narrative so infinitely +varied in form and style, composed by so many different hands, +traversing, in such diversified ways, contemporary characters and +events, involving names of places, dates, and numberless specialities +of circumstance, and yet maintain a general harmony of so peculiar a +kind, such a callida junctura of these most heterogeneous materials, +as to have imposed on the bulk of readers in all ages an impression +of their artless truth and innocence, and that they were writing +facts, and not fictions? Above all, could they be capable of +fabricating those deeply-latent coincidences, which, if fraud +employed them, overreached fraud itself; lying so deep as to be +undiscovered for nearly eighteen centuries, and only recently +attracting the attention of the world in consequence of the objections +of infidels themselves? We know familiarly enough, that to sustain +any verisimilitude in a fictitious history (even though only one +man has the manufacture of it) is almost impossible, because the +relations of fact that must be anticipated and provided against are +so infinitely various, that the writer is certain to betray himself. +The constant detection of very limited fabrications of a similar +nature, when evidence is sifted in a court of justice, shows us the +impossibility of weaving a plausible texture of this kind. +Many things are sure to have been forgotten which ought to have +been remembered. If this be the case, even where one mind has the +fabrication of the whole, how much more would it be the case if many +minds were engaged in the conspiracy? Should we not expect, at the +very least, the hesitating, suspicious, self-betraying tone usual +in all such cases? Could we expect that general air of truth which +so undeniably prevails throughout the New Testament,--the inimitable +tone of nature, earnestness, and frank sincerity, which, in the case +of such extravagant forgeries, would alone be marvellous traits? But, +at all events, could we expect those minute coincidences, which lay +too deep for the eye of all ordinary readers, and would never have +been discovered had not infidelity provoked Paley and others to +excavate those subterranean galleries in which they are found? + +And here again I interrupted my narrative to remark, that Professor +Newman acknowledges the force of these coincidences, and, as usual, +gives no account of them. He says of the Horae Paulinae, in his +"Phases": "This book greatly enlarged my mind as to the resources of +historical criticism. Previously my sole idea of criticism was that +of the discreet discernment of style; but I now began to understand +what powerful argument rose out of combinations; and the very complete +establishment which this work gives to the narrative concerning Paul +in the latter half of the Acts appeared to me to reflect critical honor +on the whole New Testament." (Phases, p. 23.) + +But once more to resume my statement. Upon mentioning these and such +like considerations to my infidel friend, who pleaded, that the New +Testament was fiction, he replied. "As to the harmony in these fictions, +--if they be such,--you acknowledge that it is not absolute: that are +discrepancies." + +Yes, I said, there are discrepancies, I admit; and I was about to +mention that as another difficulty in the way of my reception of his +theory: I refer to the nature and the limits of those discrepancies. +If there had been an absolute harmony, even to the mildest point, I +am persuaded that, on the principle of evidence in all such cases, +many would have charged collusion on the writers, and have felt that +it was a corroboration of the theory of the fictitious origin of these +compositions. But as the case stands, the discrepancies, if the +compositions be fictitious indeed, are only a proof that these men +attained a still more wonderful skill in aping verisimilitude than +if there had been no discrepancies at all. They have left in the +historic portions of their narrative an air of general harmony, with +an exquisite congruity in points which lie deep below the +surface,--a congruity which they must be supposed to have known would +astonish the world when once discovered; and have at the same time left +certain discrepancies on the surface (which criticism would be sure to +point out), as if for the very purpose of affording guaranties and +vouchers against the suspicion of collusion. The discords increase the +harmony. Once more, I asked, could I believe Jews, Jews in the reign of +Tiberius or Nero, equal to all these wonders? + +But all this, even all this, I said, was as nothing compared with +another difficulty involved in this theory. How came these fictions, +containing such monstrous romance, if romance at all, and equally +monstrous doctrines, to be believed; to be believed by multitudes of +Jews and Gentiles, both opposed and equally opposed to them by previous +inveterate superstition and prejudice? How came so many men of such +different races and nations of mankind to hasten to unclothe themselves +of all their previous beliefs in order to adopt these fantastical +fables? How came they to persist in regarding them as authoritative +truth? How came so many in so many different countries to do this at +once? Nay, I added with a laugh, I think there are distinct traces, +as far as we have any evidence, that these very peculiar fictions must +have been believed by many before they were even compiled and published. + +My infidel friend mused, and at last said, "I agree with you that +these compositions could not have been fictions in the ordinary +sense, that is, deliberately composed by a conspiracy of highly +imaginative minds. That last argument alone, of their success, +is conclusive against that; but may they not have been legends +which gradually assumed this form out of floating traditions +and previous popular and national prepossessions?" In short, he +faintly sketched a notion somewhat similar to that mythic theory, +since so elaborately wrought out by Strauss. + +I answered somewhat as follows:--If the first place, on this +hypothesis, all the intellectual and moral anomalies of the last +theory reappear. That such legends should have been the product of +the Jewish mind (whether designedly or undesignedly, consciously or +unconsciously, makes no difference), is one of the principal +difficulties. If it had been objected to Pere Hardouin, that Virgil's +"Aeneid" could nor have been composed by one of the monks of the +Middle Ages. I suppose that it would have been no relief from the +difficulties of his hypothesis to say that it was a gradual, +unconsciously formed deposit of the monkish mind! But besides all +this, I said, the theory was loaded with other absurdities specially +its own: for we must then believe all the indications of historic +plausibility to which I had adverted in speaking of the previous theory +to be the work of accident; a supposition, if possible, still more +inconceivable than that some superhuman genius for fiction had been +employed on their elaboration. Things moulder into rubbish, but they +do not moulder into fabrics. And then (I continued) the greatest +difficulty, as before, reappears, how came these queer legends, +the product whether of design or accident, to be believed? Jews and +Gentiles were and must have been thoroughly opposed to them. + +To this he replied, "I suppose the belief, as you also do, anterior +to the books, which express that belief, but did not cause it. I +suppose the Christian system already existing as a floating vapor +and merely condensed into the written form. It was a gradual +formation, like the Greek and Indian mythologies." I thought on this +for some time, and then said something like this:-- + +Worse and worse: for I fear that the age of Augustus was no age in +which the world was likely to frame a mythology at all:--if it had +been such an age, the problem does not allow sufficient time for it;--if +there had been sufficient time, it would not have been such a mythology; +--and if there had been any formed, it would not have been rapidly +embraced, any more than other mythologies, by men of different races, +but would have been confined to that which gave it birth. + +As to the first point, you ask me to believe that something like the +mythology of the Hindoos or Egyptians could spring up and diffuse +itself in such an age of civilization and philosophy, books and +history; whereas all experience shows us that only a time of +barbarism, before authentic history has commenced, is proper to +the birth of such monstrosities; that this congelation of tradition +and legend takes place only during the long frosts and the deep night +of ages, and is impossible in the bright sun of history;--in whose +very beams, nevertheless, these prodigious icicles are supposed to +have been formed! + +As to the second point, you ask me to believe that the thing should +be done almost instantly; for in A.D. 1, we find, by all remains +of antiquity, that both Jews and Gentiles were reposing in the +shadow of their ancient superstitions; and in A. D. 60. multitudes +among different races had become the bigoted adherents of this +novel mythology! + +As to the third point, you ask me to believe that such a mythology +as Christianity could have sprung up when those amongst whom it is +supposed to have originated, and those amongst whom it is supposed +to have been propagated, must have equally loathed it. National +prepossessions of the Jews. Why, the kind of Messiah on which the +national heart was set, the inveteracy with which they persecuted +to the death the one that offered himself, and the hatred with +which for eighteen hundred years they have recoiled from him, +sufficiently show how preposterous this notion is! As a nation, +they were, ever have been, and are now, more opposed to Christianity +than any other nation on earth. Prepossessions of the Gentiles! There +was not a Messiah that a Jew could frame a notion of, but would have +been an object of intense loathing and detestation to them all! Yet +you ask me to believe that a mythology originated in the prejudices +of a nation the vast bulk of whom from its commencement have most +resolutely rejected it, and was rapidly propagated among other +nations and races, who must have been prejudiced against +it; who even in its favor those venerable superstitions which were +consecrated by the most powerful associations of antiquity! + +As to the fourth point, you ask me to believe that, at a juncture when +all the world was divided between deep-rooted superstition and +incredulous scepticism,--divided, as regards the into Pharisees and +Sadducees, and, as regards the Gentiles, into their Pharisees and +Sadducees, that is, into the vulgar who believed, or at least practised, +all popular religions, and the philosophers who laughed at them all, +and whose combined hostility was directed against the supposed new +mythology,--it nevertheless found favor with multitudes in almost +all lands! You ask me to believe that a mythology was rapidly received +by thousands of different races and nations, when all history +proclaims, that it is with the utmost difficulty that any such +system ever passes the limits of the race which has originated +it; and that you can hardly get another race even to look at it as +a matter of philosophic curiosity! You ask me to believe that this +system was received by multitudes among many different races, both +of Asia and Europe, without force, when a similar phenomenon has +never been witnessed in relation to any mythology whatever! Thus, +after asking me to burden myself with a thousand perplexities to +account for the origin of these fables, you afterwards burden me with +a thousand more, to account for their success! Lastly, you ask me to +believe, not only that men of different races and countries became +bigotedly attached to legends which none were likely to originate, +which all were likely to hate, and, most of all, those who are supposed +to have originated them; but that they received them as historic facts, +when the known recency of their origin must have shown the world that +they were the legendary birth of yesterday; and that they acted thus, +though those who propagated these legends had no military power no civil +authority, no philosophy, no science, no one instrument of human success +to aid them, while the opposing prejudices which everywhere +encountered them had! I really know not how to believe all this. + +"There are certainly many difficulties in the matter" candidly replied +my infidel friend. But, as if wishing to effect a diversion,--"Have you +ever read Gibbon's celebrated chapter?" + +Why, yes, I told him, two or three years before; but he does not say a +syllable in solution of my chief difficulties; he does not tell me any +thing as to the origin of the ideas of Christianity, nor who could +have written the wonderful books in which they are embodied; besides, +said I, in my simplicity, he yields the point, by allowing miracles to +be the most potent cause of the success of Christianity. + +"Ah" he replied, "but every one can see that he is there speaking +ironically." + +Why, then, said I, laughing, I fear he is telling us how the success +of Christianity cannot be accounted for, rather than how it can. + +"O, but he gives you the secondary causes; which it is easy to see +he considers the principal; and also sufficient." + +I will read him again, I said, and with deep attention. Some time +after, in meeting with the same friend, I began upon Gibbon's secondary +causes. + +"They have given you satisfaction, I hope." + +Any thing but that, I replied; they do not, as I said before, touch +my principal difficulties: and even as to the success of the system +when once elaborated,--his reasons are either a mere restatement of +the difficulty to be solved, or aggravate it indefinitely. + +"You are hard to please," he replied. + +I said I was, except by solid arguments. But does Gibbon offer them? +I asked. + +He tells us, for example, that the virtues, energy, and zeal of the +early Church was a main instrument of the success of Christianity; +whereas it is the very origination of the early Church, with all +these efficacious endowments, that we want to account for: it is +as though he had told me that we might account for the success +of Christianity from the fact that it had succeed to such an extent +as to render its further success very probable! As for the rest +of his secondary causes, they are difficulties in its way rather +than auxiliaries. He asks me to believe that the intolerance of +Christianity--by which it refused all alliance with other +religions, and insisted in reigning alone or not at all, by which +it spat contempt on the whole rabble of the Pantheon--was likely +to facilitate its reception among nations, whose pride and whose +pleasure alike it was to encourage civilities and compliments between +their Gods, each of whom was on gracious visiting terms with its +neighbors! He asks me, in effect, to believe that the austerity of +the Christians tended to give them favor in the eves of an +accommodating and jovial Heathenism; that the severity of manners by +which they reproved it, and which to their contemporaries must have +appeared (as we know from the Apologists it did) much as Puritan +grimace to the court of Charles II., was somehow attractive! That +the scruples with which they recoiled from all usages and customs +which could be associated with the elegant pomp of Pagan worship, +and the suspicion with which, as having been linked with idolatry, +they looked on every emanation of that spirit of beauty which reigned +over the exterior life of Paganism, would operate as a charm in their +favor! That their studied absence from all scenes social hilarity, +their grave looks on festal days, their garlanded heads, their +simple attire, their utter estrangement from the Graces, which in +truth were the legitimate Gods in Greece, and the true mothers of +whole family of Olympus, would be likely to conciliate towards the +Gospel the favorable dispositions classic antiquity! I have not so +read history, nor learnt human nature. Again, he asks me to believe that +the immortality which Christianity promised Heathen--such an immortality +--was another of things which tended to give it success;--on the one +hand, a menace of retribution, not for flagrant crimes only, which +Heathenism itself punished, nor for the lax manners which the easy +spirit of Paganism had made venial but for spiritual vices, of which +it took account, some of which it had even consecrated virtues; and, +on the other hand, an other of a which promised nothing but delights +of a spiritual order; a paradise which, whatever material or +imaginative adjuncts it might have, certainly disclosed none; which +presented no one thing to gratify the prurient curiosity of man's fancy, +or the eager passions of his sensual nature; which must, in fact, +have been about as inviting to the soul of a Heathen as the promise +of an eternal Lent to an epicure! Surely these were resistless +seductions. Yet it is to such things as auxiliaries that Gibbon refers +me for the success of Christianity. Verily it is not without reason +that he is called a master of irony! + +My friend fairly acknowledged the difficulties of the subject, but +said he could not believe in the truth of Christianity. + +I repaired to another infidel acquaintance. "It is a perplexing, a +very perplexing controversy, no doubts," was his reply; "but every +thing tends to show that Christianity resembles in its principal +features all those other religions which you admit to be false. +All have their prodigies and miracles,--their revelations and +Inspirations,--their fragments of truth and their masses of +nonsense. They are all to be rejected together." + +I again puzzled for a long time over this aspect of the case. At +last I said to him,--This seems a curious way of disposing of the +evidence for Christianity; for if there be any true religion, it is +likely, as in all other cases, that the counterfeits will have some +features in common with it. It would follow, also, that there can +be no true philosophy; since, while there are scores of philosophies, +only one can be true. But I have another difficulty: on comparing +Christianity with other systems, I find vital differences, both as +regards theory and fact. As regards theory, I find an insuperable +difficulty, not merely in imagining how Jews, Greeks, or Romans, +any or all of them, should have been the originators of Christianity, +but how human nature should have been fool enough to originate it at all! +For I am asked to believe that man, such as I know him through all +history, such as he appears in so many forms of religion which have been +his undoubted and most worthy fabrication, did, whether fraudulently or +not, whether designedly or unconsciously, frame a religion which is in +striking contrast with all his ordinary handiwork of this sort! This +religion enjoins the austerest morality; human religions generally +enjoin a very lax one:--this demands the most refined purity, even of +the thoughts and desires; other religions usually attach to external +and ceremonial observances greater weight than to morality itself;--this +is singularly simple in its rites; they for the most part consist of +little else;--this exhibits a singular silence and abstinence in relation +to the future and invisible; they amply indulge the imagination and +fancy, and are full of delineations calculated to gratify man's most +natural curiosity;--this takes under its special patronage those +virtues which man is least likely to love or cultivate, and which men +in general regard as pusillanimous infirmities, if not vices; they +patronize the must energetic passions,--the passions which made the +demigods and heroes of antiquity. I am not saying which is the belief +in these respects; I am only saying that human nature appears more +true to itself in the last. And so notorious is all this, that the +corruptions of Christianity, as years rolled on, have ever been to +assimilate it to the other religions of the earth; to abate its +spirituality; to relax its austere code of morals; to commute its proper +claims for external observances; to encumber its ritual with an +infinity of ceremonies; and, above all, to uncover the future and +invisible, on which it left a veil, and add a purgatory into the +bargain! Thus, whether contrasted with other religions or with its +corrupted self, Christianity does not seem a religion which human +nature would be pleased to invent. + +Again, is it like the other religious products of human nature, in +daring to aspire to universal dominion, and that too founded on moral +power alone? Never, till Christianity appeared, had such an imagination +ever entered the mind of man! Other religions were national affairs; +their gods never dreamed of such an enterprise as that of subduing all +nations. They were naturally contented with the country that gave them +birth, and the homage of the race that worshipped them. They were, when +not themselves assailed, very tolerant, and did the civil thing by +all other gods of all other nations, and were even content to expire +with great propriety (they usually did so) with the political +extinction of the race of their votaries! Christianity alone adopts +a different tone,--"Go ye, and preach the Gospel to all nations."--and +declares, not only that it will reign, but that none other shall. It +will not endure a rival; it will not consent to have a statue with +the mob of the Pantheon. Whether this ambition--call it pride and folly, +if you will, as you well may if the thing be merely human--was likely +to suggest itself to man, considering the local and national character +of other religions, and the apparent hopelessness of any such enterprise, +I have my doubts. Arrogance it may be; but it is not such arrogance as +is very natural to man. + +These, I said, were amongst a few of the things in which I must say I +thought the theory of Christianity very unlike that of any religion +human nature was likely to invent. + +If, I continued, I examine the past history and present position of +Christianity, with an impartial eye, I see that it presents in several +most important respects a contrast with other religions in point office. +I shall content myself with enumerating a few. Look, then, at the +perpetual spirit of aggression which characterizes this religion; +its undeniable power (in whatever it consists, and from whatever it +springs) to prompt those who hold it to render it victorious,--a spirit +which has more or less characterized its whole history: which still +lives, even in its most corrupt forms, and which has not been least +active in our own time. I do not see any thing like it in other religions. +Till I see Mollahs from Ispahan, Brahmins from Benares, Bonzes from +China, preaching their systems of religion in London, Paris, and Berlin, +supported year after year by an enormous expenditure on the part of +their zealous compatriots, and the nations who support them taking +the liveliest interest in their success or failure, till I see this +(call it fanatical if you will, the money thus expended wasted, the +men who give it fools), I shall not be able to pronounce Christianity +simply on a par with other religions. + +Till the sacred books of other religions can boast of at least a +hundredth part of the same efforts to translate and diffuse them as +have been concentrated on the Bible; till we find them in at least +half as many languages; till they can render those who possess them +at least a tenth part as willing to make costly efforts to insure to +them a circulation coextensive with the family of man; till they +occupy an equal space in the literature of the world, and are equally +bound up with the philosophy, history, poetry, of the community of +civilized nations; till they have given an equal number of human +communities a written language, and may thus boast of having imparted +to large sections of the human family the germ of all art, science, +and civilization; till they can cite an equal amount of testimonies +to their beauty and sublimity from those who reject their divine +original,--I shall scarcely think Christianity can be put simply on a +par with other religions. + +Till it can be said that the sacred books of other religions are +equally unique in relation to all the literature in which they are +imbedded; similar neither to what precedes nor what comes after them, +--their enemies themselves being judges; till they can be shown +to be as superior to all that is found in contemporaneous authors +as the New Testament is to the writings of Christian Fathers or the +Jewish Rabbis,--I cannot say that Christianity is just like any other +religion. + +Till we can find a religion that has stood as many different assaults +from infidelity in the midst of it,--educated infidelity, infidelity +aided by learning, genius, philosophy, freely employing all the power +of argument and all the power of ridicule to disabuse its votaries; +till we can find a religion which can point to an equal array of +educated men, philosophic in spirit, in learning, and genius, deeply +skilled in the investigation of evidence, deliberately declaring that +its claims are well sustained.--we cannot say that Christianity is just +like any other religion. + +Till it can be shown that another religion to an equal extent, has +propagated itself without force amongst totally different races, and +in the most distant countries, and has survived equal revolutions of +thought and opinion, manners and laws, amongst those who have embraced +it, it cannot be said that Christianity is simply like any other religion. + +Till it can be shown that the sacred books of other religions have +contained predictions as definite and as unlikely to be fulfilled as the +success of early Christianity against all the opposition of prejudice +and persecution,--its voluntary reception amongst different races, +contrary to all the analogies of religious history,--and the continued +preservation of the Jews among all nations without forming a part of +any,--I cannot think that Christianity is precisely in the condition +of any other religion. + +Such, gentlemen, were some few of the differences in fact which seemed +to me, not less than its theory, to discriminate Christianity from other +religions. Had I in those days of my youth, been favored with the views +of modern "spiritualism," I should have added, that till it is shown that +some other religion has possessed an equal power of moulding those +characters whom Mr. Newman points out as the best examples of "spiritual" +religion, and can point to oracles equally pervaded by that "sentiment" +which he declares is wanting in Greek philosophers, English Deists, and +German Pantheists, but which, he admits, pervades the Bible; till I see +the devout men whom he extols produced by other religions, or rather. I +ought to say, produced without them (where Christianity however is +unknown) by the unaided "spiritual faculty,"--I cannot but think +that the position of Christianity is somewhat discriminated both from +other religions and from "Naturalism." + +Such, I said, to conclude, was an imperfect outline of some of my early +conflicts, and such the cruel mode in which my unbelieving friends +laughed at each other's hypotheses, and left me destitute of any. +Finding that they conclusively confuted one another, and perceiving +at last that the idea of the superhuman origin of Christianity did, +and, as Bishop Butler says, alone can resolve all the difficulties of +the subject, I was compelled to forego all the advantages of infidelity, +and condescended to "depress" my conscience to the "Biblical standard"! +Would to Heaven that it had never been depressed below it! + +I am bound to say my auditors listened with courtesy. The conversation +was now carried on in little knots: I, who was glad of a rest, was +occupied in listening to a conversation between Harrington and his +Italian friend, who was urging him to take refuge from such a Babel +of discords as his company had uttered, in the only secure asylum. +Harrington told him, with the utmost gravity, that one great objection +to the Church of Rome was the unseemly liberty she allowed to the +right of private judgment; that he found in her communion distractions +the most perplexing, especially as between English and foreign Romanists! + +____ + +After the party had broken up, and we were left alone, Mr. Fellows, +turning to me, said, "You lay great stress on the origination of +such a character as Christ. But can we make its reality a literary +problem? May it not have been imaginary? As Mr. Newman says, Human +nature is often portrayed in superhuman dignity; Why not in +superhuman goodness? + +"That the origination;" said I, "of such a Moral Ideal, in so +peculiar a form, by such men as Galilean Jews, is unaccountable +enough, I fancy all will admit; but it is, you observe, only one of +the numberless points which are unaccountable; neither do I make +this one feature, or any of the other singular characteristics of +the New Testament, merely a literary problem. The whole, you see, +is a vast literary, moral, intellectual, spiritual, and historical +problem. But it is too much the way with you objectors to say, 'This +may, perhaps, be got over,' and 'That may be got over'; the question +is, as Bishop Butler says, whether all can be got over; for if all +the arguments for it be not false, Christianity is true. + +"You charge us with the very conduct," retorted Fellowes, "which Mr. +Newman objects to Christians. They, says he, affirm that this objection +is of little weight, and that is of little weight; whereas altogether +they amount to considerable weight." + +"I admit it," said I; "and those are very unfair who deny it. But +still, since there are these things of weight on both sides, the +argument returns, on which side does the balance on the sum-total of +evidence lie?" + +"But," said Fellowes, "how few are competent to compute that!" + +"You are really pleasant, Mr. Fellowes," I replied; "I thought the +question we were arguing was as to the truth or the falsehood of +Christianity, not whether the bulk of mankind are fully competent to +form an independent and profound judgment on its evidences: very +few are competent to do so either on this or any other complex subject; +certainly not (as our differences show) on the subject of your +'spiritualism.' But the incompetency of the great bulk of mankind to +deal with complicated evidence makes a thing neither true nor false; +perhaps on this, as on so many other subjects, the few must thoroughly +sift the matter for the many. If your present objection were of force, +what would become of truth in politics, law, medicine, in all which +the great majority must trust much to the conclusions of their wiser +fellow-creatures? Your observation is no confutation of the evidences +for Christianity: it is simply a satire upon God and the condition +of the human creatures he has made!" + +"Well, let that pass," said Fellowes; "I was going to say further, +that it is not so clear to every one that Christ is so very wonderful +an ideal of humanity. Do you remember that Mr. Newman says in his +'Phases,' that, when he was a boy, he read Benson's Life of +Fletcher of Madely, and thought Fletcher a more perfect man than +Jesus Christ? and he also says that he imagines, if he were to read +the book again, he would think the same. Have you nothing to say +to that?" + +"NOTHING," said I, "except to point you to the infinitely different +estimates of Christ formed by other men who yet think of historical +Christianity much as you do. How differently do such writers as +Mr. Greg and Mr. Parker speak! How do they almost exhaust the +resources of language to express their sentiments of this wonderful +character! As to Mr. Newman's impression, I do not think it worth +an answer. When a man so far forgets himself as to say what he can +hardly help knowing will be unspeakably painful to multitudes of his +fellow-creatures, on the strength of boyish impressions,--not even +thinking it worth while to verify those impressions, and see whether, +after thirty or forty years, he is not something more than a boy,--I +think it is scarcely worth while to reply. Christianity is willing to +consider the arguments of men, but not the impressions of boys." + +"But we must not be too hard." said Harrington, "upon Mr. Newman; it +is evident, from his Hebrew Monarchy, that, as he takes a benevolent +pleasure in defending those whom nobody else will defend,--in petting +Ahab, whom he pronounces rather weak than wicked, and palliating Jezebel, +whose character was, it seems, grievously deteriorated by contact with +the 'prophets of Jehovah,'--so he has a chivalrous habit of depressing +those who have been particularly the objects of veneration. Elisha, +Samuel, and David are all brought down a great many degrees in the moral +scale. He has simply done the same with Christ." + +"Well," said Fellowes, "I cannot help agreeing with Mr. Newman in +thinking that, when one hears men made the objects of extravagant eulogy, +it almost 'tempts one, even though a stranger to their very name, +to "pick holes," as the saying is.'" + +"It may be so," said I; "but it is a tendency against which we should +guard. It would lead us, like him of Athens, to ostracize Aristides: we +should be weary of hearing him continually called 'The Just.'" + +"However." rejoined Fellowes, "I am weary of hearing Christ so +perpetually called our example. As Mr. Newman says, he cannot, except +in a very modified sense, be such. 'His garments will not fit us.'" + +"Did you ever hear," said I. "that fathers and mothers ought to set +an example to their children?" + +"Certainly." + +"Yet surely not in all things can they be such. Their garments surely +will not fit their children." + +"No." said Harrington; "those of the father at all events will not, +if they are girls, nor of the mother, if they are boys. Fellowes, I +think you had better say nothing on this subject. If men of fifty +can, in all essential points, be beautiful examples to girls of +ten,--in gentleness, in patience, in humility, in kindness, and +so forth,--and all the more impressively for the wide interval between +them, why, I suppose Jesus Christ may be as much to his disciples." + +"But, again," urged Fellowes to me, "you, like so many men, seem to +lay such stress on the superiority of the morality of the New Testament. +I cannot see it. I confess, with Mr. Foxton and many more, that it +seems to me that it has not such a very great advantage over that +of many heathen moralists who have said the same things,--Plato, +for example." + +I replied, that, of course, it would be of no avail to affirm in +general (what I was yet convinced was true), that the New Testament +inculcated a system of ethics much more just and comprehensive than +any other volume in the world. I told him, however, that I thought +he would not deny that its manner of conveying ethical truth was unique; +that it not only contained more admirable and varied summaries of duty +than any other book whatever, but that we should seek in vain in any +other for such a profusion of just maxims and weighty sentiments, +expressed with such comprehensive brevity, or illustrated with so +much beauty and pathos. I remarked that, if he would be pleased to +do as I had once done,--compile a selection of the principal precepts +and maxims from the most admirable ethical works of antiquity (those +of Aristotle, for example), and compare them with two or three of the +summaries of similar precepts in the New Testament,--he would at once +feel how much more vivid, touching, animated, and even comprehensive, +was the Scriptural expression of the same truths. But I further observed, +that, even to obtain the means of such comparison, he must reject from +Plato or the Stagyrite twenty times the bulk of questionable +speculations, and dreary subtilties, which separate by long intervals +those gems of moral truth, which everywhere sparkle on the pages of +the New Testament. + +I told him I could not help laying great stress on the degree and manner +in which this element enters into the composition of the New Testament; +that ethical truths are there expressed in every variety of form which +can fix them upon the imagination and the heart, with an entire absence +of those prolix discussions and metaphysical refinements which form so +large a portion of Aristotle and Plato. If we find in these writers a +moral truth expressed with something approaching the comprehensive +beauty and simplicity of the Gospels, we are filled with surprise and +rapture, and dig out with joy the glittering fragment from the mass of +earthy matter,--oppressive disquisitions about "ideas" and "essences," +"energies" and "entelechies," and so forth, in which it is sure to be +imbedded. I promised, if health and life were given, to exhibit some +day these gems, with a sufficient portion of the surrounding earth +still attached to them, and to contrast them with those of the New +Testament. "In this strange volume," I continued, "the most beautiful +ethical maxims exist in unexampled profusion. After reading Aristotle's +ethics, I feel, when I turn to the New Testament, as Linnaeus is said +to have felt when he first saw growing wild the masses of blooming gorse, +which he had never seen in his cold North, except as a sheltered +exotic. Whether it was likely that contemporaries of the Pharisees, who +were sunk in formalism, and who had glossed away every moral and +spiritual the Law, could reach and maintain such elevation of tone, +I leave you to judge." But though I felt this, I acknowledged that +it was difficult to express it; and said that perhaps the best way to +compare the morality of the New Testament with the ethical system of +any philosopher, or the code of any legislator, would be to imagine +them all universally adopted, and see how much would have to be +objected to,--how much "brick" was mingled with the "porphyry." "If, +for example," said I, "Plato, who, I admit, so flashes upon us the +sublimest and most comprehensive principles of morals, and whose +ethical system you say is identical with that of Christianity, had +the forming of a republic, you would have community of women property, +--women trained to war,---infanticide certain circumstances,--young +children led to battle (though at a safe distance), that 'the young might +early scent carnage, and be inured to slaughter! Both with him and +Aristotle slavery would be a regularly sanctioned and perfectly +natural institution. Not only did they entertain very lax notions +of the relation of the sexes, but the tone in which they speak of +most abominable corruptions--I do not except cannibalism--to which +humanity has ever degraded implied that they regarded such things +as comparatively venial. I know no greater single names than these, +and I presume that these points you would find so, difficulty in +digesting." He admitted it. + +I told him I supposed he would take equal objections to the Gentoo, or +the Roman, or the Spartan code, as also to the Koran. He admitted all +this too. + +"But now, if we take the Christian code, and suppose the New Testament +made the literal guide of in every man, tell me, Mr. Fellowes, what +would the consequence? What would you wish otherwise?" + +"Why," said Harrington, smiling, "he would, perhaps, object that +there would be no more war, and that retaliation would be impossible." + +"The former," said I, "we could all endure, I suppose; nor be +unwilling to give up the latter, seeing that there would, in that +case, be no wrongs to avenge. It would not matter that you would be +compelled to turn your right cheek to him who smote you on the left +(let the interpretation be as literal as you will), since no one would +strike you on the left; nor that you must surrender your cloak to him +who took away your coat, since no one would take your coat. But tell +me, is there any thing more serious that would follow from the literal +and universal adoption of the ethics of the New Testament?" Fellowes +acknowledged that he knew of nothing, unless it was a sanction +of slavery. + +"I do not admit that the New Testament sanctions it," I replied; "and +I will, if you like, give my reasons in full, another time. But is +there any thing else?" + +He said he did not recollect any thing. + +"But you would recoil from the literal realization of the systems and +codes we have mentioned." He confessed this also. + +"The superiority of the Christian code, then," said I, "is practically +acknowledged. And it is further often confessed, in a most significant +way, by the mode in which the enemies of Christianity taunt its disciples. +When they speak of the vices and corruptions of the heathen, they blame, +and justly blame, the principles of their vicious systems; and ask +how it could be otherwise? When they blame the Christian, the first +and the last thing they usually do, is to point in triumph to the +contrast between his principles and practice. 'How much better,' say +they, 'is his code than conduct!' It is as a hypocrite that they +censure him. It is sad for him that it should be so; but it is a +glorious compliment to the morality of the New Testament. Its enemies +know not how to attack its disciples, except by endeavoring to show +that they do not act as it bids them. Surely," said I, in conclusion +"this uniform excellence of the Christian ethics, as compared with +other systems, is a peculiarity worth noting, and utterly +incomprehensible upon the hypothesis that it was the unaided work of +man. That there are points on which the moral systems of men and +nations osculate, is most true; that there should have been certain +approximations on many most important subjects was to be expected from +the essential identity of human nature, in all ages and countries; but +their deviations in some point or other--usually in several--from what +we acknowledge to be both right and expedient, is equally undeniable. +That, when such men as Plato and Aristotle tried their hands upon the +problem, they should err, while the writers of the New Testament should +have succeeded,--that these last should do what all mankind besides had +in some points or other failed to do,--is sufficiently wonderful; that +Galilean Jews should have solved the problem is, whether we consider +their age, their ignorance, or their prepossessions, to me utterly +incredible." + +It was now very late; and we rose to retire. Mr. Fellowes said, "I +should be glad to know what answer you would make to Mr. Newman's +observations on three points,--one of them just alluded to,--on which he +affirms that undue credit has been given to Christianity; I mean its +supposed elevating influence in relation to women, its supposed +mitigation of slavery, and its supposed triumphs before Constantine." + +I said I would scribble a few remarks on the subject, and would give +them to him in a day or two. I remarked that Mr. Newman had treated +these great subjects very briefly, but that I could not be quite so +concise as he had been. + +____ + +The discussions of the preceding day had made so deep an impression +upon me, that when I went to bed I found it very difficult to sleep; and +when I did get off at last, my thoughts shaped themselves into a singular +dream, which, though only a dream, is not, I think, without instruction. +I shall entitle it + +THE BLANK BIBLE. + +Etlen gegonein vuktiphoit' oneirata. + AEschyl. Prom. Vinct. 657. + +[I take courage to proclaim night-roaming dreams] + +I thought I was at home, and that on taking up my Greek Testament one +morning to read (as is my wont) a chapter, I found, to my surprise, +that what seemed to be the old, familiar book was a total blank; not +a character was inscribed in it or upon it. I supposed that some book +like it had, by some accident, got into its place; and, without +stopping to hunt for it, took down a large quarto volume which contained +both the Old and New Testaments. To my surprise, however, this also +was a blank from beginning to end. With that facility of accommodation +to any absurdities which is proper to dreams, I did not think very much +of the coincidence of two blank volumes having been substituted for two +copies of the Scriptures in two different places, and therefore quietly +reached down a copy of the Hebrew Bible, in which I could just manage to +make out a chapter. To my increased surprise, and even something like +terror, I found that this also was a perfect blank. While I was musing +on this unaccountable phenomenon, my servant entered the room, and said +that thieves had been in the house during the night, for that her large +Bible, which she had left on the kitchen table, had been removed, and +another volume left by mistake in its place, of just the same size, but +made of nothing but white paper. She added, with a laugh, that it must +have been a very queer kind of thief to steal a Bible at all; and that he +should have left another book instead, made it the more odd. I asked her +if any thing else had been missed, and if there were any signs of people +having entered the house. She answered in the negative to both these +questions; and I began to be strangely perplexed. + +On going out into the street, I met a friend, who, almost before we had +exchanged greetings, told me that a most unaccountable robbery had been +committed at his house during the night, for that every copy of the +Bible had been removed, and a volume of exactly the same size, but of +pure white paper, left in its stead. Upon telling him that the same +accident had happened to myself, we began to think that there was more +in it than we had at first surmised. + +On proceeding further, we found every one complaining, in similar +perplexity, of the same loss; and before night it became evident that +a great and terrible "miracle" had been wrought in the world; that +in one night, silently, but effectually, that hand which had written +its terrible menace on the walls of Belshazzar's palace had reversed +the miracle; had sponged out of our Bibles every syllable they contained, +and thus reclaimed the most precious gift which Heaven had bestowed, +and ungrateful man had abused. + +I was curious to watch the effects of this calamity on the varied +characters of mankind. There was universally, however, an interest in +the Bible now it was lost, such as had never attached to it while +it was possessed; and he who had been but happy enough to possess +fifty copies might have made his fortune. One keen speculator, as +soon as the first whispers of the miracle began to spread, hastened +to the depositories of the Bible Society and the great book-stocks +in Paternoster Row, and offered to buy up at a high premium any +copies of the Bible that might be on hand; but the worthy merchant +was informed that there was not a single copy remaining. Some, to whom +their Bible had been a "blank" book for twenty years, and who would +never have known whether it was full or empty had not the lamentations +of their neighbors impelled them to look into it, were not the least +loud in their expressions of sorrow at this calamity. One old gentleman, +who had never troubled the book in his life, said it was "confounded +hard to be deprived of his religion in his old age"; and another, who +seemed to have lived as though he had always been of Mandeville's +opinion, that "private vices were public benefits," was all at once +alarmed for the morals of mankind. He feared, he said, that the +loss of the Bible would have "a cursed bad effect on the public virtue +of the country." + +As the fact was universal and palpable, it was impossible that, like +other miracles, it should leave the usual loopholes for scepticism. +Miracles in general, in order to be miracles at all, have been singular +or very rare violations of a general law, witnessed by a few, on +whose testimony they are received, and in the reception of whose +testimony consists the exercise of that faith to which they appeal. It +was evident, that, whatever the reason of this miracle, it was not +an exercise of docile and humble faith founded on evidence no more +than just sufficient to operate as a moral test. This was a miracle +which, it could not be denied, looked marvellously like a "judgment." +However, there were, in some cases, indications enough to show how +difficult it is to give such evidence as will satisfy the obstinacy +of mankind. One old sceptical fellow, who had been for years bedridden, +was long in being convinced (if indeed, he ever was) that any thing +extraordinary had occurred in the world; he at first attributed the +reports of what he heard to the "impudence" of his servants and +dependents, and wondered that they should dare to venture upon such a +joke. On finding these assertions backed by those of his acquaintance, +he pished and pshawed, and looked very wise, and ironically congratulated +them on this creditable conspiracy with the insolent rascals, his +servants. On being shown the old Bible, of which he recognized the +binding, though he had never seen the inside, and finding it a very +fair book of blank paper, he quietly observed that it was very easy +to substitute the one book for the other, though he did not pretend to +divine the motives which induced people to attempt such a clumsy piece +of imposition; and, on their persisting that they were not deceiving +him, swore at them as a set of knaves, who would fain persuade him +out of his senses. On their bringing him a pile of blank Bibles +backed by the asseverations of other neighbors, he was ready to burst +with indignation. "As to the volumes," he said, "it was not difficult +to procure a score or two 'of commonplace books,' and they had +doubtless done so to carry on the cheat; for himself he would sooner +believe that the whole world was leagued against him than credit any +such nonsense." They were angry, in their turn, at his incredulity, +and told him that he was very much mistaken if he thought himself +of so much importance that they would all perjure themselves to +delude him, since they saw plainly enough that he could do that very +easily for himself, without any help of theirs. They really did not +care one farthing whether he believed them or not: if he did not +choose to believe the story, he might leave it alone. "Well, well," +said he, "it is all very fine: but unless you show me, not one of +these blank books, which could not impose upon an owl, but one of +the very blank Bibles themselves, I will not believe." At this curious +demand, one of his nephews who stood by (a lively young fellow) was +so exceedingly tickled, that, though he had some expectations from +the sceptic, he could not help bursting out into laughter; but he became +grave enough when his angry uncle told him that he would leave him in +his will nothing but the family Bible, which he might make a ledger if +he pleased. Whether this resolute old sceptic ever vanquished his +incredulity, I do not remember. + +Very different from the case of this sceptic was that of a most +excellent female relative, who had been equally long a prisoner to +her chamber, and to whom the Bible had been, as to so many thousands +more, her faithful companion in solitude, and the all-sufficient +solace of her sorrows. I found her gazing intently on the blank Bible, +which had been so recently bright to her with the lustre of immortal +hopes. She burst into tears as she saw me. "And has your faith left +you too, my gentle friend?" said I. "No," she answered, "and I trust it +never will. He who has taken away the Bible has not taken away my +memory, and I now recall all that is most precious in that book which +has so long been my meditation. It is a heavy judgment upon the land; +and surely," added this true Christian, never thinking of the faults of +others, "I, at least, cannot complain, for I have not prized as I ought +that book, which yet, of late years, I think I can say, I loved more +than any other possession on earth. But I know," she continued, smiling +through her tears, "that the sun shines, though clouds may veil him for +the moment; and I am unshaken in my faith in those truths which have +transcribed on my memory, though they are blotted from my book. In these +hopes I have lived, and in these hopes I will die." "I have no consolation +to offer to you," said I, "for you need none." She quoted many of the +passages which have been, through all ages, the chief stay of sorrowing +humanity; and I thought the words of Scripture had never sounded so +solemn or so sweet before. "I shall often come to see you," I said, +"to hear a chapter in the Bible, for you know it far better than I." + +No sooner had I taken my leave, than I was informed that an old lady of +my acquaintance had summoned me in haste. She said she was much impressed +by this extraordinary calamity. As, to my certain knowledge, she had +never troubled the contents of the book, I was surprised that she had so +taken to heart the loss of that which had, practically, been lost to +her all her days. "Sir" said she, the moment I entered, "the Bible, the +Bible." "Yes, madam," said I, "this is a very grievous and terrible +visitation. I hope we may learn the lessons which it is calculated to +teach us." "I am sure," answered she, "I am not likely to forget it for +a while, for it has been a grievous loss to me." "I told her I was +very glad." "Glad!" she rejoined. "Yes," I said, "I am glad to find +that you think it so great a loss, for that loss may then be a gain +indeed. There is, thanks be to God, enough left in our memories to +carry us to heaven." "Ah! but," said she, "the hundred pounds and +the villany of my maid-servant. Have you not heard?" This gave me some +glimpse as to the secret of her sorrow. She told me that she had +deposited several bank-notes in the leaves of her family Bible, +thinking that, to be sure, nobody was likely to look there for them. +"No sooner," said she, "were the Bibles made useless by this strange +event, than my servant peeped into every copy in the house, and she +now denies that she found any thing in my old family Bible, except two +or three blank leaves of thin paper, which, she says, she destroyed; +that, if any characters were ever on them, they must have been erased +when those of the Bible were obliterated. But I am sure she lies; for +who would believe that Heaven took the trouble to blot out my precious +bank-notes. They were not God's word, I trow." It was clear that she +considered the "promise to pay" better by far than any "promises" which +the book contained. "I should not have cared so much about the Bible," +she whined, hypocritically, "because, as you truly observe, our +memories may retain enough to carry us to heaven,"--a little in that +case would certainly go a great way, I thought to myself,--"and if not, +there are those who can supply the loss. But who is to get my bank-notes +back again? Other people have only lost their Bibles." It was, indeed, +a case beyond my power of consolation. + +The calamity not only strongly stirred the feelings of men, and upon +the whole, I think, beneficially, but it immediately stimulated their +ingenuity. It was wonderful to see the energy with which men discussed +the subject, and the zeal, too, with which they ultimately exerted +themselves to repair the loss. I could even hardly regret it, when I +considered what a spectacle of intense activity, intellectual and moral, +the visitation had occasioned. It was very early suggested, that the +whole Bible had again and again been quoted piecemeal in one book or +other; that it had impressed its own image on the surface of human +literature, and had been reflected on its course as the stars on a +steam. But, alas! on investigation, it was found as vain to expect +that the gleam of starlight would still remain mirrored in the water +when the clouds had veiled the stars themselves, as that the bright +characters of the Bible would remain reflected in the books of man +when had been erased from the Book of God. On inspection it was +found that every text, every phrase which had been quoted, not only +in the books of devotion and theology, but in those of poetry and +fiction, had been remorselessly expunged. Never before had I had any +adequate idea of the extent to which the Bible had moulded the +intellectual and moral life of the last eighteen centuries, nor how +intimately it had interfused itself with habits of thought and modes +of expression; nor how naturally and extensively its comprehensive +imagery and language had been introduced into human writings, and most +of all where there had been most of genius. A vast portion of +literature became instantly worthless, and was transformed into so +much waste-paper. It was almost impossible to look into any book +of any merit, and read ten pages together, without coming to some +provoking erasures and mutilations, some "hiatus valde deflendi," +which made whole passages perfectly unintelligible. Many of the +sweetest passages of Shakspeare were converted into unmeaning nonsense, +from the absence of those words which his own all but divine genius +had appropriated from a still diviner source. As to Milton, he was +nearly ruined, as might naturally be supposed. Walter Scott's novels +were filled with perpetual lacunae. I hoped it might be otherwise +with the philosophers, and so it was; but even here it was curious +to see what strange ravages the visitation had wrought. Some of the +most beautiful and comprehensive of Bacon's Aphorisms were reduced +to enigmatical nonsense. + +Those who held large stocks of books knew not what to do. Ruin stared +them in the face; their value fell seventy or eighty per cent. All +branches of theology, in particular, were a drug. One fellow said, +that he should not so much have minded if the miracle had sponged out +what was human as well as what was divine, for in that case he would +at least have had so many thousand volumes of fair blank paper, which +was as much as many of them were worth before. A wag answered, that +it was not usual, in despoiling a house, to carry away any thing +except the valuables. Meantime, millions of blank Bibles filled the +shelves of stationers, to be sold for day-books and ledgers, so that +there seemed to be no more employment for the paper-makers in that +direction for many years to come. A friend, who used to mourn over +the thought of palimpsest manuscripts,--of portions of Livy and Cicero +erased to make way for the nonsense of some old monkish chronicler, +--exclaimed, as he saw a tradesman trudging off with a handsome +morocco-bound quarto for a day-book, "Only think of the pages once +filled with the poetry of Isaiah, and the parables of Christ, sponged +clean to make way for orders for silks and satins, muslins, cheese, +and bacon!" The old authors, of course, were left to their mutilations; +there was no way in which the confusion could be remedied. But the +living began to prepare new editions of their works, in which they +endeavored to give a new turn to the thoughts which had been mutilated +by erasure, and I was nor a little amused to see that many, having +stolen from writers whose compositions were as much mutilated as +their own, could not tell the meaning of their own pages. + +It seemed at first to be a not unnatural impression, that even those +who could recall the erased texts as they perused the injured books, +--who could mentally full up the imperfect clauses,--were not at +liberty to inscribe them; they seemed to fear that, if they did so, +the characters would be as if written in invisible ink, or would +surely fade away. It was with trembling that some at length made the +attempt, and to their unspeakable joy found the impression durable. +Day after day passed; still the characters remained; and the people +length came to the conclusion, that God left them at liberty, if they +could, to reconstruct the Bible for themselves out of their collective +remembrances of its divine contents. This led again to some curious +results, all of them singularly indicative of the good and ill that +is in human nature. It was with incredible joy that men came to the +conclusion that the book might be thus recovered nearly entire, and +nearly in the very words of the original, by the combined effort of +human memories. Some of the obscurest of the species, who had studied +nothing else but the Bible, but who had well studied that, came to be +objects of reverence among Christians and booksellers; and the various +texts they quoted were taken down with the utmost care. He who could +fill up a chasm by the restoration of words which were only partially +remembered, or could contribute the least text that had been forgotten, +was regarded as a sort of public benefactor. At length, a great public +movement amongst the divines of all denominations was projected, to +collate the results of these partial recoveries of the sacred text. +It was curious, again, to see in how various ways human passions and +prejudices came into play. It was found that the several parties who +had furnished from memory the same portions of the sacred texts had +fallen into a great variety of different readings; and though most +of them were of as little importance in themselves as the bulk of +those which are paraded in the critical recensions of Mill, Griesbach, +or Tischendorf, they became, from the obstinacy and folly of the men +who contended about them, important differences, merely because they +were differences. Two reverend men of the synod, I remember, had a +rather tough dispute as to whether it was twelve baskets full of +fragments of the five loaves which the five thousand left, and seven +baskets full of the seven loaves which the four thousand had left, +or vice versa: as also whether the words in John vi. 19 were "about +twenty or five and twenty," or "about thirty or five and thirty +furlongs." + +To do the assembly justice, however, there was found an intense +general earnestness and sincerity befitting the occasion, and an equally +intense desire to obtain, as nearly as possible, the very words of +the lost volume; only (as was also, alas! natural) vanity in some; +in others, confidence in their strong impressions and in the accuracy +of their memory; obstinacy and pertinacity in many more (all +aggravated as usual by controversy),--caused many odd embarrassments +before the final adjustment was effected. + +I was particularly struck with the varieties of reading which mere +prejudices in favor of certain systems of theology occasioned in +the several partisans of each. No doubt the worthy men were +generally unconscious of the influence of these prejudices; yet, +somehow, the memory was seldom so dear in relation to those texts +which told against them as in relation to those which told for +them. A certain Quaker had an impression that the words instituting +the Eucharist were preceded by a qualifying expression, "And Jesus +said to the twelve, Do this in remembrance of me"; while he could +not exactly recollect whether or not the formula of "baptism" was +expressed in the general terms some maintained it was. Several +Unitarians had a clear recollection, that in several places the +authority of manuscripts, as estimated in Griesbaeh's recension, was +decidedly against the common reading; while the Trinitarians +maintained that Griesbaeb's recension in those instances had left +that reading undisturbed. An Episcopalian began to bare his doubts +whether the usage in favor of the interchange of the words "bishop" +and "presbyter" was so uniform as the Presbyterian and Independent +maintained, and whether there was not a passage in which Timothy +and Titus were expressly called "bishops." The Presbyterian and +Independent had similar biases; and one gentleman, who was a +strenuous advocate of the system of the latter, enforced one +equivocal remembrance by saying, he could, as it were, distinctly +see the very spot on the page before his mind's eye. Such tricks +will imagination play with the memory, when preconception plays +tricks with the imagination! In like manner; it was seen that, while +the Calvinist was very distinct in his recollection of the ninth +chapter of Romans, his memory was very faint as respects the exact +wording of some of the verses in the Epistle of James; and though +the Arminian had a most vivacious impression of all those passages +which spoke of the claims of the law, he was in some doubt whether +the Apostle Paul's sentiments respecting human depravity, and +justification by faith alone, had not been a little exaggerated. In +short, it very dearly appeared that tradition was no safe guide; +that if, even while she was hardly a month old; she could play such +freaks with the memories of honest people, there was but a sorry +prospect of the secure transmission of truth for eighteen hundred +years. From each man's memory seemed to glide something or other +which he was not inclined to retain there, and each seemed to +substitute in its stead something that he liked better. + +Though the assembly was in the main most anxious to come to a right +decision, and really advanced an immense way towards completing a +true and faithful copy of the lost original, the disputes which arose, +on almost every point of theology, promised the world an abundant +crop of new sects and schisms. Already there had sprung up several +whose names had never been heard of in the world, but for this +calamity. Amongst them were two who were called the "Long Memories" +and the "Short Memories." Their general tendencies coincided pretty +much with those of the orthodox and the rationalists. + +It was curious to see by what odd associations, sometimes of contrast, +sometimes of resemblance, obscure texts were recovered, though they +were verified, when once mentioned, by the consciousness of hundreds. +One old gentleman, a miser, contributed (and it was all he did contribute) +a maxim of prudence, which he recollected, principally from having +systematically abused it. All the ethical maxims, indeed, were soon +collected; for though, as usual, no one recollected his own peculiar +duties or infirmities, every one, as usual, kindly remembered those +of his neighbors. Husbands remembered what was due from their wives, +and wives what was due from their husbands. The unpleasant sayings +about "better to dwell on the house-top" and "the perpetual dropping +on a very rainy day" were called to mind by thousands. Almost the +whole of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were contributed, in the merest +fragments, in this way. As for Solomon's "times for every thing," few +could remember them all, but every body remembered some. Undertakers +said there was a "time to mourn," and comedians that there was a +"time to laugh"; young ladies innumerable remembered that there was +a "time to love," and people of all kinds that there was a "time +to hate"; every body knew there was a "time to speak," but a worthy +Quaker reminded them that there was also a "time to keep silence." + +Some dry parts of the laws of Moses were recovered by the memory of +jurists, who seemed to have no knowledge whatever of any other parts +of the sacred volume; while in like manner one or two antiquarians +supplied some very difficult genealogical and chronological matters, +in equal ignorance of the moral and spiritual contents of the +Scriptures. + +As people became accustomed to the phenomenon, the perverse humors of +mankind displayed themselves in a variety of ways. The efforts of the +pious assembly were abundantly laughed at; but I must, in justice, +add, without driving them from their purpose. Some profane wags +suggested there was now a good opportunity of realizing the scheme +taking "not" out of the Commandments and inserting it in the Creed. +But they were sarcastically told, that the old objection to the plan +would still apply; that they would not sin with equal relish if they +were expressly commanded to do so, nor take such pleasure in +infidelity if infidelity became a duty. Others said that, if the world +must wait till the synod had concluded its labors, the prophecies of +the New Testament would not be written till some time after their +fulfilment; and that, if all the conjectures of the learned divines +were inserted in the new edition of the Bible, the declaration in +John would be literally verified, and that "the world itself would +not contain all the books which would be written." + +But the most amusing thing of all was to see, as time made man more +familiar with this strange event, the variety of speculations which +were entertained respecting its object and design. Many began +gravely to question whether it was the duty of the synod to attempt +the reconstruction of a book of which God himself had so manifestly +deprived the world, and whether it was not a profane, nay, an +atheistical, attempt to frustrate his will. Some, who were secretly +glad to be released from so troublesome a book, were particularly +pious on this head, and exclaimed bitterly against this rash attempt +to counteract and cancel the decrees of Heaven. The Papists, on their +part, were confident that the design was to correct the exorbitancies +of a rabid Protestantism, and show the world, by direct miracle, the +necessity of submitting to the decision of their Church and the +infallibility of the supreme Pontiff; who, as they truly alleged, +could decide all knotty points quite as well without the Word of +God as with it. On being reminded that the writings of the Fathers, +on which they laid so much stress as the vouchers of their traditions, +were mutilated by the same stroke which had demolished the Bible (all +their quotations from the sacred volume being erased), some of the +Jesuits affirmed that many of the Fathers were rather improved than +otherwise by the omission, and that they found these writings quite +as intelligible and not less edifying than before. In this, many +Protestants very cordially agreed. On the other hand, many of our +modern infidels gave an entirely new turn to the whole affair, by +saying that the visitation was evidently not in judgment, but in +mercy; that God in compassion, and not in indignation, had taken +away a book which man had regarded with an extravagant admiration +and idolatry, and which they had exalted to the place of that +clear internal oracle which He had planted in the human breast; in +a word, that, if it was a rebuke at all, it was a rebuke to a rampant +"Bibliolatry." As I heard all these different versions of so simple +a matter, and found that not a few were inclined to each, I could, +not help exclaiming, "In truth the Devil is a very clever fellow, +and man even a greater blockhead than I had taken him for." But in +spite of the surprise with which I had listened to these various +explanations of an event which seemed to me clear as if written +with a sunbeam, this last reason, which assigned as the cause of +God's resumption of his own gift, an extravagant admiration and +veneration of it on the part of mankind,--it being so notorious +that those who professed belief in its divine origin and authority +had (even the best of them) so grievously neglected both the +study and the practice of it,--struck me as so exquisitely +ludicrous, that I broke into a fit of laughter, which awoke me. +I found that it was broad daylight, and the morning sun was +streaming in at the window, and shining in quiet radiance upon +the open Bible which lay on my table. So strongly had my dream +impressed me, that I almost felt as though, on inspection, I +should find the sacred leaves a blank, and it was therefore +with joy that my eyes rested on those words, which I read through +grateful tears: "The gifts of God are without repentance." + +____ + +July 19. This morning my friends treated me to a long dialogue in +which it was contended + +THAT MIRACLES ARE IMPOSSIBLE, BUT THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE IT. + +"I think, Fellowes," Harrington began, "if there be any point in +which you and I are likely to agree, it is in that dogma that miracles +are impossible. And yet here, as usual, my sceptical doubts pursue +and baffle me. I wish you would try with me whether there be not an +escape from them." Fellowes assented. + +"As I have to propose and explain my doubts," said Harrington, "perhaps +you will excuse my taking the 'lion's share' of the conversation. But +now, by way of beginning in some way,--what, my dear friend, is a +miracle?" + +"What is a miracle? Ay, that is the question; but though it may be +difficult to find an exact definition of it, it is easily understood by +every body." + +"Very likely; then you can with more ease give me your notion of it." + +"If, for example," said Fellowes, "the sun which has risen so long, +every morning, were to rise no more; or if a man, whom we knew to be +dead and buried, were to come to life again; or if what we know to +be water were at once to become wine, none would hesitate to call that +a miracle." + +"You remember, perhaps," said Harrington, "an amusing little play of +Socratic humor in the dialogue of Theaetetus, somewhere in the +introduction, when the ironical querist has asked that intelligent +youth what science is? + +"I cannot say that I do; for though I have read that dialogue, it is +some years ago." + +"Let me read you the passage then. Here it is," said Harrington, +reaching down the dialogue and turning to the place. "'Tell me frankly,' +says Socrates, 'what do you think science is?' 'It appears to me,' says +Theaetetus, 'that such things as one may learn from Theodorus here, +--namely, geometry, as well as other things which you have just +enumerated; and again, that the shoemaker's art, and those of other +artisans,--all and each of them are nothing else but science.' 'You +are munificent indeed,' said Socrates; 'for when asked for one thing, you +have given many.' I almost think," continued Harrington, "that, if +Socrates were here, he would do what I should not presume to do,--banter +you in a somewhat similar way. He would say, that, having asked what +a miracle was, Mr. Fellowes told him that half a dozen things were +miracles, but did not tell him what every miracle was; that is, never +told him what made all miracles such. Suffer me again to ask you what a +miracle is?" + +"I recollect now enough of the charming dialogue from which you have +taken occasion to twit me, to answer you in the same vein. As it +turns out, Socrates, appears to be at least equally ignorant with +Theaetetus as to the definition of which he is in search. I think it +may be as well for me to do at once what certainly Theaetetus would +have done, had he known that his reprover was as much in the dark +as himself." + +"What is that?" said Harrington. + +"He would have cut short a good deal of banter by at once turning +the tables upon his ironical tormentor; acknowledging his impotence, +and making him give the required definition. Come, let me take that +course." + +"I have no objection, my friend, if you will first, as you say, +acknowledge your impotence; only I would not advise you, for in that +case you would be obliged to confess that you have resolved with me +that a miracle is impossible, and yet that you are not quite sure that +you can tell, or rather own that you cannot, what a miracle is. Let me +entreat you to essay some definition; and if you break down, I have no +objection to take my chance of the honor of success or the ignominy of +failure." + +"The fact is," answered Fellowes, "that, like many other things, it +is better understood--" + +"Than described, as the novelists say, when they feel that their powers +of description fail them. But this will hardly do for us; we are +philosophers, you know (save the mark!) in search of truth.--A +thing that is well known by every body, and is capable of being +described by nobody, would be almost a miracle of itself; and I +think it imports us to give some better account of the matter. I +can see that my orthodox uncle there is already secretly amusing +himself at the anticipation of our perplexities." + +I took no notice of the remark, but went on writing. + +"Well, then, if I must give you some definition," said Fellowes, "I +know not if I can do better than avail myself of the usual one, that +it is a suspension or violation of a law of nature. Is not that the +account which Hume gives of the matter?" + +"I think it is. I am afraid, however, that at the very outset we should +have some difficulty in determining one of the phrases used in this +very definition,--namely, how we are to understand a law of nature. I +do not ask whether law implies a lawgiver; you will assert it, and I +shall not gainsay it: it is at present immaterial. But do you not mean +by a law of nature (I am asking the question merely to ascertain whether +or not we are thinking of the same thing) just this;--the fact that +similar phenomena uniformly reappear in an observed series of antecedents +and consequents, which series is invariable so far as we know, and so +far as others know, whose experience we can test? Is not that what +you mean? You do not, I presume, suppose you know any thing of the +connection which binds together causes and effects, or the manner in +which the secret bond (if there be any) which unites antecedents and +consequents, in any natural phenomena, is maintained?" + +"I certainly make no such pretensions; all that I mean by a law of +nature is just what you have mentioned. I shall be well content to +adhere to your explanation," answered Fellowes. + +"So that when we observe similar phenomena reproduced in the aforesaid +series of antecedents and consequents, we call that a law of nature, +and affirm that violation of that law would be a miracle, and +impossible?" + +"Certainly." + +"And further, do you not agree with me that such invariable series is +sufficiently certified to us by our own uniform experience,--that of +all our neighbors and friends,--and, in a word, that of all whose +experience we can test?" + +"I agree with you." + +"I am content," replied Harrington; "but at the outset it seems to me +that the expression I have used requires a little expansion to meet +the sophistry of our opponents. I will either explain myself now, and +then leave you to judge; or I will say no more of the matter here, but +pursue our discussion, and let the difficulty (if there be one) disclose +itself in the course of it, and be provided for as may be in our power." + +"What is it?" + +"It is this;--that it cannot, with truth, be said, in relation to +many phenomena, that (so far as our experience informs us) they do +follow each other in an absolutely invariable order; which phenomena, +nevertheless, we believe to be as much under the dominion of law as +the rest; and any violation of this law, I presume, you would think +as much a miracle as any other. For example, we do not find the same +remedies or the same regimen will produce the same effects upon +different individuals at different times; again, the varieties of the +weather, in every climate, are dependent upon so many causes, that +it transcends all human skill to calculate them. Yet I dare say you +can easily imagine certain degrees and continuity of change in these +variable phenomena which you would not hesitate to call as much miracle +as if the dead were raised, or the sun stayed in mid-heaven." + +"Yes, unquestionably," replied Fellowes; "if I found, for instance that +a dozen men could take an ounce of arsenic or half a pound of opium with +impunity, I should not hesitate to regard it as a miracle, although the +precise amount sufficient to kill in any particular case might not be +capable of being ascertained. In the same manner, if I found that though +the amount of heat and cold in summer and winter in our climate is +subject to marked variations, yet that suddenly for several consecutive +years we had more frost in July than in December; that gooseberries and +currants were getting ripe on Christmas day, and men were skating +on the Serpentine on the 10th of August, I should certainly argue that +a change tantamount to a miracle had been wrought in nature." + +"You have just expressed my own feelings on that point," said Harrington; +"and it was this very consideration which made me say, that, in order to +render my expression perfectly clear, and to obviate misconception +and misrepresentation, we must endeavor to include this very frequent case +of a certain limited variation from the order of nature as consistent +with the absence of miracle, and a certain degree of that variation as +inconsistent with it." + +"Will you just state our criterion once more, with the limitation +attached; and then I shall know better whether we are certainly agreed +in the criterion we ought to employ?" + +"I say, then," resumed Harrington, "that our uniform experience, that +of our friends and neighbors, and of all whose experience we have the +opportunity of testing, as to the order of nature,--meaning by that +either an order absolutely invariable, or varying only limits which +are themselves absolutely invariable,--justifies us in pronouncing an +event contradicting such experience to be all impossibility. If the +principle is worth any thing, let us embrace it, and inflexibly +apply it." + +"And I, for one," replied Fellowes, "am quite satisfied with the +principle and the limitations you have laid down; and am so confident +of its correctness, that I do not hesitate to say that all the +miraculous histories on record are to be summarily rejected." + +"For example," said Harrington, "we have seen the sun rise every morning +and set every evening all our lives; and every one whose experience +we can test has seen the same. Every man who has come into the world +has come into it but one way, and has as certainly gone out of it, and +has not returned; and every one whose experience we can test affirms +the same. We therefore conclude on this uniform and invariable +experience, that the same sequences took place yesterday and the day +before, and will take place tomorrow and the day after; and we +may fearlessly apply this principle both to the past and the future. +I know of no other reason for rejecting a miracle; and if I am to +apply the principle at all to phenomena which have not fallen under +my own observation, I must apply it without restriction." + +"I am quite of your mind." + +"You think, with me, that our experience,--the experience of those +about us,--the experience of all whose experience we have the means +of testing,--is sufficient to settle the question as to the experience +of those whose experience we have not the means of testing; who lived, +for example, a thousand years before we were born; or in a distant +part of the world, where we have never been?" + +"Certainly: why should we hesitate so to apply it?" + +"I am sure I know not; and you see I am not unwilling so to apply it. +Only I asked the question, because we must not forget that many say +it is begging the question; for, as a 'miracle' has not been exerted +on us to give us a vision of the past experience of man, or his +present experience in any part of the world we never visited, our +opponents affirm, that to say that the experience we trust to has been +and is the universal experience of man, is a clear petitio principii." + +"Surely," said Fellowes, "it may be said that the general experience of +mankind has been of such a character." + +"Exactly so, as a postulate from our experience, as a generalized +assumption that our experience may be taken as a specimen and criterion +of all experience. We assume that,--we do not prove it. It is just as +in any other case of induction; we say, 'Because this is true in twenty +or thirty or a hundred instances (as the case may be), which we can test, +--therefore it is generally or universally true'; we do not say, because +this is true in these instances, and because it is also generally or +universally true, therefore it is so! No; our true premise is restricted +to what alone we know from our experience and the experience of all +whose experience we can test if we please. This is our real ground on +which we are to justify our rejection of all miracles, and let us adhere +to it. As to your general experience, you see, the advocate of miracles +easily gets over that. He says, 'Why, no one pretends that miracles are +as "plenty as blackberries"; otherwise they would no longer be miracles; +these are comparatively rare events, of course; and, being rare, are +necessarily at variance with general experience'; and, for my part, I +should not know how to answer the objection." + +"Well, then," said Fellowes. "let us adhere to that which is our real +ground of objection, and let us consistently apply it." + +"With all my heart," said Harrington; "we agree then, that our own +uniform experience,--that of all our neighbors and friends,--in fact, +of all whose experience we can test, is a sufficient criterion of a +law of nature, and justifies us in at once rejecting as possible any +alleged fact which violates it." + +"Certainly." + +"For example, if it were asserted that last year that the sun never +rose on a certain day, or, rather, for twenty-four hours the rotation +of the earth ceased, we should instantly reject the story, without +examination of witnesses, or any such thing." + +"No doubt of that." + +"And just so in other cases. This, then, is our ground. You would not +(if I may advise) lay much stress on the fact that there have been +so many stories of a supernatural kind false." + +"Why, I do not know whether it would not be wise to insist upon +that argument. It seems to be not without weight," urged Fellowes. + +"Perhaps so," replied Harrington; "but it has, you see, this +inconvenience, of proving more than you want. The greater part by far +of all religions have been false. But you affirm that there is one +little system absolutely true. The greater part of the theories of +science and philosophy, which men, from time to time, have framed, +have also been false; and yet you believe that there is such a thing +as true philosophy and true science. Similarly, the generality of +political governments have been founded on vicious principles, yet +you hope for a political millennium at last. In short, the argument +would go to prove, that, as there can never have been any true miracles +because there have been so many false ones, so, for similar reasons, +it is mere 'vanity and vexation of spirit' to search after truth in +religion, or science, or politics; and though a sceptic, like myself, +might not much mind it, perhaps it would trammel such a positive +philosopher as you. Nay, a pertinacious opponent might even say, that, +as you believe that in all these last cases there is a substance, else +there would not have been the shadows, so, with reference to miracles, +the very general belief of them rather argues that there have been +miracles, than that there have been none. My advice is, that we adhere +to these reasons we have assigned, for they are our real reasons." + +"Be it so; I hate miracles so much, that I care not by what means the +doltish delusion is dissipated." + +"Only that the weapons should be fair?" + +"O, of course." + +"To resume, then. I say, that, if we were told that last year an event +of such a miraculous nature occurred as that the earth did not revolve +for twenty-four hours together, we should at once reject it, without +any examination of witnesses, or troubling ourselves with any thing of +the kind." + +"Unquestionably." + +"And if it were said to have occurred twenty years ago we should take +the same course." + +"Certainly." + +"And so if any such event were said to have occurred eighteen hundred +years ago?" + +"Agreed." + +"And if such events were said at that day to have occurred eighteen +hundred years previously, we believe, of course, the men of that time +would have been equally entitled to reason in the same way about +them as ourselves; and, in short, that we may fearlessly apply the +same principle to the same epoch." + +"Of course" + +"And so for two thousand years before that; and, in fact, we must +believe that every thing has always been going on in the same manner, +--the sun always rising and setting, men dying and never rising +and so forth." + +"Exactly so, even from the beginning of the creation," said Fellowes. + +"The beginning of the creation! My good fellow, I do not understand +you. As we have been going back, we have seen that there is no +period at which the same principle of judgment will not apply, and, +following it fearlessly, I say that we are in all fairness bound +to believe that there never has been a period when the present order +has been different from what it is; in other words, that the +progression has been an eternal one." + +"I cannot admit that argument," said Fellowes. + +"Then be pleased to provide me with a good answer to it, which will +still leave us at liberty to say, that a miracle (that is, a variation +from the order of nature as determined by our uniform experience, and +by that of the whole circle of our contemporaries) is impossible, +and that we may reject at once any pretension of the kind." + +"But I do not admit that the creation of any thing or of all things +is of the nature of a miracle." + +Harrington smiled. "I am afraid," said he, "that to common sense, +to fair reasoning, to any philosopher worthy of the name there would +be no difference except in magnitude, between such an event as the +sudden appearance of an animal (say man) for the first time in our +world, or the first appearance of a tree (such a thing never having +been before), and the restoration to life of a dead man. Each is, to +all intents and purposes, a violation of the previous established +series of antecedents and consequents, and comes strictly within +the limits of our definition of a miracle; and a miracle, you know +is impossible. The only difference will be, that the miracle in the +one case will be greater and more astonishing than that in the other." + +"But it is impossible, in the face of geologists, to contend that +there have not been many such revolutions in the history of the world +as these. Man himself is of comparatively recent introduction into +our system." + +"I cannot help what the geologists affirm. If we are to abide by our +principle, we have no warrant to believe that there have been any such +violations, or infractions, or revolutions of nature's laws in the +world's history. If they contend for the interpolation of events +in the history of the universe, which, by our criterion, are of the +nature of miracles, and we are convinced that miracles are impossible, +we must reject the conclusions of geologists." + +"But may we not say, that the great epochs in the history of the universe +are themselves but the manifestation of law?" + +"In no other sense, I think, than the advocate of miracles is entitled +to say that the intercalation of miracles in the world's history is also +according to law,--parts, though minute parts, of a universal plan, and +permitted for reasons worthy of the Creator. To both, or neither, is +the same answer open. Your objection is, I think, a mere sophistical +evasion of the difficulty. There is no difference whatever in the +nature of the events, except that the variation from the 'established +series of sequences' is infinitely greater in those portentous revolutions +of the universe to which the geologist points your attention. The +application of our principle (as you affirm with me) will justify us in +at once pronouncing any variation from the 'established series' whether +occurring yesterday, a year ago, a thousand years ago, or a million of +years ago, incredible; it will, in the same manner, justify the men of +any age in saying the same of all previous ages; and I, therefore, +while contending for your principle with you, carry it consistently +out, and affirm that the series of antecedents and consequents (as we +now find it) must be regarded as eternal, because creation would +do what a miracle is supposed to do, and a miracle, you know, is +impossible. You are silent." + +"I am not able to retract acquiescence in the principle, and I am as +little inclined to concede the conclusions you would draw from it." + +"As you please; only, in the latter case, provide me with an answer. +If you saw now introduced on the earth for the first time a being as +unlike than as man is unlike the other animals,--say with seven +senses, wings on his shoulders, a pair of eyes behind his head as +well as in front of it, and the tail of a peacock, by way of finishing +him off handsomely,--would you not call such a phenomenon a miracle?" + +"I think I should," said Fellowes, laughing. + +"And if the creature died, leaving no issue, would you continue to +call it so?" + +"Yes." + +"But if you found that he was the head of a race, as man was, and a +whole nation of such monsters springing from him, then would you say +that this wonderful intrusion into the sphere of our experience was +no miracle, but that it was merely according to law?" + +"I should." + +"Verily, my dear friend, I am afraid the world will laugh at us for +making such fantastical distinctions. This infraction of 'established +sequences' ceases to be miraculous, if the wonder is perpetuated +and sufficiently multiplied! Meantime, what becomes of the prodigy +during the time in which it is uncertain whether any thing will come +of it or not? You will say, I suppose, (the interpolation in the +'series' of phenomena being just what I have supposed,) that it is +uncertain whether it is to be regarded as miraculous or not, till +we know whether it is to be repealed or not." + +"I think I must, if I adhere to the principle I am now defending." + +"Very well; only in the mean time you are in the ludicrous position +of facing a phenomenon of which you do not know whether you will call +it a miracle or not,--the contingency, meantime, on which it is to be +decided, not at all, as I contend, affecting the matter; since you +allow that it is the infraction of the previously established order +of sequences, as known to uniform experience, which constitutes a +miracle! If so, I must maintain that the creation of man was, for +the same reasons, of the essence of a miracle. You seem to think +there is no objection to the admission of miracles, provided they are +astounding and numerous enough; or provided they are a long time about, +instead of being instantaneously wrought. I must remind you, that to +the principle of our argument these things are quite immaterial. Whether +the revolution by which the established order of sequences is absolutely +infringed,--the face of the universe or of our globe transformed, or +an entirely new race (as, for example, man) originated,--I say, whether +such change be produced slowly or quickly is of no consequence in the +world to our argument. It is whether or not a series of phenomena +be produced as absolutely transcending the sphere of all experience, +as those events we admit to be impossible, called 'miracles.' That the +introduction of man upon the earth for the first time (for you will not +allow his race eternal), or the origination of a sun, is not at all +to be reckoned as transcending that experience, I cannot understand. +Nor can I understand it a bit better by your saying that it, is in +conformity with the vague something you are pleased to call a law. +It is a safe phrase, however; for as neither you nor any one else +can interpret it, no one can refute you. This law is a most convenient +thing! It repeals, it appears to me, all other laws,--even those of +logic. Perhaps would be better to say that miracles are no miracles +when they are 'lawful' miracles. No! let us keep our principle intact +from all such dangerous admissions as these. In that way only +are we safe." + +"Safe do you call it? I see not how, if we carry out this principle +in the way and to the extent you propose, we can reply to the atheist +or to the pantheist, who tells us that the universe is but an +eternal evolution of phenomena in one infinite series, or in an +eternal recurrence of finite cycles." + +"And what is that to you or me? How can we help our principle (if we +are to hold it at all) leading to some such conclusion? We are, I +presume, anxious to know the truth. You see that Strauss, who is the +most strenuous assertor of the impossibility of miracles, is also a +pantheist. I know not whether you may not become one yourself." + +"Never," said Fellowes, vehemently; "never, I trust, shall I yield +to that 'desolating pantheism' (as worthy Mr. Newman calls it) which +is now so rife." + +"I think Mr. Newman's principles ought to guide you thither. You +seem to hold fast by his skirts at present; but I very much doubt +whether you have yet reached the termination of your career. You +have, you must admit, made advances quite as extraordinary before. + +"We shall see.--But I suppose you have reached the end of the +objections which your wayward scepticism suggests against a +conclusion which we both admit; or have you any more?" + +"O, plenty; and amongst the rest, I am afraid we must admit--whether +we admit or not your expedient of law--a miracle, or something +indistinguishable from it, as involved in the creation and +preservation of the first man,--since you will have a first man." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean, that supposing the creation of man to be no miracle, because +he entered by law; or that that first fact (which would otherwise be +miraculous) is not such, simply because it is the first of a series +of such facts,--I should like to see whether we have not even then +to deal with a miracle, or a fact as absolutely unique; and which was +not connected with any series of similar facts." + +"I think you would find it very hard to prove it." + +"Nous verrons. I am sure we shall not disagree as to the fact that man, +however he came into the world, sooner or later, by ordinary or +extraordinary methods, by some lawful wedlock of nature, or by some +miracle which is not 'lawful,' is endowed by nature with various +faculties and susceptibilities." + +"Certainly," said Fellowes, laughing; "if you demand my assent to +nothing more than that, I shall easily admit your premises and +deny your conclusion." + +"You will also admit, I think, that the process by which man comes +to the use of these faculties, and powers, and so forth, is +very gradual?" + +"Assuredly." + +"And will you not also admit that the development and command of +these is something very different from the, potentialities themselves, +as my uncle here would call them?--that, for example, we have the +faculty of vision; but that the art of seeing involves a slow +laborious process, acquired not without the concurrent exercise of +other senses: and that the apparatus for walking is perfect even in +an infant; but that the art of walking is, in fact, a wonderful +acquisition: further, that the command given us by these faculties, +as actually exercised, is immensely greater than would be conferred +by each alone. In one word, you will allow that man, when he comes +to the use of his faculties, is, as has been well said, a bundle of +habits, or, as Burke puts it, is a creature who, to a great extent, +has the making of himself." + +"I am much at my ease," said Fellowes; "I shall not dispute any +of these premises either." + +"And will you not also admit that, as man comes into the world now, +a long time is required for this development; and that during that +time he is absolutely dependent on the care of those who have already +in their turn required similar care?" + +"Seeing that we have had fathers and mothers,--as I suppose our +grandfathers and grandmothers also had,--there can be as little doubt +of this as of the preceding points," said Fellowes, rather +condescendingly. + +"And that many of the functions which thus task their care are +necessary for our existence, and for any chance of our being able +to develop into men." + +"I think so, of course." + +"So that, if an infant were exposed on a mountain-side or forest, +you would have no doubt he would perish (unless it pleased some +kind-hearted wolf to suckle him) before he could come to the use of +his faculties, and develop them by exercise." + +"I think," said the other, "your premises perfectly innocent; I +shall not contest them." + +"A little further." said Harrington, "we may go together; and then, +if I mistake not, you will pause before you go one step further. +This, then, is the normal condition of humanity?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you think the first man was like us in these respects?" + +"I cannot tell." + +"I dare engage you cannot,--it is a very natural answer. But he either +was, I suppose, or was not. That, I think, you will grant me." He +assented, though rather reluctantly. + +"Pray please yourself," said Harrington; "for it is quite immaterial +to me which alternative you take. If man was in our condition, then, +though the 'lawful miracle' by which he was brought into the world +might have made him a baby of six feet high, he would have been no +more than a baby still. All that was to constitute him a man,--all +those habits by which alone his existence was capable of being +preserved,--and without which he must have perished immediately after +his creation, in which case you and I should have been spared the +necessity of all this discussion on the subject, would have to be +learned; and his existence during that time--and a long time it must +have been, having no teachers and aids, as we have--must have been +preserved by a--miracle. If he were taught by the Creator himself, +then we have the miracle in that direction. If he were not brought +into the world under the same conditions of development as we are, +but with habits ready made,--if, indeed, that be not a contradiction, +--then we have a miracle in that direction; if he had his faculties +preternaturally quickened and expanded, so as to acquire +instantaneously, or possess by instinct, what we acquire by a long +and slow process, and not for many years,--then we have a miracle in +that direction. If you do not like these suppositions, I see but +one other; and that is that; being a baby,--though, as I said, a +baby six feet high,--he had an angel nurse sent down expressly to +attend him, and to push or wheel him about the walls of paradise +in a celestial go-cart. But then I think that in this last +particular we shall hardly say that we have got rid of a miracle, +though it would doubtless be a miracle of a very ludicrous kind. If +you can imagine any other supposition, I shall be glad to hear it." + +"I acknowledge I can form no supposition on the subject." + +"Only remember that, if you could, the theory would still suppose +man's actual preservation and development effected under totally +different conditions from those which have formed the uniform experience +of all his posterity; and so far from any subterfuge of a law stepping +in, it is a single expedient provided for our first parent alone." + +"I do not think we are at all in a condition to consider any such +case, about which we cannot know any thing," replied Fellowes. + +"Neither do I; but pardon me,--the question I asked does not depend +upon any such knowledge; it is a question which is wholly independent +whether of our ignorance or our knowledge. Granting, as you do, that +man was created, but that it was no miracle, nor any thing analogous +to one (as you say), still either he was created subject to our +conditions of development and preservation, or he was not; if he was +not, then I fear we have in form the miracle we wish to evade; if he +was, then I fear also that there are but the three imaginable modes of +obviating the difficulty which I have so liberally provided; and +supposing there were a thousand. I fear still that they all involve a +departure from the 'uniform course of Nature.'" + +"But I do not see," replied Fellowes, "that it is absolutely necessary, +supposing that the first man was thrown upon the green of paradise." + +"Or in a forest, or on a moor," said Harrington, "for you know nothing +of paradise." + +"Well, then, in a forest, or on a moor;--I say if man were cast out +there, the same helpless being which all his posterity are,--unfortified, +as the lower animals are, by feathers or hair, or by instincts equal to +theirs,--who can affirm that it was beyond the possibilities of +his nature, that he might survive this cruel experiment? crawl, perhaps, +for an indefinite period on all fours, live on berries, and at last--by +very slow degrees doubtless, but still at last--emerge into---" + +"The dignity of a savage," cried Harrington, "as the first step towards +something better,--his Creator having beneficently created him something +infinitely worse! Surely, you must be returning to a savage yourself, even +to hint at such a pedigree. But I have done: till those cases of which +certain philosophers have said so much have been authenticated; till you +can produce an instance of a new-born babe, exposed on a mountain-side, +in all the helplessness of his natal hour, and self-preserved,--nay, +two of them,--for you must at least have a pair of these 'babes in the +wood'; and till, moreover, it can be shown that they would have survived +this experiment so as to preserve the characteristics of humanity a +little better than the 'wild boy of Germany,' and were fit to be the +heads of the human family,--I shall at times be strangely tempted +to embrace any theory as infinitely more probable. I cannot think it +was in this way that our first parents made their entree into the +world. I hope not, for the credit of the Creator, as well as for +the happiness of his offspring. Of the moral bearings of such a +brutal theory, I say nothing; but if it can be true, all I can say +is, that I am glad that you and I, my dear Fellowes, are not the +immediate children but so fortunate as to be only the great-great +--great-great-grandchildren of God! You have well called it a 'cruel +experiment'; according to this, the first Father of all thrust forth +his children into the world to be for an indefinite time worse than +the beasts, who were carefully provided against miserable man's +inconveniences! Certainly, I think you may alter the account of man's +creation given in Genesis, to great advantage. Instead of God's saying, +'Let us create man in our image, he must be supposed to have said, +'Let us create man in the image of a BEAST: and in the image of a BEAST +created he him, male and female created he them'; and very imperfect +beasts they must have been, after all. This is that old savage theory +which I had supposed was pretty well abandoned. If the necessity of +denying miracles imposes any necessity of believing that, I fear that +I shall sooner be got to believe a thousand." + +"Well," said Fellowes, who seemed ashamed of this theory, but knew +not how to abandon it; "I cannot believe there have been any miracles, +and, what is more, I will not." + +"That is perhaps the best reason you have given yet," said Harrington. +"The Will is indeed your only irresistible logician. You are one +degree, at all events, better off than I, for I can hardly say either +that I believe, or that I do not believe, in miracles." + +"And yet," continued Harrington, after a pause, "two or three other +strange consequences seem to follow from that seemingly undeniable +principle on which we base the conclusion that there neither has +been nor can be any such thing as a miracle: in other words, a +departure from the established series of sequences which, as tested +by our own experience and by that of other men, we are convinced is +stable. Will you see with me whether there is any fair mode of +escaping from them? I should be very glad if I could do so." + +"What are they?" + +"Why, first, I am afraid it must be said, that we must entirely +justify a man in the condition of the Eastern prince mentioned by Hume, +who could not be induced to believe that there was such a thing as ice. +I am afraid that he was quite in the right; and yet we know that in fact +he was wrong." + +"You are not, then, satisfied with Hume's own solution?" + +"So far from it, that I cannot see, upon the principles on which we +refuse to believe miracles, that it is even intelligible. We agree, +do we not, that, from the experience we have (and, so far as we can +ascertain, from every body else's) of the uniform course of events, +of the established order of sequences, we are to reject any assertion +of a violation of those sequences; as, for example, of a man's coming +into the world in any preternatural manner, or, when he has once gone +out of it, coming into it again; and that we are entitled to do +this without any examination of the witnesses to any such fact, +merely on the strength of the principles aforesaid?" + +"I admit that we have agreed to this." + +"Now was not the assertion that in a certain quarter of the world +water became solid as stone, could be cut into pieces, and be put +into one's pockets, contrary, in a similar manner, to all the phenomena +which the said prince had witnessed, and also to the uniform experience +of all about him from his earliest years?" + +"It certainly was." + +"He was right, then, in rejecting the fact; that is, he was right in +rejecting the possibility of such an occurrence," said Harrington. + +"But did we not ourselves say, with Hume, that, as we see that there +is not an absolute uniformity in the phenomena of nature, but that +they are varied within certain limits in different climates and +countries, so it does not become us to say that a phenomenon, though +somewhat variable, is a violation of the usual order of sequences?" + +"We did; but we also agreed, I think, that those variations were to +be within invariable limits, as tested by the whole of our experience; +we did not include within those variations what is diametrically +contrary (as in the present case) to all our own experience and +that of every body about us. If it is to extend to such variations, +what do we say but this,--that the order of nature is uniform and +invariable, except where--it is the reverse? and, as it seems it +sometimes is so, see what comes of the admission. A man asserts the +reality of a miracle which you reject at once as simply impossible, as +contrary to your experience and that of every one whose experience +you can test. It will be easy for him to say, and upon Hume's evasion +he will say, that it was performed, for aught you know, under conditions +so totally different from those which ordinarily obtain in relation +to the same order of events, that you are no adequate judge as to +whether it was possible or not. He acknowledges that a miracle is a +very rare occurrence; that it is performed for special ends; is strictly +limited to time and place, like those phenomena the Indian prince was +asked to believe; and that your experience cannot embrace it, nor +is warranted in pronouncing upon it. I really fear that, if our +incredulous prince is to be condemned, our principle will be ruined. I +am anxious for his safe deliverance, I assure you." + +"Still I cannot see that we can deny that phenomena may be manifested, +in virtue of the laws of nature, totally different from those which we +have ever seen or heard of." + +"What! so different that the phenomena in question shall be a total +departure from that order of nature of which alone we and all about +us are cognizant; in fact, all but the one man, who tells us the +strange thing, we being at the same time totally incapable of testing +his experience?" + +"Yes," said Fellowes; "I must grant it." + +"I see," said Harrington, "you are bent on the destruction of our +criterion. Do you not perceive that, if our experience and that of +the immense majority, or of all about us, be not a sufficient +criterion of the laws of nature, our argument falls to the ground? +'Your principle,' our adversaries will say, 'is a fallacious one; +Nature has her laws, no doubt, which apply to miracles as to every +other phenomenon; but in assuming your experience to be a sufficient +criterion of these laws, you have been, not interpreting her laws, +but imposing upon her your own.' If unknown powers of nature may +thus reverse our experience and the experience of all those whose +experience, under the given conditions, we have opportunities of +testing, we ought to abstain from saying that some unknown powers may +not also have wrought miracles. Let us then affirm consistently the +sufficiency of our criterion; and the prince aforesaid must do the +same; and it warranted him, I say, in believing that there neither +was nor could be such a thing as ice." + +"But this seems ridiculous," said Fellowes; "for according to this, +different and opposite experiences may, in different places give +different or opposite measures of the laws of nature; which +nevertheless are supposed to be invariably the same, or invariably +the limits certified by that experience." + +"I cannot help it; upon that same experience we must believe it true +that there are no miracles, and our unbelieving prince, that there +could be no such thing as ice; for to him it was a miracle. If we do +not reason thus, may we not be compelled to admit that our uniform +experience, with its limited variations, is no rule at all, and that +there are cases for which it makes no provision? and may not the +advocate for miracles say that miracles are amongst them? No, let us +adhere to our principle, and adhering to it, I wish to know whether +the prince in question was not quite right in saying that there +neither was nor could be such a thing as ice; for the assertion that +there was, was contrary to all his experience and to that of every soul +about him." + +"I must say, that, if we look only to the principle of this uniform +experience, he was right." + +"But he rejected the truth." + +"He certainly did." + +"And he was right in rejecting the truth?" + +"Certainly, upon your principle." + +"Upon my principle! Do not say upon my principle, unless you mean to +deny that you too embrace it; if you give up that principle, you lay +yourself open at once to the retort that your position is insecure; +that you have taken your experience as a sufficient criterion of the +possibilities of events, when it is in fact merely a measure of such +as have fallen under your own observation." + +"Perhaps," said Fellowes, "I should say that the prince in question +was justified at first in rejecting the fact, but that when he found +other men, whose veracity he could not suspect, coming from the same +regions of the world, and affirming the same phenomenon, it was his +business to correct his experience, and to admit that the fact +was so." + +"I am surprised to hear you say so; you are again ruining our principle. +Do you admit that the assertion that there was a place on earth at +which water in large quantities became solid, was apparently as great +a violation of all the experience of this man, as what is ordinarily +called a miracle is of ours?" + +"I cannot deny that it was so." + +"But yet you think, that, though justified in disbelieving it at first, +he would not be so when others, whose veracity and motives he had no +reason to suspect, told him the same tale?" + +"Yes." + +"Why, then, is not this plainly to make a belief of such events depend +upon testimony, and do we not give up altogether our sufficient +principle of rejection of all such testimony? You are yielding, +without doubt, the principle of our opponents, who affirm that there +is no event so improbable that a certain combination of testimony +would not be sufficient to warrant your reception of it; because, as +they say, that testimony might be given under such circumstances,--so +variously certified, and so above suspicion,--that it would be more +improbable that the statement to which it applied (however strange) +should be false, than that the testimony should not be true; in other +words, that the falsehood of the testimony would be the greater miracle +of the two. And they say this, because (as they assert) the uniform +experience on which we found our objection to any miraculous narrative +is no less applicable to the world of mind than to the world of matter; +that there is not indeed an absolute uniformity of experience in the +former, as neither is there in the latter; but neither in one nor in +the other is there any absolute bouleversement of the principles and +constitution of nature; which, they say, would be implied, if under +all conceivable circumstances testimony might prove false. And yet +now you seem to admit the very thing for which they contend; and in +contending for it, you give up your case. Doing so, you certainly get +rid of the paradoxical conclusions which my wretched scepticism +sometimes suggests to me, as throwing a doubt on the integrity of our +principle. I say your admission gets rid of it; but then it is with +the ruin of the principle itself." + +"What was that paradox?" + +"It is this; that, if we adhere to our principle, we must deny that any +amount of testimony is sufficient to warrant the belief of a miracle." + +"That is what we do maintain." + +"I thought so; but you seem to me to have hastily given it up. Let us +then again maintain that our prince, in denying what was a miracle +to him, was not only consistent in saying that it could not be, when +first asserted to him, but also when last asserted; and died an orthodox +infidel in the possibility of ice, or an orthodox believer in the +eternal fluidity of water, whichever you prefer to consider it." + +"Well, and what then?" + +"Why, then, let us act upon our principle with equal consistency in +other cases; for you say that there is no amount or complexity of +evidence which would induce you to believe in a miracle." + +"I do." + +"Let us suppose it was asserted that a man known to have been dead +and buried had risen again, and, after having been seen by many, had +at last, in presence of a multitude, on a clear day, ascended to +heaven through the calm sky, without artificial wings or balloon, or +any such thing; that he was seen to pass out of sight of the gazing +crowd, who watched and watched in vain for his return; and that he had +never more been seen. Let us suppose that the witnesses who saw this +constantly affirmed it; that amongst them were many known to you, +whose veracity you had no reason to suspect, and who had no imaginable +motive to deceive you; let us suppose further, that they persisted in +affirming this, in spite of all contumely and contempt, insult and +wrong, amidst threats of persecution, and persecution itself; lastly, +let there be amongst them many, who before this event had been as +strenuous assertors of the impossibility of a miracle as yourself. +I want to know whether you would believe this story, thus authenticated, +or not?" + +"But it is, I think, unfair to put any such case; for there never was +such an event so authenticated." + +"It is quite sufficient to test our principle, that you can imagine +such testimony. If that principle is sound, it is plain that it will +apply to all imaginable degrees of testimony, as well as to all actual. +No testimony, you say, can establish a miracle. This is true or not. +If you admit that there are any degrees in this matter, you come at +last to the old argument, which you abjure; namely, that whether a +miraculous event has taken place or not depends on the degree of +evidence with which it is substantiated, and that must be the result +of a certain investigation of it in the particular alleged case. +You remember the story of the ring of Gyges, which made the wearer +invisible. Plato tells us how a man ought to act, and how a good man +would act, if he had such a ring. Cicero tells us how absurd it would +be to reply to his reasoning (as one did), by saying that there never +was such a ring. It was not necessary to the force of the illustration +that there should be such a ring. So neither is it necessary to my +argument there should be such testimony as I have supposed, to enable +us to see whether we are prepared to admit the truth of your principle +that no evidence can establish a miracle. Once more, then, I ask you +whether, on supposition of such testimony, you would reject the +supposed fact or not?" + +"Well, then, I should say, that, since no testimony can establish a +miracle, I should reject it." + +"Bravo, Fellowes! I do of all things like to see an unflinching +regard to a principle, when once laid down." + +"But would not you also reject it, upon the same principle?" + +"Of course I should, if the principle be true; but ah! my friend, +pardon me for acknowledging my infirmities; my miserable scepticism +tosses me to and fro. I have not your strength of will; and I fear +that the rejection in such a case would cost me many qualms and +doubts. Such is the infirmity of our nature, and so much may be +said on all sides! And I fear that I should be more likely to have +these uneasy thoughts, inasmuch as I fancy I see a difficult +dilemma (I but now referred to it), which would be proposed to us by +some keen-sighted opponent,--I say not with justice,--who would +endeavor to show that we had abandoned our principle in the very +attempt to maintain it; that the bow from which we were about to +launch so fatal an arrow at the enemy had broken in our hands, and +left us defenceless." + +"What dilemma do you refer to?" said Fellowes. + +"I think such an adversary might perhaps say: 'That same uniform +experience on which you justify the rejection of all miracles,--does +it extend only to one part of nature, to the physical and material +only, or to the mental and spiritual also?' In other words, if there +were such things as miracles at all, might there be miracles in +connection with mind as well as in connection with matter? What would +you say?" + +"What can I say, but what Hume himself says, so truly and so +beautifully, in his essay on 'Necessary Connection,' and 'On Liberty +and Necessity'; namely, that there is a uniformity in both the moral +and physical world, and that nature does not transgress certain +limits in either the one or the other'? You must remember that he +says so?" + +"I do," said Harrington. "Now, I am afraid our astute adversary would +say that such a complication of false testimony as we have supposed +would itself be a flagrant violation of the established series of +sequences, on which, as applied to the physical world, we justify +the rejection of all miracles; that we have got rid of a miracle by +admitting a miracle; and that our uniform experience has broken down +with us." + +"But again I say, there never was such a case of testimony," +urged Fellowes. + +"I wish this could help us; but it plainly will not; because we have +concluded that, if there were such testimony, we must believe it false, +and therefore should admit that the miracle of its falsehood was, in +that case, necessary to be believed; not to say that there has been, +in the opinion of millions, testimony often given to miracles, which, +if false, does imply that the laws of human nature must have been +turned topsy-turvy,--and I, for my part, know not how to disprove it. +If, in such cases, the testimony, the falsity of which would be a +miracle, is not to be rejected, then we must admit that the miracle +which it supports is true. I must leave it there." said Harrington, +with an air of comic resignation; "I cannot answer for any thing +except that you may reject both miracles alternatively, if that +will be any comfort to you, without being able to disbelieve +simultaneously. If you believe the testimony false, you must believe +the alleged miracle false; but you will have then the moral miracle +to believe. If you believe the testimony true, you will then believe +the physical miracle true. Perhaps the best way will be to believe both +alternately in rapid succession; and you will then hardly perceive the +difficulty at all!" + +There was here a brief pause. Harrington suddenly resumed. "These +are very perplexing considerations. One thing, I confess, has often +puzzled me much; and that is,--what should we do, in what state of +mind should we be, if we did see a miracle?" + +"Of what use is the discussion of such a particular case, when you know +it is impossible that we should ever see it realized?" replied Fellowes. + +"Of course it is; just as it is impossible that we should ever see +levers perfectly inflexible, or cords perfectly flexible. Nevertheless, +it is perfectly possible to entertain such a hypothetical case, and +to reason with great conclusiveness on the consequences of such a +supposition; and in the same way we can imagine that we have seen a +miracle; and what then?" + +"Why, if we were to see one, of course seeing is believing. We must +give up our principle," said Fellowes, laughing. + +"Do you think so? I think we should be very foolish then. How can we +be sure that we have seen it? Can it appeal to any thing stronger +than senses, and have not our senses often beguiled us?" Must we not +rather abide by that general induction from the evidence to which our +ordinary experience points us? In other words, ought we not to adhere +to the great principle we have already laid down, that a miracle +is impossible?" + +"But, according to this, if we err in that principle, and God were to +work a miracle for the very purpose of convincing us, it would be +impossible for him to attain his purpose." + +"I think it would, my friend, I confess; just for the reason that, +since we believe a miracle to be impossible, we must believe it +impossible for even God to work one; and therefore, if we are +mistaken, and it is possible for him to work one, it is still +impossible that he should convince us of it." + +"I really know not how to go that length." + +"Why not? You acknowledge that your senses have deceived you; you know +that they have deceived others; and it is on that very ground that +you dispose of very many cases of supposed miracles which you are +not willing, or are not able, to resolve otherwise. If I believe, then, +that a miracle is impossible, I must admit that, if I err in that, it +is still impossible for God himself to convince me of it." + +Fellowes looked grave, but said nothing. + +"And do you know," said Harrington, "I have sometimes thought that +Hume, so far from representing his argument from 'Transubstantiation' +fairly, (there is an obvious fallacy on the very face of it, to which +I do not now allude,) is himself precisely in the condition in +which he represents the believer in miracles?" + +Fellowes smiled incredulously. "First, however," said he, "what +is the more notorious fallacy to which you allude?" + +"It is so barefaced an assumption, that I am surprised that his acuteness +did not see it; or that, if he saw it, he could have descended to make +a point by appearing not to see it. It has been often pointed out, +and you will recollect it the moment I name it. You know he commences +with the well-known argument of Tillotson against Transubstantiation +and flatters himself that he sees a similar argument in relation to +miracles. Now it certainly requires but a moderate degree of sagacity +to see that the very point in which Tillotson's argument tells, is +that very one in which Hume's is totally unlike it. Tillotson says, +that when it is pretended that the bread and wine which are submitted +to his own senses have been 'transubstantiated into flesh and blood,' +the alleged phenomena contradict his senses; and that as the information +of his senses as much comes from God as the doctrines of Scripture +(and even the miracles of Scripture appeal to nothing stronger), he must +believe his senses in this case in preference to the assertions of the +priest. Hume then goes on quietly to take it for granted that the +miracles to which consent is asked in like manner contradict the +testimony of the senses of him to whom they appeal is made; whereas, +in fact, the assertor of the miracles does not pretend that he who +denies them has ever seen them, or had the opportunity of seeing them. +To make the argument analogous, it ought to be shown that the objector, +having been a spectator of the pretended miracles, when and where they +were affirmed to have been wrought, had then and there the testimony +of his senses that no such events had taken place. It is mere juggling +with words to say that never to have seen a like event is the same +argument of an event's never having occurred, as never to have seen +that event when it was alleged to have taken place under our very +eyes!" + +"I give up the reasoning on this point," said Fellowes, "but how, +I should like to know, do you retort the argument upon him?" + +"Thus; you see that we maintain that a miracle is incredible per se, +because impossible; not to be believed, therefore, on any evidence." + +"Certainly." + +"If, then, we saw what seemed a miracle, we should distrust our senses; +we should say that it was most likely that they deceived us. Hear what +Voltaire says in one of his letters to D'Alembert: 'Je persiste a +penser que cent mille hommes qui ont vu ressusciter un mort, pourraient +bien etre cent mille hommes qui auraient la berlue.' And what he says +of their bad eyes, there is no doubt he would say of his own, if he had +been one of the hundred thousand." + +"I think so, certainly." + +"And Strauss, and Hume, and Voltaire, and you and I, and all who hold +a miracle impossible, would distrust our senses, and fall back upon +that testimony from the general experience of others, which alone could +correct our own halting and ambiguous experience." + +"Certainly." + +"It appears, then, my good fellow, that the position of those who +deny and those who assert miracles is exactly the reverse of Hume's +statement. The man who believes 'Transubstantiation' distrusts his +senses, and rather believes testimony: and even so would he who has +fully made up his mind, on our sublime principle as to the +impossibility of miracles, when any thing which has that appearance +crosses his path; he is prepared to deny his senses and to trust +to testimony,--to that general experience of others which comes to +him, and can come to him, only in that shape. It is we, therefore, +and not our adversaries, who are liable to be reached by this +unlucky illustration." + +Fellowes himself seemed much amused by finding the tables thus +turned. For my part, I had difficulty in repressing a chuckle over +this display of sceptical candor and subtilty. + +"There is perhaps another paradox which may be as well mentioned," +resumed Harrington. "It is a little trying to my scepticism, but +perhaps will not be to your faith. I mean this. We are constrained +to believe from our 'uniform-experience' criterion that no miracle +has ever occurred, or ever will; in short, it is, as we say, +impossible. Now the principle which undoubtedly leads us to the +conclusion we may regard as a principle of our nature, if ever there +was one; that is, we are so constituted as to infer the perpetual +uniformity of certain sequences of phenomena from our observation +of that uniformity." + +"Assuredly." + +"And as all mankind obviously act upon that same principle in most +cases, and we believe that it is part of the very uniformity in +question that human nature is radically the same in all ages and in +all countries, I think we ought to conclude that it is not you and +I only, but at all events the vast majority of mankind, who have +maintained the impossibility of miracles." + +"We ought to be able to conclude so," said Fellowes, "but it is very +far from being the case. So far from it, that nothing can be plainer +than that miraculous legends have been most greedily taken up by the +vast majority of mankind, and have made a very common part of almost +every form of religion." + +"Men do not then, it appears, in this instance, at all regard the +uniform tenor of their experience; so that it is a part of our uniform +experience, that mankind disregard and disbelieve the lessons of their +uniform experience. This is almost a miracle of itself; at all events, +a curious paradox; but one which we must not stay to examine: though +I confess it leads to one other humiliating conclusion,--a little +corollary, which I think it is not unimportant to mark; and that is, +that we can never expect these enlightened views of ours to spread +amongst the mass of mankind." + +"Nay, I cannot agree with you. I hope far other wise, and far better +for the human race." + +"But will the result not contradict your uniform experience, if your +hopes be realized? Is not your experience sufficiently long and +sufficiently varied to show that the belief of miracles and all sorts +of prodigies is the normal condition of mankind, and that it is only +a comparatively few who can discern that uniform experience justifies +man in believing that no miracle is possible? While it teaches us that +a miracle is impossible does it not also teach us that, though none +is possible, it is nevertheless impossible that they should not +be generally believed? Is not this taught us as plainly by our +uniform experience as any thing else? See how fairly Hume admits this +at the commencement of his Essay on Miracles. He says, 'I flatter +myself that I have discovered an argument which, if just, will, with +the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of +superstitious delusion, and consequently will be useful as long as the +world endures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles +and prodigies be found in all histories, sacred and profane.' Thus +are we led to the conclusion, that, though miracles never can be real, +they will nevertheless be always believed; and that, though the truth +is with us, it never can be established in the minds of men in general. +And, my dear friend, let us be thankful that it never can; for if it +could, that fact would have proved the possibility of miracles by +contradicting one of those very deductions from uniform experience on +the validity of which their impossibility is demonstrated. + +"These are some of the perplexities," continued Harrington, "which, +as Theaetetus says, sometimes make 'My head dizzy,' when I revolve +the subject. Meantime, surely a nobler spectacle can hardly present +itself than our fairly abiding by our principle, amidst so many +plausible difficulties as assail it. I know no one principle in +theology or philosophy which has been so battered as that of Hume. +Not only Campbell, Paley, and so many more, confidently affirm errors +in it,--such as his assuming individual or general experience to +be universal; his quietly attributing to individual experience a belief +of facts which are believed by the vast mass of mankind on testimony, +and nothing else; his representing the experience of a man who says +he has seen a certain event as 'contrary' to the experience of him +who says he has not seen a similar one; his implying that no amount +of testimony can establish a miracle, which might compel us to believe +moral miracles to get rid of physical miracles; I say not only so, but +the most recent investigators of the theory of evidence cruelly abandon +him. The argument of Hume and Paley, says De Morgan, in his treatise +on Probabilities, (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana: Theory of +Probabilities, 182.) is a 'fallacy answered by fallacies,'--meaning +by this last that Paley had conceded to his opponent more than he ought +to have done. With similar vexatious opposition, Mr. J. S. Mill says, +that, to make any alleged fact contradictory to a law of causation, +'the allegation must be that this happened in the absence of any +adequate counteracting cause. Now, in the case of an alleged miracle, +the assertion is the exact opposite of this.' He says, 'that all which +Hume has made out is, that no evidence can prove a miracle to any one +who did not previously believe the existence of a being or beings +with supernatural power; or who believed himself to have full proof +that the character'(System of Logic, Vol. II. pp. 186, 187.) of such +being or beings is inconsistent with such an interference; that is, +the argument could have no force unless either a man believed there +were no God at all, or the objector happened to be something like a +God himself! And now, lastly, I have shown that the predicament of +Hume, and Voltaire, and Strauss, and you and myself (if consistent), +is just the reverse of that in which the argument from Transubstantiation +represents it. But never mind; so much more glory is due to us for +abiding by our principle. I begin almost to think that I am arriving +at that transcendental 'faith' which you admire so much, and which is +totally independent of logic and argument, and all 'intellectual +processes whatever.'" + +____ + + +July 23. I this day read to Mr. Fellowes the paper I had promised +a week or two before, and which I had entitled, + +AN EXTERNAL REVELATION, EVEN OF ELEMENTARY "SPIRITUAL AND MORAL TRUTHS" +VERY POSSIBLE, AND VERY USEFUL; AND IN ANALOGY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF +HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, WHETHER IN THE INDIVIDUAL OR THE SPECIES. + +It is Necessary to observe in the outset, that, even if I were to +grant your proposition, "that a revelation of moral and spiritual truth +is impossible,"--understanding by such "truth" what you seem to mean, +the truth which "Natural Religion," as it is called, has recognized in +some shape or other (for it has varied not a little),--it would leave +the chief reasons for imparting an external revelation just where they +were. I, at least, should never contend that the sole or even chief +object of an external revelation is to impart elementary moral or +spiritual truth, however possible I may deem it. On the contrary, I am +fully persuaded that the great purpose for which such a revelation has +been given is to communicate facts and truths many of which were quite +transcendental to the human faculties; which man would never have +discovered, and most of which he would never have surmised. All this +your favorite Mr. Newman perceived in his earlier days clearly enough, +and has recorded his sentiments held at that period in his "Phases."(p.42) +If I were to grant you, therefore, your proposition, it would leave the +question of an external revelation untouched; your hasty inference from +it, that every book-revelation is to be rejected, is perfectly gratuitous. + +But I am thoroughly persuaded that the notion of the impossibility of all +external revelation of moral and spiritual truth, even of the elementary +form already referred to, is a fallacy. + +Whether the religious faculty in men be a simple faculty, or (as Sir +James Mackintosh seemed to think might possibly be the case with +conscience) a complex one, constituted by means of several different +powers and principles of our nature, is a question not essential to the +argument; for I frankly admit at once, with Mr. Newman and Mr. Parker, +that there is such a susceptibility (simple or complex), and not a mere +abortive tendency, as Harrington seems to suppose possible. Otherwise +I cannot, I confess, account for the fact (so largely insisted upon by + Mr. Parker) of the very general, the all but universal, adoption by man +of some religion, and the power, the prodigious power, which, even when +false, hideously false, it exerts over him. But then I must as +frankly confess, that I can as little account for all the (not only +terrible but) uniform aberrations of this susceptibility, on which +Harrington has insisted, and which, I do think, prove (if ever truth +was proved by induction) one of two things; either that, as he says, +this susceptibility in man was originally defective and rudimentary, or +that man is no longer in his normal state; in other words, that he +is, as the Scriptures declare, depraved. I acknowledge I accept +this last solution; and firmly believe with Pascal, that without it +moral and religious philosophy must toil over the problem of +humanity in vain. + +If this be so, we have, of course, no difficulty in believing that +there may be, in spite of the existence of the religious faculty in +man, ample scope for an external revelation, to correct its aberrations +and remedy its maladies. + +But you will say that this fact is not to be taken for granted. I admit +it; and therefore lay no further stress upon it. I go one step further; +and shall endeavor, at least, to prove, that, supposing man is just +as he was created, yet also supposing, what neither Mr. Parker nor +Mr. Newman will deny, (and if they did, the whole history of the world +would confute them,) that man's religious faculty is not uniform or +determinate in its action, but is dependent on external development +and culture for assuming the form it does, ample scope is still left +for an external revelation. I contend that the entire condition of this +susceptibility (as shown by experience) proves that, if in truth an +external revelation be impossible, it is not because it has superseded +the necessity for one; and that the declaration of the elder deists +and modern "spiritualists" on this in the face of what all history +proves man to be, is the most preposterous in the world. + +Further; I contend that all the analogies from the fundamental laws +of the development of man's nature,--from a consideration of the +relations in which that nature stands to the external world,--from +the absolute dependence of the individual on external culture, and +that of the whole species on its historic development,--are all in +favor of the notion both of the possibility and utility of an external +revelation, and even in favor of that particular form of it which +Mr. Newman and you so contemptuously call a "book" revelation. + +I. I argue from all the analogies of the fundamental laws of the +development of the human mind. Nor do I fear to apply the reasoning +even to the cases in which it has been so confidently asserted that +there can be no revelation, on the fallacious ground that a +revelation "of spiritual and moral truth" presupposes in man certain +principles to which it appeals. To possess certain faculties for the +appreciation of spiritual and moral truth is one thing; to acquire +the conscious possession of that truth is another; the former fact +would not make an external revelation superfluous, or an empty +name. Every thing in the process of the mind's development goes to +show, that, whatever its capacities, tendencies, faculties, +"potentialities," (call them what you will,) a certain external +influence is necessary to awaken its dormant life; to turn a +"potentiality" into an "energy "; to transform a dim inkling of a +truth into an intelligent, vital, conscious recognition of it. +Nor is this law confined to mind alone; all nature attests its +presence. All effects are the result of properties or susceptibilities +in one thing, solicited by external contact with those of others. +The fire no doubt may smoulder in the dull and languid embers; it +is when the external breeze sweeps over them, that they begin to +sparkle and glow, and vindicate the vital element they contain. The +diamond in the mine has the same internal properties in the darkness +as in the light; it is not till the sun shines upon it, that it +flashes on the eye its splendor. Look at a flower of any particular +species; we see that, as it is developed in connection with a variety +of external influences,--as it comes successively under the action +of the sun, rain, dew, soil,--it expands in a particular manner, and +in that only. It exhibits a certain configuration of parts, a certain +form of leaf, a certain color, fragrance, and no other. We do not doubt, +on the one hand, that without the "skyey influences" these things would +never have been; nor, on the other; that the flower assumes this form +of development, and this alone, in virtue of its internal structure and +organization. But both sets of conditions must conspire in the result. + +It is much the same with the mind. That it possesses certain tendencies +and faculties, which, as it develops itself, will terminate in certain +ideas and sentiments, is admitted; but apart from certain external +conditions of development, those sentiments and ideas will, in effect, +never be formed,--the mind will be in perpetual slumber. Thus, in point +of fact, this controversy is connected ultimately with that ancient +dispute as to the origin, sources, and genesis of human knowledge and +sentiments. I shall simply take for granted that you are (as most +philosophers are) an advocate of innate capacities, but not of "innate +ideas"; of "innate susceptibilities," but not of "innate sentiments"; +that is, I presume you do not contend that the mind possesses more than +the faculties--the laws of thought and feeling--which, under conditions +of development, actually give birth to thoughts and feelings. These +faculties and susceptibilities are, no doubt, congenital with the mind, +--or, rather, are the mind itself. But its actually manifested phenomena +wait the of the external; and they will be modified accordingly. It is +absolutely dependent on experience in this sense, that it is only as +it is operated upon by the outward world that the dormant faculties, +whatever they are, and whatever their nature, be they few or many,-- +intellectual, moral, or spiritual,--are first awakened. If a mind were +created (it is, at least, a conceivable case) with all the avenues to +the external world closed,--in fact, we sometimes see approximations +to such a condition in certain unhappy individuals,--we do not doubt +such a mind, by the present laws of the human constitution, could not +possess any thoughts, feelings, emotions; in fact, could exhibit none +of the phenomena, spiritual, intellectual, moral, or sensational, +which diversify it. In proportion as we see human beings approach this +condition,--in fact, we sometimes see them approach it very nearly,--we +see the "potentialities" of the soul (I do not like the word, but it +expresses my meaning better than any other I know) held in abeyance, +and such an imperfectly awakened man does not, in some cases, manifest +the degree of sensibility or intelligence manifested in many animals. +If the seclusion from sense and experience be quite complete, the life +of such a soul would be wrapped up in the germ, and possess no more +consciousness than a vegetable. + +It appears, then, that universally, however true it may be, and +doubtless is, that the laws of thought and feeling enable us to derive +from external influence what it alone would never give, yet that +influences an indispensable condition, as we are at present constituted, +of the development of any and of all our faculties. + +As this seems the law of development universally, it is so of the +spiritual and religious part of our nature as well as the rest; and +in this very fact we have abundant scope for the possibility and +utility of a revelation,--if God be pleased to give one,--even of +elementary moral and spiritual truth; since, though conceding the +perfect congruity between that truth and the structure of the soul, +it is only as it is in some way actually presented to it from without, +that it arrives at the conscious possession of it. And what, after +all, but such an external source of revelation is that Volume of +Nature, which, operating in perfect analogy with the aforesaid +conditions of the soul's development, awakens, though imperfectly, +the dormant elements of religious and spiritual life? So far from +its being true in any intelligible sense that an external revelation +of moral and spiritual truth is impossible, it is absolutely +necessary, in some form, as a condition of its evolution; so far from +its being true that such revelation is an absurdity, it is in strict +analogy with the fundamental laws of our being. Whether, if this be so, +the express external presentation of such truth in a book constructed +by divine wisdom and expressed in human language,--this last being +the most universal and most appropriate instrument by which man's +dormant powers are actually awakened,--may not be a more effective +method of attaining the end than any of man's devising, whether +instinctive or artificial; or than the casual influences of external +nature, well or ill deciphered;--all this is another question. But +some such external apparatus--applied to the faculties of men--is +essential, whether it be in the Volume of Nature, or in the "Bible" +or in a book of Mr. Newman or Mr. Parker. All that makes the difference +between you and a Hottentot (to recur to that illustration which +Harrington, I really think, fairly employed) depends on external +influences, and the consequent development of the spiritual and +religious faculties. + +And this very fact--the unspeakable differences between man and man, +nation and nation, as regards recognition the conscious possession +of even elementary "moral and spiritual truth" (varying, as it +perpetually does, as those external influences vary, and more or +less perfect, according as that external "revelation," which, in +some degree, and of some species, is indispensable, more or less +perfect)--affords another indication of the ample utility of an +external divine revelation, as well as of its possibility; and a +proof that, if there be one, it is in harmony, again, with the +conditions of human nature. And here I may employ, in further +illustration, one of the analogies I adverted to a little time +ago. Not only is the flower never independent of external influences +for its actual development,--not only would it remain in the germ +without them,--but we see that within certain limits, often very wide, +the kind of external influence operates powerfully on the species, +and on the individual itself;--according as it is in one climate +or another,--in this soil or that,--submitted to culture or suffered +to grow wild. It is needless to apply the analogy. While we see +that the moral spiritual faculties of man no more than his other +faculties can attain their development except in cooperation with +some external influences, we also see that they exhibit every degree +and variety of development according to the quality of those external +influences. Is there then not even a possibility left for an external +revelation? If the actual exhibition of any spiritual and religious +phenomena in man not only depends on some external influences and +culture, but perpetually varies with them, what would such a +revelation be but a provision in analogy with these facts? But it is +sufficient to rebut this gratuitous dictum, of an external revelation +of "spiritual and moral truth being impossible," that some external +influence is necessary for any development of the religious faculty +at all. If the last be necessary, I cannot conceive how the other +should be impossible. + +Nor is it any reply to say,--as I think has been abundantly shown in +your debates with Harrington,--that any such external influences only +make articulate that which already existed inarticulately in the heart; +that they only chafe and stimulate into life "the ivory of Pygmalion's +statue," to use his expression,--the dormant principles and sentiments +which somehow existed, but were in deep slumber. That which makes them +vital, active, the objects of consciousness and the sources of power, +may well be called a "revelation." Nay, since it seems that, in some +way, this outward voice must be heard first, I think it is more properly +so called than the internal response of the heart. That is rather the echo. + +It may be admitted that the elementary truths of religion, once +propounded, are promptly admitted, but still in some external shape +they require to be propounded. There is such a thing in the human +mind as unrealized truth, both intellectual and spiritual; the +inarticulate muttering of an obscurely felt sentiment; a vague +appetency for something we are not distinctly conscious of. The clear +utterance of it, its distinct proposition to us, is the very thing +that is often wanted to convert this dim feeling into distinct vision. +This is the electric spark which transforms two invisible gases into +a visible and transparent fluid; this is the influence which evolves +the latent caloric, and makes it a powerful and active element. + +I cannot help thinking that the great source of fallacy on this +subject arises from confounding the idea of certain characteristic +tendencies and potentialities of our nature with the supposition,-- +contradicted by the whole religious history of man in all ages,--that +they must be everywhere efficaciously active, and spontaneously exhibit +a moral manifestation; than which there cannot, I conceive, be a +greater error. + +I must entreat you to recollect Harrington's dilemma. Either the +supposed truths of your spiritual theory, or that of Mr. Newman or +Mr. Parker, are known to all mankind, or not; if they are, surely +their books, and every such book is the most important in the world; +if not, these authors did well to write, supposing them to have truth +on their side; but then that vindicates the possibility and utility +of a "book-revelation." + +II. But I go a step further, and not only contend that, from the +very law of the soul's development, there is ample scope for a +revelation, even of elementary "moral and spiritual truth," but that +even if we supposed all men in actual possession of that truth, in +some shape or other, there would still be abundant scope for a +divinely constructed external instrument for giving it efficacy; and +that this, again, is in perfect analogy with the fundamental condition +of the soul's action. The principles of spiritual and religious life +are capable in an infinite variety of ways, of being modified, +intensified, vivified, by the external influences brought to bear +upon them from time to time. Not only must that external influence be +exerted for the first awakening of the soul, but it must be continued +all our life long, in order to maintain the principles thus elicited +in a state of activity. Sometimes they seem for a while to have +been half obliterated,--to fade away from the consciousness; they +are reillumined, made to blaze out again in brilliant light on the +"walls of the chambers of imagery," by some outward stimulus; by a +"word spoken in season"; by the recollection of some weighty apothegm +which embodies truth,--some ennobling image which illustrates it; +by the utterance of certain "charmed words," hallowed by association +as they fall on the external sense, or are recalled by memory. How +familiar to us all is this dependence on the external! How dull, how +sluggish, has often been the soul! A single word, the sight of an +object surrounded with vivid associations, the sudden suggestion of +a half-forgotten strain of poetry or song,--what power have these to +stir its stagnant depths, and awaken "spiritual" and every other +species of emotion, as well as intellectual activity! The lightning +does not more suddenly cleave the cloud in which it slumbered, the +sleeping ocean is not more suddenly ruffled by the descending tempest, +than the soul of man is thus capable of being vivified and animated +by the presentation of appropriate objects,--nay, often by even the +most casual external impulse. If this be so, is it not possible that +an external instrument for thus stimulating and vivifying spiritual +life might be given us by God; which, if not, in literal strictness, +a "revelation," would virtually have all the effect of one, as +rekindling the dying light, reillumining the fading characters, of +spiritual truth? + +Nor, surely, is there much presumption in supposing that the appropriate +influences of such an instrumentality may be brought to bear upon us +with infinite advantage by Him who alone possesses perfect access to +all the avenues of our spirits; a perfect mastery of our whole nature; +of intellect, imagination, and conscience of those laws of association +and emotion which He himself has framed. If Shakspeare and Milton can +daily exercise over myriads of minds an ascendency which makes their +admirers speak of them almost with the "Bibliolatry" with which Mr. +Newman makes Christian speak of the Bible, I apprehend God could +construct a "book," even though it told man nothing which was strictly +a revelation, which might be of infinite value to him; simply from +the fact that the modes in which truths operate upon us, and by which +our faculties are educated to their perfection, are scarcely less +important than either the truths or the faculties themselves. + +But I need say the less upon this point, inasmuch as Mr. Newman has +spoken of the New Testament, and its influence over his mental history, +in terms which conclusively show that, if it be not a "revelation," +ample space is left for such a divinely constructed book, if God were +pleased to give one. + +"There is no book in all the world," says he, "which I love and esteem +so much as the New Testament, with the devotional parts of the Old. +There is none which I know so intimately, the very words of which +dwell close to me in my most sacred thoughts, none for which I so +thank God, none on which my soul and heart have been to so great an +extent moulded. In my early boyhood, it was my private delight and +daily companion; and to it I owe the best part of whatever wisdom +there is in my manhood." (Soul, pp. 241, 242.) + +I only doubt whether even this testimony, strong as it is, fully +represents the power which the Book has had in modifying his interior +life, though he would now fain renounce its proper authority; whether +it has not had more to do than he thinks in originating his +conception of such "moral and spiritual" truth as he still recognizes. +Its very language comes so spontaneously to his lips, that his dialect +of "spiritualism" is one continued plagiarism from David and Isaiah, +Paul and Christ. Nay, I may well be doubted whether the entire substance +of his spiritual theory be any thing else than a distorted and mutilated +Christianity. + +Some of the previous observations apply to the possibility and utility +of a divinely originated statement of "ethical truth"; nor will they +be neutralized by an objection which Mr. Newman is fond of urging, +--namely, that a book cannot express (as it is freely acknowledged +no book can) the limitations with which maxims of critical truth are +to be received and applied; that all it can do is to give general +principles, and leave them to be applied by the individual reason and +conscience. Such reasoning is refuted by fact. The same thing precisely +is done, and necessarily done, in every department in which men attempt +to convey instruction in any particular art or method. It is thus with +the general principles of mechanics, of law, of medicine. Yet men never +entertain a notion that the collection and inculcation of such maxims are +of no use, or of little, merely because they must be intelligently +modified and not blindly applied in action. If indeed there were any +force in the objection, it would put an end to all instruction,--that +of Mr. Newman's "spiritual faculty" amongst the rest, for that too can +only prompt us by general impulses, and leaves us in the same ignorance +and perplexity how far we are to obey them. That is still to be +otherwise determined. The genuine result of such reasoning, if it were +acted upon, would be that we need never, in any science or art whatever, +trouble ourselves to enunciate any general principle or maxim, because +perfectly useless! Similarly, we need never inculcate on children the +duty of obeying their honoring their superiors, of being frugal or +diligent, humble or aspiring, the particular circumstances and +limitations in which they are to be applied being indeterminate! But +is not the experience of every day and of all the world against it? Is +not the early and sedulous inculcation of just maxims of duty fell +to be a great auxiliary to its performance in the circumstances in +which it is necessary to apply them? Is not the possession of a general +rule, with the advantages of a clear and concise expression,--in the +form of familiar proverbs, or embodied in powerful imagery,--a potent +suggestive to the mind; not only whispering of duty, but, by perpetual +recurrence, aiding the habit of attending to it? Is not the early and +earnest iteration of such sententious wisdom in the ears of the young, +--the honor which has been paid to sages who have elicited it, or +felicitously expressed it,--the care with which these treasures of +moral wisdom have been garnered up,--the perpetual efforts to conjoin +elementary moral truth with the fancy and association,--is not all +this a standing testimony to a consciousness of the value of such +auxiliaries of virtue and duty? Is it not felt, that, however general +such truths may be, the very forms of expression,--the portable shape +in which the truth is presented,--have an immense value in relation +to practice? Admitting, therefore, as before,--but, as before, only +conceding it for argument's sake (for the limits of variation, even +as regards the elementary truths of morals, are, as experience shows, +very wide),--that each man in some shape could anticipate for himself +the more important ethical truth, there would be yet ample scope left +for the utility of a divinely constructed instrument for its exhibition +and enforcement, in perfect harmony with the modes in which it is +actually exhibited and enforced by man, in close analogy with the +form in which he attempts the same task, whenever he teaches any +practical art or method whatever. + +Only may it not be again presumed here, that He who knows perfectly +"what is in man" would be able to perform the work with +correspondent perfection? Whether He has performed it in the Bible +or not, that book does, at all events, contain not merely a larger +portion of pure ethical truth than any other in the world, but ethical +truth expressed and exhibited (as Mr. Newman himself, and most other +persons, would admit) in modes incomparably better adapted than in +any other book to lay hold of the memory, the imagination, the +conscience, and the heart. + +Even then, if we conceded that elementary "spiritual and moral truth" +is not only congruous to man's faculties, but in some shape universally +recognized and possessed, it might yet be contended, from the manner +in which such truth is dependent for its power and vitality on the +forms in which it comes in contact with the human spirit and stimulates +it, that ample space is left for such a divine instrument as the Bible; +and that it would be in perfect conformity with the laws of our nature, +--in analogy with the known modes in which external aids give efficacy +to such truth. At the same time, be pleased once more to remember, that +I concede so much only for argument's sake; I contend that in the +stricter sense, without some external aid,--and the Bible may be at +least as effectual,--the religious faculty will not expand at all; and +that, even where there are these indispensable external influences, +the recognition of the truth is obscure or bright, as those influences +vary in their degrees of appropriateness. Where they are rude and +imperfect, (as amongst barbarous nations) we have the spectacle of a +soul which struggles towards the light, like a plant to which but +small portion of the sun's rays is admitted; it depends on the free +admission of the light whether or not it shall arrive at its full +development,--its beauty, its fragrance, and its color. The most that +merely human culture can promise, even under the most favorable +circumstances, (witness ancient Greece!) is that men, in some few +favored instances, may possibly attain those truths which it may be +admitted are congenital to the soul, and easily recognized when once +propounded but which, in fact, few men, by nature's sole teaching, +ever do clearly attain. It is infinitely important that the path, +dimly explored by sages alone, should be thrown open to mankind. Is it +not even possible, then, that this task should be performed by a book +like the Bible? and if such a book were given, would it not be, +I once more ask, in analogy with the fundamental laws of the soul's +development,--its uniform dependence on external influences for any +result, and the variable nature of that result, as the influence +itself is more or less appropriate? To affirm that each man at once, +by in internal illumination alone, attains a clear recognition of +even elementary "moral and spiritual truth" is to ignore the laws +according to which the soul's activity is developed, and to contradict +universal experience, which tells us that the great majority of mankind +are but in partial possession of this "spiritual and moral truth," +and hold it for the most part in connection with the most prodigious +and pernicious errors. + +You will perceive that I have here chosen to argue the question of +the possibility and utility of a "revelation" on your own grounds; but +recollect what I have said, that, in fact, the principal reasons for a +revelation would still remain in force, even if all you demand were +conceded. It is a point which I do not find that Mr. Newman's dictum +affects. + +There may obviously be other facts and other truths as intimately +connected with man's destinies and happiness as the elementary truths +of religious and moral science; facts and truths which may be necessary +to give efficacy to mere elementary principles, and to supply motives +to the performance of moral precepts. And how ample in this respect +are man's necessities, and how large the field for a "divine revelation," +if we content ourselves with such a meagre theology as that of Mr. Parker +and Mr. Newman, you see plainly enough in the questions asked by +Harrington! How many of Mr. Newman's and Mr. Parker's assumptions--the +moment they step beyond such "spiritual and moral truth" as is +"elementary" indeed--does Harrington declare that he finds unverified +by his own consciousness, and needing, if true, an authority to +confirm them far more weighty than theirs! As to the terms of access +to the Supreme Being,--his aspects towards man,--man's duties towards +him,--the future destinies, even the future existence, of the soul +(a point on which these writers are themselves divided),--the boasted +"progress" of the race, which they "prophesy," indeed, but without any +credentials of their mission,--you see how on all these points +Harrington maintains--and oh! how many, if the Bible be untrue, must +maintain with him--that he is in total darkness! + +III. But I must proceed to show yet further, if you will have patience +with me, that, supposing a divine external revelation to be given, it +is in striking analogy, not only with the primary laws of development +of our whole intellectual and spiritual being, but with the fact-- +undeniable, however unaccountable--that our subjection to external +influence does, in truth, not only mould and modify, but usually +determine, our intellectual and religious position. We see not only +some external influence is necessary to awaken activity at all, but +that it is actually so powerful and so inevitable from the manner +in which man enters the world, and is brought up in it,--his long +years of dependence, absolute dependence, on the education which is +given him (and what an education it has ever been for the mass of the +race!),--that it makes all the difference, intellectually and morally, +between a New Zealand savage and an Englishman,--between the grossest +idolater and the most enlightened Christian. This fact affects alike +our intellectual and spiritual condition. The savage can use his +senses better than the civilized; but the interval is trifling +compared with that between the intellectual condition of a man can +appreciate Milton and Newman, and that of our Teutonic ancestors. +Its the sentiments of a nature there is the same wide gulf--or rather +wider--between a Hottentot and a Paul. Yet the same "susceptibilities" +and "potentialities" are in each human mind. The same remark applies +to the sense of the beautiful and sublime; the characteristic faculties +are in all mankind; it is education which elicits them. Nay, would you +not stare at a man who should affirm that education was not itself +a species of "revelation," simply because the truths thus communicated +were all "potentially" in the mind before? The fact is, that education +is of coordinate importance with the very faculties without which it +cannot be imparted. + +Now we cannot break away from that law of development with which +our individual existence is involved, and which necessarily (as far +as any will of ours is concerned) is a most important, nay, the +most important, element in that tertium quid which man becomes in +virtue of the threefold elements which constitute him:--1st, a given +internal constitution of mind; 2d. the modifying effects of the +actual exercise of his faculties and their interaction with one another, +resulting in habits; and, 3d, that external world of influences which +supplies the materiel from which this strange plant extracts its +aliment, and ultimately derives its fair fruits or its poisonous +berries. All this is inevitable, upon the supposition that man was +to be a social, not a solitary being,--linked by an indissoluble chain +to those who came before and to those who come after him,--dependent, +absolutely dependent, upon others for his being, his training, his +whole condition, civil, social, intellectual, moral, and religious. +If, then, an external instrument of moral and religious culture were +Given by God to man, would it not be in strict analogy with this +tremendous and mysterious law of human development? + +IV. I must be permitted to proceed yet one step further, and affirm +that the very form in which this presumed revelation has (as we say) +been given--that of a Book--is also in strict analogy with the law +by which God himself has made this an indispensable instrument of all +human progress. We have just seen that man is what he is, as much +(to say the least) by the influence of external influence as by the +influence of the internal principles of his constitution; it must be +added, that to make that external influence of much efficiency at all, +still more to render it either universally or progressively beneficial, +the world waits for a--BOOK. Among the varied external influences +amidst which the human race is developed, this is incomparably the +most important, and the only one that is absolutely essential. Upon +it the collective education of the race depends. It is the sole +instrument of registering, perpetuating, transmitting thought. + +Yes, whatever trivial and vulgar associations may impair our due +conceptions of this grandeur of this material and artificial organon +of man's development, as compared with the intellectual and moral +energies, which have recourse to it, but which are almost impotent +without it. God has made man's whole career of triumphs dependent +upon this same art of writing! The whole progress of the world he +has created, he has made dependent upon the Alphabet! Without this +the progress of the individual is inconceivably slow, and with +him, for the most part, progress terminates. By this alone can we +garner the fruits of experience,--become wise by the wisdom of +others, and strong by their strength. Without this man everywhere +remains, age after age, immovably a savage; and, if he were to lose +it when he has once gained it, would, after a little ineffectual +flutter by the aid of tradition, sink into barbarism again. Till +this cardinal want is supplied, all considerable "progress" is +impossible. It may look odd to say that the whole world is dependent +on any thing so purely artificial; but, in point of fact, it is +only another way of stating the truth that God has constituted the +race a series of mutually dependent beings; and as each term of +this series is perishable and evanescent, the development and +improvement of the race must depend on an instrument by which an +inter-connection can be maintained between its parts; till then, +progress must not only be most precarious, but virtually impossible. +To the truth of this all history testifies. I say, then, not only +that, if God has given man a revelation at all, he has but acted +in analogy with that law by which he has made man so absolutely +dependent upon external culture, but that if he has given it in +the very shape of a book, he has acted also in strict analogy +with the very form in which he has imposed that law +on the world. He has simply made use of that instrument, which, +by the very constitution of our nature and of the world, he has +made absolutely essential to the progress and advancement of +humanity. May we not conclude from analogy, that if God has +indeed thus constituted the world, and if he busies himself at all +in the fortunes of miserable humanity, he has not disdained to take +part in its education, by condescendingly using that very instrument +which himself has made the condition of all human progress? I think, +even if you hesitate to admit that God has given us a "book-revelation," +you must admit it would be at least in manifest coincidence with the +laws of human development and the "constitution and course of nature." + +To conclude; I must say that Mr. Newman, in his account of the genesis +of religion, does himself in effect admit (as Harrington has remarked) +an "external revelation," though not in a book. For what else is that +apparatus of external influences by which the several preparatory or +auxiliary emotions are awakened, and the development of your "spiritual +faculty" effected?--contact with the outward world,--with visible and +material nature,--the instruction of the living voice! You acknowledge +all this without derogation, as you imagine, to the sublime and divine +functions of the indwelling "spiritual" power, why this rabid, this, I +might almost say, puerile (if I ought not rather to say fanatical), +hatred of the very notion of a "book-revelation"? + +Let us confess that, if a revelation be possible at all, it cannot be +more worthy of God to give one even from "within" than in such a shape +as a "book"; since without a "BOOK" man remains an idolater, in spite of +his fine "spiritual faculties," and a barbarian, in spite of his +sublime intellect; in fact, not much better than the beasts, in spite +of all those noble capacities which, although they are in him, are as +it were hopelessly locked up till he has obtained this key to their +treasures. + +Nor do I think that the invectives of the modern spiritualists on this +point are particularly becoming, when we reflect not only that they +freely give mankind what Harrington declares to be to him, and I must +say are equally to me, their "book-revelations," but in very deed, as +he truly affirms, have given us nothing else. It has been much the same +with all who have rejected historical Christianity, from Lord Herbert's +time downwards. + +I paused, and Fellowes mused. At last he said, "I cannot feel convinced +that the 'absolute religion' is (as Mr. Parker says) essentially the +same in all men, and internally revealed. The want exists in all, and +there must, according to the arrangements of universal nature, be the +supply; just as the eye is for the light, and the light is for the eye. +As he says, 'we feel instinctively it must be so.'" + +"Unhappily," said Harrington, "Mr. Parker says that many things must +be which we find are not, and this among the number. At least I, for +one, shall not grant that the sort of spiritual 'supply' which is +to the Calmuck, or the savage 'besmeared with the blood of human +sacrifices,' at all resembles that uniform light which is made +for all people's eyes." + +Fellowes seemed still perplexed with his old difficulty. "I cannot +help thinking," he began again, "that the 'spiritual faculty' acts +by immediate 'insight,' and has nothing to do with 'logical +processes' or 'intellectual propositions,' or the sensational or +the imaginative parts of our nature; that it 'gazes immediately +upon spiritual truth.' Now in the argument you have constructed, +you have expressly implied the contrary. You have said, you know, +that, even if you granted men to be in possession of 'spiritual and +moral truth,' there might still be large space for a divinely +constructed book from the reflex operation of the intellect, the +imagination, and so forth, upon the products of the spiritual faculty; +both directly, and also indirectly, inasmuch as external influences +modify or stimulate them." + +"But," said I, "does not Mr. Newman himself, in the first part of +his Treatise on the Soul, admit the reciprocal action of all these +on the too plastic spiritual products; and as to 'logical and +intellectual processes,' does he not continually employ them--for +his system of opinions, though he will not allow them to be employed +against it? And by what other means than through the intervention of +your senses, by which you read his pages,--your imagination, by which +you seize his illustrations,--your intellect, by which you comprehend +his arguments, did he reclaim you, as you say he has done, from many +of your ancient errors? How else, in the name of common sense, did he +get access to your soul at all?" + +"I cannot pretend to defend Mr. Newman's consistency," said he, "in +his various statements on this subject. I acknowledge I am even puzzled +to find out how he did convince me, upon his hypothesis." + +"Are you sure," said I, laughing, "that he ever convinced you at all? +However, all your perplexity seems to me to arise from supposing the +spiritual powers of man to act in greater isolation from his other +powers than is conceivable or even possible. Not apart from these, +but in intimate conjunction with them, are the functions of the soul +performed. The divorce between the 'spiritual faculties' and the +intellect, which your favorite, Mr. Newman, has attempted to effect, +is impossible. It is an attempt to sever phenomena which coexist in +the unity of our own consciousness. I am bound in justice to admit, +that there are others of our 'modern spiritualists' who condemn this +attempt to separate what God hath joined so inseparably. Even Mr. Newman +does practically contradict his own assertions; and outraged reason +and intellect have avenged his wrongs upon them by deserting him when +he has invoked them, and left him to express his paradoxes in endless +perplexity and confusion. But this conversation is no bad preface to +some observations on this important fallacy, (as I conceive,) which +I have appended to the paper I have read, and, with your leave, I +will finish with them." They assented, and I proceeded. + +It is very common for philosophers, spiritual and otherwise, to be +guilty of two opposite errors, both exposed in the first book of the +Novum Organum. One is, that of supposing the phenomena which they +have to analyze more simple, more capable of being reduced to some +one principle, than is really the case; the other, that of +introducing a cumbrous complexity of operations unknown to nature. +It is unnecessary here to adduce examples of the last; quite as +frequently, at least, man apt to be guilty of the first. He imagines +that complex and generally deeply convoluted phenomena he is called +to investigate are capable of being more summarily analyzed than +they can be. The ends to be answered in nature by the same set of +instruments are in many cases so various, and in some respects +so limit and traverse one another, that though the same multiplicity +of ends is attained more completely, and in higher aggregate +perfection, than by any device which man's ingenuity could substitute +for them, yet those instruments are necessarily very complex at +the best. Look, for example, at the system of organs by which, +variously employed, we utter the infinite variety of articulate sounds, +perform the most necessary of all vital functions (that of respiration), +masticate solid food, and swallow fluids. The miracle is, that any one +set of organs in any conceivable juxtaposition should suffice to +discharge with such amazing facility and rapidity these different and +rapidly alternated functions; yet I suppose few who have studied +anatomy will deny, that, though relatively to the variety of purposes +it has to perform the apparatus is very simple, it is absolutely +very complex; and that its parts play into one another with great +facility indeed, but with endless intricacy. + +To apply these observations to my special object. To one who attentively +studies man's immaterial anatomy, much the same complexity is, I think, +apparent; the philosopher is too apt to assume it to be much more simple +than it is. It is the very error, as I conceive, into which some of +you modern "spiritualists" fall when considering the phenomena of our +religious nature. You do not sufficiently regard man as a complicated +unity; you represent, if you do not suppose, the several capacities +of his nature,--the different parts of it, sensational, emotional, +intellectual, moral, spiritual,--as set off from one another by a +sharper boundary line than nature acknowledges. They all work for +immediate ends, indeed; but they all also work for, with, and upon +each other, for other ends than their own. Yet, as they all exist in +one indivisible mind, or rather constitute it, they form one most +intricate machine: and it can rarely happen that the particular +phenomena of our interior nature we happen to be investigating do +not involve many others. Throughout his book on the "Soul," we find +Mr. Newman employing expressions (though I admit there are others +which contradict them) which imply that the phenomena of religion, of +what he calls "spiritual insight," may be viewed in clearer distinction +from those of the intellect, than, as I conceive, they ever can be; +and that a much clearer separation can be effected between them than +nature has made possible. To hear him sometimes speak, one would +imagine that the logical, the moral, and the spiritual are held together +by no vital bond of connection; nay, from some expressions, one would +think that the "logical" faculty had nothing to do with religion, if +it is not to be supposed rather to stand in the way of it; that the +"intellect" and the "spiritual faculty" may each retire to its "vacant +interlunar cave," and never trouble its head about what the other +is doing. Thus he says in one place, "All the grounds of Belief +proposed to the mere understanding have nothing to do with Faith at +all." (Soul, p. 223.) In another, "The processes of thought have nothing +to quicken the conscience or affect the soul." (ibid. p. 245) "How, +then, can the state of the soul be tested by the conclusion to +which the intellect is led?" (ibid. p. 245.) And accordingly you see +he everywhere affirms that we ought not to have any better or worse +opinion of any man for his "intellectual creed"; and that "religious +progress" cannot be "anticipated" till intellectual "creeds +are destroyed." (Phases, p. 222.) + +Here one would imagine that the intellectual, moral, and spiritual +had even less to do with the production of each other's results +than matter and mind reciprocally have with theirs. These last, +we see, in a thousand cases act and react upon one another; and +modify each other's peculiar products and operations in a most +important manner. How much more reasonably may we infer that the +elementary faculties of the same indivisible mind will not discharge +their functions without important reciprocal action; that in no case +can we have the process pure and simple as the result of the +operation of a single faculty! + +If it were not so, I see not how we are to perform any of the functions +of a spiritual nature, even as defined by you and your favorite writers; +unless, indeed, you would equip the soul with an entire Sunday suit +of separate capacities of reasoning, remembering, imagining, hoping, +rejoicing, and so on, to be expressly used by the "soul" alone when +engaged in her spiritual functions; quite different from that old, +threadbare, much-worn suit of faculties, having similar functions +indeed, but exercised on other objects. + +What can be more obvious (and it must be admitted that the most +fanatical "spiritualist" employs expressions, and, what is more, uses +methods, which imply it) than that, whether we have a distinct +religious faculty or whether it be the result of the action of many +faculties, the functions of our "spiritual" nature are performed +by the instrumentality, and involve the intervention, of the very +same much-abused faculties which enable us to perform any other +function. It is one and the same indivisible mind which is the subject +of religious thought and emotion, and of any other thought and +emotion. Religious truth, like any other truth, is embraced by the +understanding--as indeed it would be a queer kind of truth that is +not is stated in propositions, yields inferences, is adorned by +eloquence is illustrated by the imagination, and is thus, as well +from its intrinsic claims, rendered powerful over the emotions, the +affections, and the will. In brief, when the soul apprehends, reasons, +remembers, rejoices, hopes, fears, spiritually, it surely does not +perform these functions by totally different faculties from these +by which similar things are done on other occasions. All experience +and consciousness are against the supposition. In religion, men's +minds are employed on more sublime and elevated themes indeed, but +the operations themselves are essentially of the same nature as in +other cases. Hence we see the dependence of the true development of +religion on the just and harmonious action of all our faculties. +They march together; and it is the glorious prerogative of true +religion that it makes them do so; that all the elements of our +nature, being indissolubly connected, and perpetually acting and +reacting on one another, should aid one another and attain a more +just conjoint action. If there be acceptable faith, it presupposes +belief of the truth, as well as love of it in the heart; if there +be holy habit, it implies just knowledge of duty; if there be +spiritual emotion awakened, it will still be in accordance with +the laws which ordinarily produce it; that is, because that which +should produce it is perceived by the senses or the intellect, is +recalled by the memory, is vivified by the imagination. If faith +and hope and love often kindle into activity, and hallow these +instruments by which and through which they act, it is not the less +true, that, apart from these,--as constituting the same indivisible +mind--faith and hope and love cannot exist: and not only so; but +when faith is languid, and hope faint, and love expiring, these +faculties themselves shall often in their turn initiate the process +which shall revive them all; some outward object, some incident of +life, some "magic word," some glorious image, some stalwart truth, +suddenly and energetically stated, shall, through the medium of the +senses, the imagination, or the intellect, set the soul once more +in a blaze, and revive the emotions which it is at other times only +their office to express. A sanctified intellect, a hallowed +imagination, devout affections, have a reciprocal tendency to +stimulate each other. In whatever faculty of our nature the stimulus +may be felt,--in the intellect or the imagination,--it is thence +propagated through the mysterious net-work of the soul to the emotions, +the affections, the conscience, the will: or, conversely, these last +may commence the movement and propagate it in reverse order. Each +may become in turn a centre of influence; but so indivisible is the +soul and mind of man, so indissolubly bound together the elements +which constitute them, that the influence once commenced never stops +where it began, but acts upon them all. The ripple, as that of a +stone dropped into still water, no matter where, may be fainter and +fainter the farther from the spot where the commotion began, but it +will stop only with the bank. Ordinarily many functions of the mind +are involved in each, and sometimes all in one. + +____ + +July 24. Yesterday, a somewhat interesting conversation took place +between Harrington and Edward Robinson, a youth at college, a friend +of George Fellowes's family. He is a devout admirer of Strauss, and +thinks that writer has completely destroyed the historical character +of the Gospels. I was, as usual, struck with the candor and logical +consistency with which our sceptic was disposed to regard the subject. + +"You have Lingard and Macaulay here, I see," said young Robinson. "I +need hardly ask, I think, which you find the most pleasant reading?" + +"You need not, indeed," cried Harrington. "Mr. Macaulay is so superior +to the Roman Catholic historian (though his merits are great too) in +genius, in consequence, in variety and amplitude of knowledge, in +imagination, in style, that there is no comparison between them." + +"And do you think Mr. Macaulay as accurate as he is full of genius +and eloquence?" + +"If he be not," said Harrington, laughing, "I am afraid there are +very few of us deeply versed enough in history to detect his +delinquencies, or even to say whether they have been committed. There +may be, for aught I know, some cases (of infinite importance of +course) in which he has represented an event as having taken place +on the 20th of Dec. 1693; whereas it took place on the 3d Jan. 1694; +or he may have said that Sir Thomas Nobody was the son of another +Sir Thomas Nobody, whereas two or three antiquarians can +incontestably prove that he was the son of Sir John Nobody, and nephew +of the above. To me, I confess, he appears distinguished scarcely more +by the splendor of his imagination than by the opulence of his knowledge, +and the imperial command which he possesses over it. But, in truth, +the accuracy or otherwise of history, when it is at all remote, is a +matter in which I feel less interest than I once did. I read, indeed, +Mr. Macaulay with perpetual renewal of wonder and delight. But though +I believe that his vivid pictures are the result, of a faithful use of +his materials, yet, if I must confess the full extent of my scepticism, +his work, and every other work which involves a reference to events which +transpired only a century or two ago, is poisoned as history by the +suspicion that to ascertain the truth is impossible. I know it must +be so, if the principles of your favorite Strauss are to be received; +and yet it seems so absurd, that I am sometimes inclined, on that account +alone, to laugh at Strauss's criticisms, just as David Hume did at his +own speculative doubts when he got into society and sat down to +backgammon with a friend. At other times, as I say, the whole field +of historic investigation seems more or less the territory of scepticism." + +"I know not," said the other, "how you can justify any such general +scepticism from any thing that Strauss has written." + +"Do you not? and yet I think it is a perfectly legitimate inference. +Does not Strauss argue that certain discrepancies are to be observed, +certain apparent contradictions and inconsistencies detected, in the +New Testament narratives; and that therefore we are to reckon, if not +the whole, yet by far the larger part, as utterly fabulous or doubtful, +mythic or legendary? Now, I cannot but feel, on the other hand, that +these narratives are as strikingly marked by all the usual indications +of historic truthfulness as any historic writings in the world. The +artlessness, simplicity, and speciality of the narrative,--a certain +inimitable tone and air of reality, earnestness, and candor,--the +general harmony of these so-called sacred writers with themselves and +with profane authors (quite as general, to say the least, as usually +distinguishes other narratives by different hands),--above all, the +long-concealed, and yet most numerous 'coincidences' which lie deep +beneath the surface and which only a very industrious mind brings to +light; coincidences which, if ingenuity had been subtle enough to +fabricate, that same ingenuity would have been too sagacious to conceal +so deep, and which are too numerous and striking (one would imagine) +to be the effect of accident;--all these things, I say, would seem +to argue (if any thing can) the integrity of the narrative. Yet all +these things must necessarily, of course, go for nothing, on Strauss's +hypothesis. There are, you say, certain discrepancies, and from them +you proceed to conclude that the narrative is uncertain, and unworthy +of credit; that, if there be a residuum of truth at all, no man can +know with any certainty what or how much it is. We must there-fore +leave the whole problematical. Now the question comes, whether we must +not in consistency apply the same principle further; and, if so, whether +we can find in any history whatever stronger marks of credibility; +whether any was ever submitted to an examination more severe, or so +severe; whether any can boast of a larger number of minds, of the +first order, giving their assent to it." + + +"Let me stop you there," said the other; "you must consider that +those minds were prejudiced in favor of the conclusion. They were +inclined to believe the supernatural wonders which these pretended +historians retail." + +"How differently men may argue with the same premises! I was about to +mention the suspicion attaching to miraculous narratives, as attesting +(I still think so, notwithstanding your observation) that stress and +pressure of supposed historic credibility under which so many powerful +minds--minds many of them of the first order--have felt themselves +compelled to receive these histories as true, in spite of such obstacles. +Surely, you do not think that a miracle is in our age, or has been for +many ages, an antecedent ground of credibility; or that if a history +does not contain enough of them, as this assuredly does, it is certain +to be believed. No; do not you with Strauss contend that a miracle is +not to be believed at all, because it contradicts uniform experience? +And yet thousands of powerful minds have believed the truth of these +historic records against all this uniform experience! Their prejudices +against it must surely have been stronger than those for it.--But to +resume the statement of my difficulties. I say the question returns +whether there is any history in the world which either presents in +inexplicable marks of historic credibility, or in which as numerous +and equally inexplicable discrepancies cannot be discovered. If there +be none, then how far shall we adopt and carry out the principles +of Strauss? for if we carry them out with rigid equity, the whole +field of history is abandoned to scepticism: it is henceforth the +domain of doubt and contention; as, in truth, a very large part of +it in Germany has already become, in virtue of these very principles. +Much of profane history is abandoned, as well as the sacred; and Homer +becomes as much a shadow as Christ." + +"You seem," said Robinson, "to be almost in the condition to entertain +Dr. Whately's ingenious 'Historic Doubts' touching the existence of +Napoleon Bonaparte!" * +____ + +* Are the ingenious "Historic Certainties," by "Aristar hus Newlight," +from the same admirable mint?--ED. +____ + +"I believe that it is simply our proximity to the events which +renders it difficult to entertain them. If the injuries of time and +the caprice of fortune should in the remote future leave as large gaps +in the evidence, and as large scope for ingenious plausibilities, as +in relation to the remote past, I believe multitudes would find no +difficulty in entertaining those 'doubts.' They seem to me perfectly +well argued, and absolutely conclusive on the historic canons on +which Strauss's work is constructed,--namely, that if you find what +seem discrepancies and improbabilities in a reputed history, the mass +of that historic texture in which they are found may be regarded as +mythical or fabulous, doubtful or false. If you say the principles of +Strauss are false, that is another matter. I shall not think it worth +while to contest their truth or their falsehood with you. But if you +adhere to them, I will take the liberty of showing you that you do not +hold them consistently, if you think any remote history is to be +regarded as absolutely placed beyond doubt." + +"Well, if you will be grave," said Robinson, "though, upon my word. +I thought you in jest,--is it possible that you do not see that there +is a vast difference between rejecting, on the same ground of +discrepancies, the credibility of the narratives of the Gospel, and +that of any common history?" + +"I must honestly confess, then, that I do not, if the discrepancies, +as Strauss alleges, and not something else, is to be assigned as the +cause of their rejection. If indeed, like some criminals under despotic +governments, they are apprehended and convicted on a certain charge, +but really hanged for an entirely different reason, I can understand +that there may be policy in the proceeding; but I do not comprehend +its argumentative honesty. Be pleased, therefore, (that I may form +some conclusion,) to tell me what are those circumstances which so +wonderfully discriminate the discrepancies in the New Testament +histories from those in other histories, as that the inevitable +consequence of finding a certain amount of discrepancies in the former +leads to the rejection of the entire, or nearly entire, documents +in which they are found, while their presence in other histories even +to a far greater extent shall not authorize their rejection at all, +or the rejection only of the parts in which the discrepancies are found. +And yet I think I can guess." + +"Well, what do you guess?" + +"That you think that the miraculous nature of the events which form +a portion of the New Testament history makes a great difference in +the case." + +"And do not you?" + +"I cannot say I do: for though it is doubtless Strauss's principal +object to get rid of these miracles, it is not as miracles, but as +history, that his canons of historic criticism are applied to them. +It is as history that he attacks the books in which they are +contained. His weapons are directed against the miracles, indeed; +but it is only by piercing the history, with which alone the supposed +discrepancies had ally thing to do." + +"But I cannot conceive that the historic discrepancies occurring in +connection with such topics must not have more weight attached to +them than if they occurred in any other history." + +"This is because you have already resolved that miracles are +impossible on totally different grounds. But you may see the fallacy +in a moment. Talk with a man who does not believe miracles a priori +impossible, and that, though of course improbable (otherwise they +would be none, I suppose), the authentication of a divine revelation +is a sufficient reason for their being wrought, and he evades your +argument. You are then compelled, you see, to throw yourself exclusively +upon the alleged historic discrepancies; they become your sole weapon; +and if it pierces the New Testament history, I want to know whether +it does not equally pierce all other remote history too? In truth, if, +as you and Mr. Fellowes agree,--I only doubt,--a miracle is impossible, +nothing can (as I think) be more strange, than that, instead of reposing +in that simple fact, which you say is demonstrable, you should fly to +historic proofs." + +"And do you not think that miracles are impossible and absurd?" + +"I think nothing, because, as I told Fellowes the other day, I am +half inclined to doubt whether I doubt whether a miracle is possible +or not, like a genuine sceptic as I am. And this doubt, you see, +even of a doubt, makes me cautious. But to resume. If that principle +be sound, it seems much more natural to adhere to it than to attack +the Gospels as history. Strauss, however, has thought otherwise; and +while he has left this main dictum unproved,--nay, has not even +attempted a proof of it,--he has endeavored to shake the historic +character of these records, treating them like any other records. I +say, therefore, that to adduce the circumstance that the narrative is +miraculous, is nothing to the purpose, until the impossibility of +miracles is proved; and then, when this is proved, it is unnecessary +to adduce the discrepancies. If on the other hand, a man has no +difficulty (as the Christian, for example) in believing miracles to +be possible, and that they have really occurred, Strauss's argument, +as I have said, is evaded; and the seeming discrepancies can do no +more against the credibility of the New Testament history, than equal +discrepancies can prove against any other document. I will, if possible, +make my meaning plain by yet another example. Let us suppose some Walter +Scott had compiled some purely fictitious history, professedly laid in +the Middle Ages (and surely even miraculous occurrences cannot be more +unreal than these products of sheer imagination); and suppose some +critic had engaged to prove it fiction from internal evidence supplied +by contradictions and discrepancies, and so on, would you not think it +strange if he were to enforce that argument by saying, 'And besides +all this, what is more suspicious is, that they occur in a work +of imagination!' Would you not say, 'Learned sir, we humbly thought +this was the point you were engaged in making out? Is it not to assume +the very point in debate? And if it be true, would it not be better +to stop there at once, instead of taking us so circuitous a road to +the same result, which we perceive you had already reached beforehand? +Are you not a little like that worthy Mayor who told Henri Quatre +that he had nineteen good reasons for omitting to fire a salute on +his Majesty's arrival; the first of which was, that he had no artillery; +whereupon his Majesty graciously told him that he might spare the +remaining eighteen?' So I should say in the supposed case.--To return, +then: you must, if you would consider the validity of Strauss's argument, +lay aside the miraculous objection, which must be decided on quite +different grounds, and which, in fact, if valid, settles the +controversy without his critical aid. All who read Strauss's book +either believe that miracles are impossible, or not; the former need +not his criticisms,--they have already arrived at the result by a +shorter road; the latter can only reject the history by supposing the +discrepancies in it, as history, justify them. I ask you, then, +supposing you one who, like the Christian, believes miracles possible, +whether these historic discrepancies would justify you in saying that +the New Testament records, considered simply as history, no longer +deserve credit, and that you are left in absolute ignorance how much +of them, or whether any part, is to be received,--ay or no?" + +"Well, then, I should say that Strauss has shown that the history, as +history, is to be rejected." + +"Very well; only then do not be surprised that, in virtue of such +conclusions, I doubt whether you ought not to push the principle a +little further, and contend that, as there are no writings in the +world which to bear more marks of historic sincerity and +trustworthiness, and certainly none of any magnitude or variety +in which far greater discrepancies are not to be founds, it is +doubtful whether we can receive any thing as absolutely veritable +history; and that the Book of Genesis, and Gospel of Luke, and +History of Lingard, and History of Hume, are alike covered with a +mist of sceptical obscurity." + +"But really, Mr. Harrington, this is absurd and preposterous!" + +"It may be so; but you must prove it, and not simply content +yourself with affirming it. I am, at all events, more consistent than +you, who tell the man who does not see your a priori objection to +the belief of miracles, that a history which certainly contains as +many marks of historic veracity as any history in the world, and +discrepancies neither greater nor more numerous, must be reduced +(ninety-nine hundredths of it) to myth on account of those +discrepancies, while the others may still legitimate their claims +to be considered as genuine history! Your only escape, as I conceive, +from this dilemma, is, by saying that the marks of historic truth +in the New Testament, looked at as mere history, are not so great as +those of other histories, or that the discrepancies are greater; and +I think even you will not venture to assert that. But if you do, and +choose to put it on that issue, I shall be most happy to try the +criterion by examining Luke and Paul, Matthew and Mark, on the one +side; and Clarendon and May, or Hume, Lingard, and Macaulay, on the +other; or, if you prefer them, Livy and Polybius, or Tacitus +and Josephus." + +"But I have bethought me of another answer," said Robinson. "Suppose +the sacred writers affirm that every syllable they utter is infallibly +true, being inspired?" + +"Why, then," said Harrington, "first, you must find such a passage, +which many say you cannot; secondly, you must find one which says +that every syllable would remain always infallibly true, in spite +of all errors of transcription and corruptions of time, otherwise +your discrepancies will not touch the writers; and lastly, it does +not affect my argument whether you find any such absurdities or not, +since you and I would know what to say, though the Christian would not +like to say it; namely, that these writers were mistaken in the notion +of their plenary inspiration. It would still leave the mass of their +history to be dealt with like any other history. Now I want to know why, +if I reject the mass of that on the ground of certain discrepancies, +I must not reject the mass of this on the score of equal or greater." + +After a few minutes Harrington turned to Fellowes and said,--"That in +relation to the bulk of mankind there can be no authentic history of +remote events plainly appears from a statement of Mr. Newman. He says, +you know, after having relinquished the investigation of the evidences +of Christianity, that he might have spared much weary thought and +useless labor, if, at an earlier time, this simple truth had been +pressed upon him, that since the 'poor and half-educated cannot +investigate historical and literary questions, therefore these questions +cannot constitute an essential part of religion.' You, if you recollect, +mentioned it to my uncle the other night; and, in spite of what he +replied, it does appear a weighty objection; on the other hand, if I +admit it to be conclusive, I seem to be driven to the most paradoxical +conclusions, at direct variance with the experience of all mankind,--at +least so they say. For why cannot an historical fact constitute part +of a religion?" + +"Because, as Mr. Newman says, it is impossible that the bulk of people +call have any 'certainty in relation to such remote facts of history," +said Fellowes. + +"And, therefore, in relation to any other remote history; for if the +bulk of men cannot obtain certainty on, such historical questions, +neither can they obtain certainty on other historical questions." + +"Perhaps not; but then what does it matter, in that case, whether they +can obtain certainty or not?" + +"I am not talking--I am not thinking--as to whether it would matter or +not. I merely remark that, in relation to the generality of people, +at all events, they cannot obtain certainty on any remote historical +questions. Of course, with regard to ordinary history, it is neither +a man's duty, strictly speaking, to believe or disbelieve; and therefore +I said nothing about duty. But in neither the one case nor the other +is it possible for the bulk of mankind to obtain satisfaction, from a +personal investigation, as to the facts of remote history, or indeed +any history at all, except of a man's own life and that perhaps of +his own family, up to his father and down to his son! What do you say +to this,--yes or no?" + +"I do not know that I should object to say that the great bulk of +mankind never can obtain a sufficiently certain knowledge of any fact +of history to warrant their belief of it." + +"Very consistent, I think; for you doubtless perceive that if we say +they can obtain a reasonable ground of assurance of the facts of +remote history,--so that, if any thing did or does depend on their +believing it, they are truly in possession of a warrant for acting +on that belief,--I say you then see whither our argument, Mr. Newman's +and yours and mine, is going; it vanishes,--oichetai, as Socrates +would say. If, for example, men can attain reasonable certainty in +relation to Alfred and Cromwell, alas! they may do the like in +reference to Christ; and many persons will say much more easily. Now, +with my too habitual scepticism, I confess to a feeling of difficulty +here. You know there are thousands and tens of thousands amongst us, +who, if you asked respecting the history of Alfred the Great or Oliver +Cromwell, would glibly repeat to you all the principal facts of the +story,--as they suppose; and if you ask them whether they have ever +investigated critically the sources whence they had obtained their +knowledge, they will say, No; but that they have read the things in +Hume's History; or, perhaps, (save the mark!) in Goldsmith's Abridgment! +But they are profoundly ignorant of even the names of the principal +authorities, and have never investigated one of the many doubtful +points which have perplexed historians; nay, as to most of them, are +not even aware that they exist. Yet nothing can be more certain, +than that their supposed knowledge would embrace by far the most +important conclusions at which the most accurate historians have +arrived. It would be principally in a supposed juster comprehension +of minor points--of details--that the latter would have an advantage +over them; compensated, however, by a 'plentiful assortment' of +doubts on other points, from which these simple souls are free; +doubts which are the direct result of more extensive investigation, +but which can scarcely be thought additions to our knowledge;--they +are rather additions to our ignorance. The impressions of the mass +of readers on all the main facts of the two memorable periods +respectively would be the same as those of more accurate critics. Now +what I want to know is, whether you would admit that these superficial +inquirers--the bulk of your decent countrymen, recollect--can be said +to have an intelligent belief in any such history; whether you think +them justified in saying that they are certain of the substantial +accuracy of their impressions, and that they may laugh in your face +(which they assuredly would do) if you told them that it is possible +that Alfred may have existed, and been a wise and patriotic prince; +and that probably Oliver Cromwell was Protector of England, and died +in 1658; but that really they know nothing about the matter." + +"Of course they would affirm that they are as assured of the +substantial accuracy of their impressions as of their own existence," +replied Fellowes. + +"But what answer do you think they ought to give, my friend? Do you +think that they can affirm a reasonable ground of belief in +these things?" + +"I confess I think they can." + +"Ah! then I fear you are grossly inconsistent with Mr. Newman's +principles, and must so far distrust his argument against historic +religion. If you think that this ready assent to remote historic +events may pass for a reasonable conviction and an intelligent belief, +I cannot see why it should be more difficult to attain a similar +confidence in the general results of a religious history; and in that +case it may also become men's duty to act upon that belief. On the +other hand, if it be not possible to obtain this degree of satisfaction +in the latter case, neither for similar reasons will it be in the former. +If you hold Mr. Newman's principles consistently, seeing that neither +in the one case nor the other can the bulk of mankind attain that sort +of critical knowledge which he supposes necessary to certainty, you +ought to deny that any common man has any business to say that he +believes that he is certain of the main facts in the history either +of Alfred or Cromwell." + +"You do not surely mean to compare the importance of a belief in +the one case with the importance of a belief in the other?" +rejoined Fellowes. + +"I do not; and can as little disguise from myself that such a +question has nothing to do with the matter. The duty in the one case +depends entirely on the question whether such a conviction of the +accuracy of the main facts and more memorable events, as may pass +for moral certainty, and justify its language and acts, be possible +or not. If, from a want of capacity and opportunity for a thorough +investigation of all the conditions of the problem, it be not in +the one case, neither will it be in the other. If this be a fallacy, +be pleased to prove it such,--I shall not be sorry to have it so +proved. But at present you seem to me grossly inconsistent in this +matter. I have also my doubts (to speak frankly) whether we must +not apply Mr. Newman's principle (to the great relief of mankind) +in other most momentous questions, in which the notion of duty +cannot be excluded, but enters as an essential element. I cannot +help fancying, that, if his principle be true, mankind ought to be +much obliged to him; for he has exempted them from the necessity of +acting in all the most important affairs of life. For example, you +are, I know, a great political philanthropist; you plead for the +duty of enlightening the masses of the people on political questions, +--of making them intelligently acquainted with the main points of +political and economical science. You do not despair of all this?" + +"I certainly do not," said Fellowes. + +"A most hopeless task," said Harrington, "on Mr. Newman's principle. +The questions on which you seek to enlighten them are, many of them, +of the most intricate and difficult character,--are, all of them, +dependent on principles, and involve controversies, with which the +great bulk of mankind are no more competent to deal than with +Newton's 'Principia.' An easy, and often erroneous assent, on +ill-comprehended data, is all that you can expect of the mass; and +how can it be their duty, when it may often be their ruin, to act +upon this? A superficial knowledge is all that you can give them; +thorough investigation is out of the question. Most men, I fear, will +continue to believe it at least as possible for the common people +to form a judgment on the validity of Paley's 'Evidences,' as on +the reasonings of Smith's 'Political Economy.' They will say, if +the common people can be sufficiently sure of their conclusions in +the latter case to take action upon them,--that is, to render action +a duty,--the like is possible in the former. Should you not hold by +your principle, and say, that, as from the difficulty of the +investigation it is not possible for the bulk of mankind to attain +such a degree of certainty as to make belief in an 'historical religion' +a duty, so neither, for the like reason, can it be their duty to come +to any definite conclusion, or to take any definite action, in relation +to the equally difficult questions of politics, legislation, political +economy, and a variety of other sciences? I will take another case. +I believe you will not deny that you are profoundly ignorant of medicine, +nor that, though the most necessary, it is at the same time the most +difficult and uncertain of all the sciences. You know that the great +bulk of mankind are as ignorant as yourself; nay, some affirm that +physicians themselves are about as ignorant as their patients; it +is certain that, in reference to many classes of disease, doctors +take the most opposite views of the appropriate treatment, and even +treat disease in general on principles diametrically opposed! A more +miserable condition for an unhappy patient can hardly be imagined. + +"Though our own life, or that of our dearest friend in the world, hangs +in the balance, it is impossible for us to tell whether the art of +the doctor will save or kill. I doubt, therefore, whether you ought +not to conclude, from the principle on which we have already said so +much, that God cannot have made it a poor wretch's duty to take any +step whatever; nay, since even the medical man himself often confesses +that he does not know whether the remedies he uses will do harm or +good, it may be a question whether he himself ought not to relinquish +his profession, at least if it be a duty in man to act only in cases +in which he can form something better than conjectures." + +"Well," said Fellowes, laughing; "and some even in the profession +itself say, that perhaps it might not be amiss if the patient never +called in such equivocal aid, and allowed himself to die, not secundum +artem, but secundum naturam." + +"And yet I fancy that, in the sudden illness of a wife or child, you +would send to the first medical man in your street, or the next, +though you might be ignorant of his name, and he might be almost as +ignorant of his profession; at least, that is what the generality +of mankind would do." + +"They certainly would." + +"But yet, upon your principles, how can it be their duty to act on +such slender probabilities, or, rather, mere conjectures, in cases +so infinitely important?" + +"I know not how that may be, but it is assuredly necessary." + +"Well, then, shall we say it is only necessary, but not a duty? But +then, if in a case of such importance God has made it thus necessary +for man to act in such ignorance, people will say he may possibly have +left them in something less than absolute certainty in the matter +of an 'historical religion.'--Ah! it is impossible to unravel these +difficulties. I only know, that, if the principle be true, then as +men in general cannot form any reasonable judgment, not only on the +principles of medical science, but even on the knowledge and skill of +any particular professor of it, (by their ludicrous mis-estimate of +which they are daily duped both of money and life to an enormous extent,) +it cannot be their duty to take any steps in this matter at all. +The fair application, therefore, of the principle in question would, +as I say, save mankind a great deal of trouble;--but, alas! it +involves us philosophers in a great deal." + +"I cannot help thinking," said Fellowes, "that you have caricatured +the principle." And he appealed to me. + +"However ludicrous the results," said I, "of Harrington's argument, +I do not think that his representation, if the principle is to be +fairly carried out, is any caricature at all. The absurdity, if anywhere, +is in the principle aimed; viz. that God cannot have constituted it +man's duty to act, in cases of very imperfect knowledge, and yet we see +that he has perpetually compelled him to do so; nay, often in a condition +next door to stark ignorance. To vindicate the wisdom of such a +constitution may be impossible; but the fact cannot be denied. The +Christian admits the difficulty alike in relation to religion and to the +affairs of this world. He believes, with Butler, that 'probability is +the guide of life';--that man may have sufficient evidence, in a +thousand cases,--varying, however, in different individuals,--to +warrant his action, and a reasonable confidence in the results, +though that evidence is very far removed from certitude;--that +similarly the mass of men are justified in saying that they know a +thousand facts of history to be true, though they never had the +opportunity, or capacitor, of thoroughly investigating them, and +that the great facts of science are true, though they may know no more +of science than of the geology of the moon;--that the statesman, the +lawyer, and the physician are justified in acting, where they yet +are compelled to acknowledge that they act only on most unsatisfactory +calculations of probabilities, and amidst a thousand doubts and +difficulties;--that you, Mr. Fellowes, are justified in endeavoring +to enlighten the common people on many important subjects connected +with political and social science, in which it is yet quite certain +that not one in a hundred thousand can ever go to the bottom of them; +of which very few can do more than attain a rough and crude notion, +and in which the bulk must act solely because they are persuaded that +other men know more about the matters in question than themselves;--all +which, say we Christians, is true in relation to the Christian religion, +the evidence for which is plainer, after all, than that on which man +in ten thousand cases is necessitated to hazard his fortune or his life. +If you follow out Mr. Newman's principle, I think you must with +Harrington liberate mankind from the necessity of acting altogether +in all the most important relations of human life. If it be thought +not only hard that men should be called perpetually to act on defective, +grossly defective evidence, but still harder that they should possess +varying degrees even of that evidence, it may be said that the +difference perhaps is rather apparent than real. Those whom we call +profoundly versed in the more difficult matters which depend on moral +evidence, are virtually in the same condition as their humbler neighbors; +they are profound only by comparison with the superficiality of these +last. Where men must act, the decisive facts, as was said in relation +to history, may be pretty equally grasped by all; and as for the rest, +the enlargement of the circle of a man's knowledge is, in a still +greater proportion, the enlargement of the circle of his ignorance; +for the circumscribing periphery lies in darkness. Doubts, in +proportion to the advance of knowledge, spring up where they were +before unknown; and though the previous ignorance of these was not +knowledge, the knowledge of them (as Harrington has said) is little +better than an increase of our ignorance." + +"If, as you suppose, it cannot be our duty to act in reference to any +'historical religion' because a satisfactory investigation is impossible +to the mass of mankind, the argument may be retorted on your own theory. +You assert, indeed, that in relation to religion we have an internal +'spiritual faculty' which evades this difficulty; yet men persist in +saying, in spite of you, that it is doubtful,--1st, whether they have +any such; 2d, whether, if there be one, it be not so debauched and +sophisticated by other faculties, that they can no longer trust it +implicitly; 3d, what is the amount of its genuine utterances; 4th, what +that of its aberrations; 5th, whether it is not so dependent on +development, education, and association, as to leave room enough for +an auxiliary external revelation;--on all which questions the +generality of mankind are just as incapable of deciding, as about +any historical question whatever." + +Here Fellowes was called out of the room. Harrington, who had been +glancing at the newspaper, exclaimed,--"Talk about the conditions on +which man is left to act indeed! Only think of his gross ignorance +and folly being left a prey to such quack advertisements as half +fill this column. Here empirics every day almost invite men to be +immortal for the small charge of half a crown. Here is a panacea for +nearly every disease under heaven in the shape of some divine elixir, +and, what is more, we know that thousands are gulled by it. How +satisfactory is that condition of the human intellect in which quack +promises can be proffered with any plausible chance of success!" + +I told him I thought the science of medicine would yield an argument +against religious sceptics which they would find it very difficult +to reply to. + +"How so?" + +"Ah! it is well masked; but I know you too well to allow me to doubt +that you suspect what I am referring to." + +"Upon my word, I am all in the dark." + +"Is there not," said I, "a close analogy between the condition of men +in reference to the health of their bodies and the science by which +they hope to conserve or restore it, and the health of their souls and +the science by which they hope to conserve or restore that? Has not +God placed them in precisely the same difficulty and perplexity in both +cases,--nay, as I think, in greater in relation to medicine,--and yet +is not man most willing and eager to apply to its most problematic +aid, imparted even by the most ignorant practitioners, rather than +be without it altogether? The possession which man holds most valuable +in this world, and most men, alas! more valuable than aught in any +other world,--LIFE itself,--is at stake; it is subjected to a science, +or rather an art, proverbially difficult in theory and uncertain in +practice, about which there have been ten thousand varieties of opinion, +--whimsically corresponding to the diversity of sect, creed, and +priesthood, on which sceptics like you lay so much stress; in which +even the wisest and most cautious practitioners confess that their +art is at best only a species of guessing; while the patient can no +more judge of the remedies he consents, with so much faith, to swallow +on the knowledge of him who prescribes them, than he can of the +perturbations of Jupiter's satellites. Yet the moment he is sick, +away he goes to this dubious oracle, and trusts it with a most +instructive faith and docility, as if it were infallible. All his +doubts are mastered in an instant. I strongly suspect yours would +be. Ought you not in consistency to refuse to act at all in such +deplorable deficiency of evidence?" + +"Well," said he, "consistent or inconsistent, it must be admitted +that the parallel is very complete,--and amusing." And he then went +on, as he was apt to do, when an analogy struck his fancy. "Let me +see,--yes, our unlucky race is condemned to put its most valued +possession on the hazard of a wise choice, without any of the +essential qualifications for wisely making it; a man cannot at all +tell whether his particular priest in medicine understands and can +skilfully apply even his own theory. Yes," he went on, "and I think +(as you say) we might find, not only in the partisans of different +systems of physic, the representatives of the various priesthoods, +but in their too credulous--or shall we say, too faithful patients? +--the representatives of all sects. There is, for example, the +superstitious vulgar in medicine,--the gross worshipper of the +Fetish, who believes in the efficacy of charm, and spell, and +incantation, of mere ceremonial and opus operatum; then there +is the polytheist, who will adore any thing in the shape of a drug, +and who is continually quacking himself with some nostrum or other +from morning to night; who not only takes his regular physician's +prescriptions, but has his household gods of empirical remedies, +to which he applies with equal devotion. Then there is the Romanist +in medicine, who swears by the infallibility of some papal Abernethy, +and the unfailing efficacy of some viaticum of a blue pill." + +"And who," said I, "would represent our friend who has just left the +room, and who has tried every thing?" + +"Why," he replied, "I think he is in the condition of a little boy +of whom I heard a little while ago, whose mother was a homoeopathist, +and kept a little chest, from which she dispensed to her family and +friends, perhaps as skilfully as the doctor himself could have +done. The little fellow, going into her dressing-room, opened this +box, and, thinking that he had fallen on a score of 'millions' (as +children call them), swallowed up his mother's whole doctor's shop +before he could be stopped. It was happy, said the doctor, when called +in, that the little patient had swallowed so many, or he would have +been infallibly killed. Or perhaps we may liken our friend to that +humorous traveller, Mr. Stephens, who tells us, that, having been +provided at Cairo, by a skilful physician there, with a number of +remedies for some serious complaint to which he was subject, found, +to his dismay, when suffering under a severe paroxysm in the fortress +of Akaba, that he had lost the directions which told him in what order +the medicines were to be taken. Whether pill, powder, or draught was +to come first, he knew not: 'on which,' says he, 'in a fit of +desperation, I placed them all in a row before me, and resolved to +swallow them all serialim till I obtained relief.' George has +equal faith." + +"You have omitted," said I, "one character,--that of the sceptic, who +believes in no medicine at all; who sturdily dies with his doubts +unresolved, and unattended by any physician. But it must be confessed +that he is a still rarer character than the sceptic in religion. Nature, +my dear Harrington, everywhere decides against you." + +"I acknowledge," he said, "that we are but a scanty flock in any +department of life; but, upon my word, the parallel you have suggested +is so striking, that I think I must in consistency, extend my scepticism +to physic at least, and, if I am ill, refrain from availing myself of +so uncertain an art, practised by such uncertain hands and which are +to be selected by one who cannot even guess whether they are ignorant +or skilful;--doctors, who may perhaps, as Voltaire said, put drugs of +which they know nothing into bodies of which they know still less." + +"Act upon that resolution, Harrington," said I, "and you will at +least be consistent: but, depend upon it, nature will confute you." + +"Why," said he, jestingly, "perhaps in the case of medicine, at all +events, I might face the consequences of scepticism'. I remember +reading, in some account of Madagascar, that the natives are absolutely +without the healing art; 'and yet,' says the author, with grave +surprise, 'it is not observed that the number of deaths is increased.' +Perhaps, thought I, that is the cause of it." + +"The statistics," I replied, "of more civilized countries amply refute +you, and show you that, uncertain as is the evidence on which God +has destined and compelled men to act in this, the most important +affair of the present life, and absolute as is the faith they are +summoned to exercise, neither is the study of the art (uncertain as +it is in itself), nor the dependence of patients upon it (still more +precarious as that is), unjustified on the whole by the result; and +as to the abuses of downright quackery, a little prudence and common +sense are required, and are sufficient to preserve men from them." + +He mused, and, I thought, seemed struck by this analogy between man's +temporal and spiritual condition I said no more, hoping that he +would ponder it. +____ + +July 25. I had been so much interested in the discussion between +Harrington and young Robinson on the fair application of the principle +of Strauss to history in general, that I could not resist the +temptation to tell the youth, in secret, that I thought the matter +would admit of further discussion, and that he would do well to +challenge Harrington plausibly to show that some undoubted modern +event might, when it became remote history, be rendered dubious to +posterity. He willingly acted on the hint the next morning. To some +remark of his, Harrington replied thus:-- + +"Assuming with you, that Strauss has really cast suspicion on the +historic character of the bulk of the transactions recorded in the +New Testament, I must suspect that there is not an event in history, +if at all remote, which, arguing exactly on the same principles, may +not be made doubtful; and that is--" + +"Why, now," replied the other, "do you think it possible that the events +of the present year" (referring to the Papal Aggression), "which are +making such a prodigious noise in England, will ever stand a chance +of being similarly treated some centuries hence?" + +"If they are ever treated at all," said Harrington; "but you must +have observed that it is the tendency of man to make ridiculous +miss-estimates of the importance of the transactions of his own age, +and to imagine that posterity will have nothing to do but to recount +them. He is much mistaken; they forget or care not a doit for nine +tenths of what he does; and misrepresent the tenth," continued +he, laughing. + +"Well, then, upon the supposition that Pio Nono and Cardinal Wiseman +are of sufficient importance to be remembered at all eighteen hundred +and fifty years hence, that is, in the year 3700 of the Christian era, +--though in all probability some new and more rational epoch will have +jostled out both the Christian era the Mahometan hegira by that time--" + +"Pray be sure," interrupted I, "before you predict a new epoch, that +it will be wanted; that Christianity is really dead before you bury +her. You will please remember that the experiment was tried in France +with much formality, but somehow came to a speedy ignominious conclusion; +the new era did not survive infancy. As Paulus thinks that Christ was +only in a trance when he seemed to be dead, so it certainly often +is (figuratively speaking) with his religion: it seems to be dead when +it is only in a trance. It is apt to rise again, and be more active +than ever; and never more so than when, as in the middle of the last +century, our infidel undertakers were providing for its funeral. But I +beg your pardon for interrupting your conversation; you were saying--" + +"I was saying," said Robinson, "that I doubt whether Cardinal Wiseman +and his doings, eighteen hundred and fifty years hence, could be as +much the subject of doubt and controversy (if remembered at all) as +the events which Strauss has shown to be unhistorical. I think the +press alone, with its diffusion and multiplication 'of the sources +of knowledge, will alone prevent in the future the doubts which gather +over the past. There will never again be the same dearth of historic +materials." + +"In spite of all that," replied Harrington, "I suspect it will be +very possible for men to entertain the same doubts about many events +of our time, eighteen hundred and fifty years hence, as they entertain +of many which happened eighteen hundred and fifty years ago." + +"I can hardly imagine this to be possible." + +"Because, I apprehend, first, that you are laboring under the delusion +already mentioned, by which men ever magnify the importance of the events +of their own age, and forget how readily future generations will let +them slip from their memory, and let documents which contain the record +of them slip out of existence; and, secondly, because you do not give +yourself time to realize all that is implied in supposing eighteen +hundred years to have elapsed, nor to transport yourself fairly into +that distant age. As to the first;--let us recollect that the importance +of historical events is by no means in proportion to the excitement they +produce at the time of their occurrence. We have many exemplifications +of this even in our own time; see the rapidity with which every trace +of a political storm, which for a moment may have lashed the whole +nation into fury, is appeased again: the surface is as smooth after +a few short years as if it had never been ruffled at all! In all such +cases, the constant tendency is to let the events which have been thus +transient in their effects sink into oblivion. But even of those which +have been far more significant, (since each future age will teem with +fresh events equally significant, all claiming a part in the page of +general history,) the importance will be perpetually diminishing in +estimate, and still more in interest, from the intenser feeling with +which each age will in turn regard the events which stand in immediate +proximity to its own. As time rolls on, all of the past that can be +spared will be gradually jostled out. Details will be lost; and then, +when remote ages turn to reinvestigate the half-forgotten past, the +want of those details will issue in the customary problems and +'historic doubts.' In the page of general history, events of a remote +age, except those of a surpassing interest, will be reduced to more +and more meagre outlines, till abridgments are abridged, and even these +compendiums thought tedious. The interval between decade and +decade now will be as much as that between century and century then. +History will have to employ a sort of Bramah press in her compositions, +and its application will compress into mere films the loose and pulpy +textures submitted to it by each age. Let human vanity think what it +will, many events and many names which seem imperishable will speedily +die out of remembrance; many lights in the firmament, destined +(as we deem) to shine 'like the stars for ever and ever,' will hereafter +be missing from the catalogue of the historic astronomer." + +"But, at all events," said the other, "though there are thousands of +facts which will be virtually forgotten, it will be at all times easy +to ascertain (if a sufficiently strong motive exist) the real character +of past, events by a reference to the documents preserved by the press. +The press,--the press it is which will preserve us from the doubts of +the past." + +"I doubt that. Has there been any lack of historic controversy respecting +a thousand facts which have transpired since the press was in full +activity? You forget, that, in the first place, neither the press, nor +any thing else, can preserve any original documents. Time will not be +inactive in the future more than in the past; it will have no more +respect for printed books than for manuscripts. An immense mass of print +is every year silently perishing by mere decay. The original documents +to which you refer will, eighteen hundred years hence, have almost all +perished; few will be preserved except in copies, and how many disputes +that alone will cause, it is hard to say; but we may form some guess +from the experience of the past. Of thousands of these documents, again, +no importance having been attached to them, and no one having imagined +that any importance would ever be attached to them, no copies will +have been taken, and there will be here again the usual field for +conjectures. This is a common trick of time;--silently destroying what +a present age thinks may as well be left to his maw. It is not even +discovered that valuable documents are lost, till something turns +up to make mankind wish they may be found. But neither is this the +sole nor the chief source of future historic doubts. Do not flatter +yourself too much on the wonders which the press can work, amongst +which one unquestionably is, that it will bury at least as much +as it will preserve. Several considerations will suffice to show that +here, too, we labor under a delusion. Oblivion will practically cover +many events, owing to the mere accumulations of the press itself. You +talk of the ease of consulting 'original documents'; but when they lie +buried in the depths of national museums, amidst mountain loads of +forgotten and decaying literature, it will not be so easy, even +supposing the present activity of the press only maintained for +eighteen hundred and fifty years (although, in all probability, it +will proceed at a rapidly increased ratio),--I say it will not be so +easy to lay your hands on what you want. The materials, again, will +often exist by that time in dead or half-obsolete languages, or at +least in languages full of archaic forms. It will be almost as difficult +to unearth and collate the documents which bear upon any events less +than the most momentous, as to recover the memorials of Egypt from +the pyramids, or of ancient Assyria from the mounds of Nineveh. The +historian of a remote period must be a sort of Belzoni or Layard. If +we can suppose any thing so extravagant as that the British Museum will +be in existence then, having preserved during these centuries (as it +does now) all new hooks, and accumulated ancient and foreign literature +only at the rate it has during these few years past, the library alone +will extend over hundreds of acres at least. This, unless our posterity +are fools, can hardly be the case; and therefore much will be rejected +and left to the mercy of the great destroyer. But the very existence of +any such repository is itself a very doubtful supposition. Comprehensive, +indeed, may be the destruction of many large portions of our archives, +essentially necessary to minute accuracy at so distant a date; nay, +England herself may have ceased to exist. If her subterranean fuel be +not exhausted, a cheaper and equally abundant supply of it may have +been found elsewhere, and transfer for ever the chief elements of her +manufacturing or commercial prosperity; or entirely new and more +transcendent sources of science may have done the same thing, and our +country may be left, like a stranded vessel, to rot upon the beach! +Her furnaces extinguished, her manufactories deserted, her cities decayed, +the hum of her busy population silenced, she may present a spectacle of +desolation like that of so many other famous nations which have risen, +culminated, and set for ever." + +"Or," interrupted I, "(and may God avert the omen!) the same ruin may +be accomplished still earlier, and by more potent causes. Her nobles +enervated by luxury, her lower classes sunk in vice and ignorance, +and both the one and the other decaying in piety and religion (a sure +result of neglecting that Bible which has directly and indirectly formed +her strength), she may have fallen a victim to the consequences of her +own degeneracy, or to an irresistible combination of the enemies who +envy and hate her. That picture of the splendid imagination of the great +historian of our day may be realized, 'when some traveller from New +Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a +broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.'" + +"In short," resumed Harrington, "in several ways that appalling +catastrophe may have taken place; and, should this be the case, how +many questions will be asked of history, but asked in vain! As for +Rome,--what other great name in the present strife pitted against +England,--for aught we can tell, she may by that time be in desolation +far more remediless than when the grim Attilas and Alarics stormed her +walls. For aught we know, the agency of those terrible elements which +more or less mine the soil of Italy may have made her 'like unto' +Herculaneum or Pompeii; or that silent desolater, the malaria, which +Dr. Arnold thinks will be perpetual and will increase, may long before +that period have reduced, not only the Campagna of Rome, but the whole +region of the 'seven hills,' to a pestilential solitude." + +"But all this is mere vision?" said Robinson. + +"Certainly; but it is the vision of the possible. Similarly wonderful +and equally unexpected revolutions have taken place in the history of +past nations and empires in a less space of time; and some enormous +changes, we know, must happen during the next eighteen hundred and fifty +years; and they will tend both to jostle out thousands of events of meaner +moment, and to effect a comparative destruction of the memorials of the +past. You do not suppose, I presume, that London and Rome are absolutely +privileged from the fate which has overtaken Babylon and Memphis. I, for +one, therefore, do not expect that the time will arrive when, in the +historic investigations of the past, our Strausses will not find abundant +scope for ingenious theories; nay, many real sources of perplexity even +in reference to events which, at the time of their occurrence, seemed +written as 'with a pen of iron on the rock for ever.' But even supposing +no other difficulty, I cannot lay small stress upon the mere accumulation +of materials on which the historian, two thousand years hence, will have +to operate, if he would recover an exact account of the events of our +time. It is much the same whether you have to dig into the pyramids of +Egypt, or into the catacombs of the buried literature of two thousand +years, for the memorials which are to enable you to arrive at the exact +truth, at least as to any events of transient interest, however important +at the time of their occurrence. It will be like 'hunting for a needle +in a bundle of hay,' as the proverb says." + +"Still, I cannot imagine that facts like those with which our ears have +been ringing during the last eight months, can ever be contested." + +"Can you not?" said Harrington. "I cannot imagine any thing more likely +than that, eighteen hundred and fifty years hence, such an event, on +Strauss's principles, may be shown to be very problematical." + +"Will you endeavor to show how it may probably be?" rejoined Robinson. + +"Well, I have no objection, if you will give me till this evening to +prepare so important a document." + +In the evening, after supper, he amused us by reading us a brief paper, +entitled + +THE PAPAL AGGRESSION SHOWN TO BE IMPOSSIBLE. + +"I shall proceed on the supposition that some Dr. Dickkopf or +Dr. Scharfsinn, for either name will do, has to deal (as my uncle here +believes our modern critics have to deal in the Gospels) with an +account literally true. This learned man I shall imagine as existing +in some nation at the antipodes eighteen hundred and fifty years hence, +and intellectually, if not literally, descended from some erudite +critics of our age. Let me further suppose that the principal memorials +of the current events are found in the page of some continuator of +Macaulay (may the Fates have pity on him! I am afraid he will be far +worse than even Smollett after Hume), who publishes his work only +sixty years hence. Let us suppose him (as surely we well may) +proceeding thus: 'During the year 1850-51, our countrymen are +represented to us, by the accounts of those who lived at the time +(some few still survive), as having been in a condition of political +and religious excitement almost unprecedented in their history. It +was occasioned by the attempt of the Pope to reestablish the Roman +Catholic hierarchy, which had been extinct since the Reformation. As +these events, though all-absorbing to the actors in them, (as are so +many others of very secondary importance,) have now shrunk to their +true dimensions, and are, in fact, infinitely less momentous than +others which were silently transpiring at the time almost without +notice, I shall content myself with simply condensing a brief +contemporaneous document which gives the chief points, without passion +or prejudice, in a narrative so simple that it vouches for its own +veracity:-- + +"Without permission of the Crown, or any negotiations with the +Government whatever, Pope Plus the Ninth divided the whole of England +into twelve sees, and assigned these to as many Roman Catholic bishops +with local titles and territorial jurisdiction. The chief of them was +one Nicholas Wiseman (by birth, it is said, a Spaniard), who was created +Archbishop of Westminster and Cardinal. + +"'The said Wiseman issued a pastoral letter, which was read on the +27th day of October, 1850, in all the churches and chapels of the +Romanists, congratulating Catholic England on the reestablishment of +the Roman hierarchy. In it he used the startling expression, "Our +beloved country has been restored to its orbit in the ecclesiastical +firmament, from which its light had long vanished." + +"'The nation was the more surprised at all this, inasmuch as the +position of Pio Nono was not such as to warrant any expectation of a +step so audacious. Little more than a year had elapsed since his own +subjects in Rome itself rebelled against him, murdered his Prime +Minister, and compelled him, in the disguise of a menial, to fly from +Rome; nor was he restored except by the arms of the French, who besieged +and took Rome in 1849. + +"'That the Pope, while holding his own little dominions on so precarious +a tenure, should venture to assume such an exercise of supremacy over +the most powerful nation in the world,--a nation so jealous of its +independence, which had so long been, and which still was, most averse +to his claims,--seemed almost incredible to the people of England; and +they were proportionably indignant. + +"'Some affirmed that the aforesaid Cardinal Wiseman was the chief cause +of it all,--the spectacle of many conversions from the Church of England +to that of Rome having deceived him into a notion that the national +mind was far more generally disposed to receive Romanism; and to make +up the long-standing breach with the Papacy, than was really the case. +The principal cause of the conversions above mentioned was what was +called the "Oxford Movement." In the University of Oxford had sprung up +a body of men who had consecrated their lives to the diffusion of +doctrines indefinitely near those of Rome. They spoke of the Reformation +contemptuously; advocated very many, obsolete rites and usages; +magnified the power of the church and the prerogatives of the +priesthood. Many of them, at length, finding that they could not, with +any shadow of consistency, remain in the English church, abandoned it; +but many others remained, and propagated the same opinions with +impunity. They were regarded as traitors by their brethren, though no +steps were taken to prevent them from teaching their notions, nor to +deprive them of their benefices and emoluments. Among those who gave up +their livings, of their own accord, from the feeling that they could not +hold them with a safe conscience, the principal was one afterwards +called Father Newman. + + +"'Now this Newman must by no means be confounded with another of the +same name, Professor Newman,--in fact his own brother,--who was also +educated at Oxford, but whose history was in most singular contrast +with his. While the one brother went over to Rome, exceeded in zeal +and credulity even the Romanists themselves, and sighed for a +restoration of mediaeval puerilities, the other lapsed into downright +infidelity, and denied even the possibility of an external revelation. + +"'Very many thought, that, if the Oxford party had been wise enough +to proceed more gently in the propagation of their notions, they would +have accomplished much greater things, and perhaps eventually brought +the popular mind to embrace the Romish Church. But their later +publications (and especially No. 90) opened the eyes of many, and the +frequent defections from the English Church, which were almost daily +announced in the papers, opened the eyes of many more. + +"'But whether or not Wiseman and other principal persons were misled +by erroneous representations of the state of the English mind, certain +it is that he advised the Pope to take this perilous step. The Pope +was persuaded; he assured the people of England, that he should not +cease to supplicate the Virgin Mary and all the saints whose virtues +had made this country illustrious, that they would deign to obtain, +by their intercessions with God, a happy issue to his enterprise. + +"'The excitement produced by the publication of the Pope's proceedings +throughout England was prodigious, and can hardly be conceived by us +at this day. Every county, city, and almost every town, held meetings +in the utmost alarm and indignation; and resolved on petitioning the +Queen and Parliament to do something or other to prevent the Pope's +measures from taking effect; and especially to annul all claims to +local and territorial jurisdiction in this country. The universities; +the clergy in their dioceses; the Bishops collectively,--even Philpotts +of Exeter, though intoxicated with zeal for those Oxford notions which +had done all the mischief; the municipalities; almost all organized +bodies, whether of Churchmen or Dissenters;--discussed and resolved. +Amongst these meetings one was held at the Guildhall of London, which +was crowded with the merchant princes of that great city, and all that +could represent its wealth, intelligence, and energy. One Masterman +opened the proceedings, made a vehement speech against the Bishop of +Rome and his pretensions, and proposed a stringent resolution, which +was carried by acclamation. + +"'At a dinner given by the Lord Mayor, at which were present many +of the Ministers of the Crown, the Lord Chancellor Wilde spoke very +boldly, and, as some thought, unadvisedly, on his possible future +relations to the Cardinal. + +"'Cardinal Wiseman published a subtle defence of himself and the +Popish measure, which he addressed to the people of England; and, +whether consistently or inconsistently, pleaded in the most strenuous +manner for the inviolable observance of the principles of +"religious liberty." + +"'A singular and indeed inexplicable circumstance occurred in the +course of this controversy. In a lecture, delivered at the Hanover +Square Rooms, a certain Presbyterian clergyman had asserted that +the oath prescribed in the Pontificale Romanum, which the Cardinal +Wiseman must have taken to the Pope when he received the Pallium as +Archbishop of Westminster, notoriously contained a clause enjoining +the duty of persecution. This clause, a facetious Englishman said, +ought to be translated, "I will persecute and pitch into all +heretics to the utmost of my power"; and every one knew that the Pope +of Rome looked upon the English as the greatest heretics in the world. + +"'When Wiseman heard of the representations thus made, he caused his +secretary to write to the Protestant lecturer, to say that the clause +in the oath to which he had referred was not insisted upon, in his +(the Cardinal's) case, by the Pope, and that, if his calumniator chose +to go to the Cardinal's library, he would see that it was cancelled +in his copy of the Pontifical. The Protestant accepted his challenge +and went to the said library. He was then shown the oath, and found the +clause in question, totidem verbis; not cancelled, however, but marked +off by a line in black ink drawn over it, and (as it seemed) very +recently. + +"'Pamphlets were published on this curious circumstance on both sides; +the Roman Catholics contended that the mere fact of Wiseman's challenge +was a sufficient proof of his consciousness of rectitude. + +"'On the whole, after half a year of perpetual agitation, both in and +out of Parliament, a measure was passed which was notoriously inadequate +to suppress the offence, and which was broken with impunity. + +"'It is gratifying to add, that, notwithstanding the dangerous and +vehement excitement which so long inflamed the minds of the people, +no life was lost except on one occasion. The sufferer--contrary to +what might have been expected--was of the dominant party a policeman, +who was endeavoring to repress the party violence of some Irish +Catholics in the North of England.'" +____ + +"Now it need not be said," proceeded Harrington, "that these sentences +contain what is perfectly well known by you--for myself I say nothing--to +be the merest matter of fact, narrated in the simplest language, without +any art or embellishment. Would you like to hear how Dr. Dickkopf, of +New Zealand, or Kamtschatka, or Caffre-land, might treat such a document +eighteen hundred and fifty years hence, amidst that imperfect light which +we well know rests upon so many portions of the past, and which may, very +possibly, be felt in the future? I think it would not be difficult for +him to show that the 'Papal Aggression' was impossible." + +"We will, at least, listen to you," said Robinson. + +"Let us suppose, then, some learned Theban stumbling upon this brief +record of an obscure event, and, as usual, making (if only because he +had discovered what nobody in the world either knew or cared about) +a huge commentary upon it; concluding from the internal evidence, the +simplicity of the style, the absence of all imaginable motives for +misrepresentation, and some external corroborative fragments painfully +gleaned from the history of the period, that these sentences formed a +genuine, literal, historic account of certain events which transpired +in England in the year 1850. This, of course, would of itself be +sufficient to make ten Dr. Dickkopfs turn to and prove the contrary; +and any one of them, I imagine, might, and probably would, thus +reply. Excuse his clumsy style. He would say:-- + +"'That there may have been, and very probably was, some nucleus of +fact which may have served as a groundwork for these pseudo-historical +memorials, is not denied: but to regard that document of which it +is professedly a condensation as a genuine record of the period in +question, can only, we conceive, be the infelicity of an essentially +uncritical mind. Most evidently, whether we regard the known events and +relations of that age (as far as they have come down to us) or the +internal characteristics of the document itself, we discover +unequivocal traces of an unhistoric origin. Let us look at both these +sources of evidence in order. If we mistake not, the document, even +as it now stands, bears on its very front, that the original document, +so far from being a literal description of the events of the time to +which it professedly related, was allegorical, or at most historico- +allegorical, and most likely designed broadly to caricature and +satirize some perceived tendencies or conditions of the English +religious development in certain parties of that age. But whether it +be, or be not, reducible to the class of allegorieo-ecclesiastico- +political satire, certainly no person of critical discernment can for +a moment allow it to be a literal statement of historic events. And +first to look at the internal evidence. + +"'Is it possible to overlook the singular character of the names +which everywhere meet us? They, in fact, tell their own tale, and +almost, as it were, proclaim of themselves that they are allegorical. +Wiseman, Newman (two of them, be it observed), Masterman, Philpotts, +Wilde. Who, that has been gifted with even a moderate share of +critical acumen, can fail to see that these are all fictitious names, +invented by the allegorist either to set forth certain qualities or +attributes of certain persons whose true names are concealed, or, as +I rather think, to embody certain tendencies of the times, or represent +certain party characteristics. Thus the name "Wiseman" is evidently +chosen to represent the proverbial craft which was attributed to the +Church of Rome; and Nicholas has also been chosen (as I apprehend) +for the purpose of indicating the sources whence that craft was derived. +In all probability the name was selected just in the same manner as +Bunyan in his immortal Pilgrim's Progress (which still delights the +world) has chosen "Worldly Wiseman" for one of his characters. It is +said that he was a Spaniard: but who so fit as a Spaniard to be +represented as the agent of the Holy See? while, as there never was +a Spaniard of that name, every one can see that historic probability +has not been regarded. The word "Newman" again (and observe the +significant fact that there were two of them) was, in all probability, +I may say certainly, designed to embody two opposite tendencies, both +of which, perhaps, claimed, in impatience of the effete humanity of +that age (a dead and stereotyped Protestantism), to introduce a new +order of things. These parties (if I may form a conjecture from the +document itself) were essaying to extricate the mind of the age +from the difficulties of its intellectual position; an age, +asserting inconsistently, on the one hand, the freedom of spiritual +life, and, on the other, claiming for the Bible an authorized +supremacy over all the phenomena of that spiritual life. One of these +parties sought to solve this difficulty by endeavoring to resuscitate +the spirit of the past; the other, by attempting to set human +intellect and consciousness free from the yoke of all external +authority. In all probability the names were suggested to the +somewhat profane allegorico-satitical writer by that text in the +English version, "Put on the Newman," the new man of the spirit. +We are almost driven to this interpretation, indeed, by the extreme +and ludicrous improbability of two men--brothers, brought up at +the same university--gradually receding, pari passu, from the same +point in opposite directions, to the uttermost extreme; one till +he had embraced the most puerile legends of the Middle Ages, the +other, till he had proceeded to open infidelity. Probably such a +curious coincidence of events was never heard of since the world +began; and this must, at all events, be rejected. + +"'Similar observations apply to the name Masterman, which, in ancient +English, was applied to him who was not a "servant" or "journeyman," +and is not unfitly used to indicate collectively the assemblage of +wealthy merchants who, like those of Tyre, were "princes"; as well +as to imply that the powerful class to which they belonged were the +"Mastermen" in the country, and, in fact, spoke in a potential voice +in all such crises as that supposed. It might also, perhaps, be +designed obliquely to intimate, that, 'whatever the clergy and the +theologians of different parties might wish to realize, it was, +after all, the powerful and independent class of the laity who were +the "mastermen," and would not succumb to any spiritual guides whatever, +even though called by the specious names of Wisemen and Newmen. The +mere singularity of the names alone ought to decide the point. And +what further confirms our view is, that it is impossible to point +out any Englishmen of any distinction who ever had any of these +names. Here we do not argue from conjecture, after merely looking +into the most recent biographical repertories (as, for example, +the "Bibliotheca Clarisimorum Virorum," in three hundred and fifty +volumes folio); for it is no argument that this meagre collection +makes no mention of any such names; since, in the successive +compilations of such works, (as the world grows older,) it has +been found necessary to extrude from time to time thousands of lesser +names, which had twinkled in preceding ages. But, deeply anxious to +establish truth, we have at infinite pains caused to be fished up, +from the depths of the archives of our national museums, very rare +reprints of some of the works of the age nearest that in which these +events are said to have occurred, and in none of these works is there +an individual mentioned of the name of Newman or Masterman, and +only one comparatively obscure person of the name of Wiseman,--a +presumptive proof that they were fictitious names. Is it possible +that these curious and varied coincidences can be the mere effect +of chance?' + +"I shall spare you," said Harrington, "Dr. Dickkopf's learned +etymological disquisitions on the names Wilde and Philpotts, which, +aided by the imputed 'rashness' of the one, and the 'intoxicated zeal' +of the other, he clearly demonstrated to be fictitious. + +"After which, I will suppose him to proceed thus:-- + +'We presume we have said enough to convince any acute and candid mind +of the extreme improbability of the document being designed to convey +to posterity a literal statement of facts; not that we for a moment +think it necessary to suppose that any evil design actuated the writer, +whoever he might be. It was most likely intended, as we have already +said, to be an allegorico-political caricature of certain events which +did undeniably occur, and which formed a slender basis of historic +fact on which to found it. + +"'Nor is the particularity of some of the dates and alleged +circumstances of much weight in our judgment. He must be a miserable +inventor of fiction indeed, who cannot clothe a narrative in some +verisimilitude of this kind. It is said, that the historian makes a +seeming reference to those who were living at the very time. +"Some," he says, "still survive." But who does not see that the +word "survive" may refer to the accounts (which he, it appears, +knew little how to interpret), not the persons; though, be it observed, +that on such a supposition he does not vouch for having seen them, +and may have spoken merely from report. This very clause, too, has +undeniably much the appearance of an interpolation. There are many +other little circumstances, which, to those who have been accustomed +to detect unhistoric characteristics in ancient documents, and to +draw a sharp line between the mythic or allegoric and the historic, +sufficiently proclaim the origin of this supposed narrative of facts. + +"'But the internal evidence, conclusive as it is, is as nothing to +the external. If we examine the document by the light of the facts +which contemporary history supplies, nay, even by the probability or +otherwise of its own contents, we shah see the extreme absurdity of +supposing that the account from which it was borrowed was ever meant +to be a record of facts. We hesitate not to say, that the political +facts of which it makes mention are many of them in the highest degree +incredible. That there may have been a rebellion at Rome is very +possible; but assuredly the only nation in Europe, (if we except +England,) that was not likely to take the Pope's part against a +republican movement, or resent him on his throne, was the French. +To suppose them thus acting is contrary to all that we know of the +history of that nation, and of human nature. The traces of the terrible +revolutions which in that century, and at the close of the preceding +one, shook France again and again to her centre, and the outlines of +which still live in authentic history, all show the extent to which +infidelity and democratic violence prevailed in France; nay, we know +that during the dominion of the Emperor Napoleon, if we are to regard +his history as literally true, and not a collection of fables and +legends,* as some even of that age maintained, that great conqueror +arrested and imprisoned the Pope. That France should have undertaken +the task of subduing a republican movement, just when she had come +out of a similar revolution, or rather many such,--and of reseating +the Pope on his throne, when she had been more impatient of the +restraints of all religion than any other nation in Europe,--is +perfectly incredible! Not less improbable is it that, supposing (as +may perhaps be true) that there was a basis of fact in the asserted +rebellion of the Romans, and Pio Nono's restoration to his dominions +(though not by France, that the intelligent reader will on +politico-logical grounds pronounce impossible, but more probably by +the Spaniards),--yet can we suppose that a power which was always +celebrated for its astuteness and subtlety would choose that very +moment of humiliation and ignominy to rush into an act so audacious +as that of reestablishing the Romish hierarchy in England,--in a +nation by far the most powerful in the world at that time,--a nation +which, if it had pleased, could have blown Rome into the air in +three months? It must needs have strengthened a thousand-fold the +strong antipathies of the English to the See of Rome. It would, +indeed, have justified that storm of indignation with which it is +said to have been met. + +____ + +* Dr. Dickkopf may be here supposed to refer to the "Historic Doubts" +of Archbishop Whately, which may well deceive even more astute +critics.--Ed. +____ + +"'There is much that is palpably improbable in many other parts of +the statement (simple as it seems to be) when submitted to the +searching spirit of modern criticism. How ridiculous is the story of +Cardinal Wiseman's pretending that the oath in receiving the Pallium +had been modified for his convenience; little less so, indeed, than +his challenge to his Presbyterian antagonist to examine it, and that, +too, in the very book in which the contested clause was not cancelled! +All this is such a maze of absurdity, that it is impossible to believe +it. In the first place, do we not know that, throughout the whole +history of the Papal power, the inflexible character, not only of +its doctrines, but of its official forms and solemnities, was always +maintained, and that this pertinacity was continually placing it at +a disadvantage in the contest with the more flexible spirit of +Protestantism? It would not renounce, in terms or words, the very +things which it did renounce in deeds, and never could prevail upon +itself to get over this unaccommodating spirit! Yet here we are to +believe that, at the Cardinal's request a certain part of a most +solemn ceremonial--that of receiving the Pallium was remitted by the +Pope! If it were so, the Cardinal would certainly have desired to +conceal it. If he could not have done that, he would, at least, never +have given so easy a triumph to his adversary as to challenge him +to inspect the very copy of the Pontifical, in which, after all, the +oath was not cancelled, in order that he might be satisfied that it was! +Who can believe that a Cardinal of the Romish Church, Wiseman or fool, +would have been simple enough for such a step as this? It is plain that +the historian himself was not unaware that such an objection would +immediately suggest itself, and endeavors to guard against it,--a +suspicious circumstance in itself--which may serve to warn us how little +we can depend on the historic character of the document. + +"'Again; what can be more improbable, than that, when a great nation +was convulsed from one end to the other, as the English are said to +have been, there should have been no violence, not even accidentally, +attending those huge and excited assemblages; a thing so natural, nay, +so certain! Who can believe that only one man was sacrificed, and he on +the predominant side? I have discovered in my laborious researches on +this important subject, that only seventy years before, when a cry of +the same nature, but much less potent, was raised, London was filled +with conflagration and blood-shed. Who ever heard, indeed, of commotion +such as this is pretended to have been, and its ending in vox et +praeterea nihil? + +"'It is superfluous to point out the absurdity of supposing a Cardinal +of the Romish Church lecturing the people of England on "the claims of +religious liberty"; or so great a nation, in such a paroxysm, spending +many months in the concoction of a measure confessed to be a feeble one, +and suffered to be broken with impunity! + +"'But, lastly, my laborious researches have led to the important +discovery, that, in this very year of pretended hot commotion, +England--in peace with all the world, profound peace within and +profound peace without--celebrated a sort of jubilee of the nations, +in a vast building of glass (wonderful for those times), called the +Great Exhibition, to which every country had contributed specimens +of the comparatively rude manufacture--of that rude age! London was +filled with foreigners from all parts of the earth; the whole kingdom +was in a commotion, indeed, but a commotion of hospitable festivity, +in which it shook hands with all the world! + +This is a piece of positive evidence which ought to settle the whole +matter. In short, the external and internal evidence alike warrants +us in rejecting this absurd story as utterly incredible.'" + +"Upon my word," said young Robinson, "you have said more than I thought +you could have said on such a theme. I really almost doubt whether +Dr. Dickkopf has not the best of it, and whether we ought not to +agree that the 'Papal Aggression' is a sheer delusion." + +"O," said Harrington, "I have mot given you half the arguments by +which an historian, eighteen hundred years hence, might prove that +what has actually occurred never could have occurred, and that what +has not occurred must, in the very nature of things, have occurred, +by a necessity alike political, historical, ethical, logical, and +psychological. And no doubt Dr. Dickkopf is right on the principles +on which acute critics may argue; that is, the assumption that certain +probabilities will justify conclusions on such subjects. One might +naturally have supposed the Pope to have been more politic than to +take this step,--the French more consistent than to suppress the +Republican movement of Italy,--the English less moderate in +expressing their indignation,--and certainly that there would +never have been such an array of odd names to garnish one brief document. +And now, I bethink me, it is far from impossible that some Dr. +Dickkopf may even apply to Strauss's Leben Jesu, and Dr. Whately's +'Historic Doubts' similar reasoning, to prove that the first was +elaborate irony, and the second a sincere expression of scepticism." + +"How can that be?" + +"Thus: he will prove that the age was remarkably fond of such species +of ironical literature. As Strauss, in his preface, has expressly +admitted (though we all know what he means) that Christianity is true, +and has suggested an unimaginably absurd hypothesis as to its true +import, founded on the principles of the Hegelian philosophy, the +learned Dr. Dickkopf will say, that no one who so spoke of Christianity +could have intended seriously to discredit it, and yet certainly could +not possibly believe the absurd theory of it concocted out of German +philosophy; ergo, that we must regard the whole book as a piece of +prolonged irony,--a little too characteristic of German pedantry, it +is true, but sincerely designed to expose that extravagance of historic +criticism and Biblical exegesis which had so distinguished the +author's countrymen, by which Homer had been annihilated, a great +part of ancient history rendered doubtful, and the Bible turned into +a riddle-book; that this hypothesis is confirmed by the space which +Strauss gives to the exposure of the absurdities of the Rationalists, +which, in fact, occupies at least half his work. Dr. D. will even +very likely prove that Strauss himself is a fictitious name; Strauss, +in the German, meaning an ostrich, which, according to the proverb, +can digest any thing. On the other hand, as he will be able to show +that Strauss's work is a piece of prolonged irony, he will very likely +show that Whately's 'Historic Doubts' may be a sincere expression of +opinion (which, in fact, many have even in our day wisely believed +it to be), and he will argue it with a gravity worthy of one of the +commentators who interpret the irony of Socrates literally; he will +prove it from the air of sobriety and sincerity which pervades the +pamphlet. Nay, for aught I know, he may show that there was an +'historic place' for such a piece in the undoubted myths to which +the wondrous achievements of Napoleon had given rise; he will say that +these had produced a natural feeling of scepticism as to the greater +part of the facts, though he will think Dr. Whately has gone a little +too far in doubting his very existence; there being sufficient evidence +that such a man as Napoleon existed, though the world really knows +little more about him than about Semitamis or Genghis Khan!" + +"Well," said I, "having proved that Dr. Strauss's work is irony, and +Whately's brochure a sincere expression of opinion, it would be hard +for even Dr. Dickkopf to go further. But, seriously, it is no +laughing matter. This is a strange power the future historian has +over us." + +"O, be assured," said Harrington, "he can make of us just what he +pleases. Never was a question more unreasonable than that of the +Irishman, who, being conjured, on some occasion, to think of posterity, +said, 'I should like to know what posterity has done for us.' It will +do something for us, depend upon it. A future historian will not only +make us confess, with the Prayer-Book, 'that we have done the things +we ought not to have done, and have left undone the things we ought +to have done,' but 'that we have done the things that we have not +done, and have left undone the things that we have done.'" + +"I wonder," said I, "that some of Dr. Strauss's countrymen have not +proved him to be an imaginary being,--a myth. It were very easy to do +it on such principles." + +"It has been done long since," said Harrington, "by Wolfgang Menzel." + +"Thank you," said I, in conclusion, "you have clearly proved that a +true history may plausibly be shown to be false." + +"And therefore, my dear uncle, you will, I hope, justify my scepticism +in all such matters," said he archly. I acknowledge, as Socrates says, +that I felt for a moment as if I had received a sudden blow, and +hardly knew what to say. "No," said I at last, "unless you can justify +Dr. Strauss's theory of historical criticism, of which you yourself +acknowledge you have doubts. With that any thing may be proved false; +meantime it appears that the facts to which it is applied may be +undoubtedly true." + +____ + +On retiring to my chamber, I mused for some time on the facility with +which man's ingenuity or inclinations can pervert any facts which he +resolves shall be otherwise than they are. "Dubious as is the EVIDENCE," +Harrington was fond of saying, "I distrust the Judas still more"; an +admission, I told him, of which I should one day remind him. Tired at +last of this unpleasant theme, I took up a volume of Leibnitz's +Theodicee, which happened to lie on the table, and read those striking +passages towards the conclusion in which he represents Theodore (reluctant +to accept the iron theory of necessity) as privileged with a peep into +a number of the infinite possible worlds; from which he has the +satisfaction of seeing that, bad as is the lot of Sextus in the best +of all possible worlds, that lot, Sextus being what he is, could not +possibly be any better; a queer consolation, by the way, till we know +why Sextus must be what he is, or why Sextus must be at all. + +I sank off to slumber in my chair, no doubt under the soporific effects +of this metaphysical morphine. While I slept, the previous discussions +of the day and the dose of Theodicee operating together suggested a very +strange dream, which I shall here record. It shall be entitled + +THE PARADISE OF FOOLS. + +Methought I saw a grave and very venerable old man with a long white +beard enter my chamber, and quietly seat himself opposite to me. +Instead of asking who he was and how he came there, nothing seemed +more natural and proper. We all know how easily in dreams the mind +dispenses with all ceremony; little or no introduction is required; +every one is at once on a most delightful footing of familiarity +with all the world; and the greatest possible incongruities appear +just comme il faut. + +He told me that he had come from a very curious part of the "best of +all possible worlds,"--the "Paradise of Fools"; and on my looking +surprised, said,-- + +"Are you ignorant, then, that there is a spot in the universe where +a vicegerent of the Deity has at his disposal unlimited power and +wisdom to enable him to comply with the somewhat whimsical conditions +of the theories of those wonderful philosophers who have taken upon +them to say how the universe might have been constructed without any +supreme or presiding intelligence at all; or have modestly suggested, +that, had they been consulted, certain notable improvements might +have been effected in its fabrication or government; or, lastly, who +have complained of the revelation which God has vouchsafed to man, +or contended, that, if true, it might have been more unexceptionably +framed, and more skilfully promulgated?" + +"And what is the result?" I asked. + +"The result is a part of 'the everlasting shame and contempt' which +are the heritage of impiety." + +"There must have been enough for the said vicegerent to do," I remarked. + +"Not so much as you imagine," said he, smiling. "The conditions of their +theories, so far as even omniscience can comprehend or omnipotence +realize them, are indeed exactly complied with; but nevertheless, they +often baffle both. Sometimes the reproof, thus implied, obliquely +strikes more than its immediate objects; it alights even on some of the +profoundest philosophers, who never had it in their thoughts to call +in question the infinite superiority of Divine Power and Wisdom, but +who have delivered themselves a little too positively about 'monads' +and 'atoms,' and ultimate constituents of the universe. They have +sometimes been not a little scandalized, as well as laughed at, when +some half-witted, muddle-headed followers, glad to escape their trial, +pretended to have founded systems of Pantheism, or what is just the same +thing, Atheism, on some of their too obscure definitions. One man +declared that he could do nothing without the Monads of Leibnitz, each +of which, says that philosopher, 'is a mirror representing the universe, +though obscurely, and knows every thing, but confusedly,' which last +clause is unexceptionable enough. Another rogue asked for the archetypes +of Plato,--he had had a notion, he said, that a good deal might be made +out of them without Plato's Demiurgus; another, for the constituents +of the vital automata of Descartes: he had been misled to believe, that, +if animals could be mechanically produced, the whole universe might +have been so produced also. The Archangel assured them and others, +with much politeness, that, if the philosophers in question could in +any way make their meaning intelligible, Heaven would do its poor best +to realize their conceptions; but that it was impossible for even +omnipotence to execute commands which even omniscience could not +comprehend. + +"Similarly, one man requested that he might be provided with a little +of Aristotle's 'Eternal Matter,' but he was told that there was no such +thing in rerum natura, and that it was unfortunately too late to make +it. He seemed to think himself very unjustly treated. Another demanded +some of the Atoms of Epicurus, to make a slight experiment with; +unexceptionably spherical, invisible, and so forth. These, he was told, +he might be accommodated with; and that all he had to do was to shake +them long enough, and doubtless the fortuitous jumble would come out +at last a miniature world. + +"Above all, there were several German philosophers, who, having founded +various physical theories, more or less extensive, on the perspicuous +metaphysics of their countrymen, were confident that, if they had not +hit on the modes which Supreme Wisdom had adopted, their modes were +yet very excellent modes; and they were absolutely clamorous that their +experiments should begin. But, alas! many of them stood but little +chance of being ever tried, for the very same reason which prevented +the disciple of Leibnitz from obtaining his 'Monads'; their authors +could not make their meaning intelligible to the delegated omniscience. +As to some of the metaphysicians, since their theories embraced nothing +less than the evolution of the 'totality' of the universe, the 'infinite' +and the 'absolute' included, it was of course impossible that they +could be tried. But it was thought an appropriate punishment for them +to be condemned to write on till they had made their meaning intelligible. +Some have labored with incredible industry to comply with this very +reasonable request, but their notions seem to grow darker and darker +at every step; and one in particular has written a huge folio, in which, +by universal consent of men and angels, there is not the smallest +glimmer of meaning from one end to the other. Another even complains in +private of the want of philosophical genius in the court of celestial +criticism, and declares that in Germany they could have constructed ten +theories of the universe and given twenty solutions of the 'infinite' +and the 'absolute' in the time he has been vainly endeavoring to +explain his meaning to personages so deplorably deficient in +metaphysical acumen." + +He was going on with some other details of the hapless philosophers. + +"I would much rather hear from you," said I, "for it is a subject in +which I take a far deeper interest, how those have sped who have objected +to the Revelation with which God has favored man, on the ground that +it cannot be true, else it would have been more unexceptionably framed +or more wisely promulgated. I take it for granted that these have not +been destitute of opportunities of trying their experiment." + +"Surely not," replied my new acquaintance. "'The Paradise of Fools' +is well stocked with creatures of this description. Many of the +experiments which required time to test them were commenced hundreds +of years ago, and are completed. Others are still unfinished while +there have been many which required only to be commenced and they were +completed instantly, to the confusion of their authors." + +"I should much like," said I, "to hear an account of some of these +experiments." + +"Willingly," answered he; "only you must bear in mind that they were all +to be performed under certain limitations, without which no revelation +which God can give to man would be of the slightest value." + +He then informed me, that the evidence afforded must not be such as to +annihilate the conditions on which man is to be made virtuous and happy, +if he is to be made so at all. It must not be inconsistent with the +exercise of either his reason or his faith, nor prevent the play of +his moral dispositions, nor triumph by mere violence over his +prejudices; it must not operate purely upon the passions or the senses, +nor overhear all possibility of offering resistance,--as would be +the case, for example, if a man were placed on the edge of a precipice, +and told that he would immediately be thrown over it if he transgressed +the rules of temperance or chastity. The happiness, he said, which +God originally designed for his intelligent and moral creatures was a +voluntary happiness, springing out of the well-balanced and well-directed +activity of all the principles of their nature. Any revelation, therefore, +must proceed on the same basis, both as regards itself and the mode in +which it is given. Arguments and motives morally sufficient, but not +more than sufficient, must be addressed to the intellect and the +conscience. All this is necessary to render the felicity and perfection +of man stable and permanent; for without such a trial, triumphantly +sustained, he would have no security that, in the presence of objects +which tend to exert an overpowering influence on his senses or his +feelings, he might not at some period of the unknown future be impelled +to take a wrong path, and err and be miserable. This ordeal, originally +designed for man and not superseded by revelation, must be continued +long enough to render the principles on which he ought to act practical +habits; after which he may go forth (sublime and glorious privilege!) to +any part of this world, or of any world to which God may call him, +master of himself and his destiny; not afraid lest temptations should +warp him from a steadfastness that is founded on the decisions of an +inflexible will, itself directed by enlightened intelligence and moral +rectitude; in a word, in possession of the appropriate and alone +appropriate happiness of an intellectual and moral agent; an image +of the felicity of the great Creator himself. This condition, he +said, of giving a revelation, so far from being a hardship, is not +only in harmony with the nature of things, but is itself an expression +of the Divine Beneficence; which designed for man no casual, +precarious safety, as the result of transient external violence +to the principles of his nature, but a permanent and inviolable +equilibrium of the powers within him. "Heaven itself," he concluded, +"can be heaven only to those who are internally prepared for it." + +"Were there many," I cried, "who were willing to make the experiment +of giving a revelation more unexceptionably than it has been given, +on the proposed conditions?" + +"Not very many, as you may well suppose," said he; "but if objectors +had been unwilling, they would have been compelled to make it." + +"But upon whom were the experiments to be made?" said I; "for +unless they were beings of the same intellectual and moral condition +as themselves, I see not how aught could come of it." + +"O, be satisfied," he replied; "the beings who are provided for +these Projectors are as like the inhabitant of your world as one +egg is like another. They are men themselves; communities made up +of those who have lived in your world, and who have gone out of it +with the same thoughts, passions, and emotions as they had on earth; +many of them having rejected or disregarded the true revelation, and +others never having had that revelation to reject. Of course they +are ignorant, in this intermediate state, of the tricks which these +experimenters play with them, till they are concluded; but in +rejecting the new revelations, many of them reject the very conditions +of belief which when on earth they said would have been sufficient, +while the result in those who make the experiment and in those on +whom the experiment is made is to 'vindicate the ways of God to man.'" + +There is a wonderful power in getting over trifling difficulties in +our dreams, or I should certainly have demurred to some parts of this +statement. Instead of that, I let my mind, as usual in such cases, +dwell on a point which was no difficulty at all. "If," said I, "they +are dead, they are probably very different beings from what they were +when alive." + +"And do you think," said he, with an unpleasant half-sneer, "that mere +change of place makes any difference in man, or that the merely physical +effects of death operate a magical change on his intellect, affections, +emotions, and volitions, or can render him a more reasonable creature +than he was before?" + +"I did not mean exactly that," said I; "but surely it is not possible +that the soul without the body can be exactly like the soul with it." + +"Have not your philosophers," said he, "often founded, or pretended to +found, scepticism on the argument that it is difficult to tell whether +life itself may not be a series of illusions like those in dreams? +Have they not even declared, that, as in dreams all seems to be real, +so in their waking moments all may be no more than a dream? nay, have +not some said that it is impossible to tell which is the real and +which the dreaming part of their existence?" + +"There have been such," said I, "but I never knew any one convinced by +their reasoning." + +"Perhaps not," he answered, "but it may be of use to show you, that +in that intermediate state men may, as in dreams, be capable of a +series of thoughts and emotions exactly similar to what they experienced +in this world; quite as vivid, and," he added with a quiet smile, +"perhaps as rational." + +"But they must be more coherent than those which now visit our +slumbers," said I. + +"It is hardly worth while to contend about the difference," he +replied, with a sarcastic expression which I did not much like. +"It is sufficient to say, however, that these projectors have no +reason to complain; for with whatever show of reason men think or +act here, so under exactly the same laws of thought and emotion do +those shadows act there." + +"But I, who am now awake and perfectly sensible--" + +He laughed outright. "Are you so sure," said he, "that you are awake. +How do you know it?" + +"Because I am conscious of it," said I. + +"And this too, I suppose, is a philosopher," he muttered to himself. +"Well," he continued aloud, "we must not discuss these matters just now; +you must believe me when I say that the communities to which our +experimenters go to work, on their own hypotheses, are just as capable +of ingenious reasoning and impartial and candid deliberation, as you are +now in your present waking moments. You wish to hear a few of these +experiments?" + +I nodded. + +"Well, then, first, there was one worthy philosopher, who, having seen +the advantages which infidelity has gained from the discrepancies and +other difficulties occasioned by the varied testimonies which the +evangelical historians have left behind them, resolved, after having +wrought a number of splendid miracles (uniformly affirmed and never +denied by the parties in whose presence they were performed), that +they should all be consigned to one single history., so admirably +constructed that there was not a single discrepancy from beginning +to end." + +"And what was the effect?" + +"Why, in the first place, you must recollect that, according to that +or any other mode of authenticating a divine communication by miracles, +there were a great many more of those who never saw the miracles than +of those who did; for if miracles had been common, they would have +ceased to be miracles. There were vast numbers, therefore, who, even +in the age in which they were performed, never believed them; but, +what is more, in four generations there was not a soul that did +not treat them as old wives' fables." + +"Surely they were very unreasonable," I said. + +"Not at all; it was inevitable; for it was asked (and every one assented +to it), whether it was reasonable that a story so marvellous, and so +contrary to experience, should be believed on any single testimony, +however unexceptionable? There were also keen critics who said, that, +as there was proof that in the very age in which the miracles were +wrought there were many who did not believe the message which they +professedly confirmed, it was a strong indication that the whole was a +fiction; while some others of still greater acumen discovered that the +very freedom from all discrepancies and contradictions in the account +itself smelt very strongly of art and design; that this perfection of +consistency was not the characteristic of any history ever written by +an honest man, and that no doubt it had been elaborately contrived by +a single highly inventive mind." + +"The idiots!" I exclaimed. "Why, this very circumstance ought surely +to have led them to argue the other way." + +"They thought otherwise; and I must say I think they argued very +plausibly, and that very much is to be said for them. They thought +that perfect self-consistency might possibly be obtained by a single +mind of highly inventive power, and they preferred believing that, +to receiving such wonderful things supported by any single testimony." + +"But did none attempt to remedy this defect of the unhappy speculator?" + +"O, yes; another attempted to establish in a second community of our +reasonable shadows a revelation on the same basis of miracles; but +instead of trusting to one witness, he recorded the results by ten; +and with such perfection of art, that all the ingenuity of all the +critics of succeeding ages could not detect a single variation other +than in language; the records themselves and their contents were +precisely the same. + +"And what was the result." + +"Much the same as before; for this identity of substance and almost +of manner showed most evidently, said the critics, that there had +been collusion between the several parties who had framed the +revelation:--and in the course of three or four generations it was +universally rejected, as totally unworthy of belief." + +"I see not, then, how a revelation by any such means could be +authenticated at all?" + +"Why, our reasonable creatures require a great deal of management, +--that is the truth. There is no way in which you cannot prove to your +own satisfaction, that no one of any divine communications (given +under the conditions aforesaid) is to be believed; but perhaps after +all, the method would have been more sure, had these sages confined +these communications to different testimonies, in which the general +harmony and undesigned coincidences should be manifest, but which +should contain slight discrepancies, and even some apparent +contradictions, which the parties, if there had been collusion, would +certainly have obviated. This would, perhaps, have been the best +guaranty that there could not be any fraud in the case." + +"But this," I remarked, "was just the mode in which the Gospels of +Christ were consigned to mankind." + +"And you see with what mixed result. It was sufficient, indeed, to +justify the method, if it was attended with less disastrous effects +than any other mode. For it is a problem of limits even at the +very best." + +Prompted, I suppose, by some recollection of Woolston's opinion, +that the miracles of Jesus Christ would have been better worthy +of attention, and more likely to be credited by posterity, if they +had been performed on royal or notable public characters, or in +their presence, I felt curious to know if any one had been +determined to guard against a similar error. I was told that there +had been; and for a time every thing went on well. This sage's +doctrine and pretensions were rapidly propagated within certain +limits of space and time. But alas! while even in his lifetime the +zeal of some of the royal or noble converts caused the doctrine to +be regarded with considerable suspicion among the rival great, to +whom the fame of the miracles was known only by hearsay, its early +success proved an insurmountable objection in a few generations; +for several learned infidels showed to the satisfaction of the +entire community, that the pretended revelation could have been +nothing else than a conspiracy of crafty statesmen for political +purposes. It was sagely remarked, that it was not wonderful that a +doctrine had been believed, and had rapidly diffused itself, which +had all the prestige of rank, and power, and statesmanship in +its favor; that if, indeed, it had appeared amongst the poor and +ignorant portion of mankind, and the had been witnessed by such as +from their situation were rather likely to be persecuted by the +great and powerful than to be favored by them; and lastly, if the +pretended revelation had vanquished such resistance instead of +being suspiciously allied with it, something more might be said in +its behalf; but as it was, the whole thing was evidently--a lie. + +"Really," said I, "it seems a more difficult thing for God to make +known his will to mankind than I had supposed." + +"It is," said he, "on those conditions to which his wisdom for man's +own sake has restricted him, and apart from which condition I have +already stated that a revelation would be worthless. It is a far +more difficult matter than those who have not reflected upon the +subject would suppose, and you would have more reason to say so +still, if you knew, as I do, how ludicrously, as well as how utterly, +many other attempts have failed." + +He then amused me with an account of a sage, who, seeing the ill +consequences which had followed from the very local or limited +character of miracles (when a few generations had passed by), +resolved to remedy this by a series of wonders so stupendous and +magnificent, that the very echo of them, as it were, should +reverberate through the hollow of future ages, and so impress all +tradition as to render them independent of the voice of individual +historians. He accordingly passed to the very extreme limit (if he +did not go beyond it) by which a miracle is necessarily restricted,-- +that of not disturbing general laws. He succeeded perfectly in the +place in which these phenomena were witnessed; though, as there were +multitudes who knew nothing of the operator, but were only conscious +that nature was playing some strange pranks, no connection was +established in their minds between the doctrine and the miracles. +But the consequences in the future were the direct contrary of what +the sanguine philosopher had contemplated. If the impression of +those who saw these splendid wonders could have been prolonged, +all had been well; but so far from the report of them conciliating +the regard of posterity, their very grandeur and vastness were the +principal arguments against them, and condemned them to universal +rejection. Who could believe, men said, that phenomena so strange +and so portentous--not only so different from, and so contrary to, +the uniform course of nature, but so much beyond the limited purpose +which must have been contemplated by a truly miraculous +interposition--had ever happened? If they had been single events, +very transient and local disturbances of the laws of nature for a +high object, the case, they candidly avowed, would have been wholly +different; but such wholesale infractions of the fixed laws of the +universe were at once to be summarily rejected. They were +unquestionably the offspring of an age of fable and superstition. + +It did not fare much better with another miracle-monger of the +same species. In one community, which he had engaged to instruct in +the mysteries of his revelation, the wonders he wrought extended to +such large classes of phenomena, and for a time were so constant, +that they ceased to be miracles at all. As he could not add ubiquity +to his other attributes, few attached any importance to his declaration +that he was the author of such vast and distant operations, and fewer +absolutely believed him. Moreover, men became accustomed to phenomena +which they daily witnessed; for such, it seems, is the constitution of +human nature in any world, that things cease to be wonderful when they +cease to be novel. Were it otherwise, men would be always wondering; +for no miracles are more wonderful than the phenomena of every day +in every part of the universe. Not a few wise men, therefore, in this +community, succeeded in giving a perfectly plausible account of these +wholesale infractions of the uniformity of nature. Nature, it was said, +was unquestionably uniform, but only in the several larger portions +of her operations; that within certain cycles she varied her operations, +as was clearly seen in the introduction of new races, and so forth; +that the generation which had just witnessed such departures from what +seemed the established order of things were doubtless living at an +epoch in which the huge evolution of the universe was about to exhibit +one of these new phases, and that the series of sequences to which they +were just becoming accustomed would afterwards continue uniform for a +number of ages; that such things were no miracles, but merely +indicated that nature was, within certain limits, only variably uniform, +though she was also, within certain limits, uniformly invariable. +After this very clear deliverance of philosophy, few people troubled +themselves about the claims of this seer, and were so fast getting +accustomed to the new uniformity, that it seemed highly probable that +the very next generation, or at most the second, would begin to prate +in the old style about the invariable uniformity of nature, and to +treat all the ancient order of things which their progenitors had +seen changed as a lying fable of those remote ages. Enraged at such +an unexpected result of his operations, the projector changed his plan, +and broke in upon nature with such a startling explosion of single +miracles, that there could be no longer any doubt that nature was +neither 'variably uniform' nor 'uniformly invariable': the only +question was, whether nature was not 'uniformly variable.' He set +the sun spinning through the heavens at such a rate, or rather at +such a jaunty pace, that no one knew when to expect either light or +darkness; men now froze with cold, and now melted with heat; the +seasons seemed playing one grand masquerade; the longest day and the +shortest day, and no day at all, succeeded one another in rapid +succession, and the whole universe seemed threatened with ruin and +desolation. Now, he thought, was the time to put an end to all this +strange disorder, and avow himself the great agent in all these marvels! +But he found, to his chagrin, that, so far from having convinced men +of the being and attributes of God, and of the truth of the revelation +which he had brought them, they were never less disposed to listen to +any such story; and, in fact, that the very few whose terror had +left them at all in possession of their senses, had become perfectly +convinced that the universe was under the dominion of Chance; and that +the only orthodox belief in such a world was stark Atheism. As there +will always be men who will speculate upon chance itself, there were +not wanting philosophers who concocted admirable theories of all this +disorder, but not one of them dreamed of the true. They all agreed, +however, that the state of things admitted of no remedy from any gods, +celestial or infernal; for if a divine artificer had existed, they said, +it could not have occurred. And thus the miracles which were designed +by this great man to convince the world of a God, served for a +demonstration that there was and could be none! They equally served +also to stifle the sage's claims to be considered God's messenger, +for, unhappily exhorting a large crowd to believe that he was the +cause of all the misery and terror which they had suffered, they were +so exasperated that they took summary vengeance on him: upon which +the sun resumed his wonted quiet pace again through the heavens, and +every thing fell into the old harmonious jogtrot of uniformity. +Philosophers who lived at a distance from the scene of the prophet's +exit quietly adjusted their old theory to the new phenomena, and showed +most conclusively that the whole train of things had been just what +must necessarily have been, and could not but have happened, without +the most serious consequences; while those who lived near to the scene +aforesaid, and were privy to the circumstances, speculated upon the +curious coincidence between the impostor's death and the return of +nature to her order. It was well, they said, that such things did not +happen often, or they could not fail to give rise to some superstitious +notions as to some law of causation between ignorant fanaticism and the +sublimest phenomena of the universe. + +I asked my visitor how it fared with the many who have objected to the +clearness and force of prophecy, and who have not scrupled to assert, +that, if prophecies had been given, they would have been given in such +a shape as would have made their claims more plain, and their fulfilment +more incontrovertible. "Were there none who relied on this mode of +demonstrating the reality of a divine revelation, and manifesting their +claims to be regarded as an embassy from heaven?" + +"Many," he replied, "so many that it were tedious to detail them. But +you are quite mistaken if you suppose it possible that even God can +employ any moral methods which man cannot evade; how much less the +fools who think they can improve upon his! The wisdom of God," said he, +with a melancholy smile, "is no match for the ingenuity of man. As to +your present question, you know there have been persons who have +continually complained in your world that prophecy is so obscure that +the event cannot be certainly known to have been referred to by it, or +else so plain that, ipso facto, it proves that the prediction must have +been composed after the event. Now it was precisely in attempting the +juste milieu between these extremes that our prophetical speculators +wrecked themselves. Men always had it to say that their prophecies had +been either too plain or too obscure; or, if very plain, and yet as +plainly written before the event, that their very plainness had insured +their own accomplishment by prompting to the very actions and conduct +they so clearly indicated!" + +"I can easily conceive that," I answered. "But now for another problem. +Not a few of our older infidels complained of the revelation in the Bible +on the score that the maxims of conduct which it delivers are too general +to be of any use, because the application of them is still left to be +adjusted by a reference to particular circumstances; and that, if a +revelation were framed, it ought to take in all the limitations of action, +and furnish, in fact, a complete system of casuistry; otherwise it would +be of no avail. Were there none who attempted this task?" + +"Five-and-twenty men," he answered, "who were destined to be a torment +to one another, were instructed to compile such a system of rules, and +publish them for the benefit of a certain community as an infallible +rule of life." + +"And have they completed it?" + +"Completed it! They have been sitting now for two hundred years, and +have not yet exhausted the infinitude of cases to be digested under +their very first capitulary." He said that being all of them ingenious +men, all anxious to show their ingenuity, and knowing that their credit +was staked upon the completeness of their system, it was incredible +what strange and ridiculous contingencies and combinations of +circumstance they had suggested as modifying the application of +their general rules. The books of law, voluminous as they are in +most civilized countries, were conciseness itself compared with this +new code of morals. It was thought by many, that the labors of the +commissioners would not come to an end till long after the race for +whose benefit it was designed had ceased to exist. Afraid, apparently, +of such a direful contingency, they had published, about three years +before, the first part, in seventy-five folio volumes, containing +limitations, illustrative cases, exceptions, and modifications, in +relation to that very obscure general maxim, 'Do unto others as ye +would that others should do unto you.' All questions appertaining to +this point were from that time to be decided by the precise statements +contained in these statutes at large. But their mere publication +sufficed to make an incredible number of infidels in the authority +of the commission. Such a voluminous rule, they truly said, could be +no rule at all, and could be fruitful of nothing but everlasting +litigation. If (they admitted) general maxims had been as briefly as +possible laid down, and men's common sense had been left to interpret +and apply them with the requisite restrictions, there would be much +more to be said for their divine origin. But on such a system, no man, +if he lived for a thousand years, could tell what his duty was. Many +complained that, before they found the rule for which they were in +search, the time for its application had passed away. Many excused +themselves from complying with the dictates of justice and charity, +because they could not discover the cases that related to their special +circumstances; some even denied that the rules could have been devised +by heavenly wisdom, because, having carefully studied the whole of the +seventy-five volumes, they did not hesitate to say, that there were +many cases which had not been provided for at all! + +I was so amused with this last disastrous attempt to construct a +revelation, that I laughed outright, and in so doing awoke. I found +that my lamp was fast going out; so, dismissing the innocent volume +of Leibnitz which had suggested all these incongruities, I went to +bed; firmly convinced that the shadows of men in the "Paradise of +Fools" are about as wise and ingenious as are men themselves. +____ + +July 28. I had this morning some curious, and, if it had not been +for the grave importance of the subject, amusing conversation with +Mr. Fellowes on his views, or rather his no views, respecting a +"future life." He said he wished he could make up his mind whether +the doctrine was true; also whether, as some of his favorite writers +supposed, it was of no "spiritual" importance to decide it. I said it +certainly did seem of some importance. I reminded him of Pascal's +saying, that he could excuse men's contented ignorance with any thing +rather than that. "They are not obliged," says he, "to examine the +Copernican system; but it is vital to the whole of existence to +ascertain whether the soul is mortal or not." + +"Mr. Newman," said Fellowes, "thinks very differently: but then his +whole mind is differently constituted from Pascal's." + +I admitted it, of course. + +"Mr. Newman's views," he continued, "on the subject, certainly do not +quite satisfy me; and yet they are very sublime. If he has any hope in +this matter, (of which he appears not absolutely destitute,) it is from +the sheer strength of a 'faith' which triumphs over all obstacles, or +rather hangs upon nothing. He ridicules all intellectual proofs, and +at the same time declares that his 'spiritual insight' deserts him. +It is a faith pure from all reason, and from all 'insight' too. As to +insight in this matter, I must agree with him, that, to ascertain the +fact of a future life by 'direct vision,' is 'to me hitherto impossible.'" + +Harrington, who was sitting by, smiled: "You speak of your 'insight' and +'direct vision' much as a Highlander might talk of his 'second sight.' +As to your present difficulty, do you remember the advice of Ranald of +the Mist to Allan M'Aulay, when the 'vision' obstinately averted its face +from him? 'Have you reversed your own plaid,' said Ranald, 'according to +the rule of the experienced seers in such cases?' You do not wear a plaid, +George, but suppose you try the experiment of turning your coat +inside out." + +"Really, Harrington," said Fellowes, with becoming solemnity, "'insight' +is far too serious a subject to joke upon." +"Why, my dear fellow," said the other, "you do not think I am going to +treat your 'insight' with more respect than we treat the Bible." + +"Odi profanum," said Fellowes, almost angrily. + +"No man hateth his own flesh," said Harrington, with provoking quiet; +"and that, I am sure, is from no profane writer. As to the 'odi profanum,' +why, I shall simply say, that + +'You can quote it, +With as much truth as he who wrote it.'" + +So saying, he left the room. I was not sorry that he was gone, as I +thought perhaps Fellowes might be more communicative. I asked him why +he felt Mr. Newman's arguments on this subject unsatisfactory; why +he could not acquiesce in them. + +"In the first place, then," said he, "I was struck with the fact, that, +while admitting that he had no 'spiritual insight' on the subject of a +future life, he yet admits that others may have enjoyed what is impossible +to him; that there may be souls favored with this 'vision,' though clouds +obscure his own. It is true he has admitted (and indeed who can deny it?) +that the spiritual faculty is not equally developed in all men;--though, +as it is not, I feel some difficulty in rejecting the arguments hence +arising for the possibility and utility of an external revelation;--yet +at the best, if the faculty may be so uncertain in reference to so +important a question, when consulted by so diligent and deep a student +of its oracles as Mr. Newman, if even his soul may be dubious on such +a point,--why, upon my soul, I sometimes hardly know what to think. +Again, Mr. Newman says, that some may have, as by special privilege +from God, what is denied to him. Now really this looks a little too +much like favoring the vulgar view of inspiration, nay, a sort of +Calvinistic 'election' in this matter; it seems to me to cast doubts +both on the competency and the uniformity of the sublime 'spiritual +faculty,' even when most sedulously consulted." + +"It does look a little like it," said I; "and what next?" + +"In the next place, I am free to confess, that, if I may be allowed +to argue against such an authority--" + +"O, remember, I pray, that you are of the school of free thought: do +not Bibliolatrize." + +"To state my views freely then: I must say, that, if this suspected +doctrine be not one of the unsophisticated utterances of the spiritual +nature of man, I am almost led to doubt whether the clearness with +which the spiritualist 'gazes' on the rest may not possibly be an +illusion. For if any truth would seem to be a dictate of nature, it is +a sort of dim conviction or impression of a future state. We see it, +in some shape or other, extensively believed by all nations, and forming +a feature of all systems of religion, however degraded they may be. +Mr. W. J. Fox mentions it as one of those things which are certainly +characteristic of the absolute religion; so does Mr. Parker. Mr. Fox +expressly affirms that the approximate universality of the belief +justifies the application of his criterion for detecting the eternally +'true' under the Protean shapes of the 'false' in religion; it is one +of the points, he says, in which they are all agreed." + +"Which," said I, "if true, is perhaps the only point in which all +religions are agreed, unless we affirm that they have all recognized a +Deity, because most of them have recognized thousands. Yet as men's +Gods have varied between the Infinite Creator and a monkey, so in +relation to this article of a 'future life,' it must be confessed that +there is a little difference between the Heaven of a Christian, the +Paradise of a Mahometan, and the Valhalla of an ancient Goth. Still, +as you say, it is true that, in some shape or other, nations have +more distinctly recognized the idea of an after existence, than any +other assignable religious tenet." + +"You know," resumed Fellowes, "that in the draught of 'natural religion' +given us by Lord Herbert, that writer particularly insists on this as +one of the articles which nature itself teaches us, as amongst the +'common notions,' a sentiment innate to the human mind. Now if such +masters as Mr. Newman may be in doubt about our innate sentiments, truly +I scarcely know what to think." + +"You can easily decide," said I, gravely, "and decide infallibly." + +"How so?" + +"Consult that spiritual faculty which Mr. Newman says you have as +well as he or Lord Herbert. If your theory be true, how can there be +any doubt as to your 'innate' sentiments? If you say they are +written in very small characters, and require to be magnified by +somebody's microscope, that, recollect, is tantamount to +acknowledging the possible utility of an external revelation. But +what next?" + +"Well, then, if I must confess all the truth, I thought Mr. Newman +hardly fair in his exhibition of Paul's reasoning on this matter. He, +if you recollect, says that Paul seems to have rested the belief of +Christ's resurrection very little upon evidence, which he received +very credulously, upon very insufficient proof, and in a manner which +would have moved the laughter of Paley; that, in short, he cared very +little about the evidence, and arrived mainly at his convictions in +virtue of his 'spiritual aspirations'; that it was rather his strong +aspirations after immortality which made Paul believe the supposed +fact, than the supposed fact which gave strength to his aspirations +after immortality. Now it is very clear (from texts which, for +whatsoever reasons, are not quoted by Mr. Newman), that the Apostle +Paul made his whole argument depend on the alleged fact of Christ's +resurrection, whether carelessly received or not: 'If Christ be not +risen, then is your faith vain, and our preaching is also vain .... +Then are we of all men most miserable.'" + +"But you recollect that Mr. Newman alleges that Paul deals very +superficially with the evidence,--with that of the 'five hundred,' for +example. He observes that Paley would have made a widely different +matter of it." + +"See how variously men may argue," replied Fellowes, candidly. "I was +talking on that very point with one of the orthodox the other day, and +he reasoned in some such way as this:-- + +"On the supposition, he said, that the possession of miraculous powers +was notorious in the Church,--that many of those whom Paul addressed +had actually witnessed them,--that the Gospel, when preached by him +and by the other Apostles, was confirmed by 'signs and wonders,'--nothing +could be more natural than the very tone which the Apostles employed: +that, so far from its being suspicious, it was one of the truest touches +of nature and verisimilitude in their compositions; so much so, that, +supposing there were no miracles, that very tone required itself to be +accounted for as unnatural; he said that it is, in fact, just the way +in which men talk and write of any other extraordinary events which +notoriously happened in their time. They never think of posterity, and +what it may think; of anticipating either future doubts or charges of +fraud. It is natural that men should speak in this, as we should call it, +loose way, of what is transpiring under their very noses. If, on the +other hand, there had been no miracles to appeal to, so as to render +this style as natural as, on the contrary supposition, it was the reverse, +he could not, he said, imagine, that, in that or any other age, any men, +especially men opposed to such pretensions, would so easily have been +satisfied, even had the Apostles confined themselves to rumors of +alleged distant miracles; but much less where similar wonders were said +to have been brought under the eyes of the very parties to whom the +appeal was made! He said he would even go a step further, and affirm that, +under the circumstances of the professed notoriety of the miraculous +occurrences to which Paul and the other Apostles appealed, any +declaration that they had instituted that careful scrutiny of evidence, +that minute circumstantial cross-examination of the witnesses,--which +would be a course all very well in the days of Paley, eighteen hundred +years after, but absolutely preposterous then,--would have appeared to +our age a much more suspicious thing than the tone actually adopted; +that the scrupulous deposition of technical proof would have been +finessing too much, and would have been the strongest proof of collusion. +The very tone objected to, he said, supposing there were no miracles, is +one of the most striking proofs of the astonishing sagacity of these +men; for it is just the tone they would have used if there had been. So +differently may men reason from the same data! Whether (he concluded) +Mr. Newman's view of the facts, or his, was founded on a deeper and more +comprehensive knowledge of human nature, he must leave to my judgment." + +"I protest," said I, "I think the orthodox had the best of it. But what +struck you next as unaccountable in Mr. Newman's view of this subject +of a future life?" + +"I confess, then, that the reasoning by which he endeavors to show +that, even admitting the fact of Christ's resurrection, there could +be nothing in it to warrant the expectation of the resurrection of +any other human beings, simply because he must have differed so +stupendously from all the rest of mankind, appears to me very damaging +to us. Of what use is it, to argue upon such an hypothesis?" + +"Of none in the world, certainly," said I, laughing. + +"Surely not," he replied; "for if Christ's resurrection be admitted, we +know very well it will carry with it, in the estimation of the bulk of +mankind, all the other great facts implicated with the Christian system. +They will concede, at once, the supernatural character, the divine +origin, of the New Testament. I suppose them scarcely ever was a man +who admitted these premises who would trouble himself to contest the +conclusion." + +"But seriously," continued this half-repentant admirer, almost +frightened at the extent of his own freedom of thought, "though I +cannot say I am satisfied with Mr. Newman's notions on this subject, +--and, in fact, cannot make up my mind upon it,--can there be any +thing morally more sublime than the view, that the doctrine of +immortality, which has been superficially supposed, if not necessary, +yet so conducive to sincere and elevated piety, may be readily +dispensed with, as no way necessary (as Mr. Newman feels) for the +spiritual nourishment of the soul? 'Confidence,' he says, 'there is +none; and hopeful aspiration is the soul's highest state. But, then, +there is herein nothing what ever to distress her; no cloud of grief +crosses the area of her vision, as she gazes upwards.' He even +intimates that, from the stress laid upon immortality by 'modern +divines,' they might seem to be 'incarnations of selfishness.' He says +it tends to 'degrade religion into a prudential regard for our interests +after death'; that 'conscience, the love of virtue, for its own sake, +and much more the love of God, are ignored.' Many of the 'spiritual' +school agree with him in this; and some even affirm that the hope of +immortal felicity is but a bribe to selfishness. Can any thing be +more elevated or original than this view?" + +"As to the elevation," said I, "I confess I prefer the spectacle of +Socrates, relying even on feeble arguments rather than sink to this +tame acquiescence in a notion so degrading to the Deity, as that +man was created for a dog's life with the tormenting aspiration for +something better. The spectacle of the heathen sage, who, amidst the +thick gloom, the 'palpable obscure,' which involved this subject, +gazed intently into the darkness, and 'longed for the day,'--who +strained every nerve of an insufficient logic, and was willing to +take even the whispers of hope for the oracles of truth, rather than +part with the prospect of immortality,--is, to my mind, much more +attractive. As to the originality of the view you just expressed, why, +it is merely a resurrection of one of the theories of some of our +very 'spiritual deists' a century ago. Collins and Shaftesbury were, +in like manner, apprehensive lest an elevated 'virtue' should suffer +at all from this bribery of a hope of a 'blessed immortality'; as you +may see in the Characteristics. For my own part, I certainly have my +doubts whether virtue will be the less virtuous, or spirituality the +less spiritual, for such a doctrine; and I must believe it even on +the hypothesis of you spiritual folks; for you generally affirm that +the Belief of a Future Life does not really exercise any thing more +than an insignificant influence on human nature; the hopes and the +fears of that so distant a morrow are too vague to be operative. Now, +if it be so, immortality can be no more a bribe than a menace." + +"Yet," said Fellowes, "in justice to Mr. Newman, it must not be +forgotten, that he thinks that 'a firm belief of immortality must +have very energetic force,' provided it 'rises out of insight'; it +is as 'an external dogma' that he thinks it of little efficacy. He +says, you know, that, supposing Paul to have had this insight, 'his +light can do us no good, while it is a light outside of us. If +he in any way confused the conclusions of his logic (which is often +extremely inconsequent and mistaken) with the perceptions of his +divinely illuminated soul, our belief might prove baseless.' +(Soul, pp. 226. 227.) These are his very words." + +"Very well, then; say that Mr. Newman thinks the notions of a future +hell of little efficacy; and of a future heaven of as little, except +when it rises from 'insight';--he confessing that he has not that +'insight,' and; from the necessity of the case, not knowing whether +any body else has, it being a 'light outside him.' If so, I think +he is much like the rest of you, and cannot in fact suppose the +thought of a future life to operate strongly either as a bribe +or a menace." + +"But, surely, whatever his views, or those of any individual, you +must admit that a piety which is sustained without any hopes of +immortality is less selfish than that which is." + +"Why," replied I, laughing; "I cannot conceive how the hope of a +virtuous immortality can produce a vicious self-love. But if the +hope and the consciousness of happiness now exercise any influence +at all, your argument proves too much; and there is a simple +impossibility of being unselfishly religious at all." + +"How so?" + +"Do you think that, admitting not only the uncertainty of any future +life, but the certainty that there is none, and that nevertheless +(as you affirm) man, under that conviction, is just as capable of +manifesting a true devotion and piety towards God, any felicity flows +from his so doing?" + +"The highest, of course," said he. + +"Do you think that the happiness so derived and expected from day to +day has any sinister influence on the spiritual life of him who +feels it?" + +"Of course, none." + +"The contrary, perhaps?" + +"I think so." + +"Then neither need the expectation of an eternity of such blessedness +be any impediment. Again; let us come to facts; are not the declarations +of those whom Mr. Newman, however oddly, is willing to admit have been +the best specimens yet afforded of his true 'spiritual' man,--the +Doddridges, the Fletchers, the Baxters, and Paul especially,--full of +this sentiment? 'I desire to depart,' says Paul, 'and to be with Christ, +which is far better'; and similar selfish hopes inspired those excellent +men whose names still rise spontaneously to Mr. Newman's memory when +he would remind us of examples of his 'spiritual religion! Tell me, do +you not think Paul a 'spiritual' man?" + +"Yes; with all his blunders," said Fellowes, "I do; and Mr. Newman's +writings are full of that admission." + +"Very true. But then Paul is so selfish, you know, as to say, not merely +that the immortality of man is true, and that the 'light afflictions +which are but for a moment' are to be despised, because unworthy 'to be +compared with the glory to be revealed'; but that, if immortality be not +true, Christians, as deluded in such hopes, are of all men most miserable. +All this shows how powerfully the 'spiritual' Paul thought that the +doctrine of a future state operated and ought to operate on the mind of +a Christian; he never supposed that it could possibly have a negative, +still less a sinister influence.' + +"But then, surely, what Mr. Newman says is true, that many of the saints +of the Old Testament exemplified all the heroism of a true faith, and +kindled with the ardors of a true devotion, in an ignorance of any such +state, and the absence of all such expectations." + +"I answer, that Mr. Newman too often speaks as if his individual +impressions were to be taken for demonstration. That the Old Testament +is unpervaded by any distinct traces of expectations of a future life is, +at all events, not the opinion of the majority of men, many of them at +least as capable of judging as Mr. Newman. It is not the opinion of +the writers of the New Testament, that the Old Testament worthies were +in this deplorable darkness; nor of the majority of the Jewish +interpreters of their ancestors' writings; nor is it the impression of +the great majority of those who now read them. How it can be the opinion +of any one who has not some hypothesis to serve, is to me a mystery. +Meanwhile Mr. Newman himself at least gives some notable passages to +the contrary, though he chooses to call them only personal aspirations. +Think of the absurdity, my good friend, of supposing that Job, David, +Isaiah, failed to realize a doctrine (imperfectly it may be) which, as +you truly affirm, has, in some shape or other, animated all forms of +religion! that these brightest specimens of 'spiritual religion' in +the ancient world somehow missed what many of the lowest savages have +managed to stumble upon!" + +"Well," he replied, "but, after all, he who loves God without any +thought of heaven must surely be more unselfish than he who hopes +for it." + +I laughed,--for I could not help it. + +"Unhappy Paul!" interjected Harrington, who had again entered the +library; "unhappy Paul! Burdened with the hopes of immortality; what an +impediment he must have found it in his Christian course! I wonder he +did not throw aside 'this weight, which so easily beset him.' Pity +that when he became a Christian, and ceased to be a Pharisee, he did +not, like so many 'spiritual' Christians of our day, know that, when +he became a Christian, he might still remain in one of the Jewish +sects, and turn Sadducee." + +"Be it so," said Fellowes, "a Christian Sadducee, caeteris partibus, +might perhaps be a more virtuous man having no hopes of heaven by +which he can possibly be bribed." + +"Religious love and hope," said I, "will with difficulty exist in +such an atmosphere as you create. It is a sublime altitude, doubtless, +but no ordinary 'spiritual' beings can breathe that rarefied air. It +is for the honor of Shaftesbury and some few other Deists, that they +aspired to this transcendental virtue! You are imitating them. I fear +you will not be more successful. Once leave a man to conclude, or even +to suspect, that he and his cat end together, and, if a bad man, he +will gladly accept a release from every claim but that of his passions +and appetites (the effects being more or less philosophically calculated +according to his intellectual power); while the best man would be +liable to contemplate God and religion with a depressed and faltering +heart. He would be apt to lose all energy; he would feel it impossible +to repress doubts of the infinite wisdom and benignity of Him (whatever +he might think of His power) who had given him the soul of a man and +the life of a butterfly; conceptions and aspirations so totally +disproportioned to the evanescence of his being! If, however, you +really think that the hopes of an immortality of virtuous happiness +will stand in the way of a sublime disinterestedness of spirituality, +you ought to recollect that any expectation of happiness, even for a +day, will, in its measure, have the same effect. So that the only way +in which you can accommodate so 'spiritual a piety,' and absolutely +insure yourself against 'spiritual bribery,' is to deprive yourself +of all possibility of being so misled. If your piety would be +absolutely sure that it loves God on these sublime terms, it should +take care to neutralize the happiness which that love brings with it; +so that, if God has not made you miserable, you should never fail, like +the ascetics, to make yourself so. I fear you never can be perfectly +'spiritual' till you have made yourself supremely wretched. But to quit +this point," I continued; "if immortality be a delusion, I fear we +say that it covers the divine administration with an penetrable +cloud,--one which we cannot hope will removed. The inequalities of +that administration not be redressed." + +"But do you not recollect," replied Fellowes, reason Mr. Newman gives +for despising any such mitigation? Does he not say, that it is a +strange argument for a day of recompense, that man has unsatisfied +claims upon God? He says, 'Christians have added an argument of their +own for a future state, but, unfortunately, one that cannot bring +personal comfort or assurance. A future state (it seems) is requisite +to redress the inequalities of this life. And can I go to the Supreme +Judge, and tell Him that I deserve more happiness than He has granted +me in this life?' Do you not recollect this?--or has this sarcasm +escaped you?" + +"It has not escaped me,--I remember it well; but it seems to have +escaped you, that it is a very transparent sophism. For what is it +but a pretence that the Christian in general is confident enough of +his virtue to think that he has not been sufficiently well treated, +and that his Creator and Judge cannot do less than make amends for +his injustice, by giving him compensation in another world?" + +"And is not that the true statement of the case?" + +"I imagine not; whether men be Christians or otherwise. The generality, +when they reason upon this subject, (you and I, for example, at this +very moment,) not at all considering the aspect of such a day upon +themselves; how much they will lose if there be none; perhaps the +bulk would wish that it could be proved that it would never come! It +has been from a wish to escape great speculative perplexities, connected +with the divine administration, and not in relation to man's deserts, +that the question has been argued. When dictated by other feelings, +the conviction of a future state has been quite as generally the +utterance of remorse and fear, the response of an accusing conscience, +as of hope and aspiration; and derives, perhaps, a terrible significance +from that circumstance. But it has certainly not been, in the Christian, +the result of any absurd expectation of virtues to be rewarded, or rights +to be redressed. As to the Christian, though he feels that he would not, +and dare not, go to the divine tribunal with any such absurd plea as +Mr. Newman is pleased to put into his mouth,--though he cannot impeach +the divine goodness,--he none the less feels that that goodness, if +this scene be all, is open to very grievous impeachment in relation to +millions who have suffered much, and done no wrong, and to multitudes +more who have inflicted infinite wrong, and suffered next to nothing; +and they would fain, if they could, get over difficulties which +Mr. Newman chooses, from the mere exigencies of his theology, to +represent as no difficulties at all. To escape them or to solve them is +the thing principally in the minds of those who contend for a day +of recompense; not the imaginary compensation of individual wrongs. I do +contend that, if this world be all, the divine administration in many +points is more hopelessly opposed to our moral instincts, and to all +our notions of equity and benevolence, than any thing on which you +spiritualists are accustomed to justify your censure of Scripture. +You ought, as Harrington says, to go further." +____ + +July 30. I was much interested yesterday morning by a conversation +between Harrington and two pleasant youths, acquaintances of Mr. +Fellowes, both younger by three or four years than either he or +Harrington. They are now at college, and have imbibed in different +degrees that curious theory which, professedly recognizing +Christianity (as consigned to the New Testament) as a truly +divine revelation, yet asserts that it is intermingled with a large +amount of error and absurdity, and tells each man to eliminate +the divine element for himself. According to this theory, the +problem of eliciting revealed truth may be said to be indeterminate; +of the unknown x varies through all degrees of magnitude; it is equal +to any thing, equal to every thing, equal to nothing, equal +to infinity. + +The whole party thought, with the exception of Harrington, who knew +not what to think, that the "religious faculty or faculties" (one or +many,--no man seems to know exactly) are quite sufficient to decide +all doubts and difficulties in religious matters. + +Harrington knew not whether to say there was any truth in Christianity +or not; Fellowes knew that there was none, except in that "religious +element," Which is found alike essentially in all religions; that +its miracles, its inspiration, its peculiar doctrines, are totally false. + +The young gentlemen just referred to believed "that it might be admitted +that an external revelation was possible," and "that the condition of +man, considering the aspects of his history, has not been altogether +felicitous as to show that he never needed, and might not be benefited, +by such light." I could cordially agree with them so far; superabundance +of religious illumination not being amongst the things of which humanity +can legitimately complain. + +But then, as they both believed that each man was to distil the "elixir +Vitrae" for himself from the crude mass of truth and falsehood which +the New Testament presents, Harrington, with his interrogations, soon +compelled them to see how inconsistent they were both with themselves +and with one another. One of them believed, he said, that the Apostles +might have been favored by a true revelation; but not in such a sense +"as to prevent their often falling into serious errors," whenever the +distinctly "religious element" was not concerned; this was the only +truly "divine" thing about it; but he saw no particular objection to +receiving the miracles; at least some of them,--the best authenticated +and most reasonable; perhaps they were of value as part of the complex +evidence needful to establish doctrines which, if not absolutely +transcendental to the human faculties,--as the doctrine of a future life, +for example,--yet, apart from revelation, are but matter of conjecture. + +The other was also not unwilling to admit the miraculous and inspired +character of the revelation, but contended, further, that the "religious +element" was to be submitted to human judgment as well as the rest; +and that, if apparently absurd, contradictory, or pernicious, as judged +by that infallible and ultimate standard, it was to be rejected. + +It was amusing to think that, in this little company of three devout +believers in the "internal oracle," no two thought alike! After the two +youths had frankly stated their opinions, Harrington quietly said, +"I should much like to ask each of you a few questions. There are +certain difficulties connected with each hypothesis just stated, +on which I should be glad to receive some light. I frankly confess +beforehand, however, that I fear that that curiously constructed +book, which gives us all so much trouble,--which will not allow me +to say positively either that it is true or false,--will still less +permit you to reject a part or parts at your pleasure. It is, I must +admit, a most independent book in that respect, and treats your spiritual +illumination most cavalierly. It says to you, "Receive me altogether, +or reject me altogether, just as you please"; and when men have +rejected it altogether, it leaves them certain literary and +historical, and moral problems, in all fairness demanding solution, +which I doubt whether it is in our power to solve, or to give any +decent account of." + +"What do you mean," said the younger of the two youths, "by affirming +that we are compelled to receive the whole book, or to reject it all?" + +"Let us see," said Harrington, "whether there is any consistent +stopping-place between. It appears to me, that, whether by the most +singular series of 'coincidences,' or by immense subtlety of design, +this book, evidently composed by different hands, has yet its +materials so interwoven, and its parts so reciprocally dependent, +that it is impossible to separate them,--to set some aside, and say, +'We will accept these, and reject those': just as, in certain textures, +no sooner do we begin to take out a particular thread, than we find it +is inextricably entangled with others, and those again with others; so +that there immediately takes place a prodigious 'gathering' at that +point, and if we persevere, a rent; but the obstinate part at which +we tug will not come away alone. Whether it is so or not, we shall +soon see, by examining the results of the application of your theories. +I will begin with you," (addressing the younger,) "because you believe +least; you say, I think, that you admit the records of the New Testament +contain a real revelation,--a religious element,--and that it has been +authenticated to you by miracles and other evidence; but that the +human mind is still the judge of how much of that revelation is to +be received, 'and sit in judgment' on the 'religious element as well +as the rest.'" + +The other assented. + +"You admit, probably, the doctrine of the soul's immortality as a part +of that revelation,--perhaps even the doctrine of a resurrection?" + +"I do,--both these doctrines." + +"But perhaps you reject the idea of an 'atonement,' though you admit +it to be in the Book?" + +"Yes. At the same time it is contended by many (as you are aware) that +such a doctrine is not there." + +"I am aware of it, of course; but with them we have no controversy here. +They are consistent, so far as the present argument goes; as consistent +as the orthodox themselves. They do not allege a liberty of rejecting +what they admit the book does contain, but only deny that it does contain +some things which they reject. They would admit that, if those doctrines +be there, then either they must concede them because authenticated +by the miracles and other evidence, which proves what else they concede, +or they must reject the said evidence altogether, because it authenticated +what they found it impossible to concede. The controversy between them +and the orthodox is one of interpretation, and is quite different from +that in which we are now engaged." + +"I must admit it." + +"They may go, then?" said Harrington. + +"They may." + +"You admit, then, the miraculous authentication of such an event as +the resurrection of man, but deny the doctrine of the atonement, +though equally found in the said records?" + +"I do." + +"May I ask why?" + +"Because the one doctrine does not seem to me to contradict my +'spiritual consciousness,' and the other does." + +"You receive the one, I suppose you will say, on account of the +miracles, and so on; since, while not contradicting your impressions +of spiritual truth, it could not be authenticated without external +evidence?" + +"Exactly so." + +"But is not the other doctrine as much authenticated by the miracles +and so forth? or have you any thing to show that, while all those +passages which relate to the former are true assertions, as well as +truly the assertions of those who published the revelation, those +which relate to the latter are not?" + +"I acknowledge I have not," replied the youth. + +"Or supposing they are not their sayings at all, have you any evidence +by which you can show that they are not, so as to separate them from +those that are?" + +"I must admit that I have no criterion of this kind." + +"For aught you know, then, since you know nothing of Christianity +except from those documents in which the miracles and the doctrines are +alike consigned to you, the said miracles, together with the other +evidence, do equally establish the truths which you say are a part +of divine revelation, and the errors which you say your 'spiritual +faculty,' 'moral intuitions,' or what you will, tells you that you +are to reject. You believe, then, in the force of evidence, which +equally establishes truth and falsehood?" + +"You can hardly expect me to admit that." + +"But I expect you to answer a plain question?" + +"Why," said the youth, with a little flippancy, but with a good-humored +laugh too, "the proverb says 'Even a fool may ask questions which a +wise man cannot answer.'" + +"I acknowledge myself to be a fool" said Harrington, with a half +serious, half comic air; "and you shall be the wise man who does not +--for I will not say cannot--answer the fool's question." + +"I beg your pardon," said the other. "I acknowledge that it was an +uncourteous expression." + +"Enough said," replied Harrington; "and now, since you are not pleased +to answer my question, I will answer it myself; and I say, it is plain +that the evidence to which you refer does affirm equally the truths +you declare thus revealed to you, and the errors you declare you must +reject. Now either the evidence is not sufficient to prove the one, or +it is sufficient to prove both. So far, then, I think we may say, and +say justly, that the supposed revelation is so constructed that you +cannot accept a part and reject a part, on such a theory. But to make +the case a little plainer still, if possible. There have been men, you +know, who have taken precisely opposite views of the two doctrines you +have mentioned; who have declared that the doctrine, not of man's +immortality, but of the resurrection, so far from being conceivable, +is, in their judgment, a physical contradiction; but who have also +declared that the doctrine of atonement, in some shape, is instinctively +taught by human nature, and has consequently formed a part of almost +every religion; that it is in analogy with many singular facts of this +world's constitution, and is not absolutely contradicted by any principle +of our nature, intellectual or moral. Such a man, therefore, might take +the very opposite of the course you have taken. He would proceed upon +your common basis of a miraculously confirmed revelation, grossly infested +with errors and falsehoods; he might say that he believed the +authentication of the doctrine of 'atonement' in virtue of the evidence, +because, though transcendental to his reason, it was not repugnant to +it; but that he rejected the doctrine of the 'resurrection,' though +equally established by the evidence, because contrary to the plainest +conclusions of his reason." + +"I cannot in candor deny," said the other, "the possibility of such a +case." + +"And in such a case, we might say, he does the very opposite of what +you do." + +"Neither can I help admitting that." + +"The miracles, then, and other evidence, not only play the part of +equally supporting truth and falsehood, but, what is still more +wonderful, convert the same things, in different men, into truth and +falsehood alternately. Miracles they must verily be if they can do +that! A wonderful revelation it certainly is, which thus accommodates +itself to the varying conditions of the human intellect and +conscience, and demonstrates just so much as each of you is pleased +to accept, and no more. No doubt the whole 'corpus dogmatum,' so +supported, will, by the entire body of such believers, be eaten up; +just as was the Mahometan hog, so humorously referred to by Cowper; +but even that had not all its 'forbidden parts' miraculously shown +to be 'unforbidden' to different minds! I do not wonder that such +a revelation should need miracles; that any should be sufficient, is +the greatest wonder of all; if indeed we except two;--the first, that +Supreme Wisdom should have constructed such a curious revelation, in +which he has revealed alternately, to different people, truth and +falsehood, and has established each on the very same evidence; and +the second (almost as great), that any rational creature should be +got to receive such a revelation on such evidence as equally applies +to which he says it does not prove, and to points which he says it +does; these points, however, being, it appears, totally different +in different men! But I will now go to your friend, who has got a +point further in his belief, and graciously accepts all the 'religious +elements' in this revelation." + +"Excuse me," said the last; "before you go to him, permit me to mention +a difficulty which occurred to me while we were speaking." + +"By all means; but I do not promise to solve it. Perhaps I on this +occasion shall prove the 'wise man,' though I am sure you will not be +the fool." + +"You recollect," said the other, blushing, "our dismissing those who, +while contending, like myself, that such and such doctrines are to be +rejected, differ from me in this, that they contend that the said +doctrines are not contained in the records of the supposed revelation +at all; while others contend that they are. Now, if, while the two +parties admit the general evidence which is to substantiate all that +is in the records, they arrive by different interpretation at such +very different results as to the supposed truth which it supports, +are they in any better condition than I? There is the same difference, +though arrived at in different ways; and the revelation still remains +indeterminate." + +"Your objection is ingenious," replied Harrington. "First, however, it +is rather hard to ask me to solve a difficulty with which I am in no +way concerned, who profess to be altogether sceptical on the subject. +Secondly, it certainly does not at all mend your case to prove that +there are other men who possibly are as inconsistent as yourself. It +makes your theory neither better nor worse. But, thirdly, if I were a +Christian, I should not hesitate to contend that there was an obvious +and vital difference in the two cases." + +"Indeed! If you can show that." + +"I should attempt it, at all events I should say that in the latter case +the evidence to which the appeal was made did not equally serve to +establish truth and falsehood, or, what is still worse, alternately +to make falsehood truth, and truth falsehood, to different minds; +that it was designed to establish all that was really in the records, +though what that all was might give rise to different views, from the +prejudices and the ignorance, the different degrees of intelligence and +candor, on part of those who interpreted the records; that they made the +falsehoods, and not the records or the evidence. I should, therefore, +have no difficulty in relation to what, on your theory, is so +incomprehensible; namely, that God should have given man so peculiarly +constructed a revelation. That men should differ or err in its +interpretation is not, I presume, very wonderful, because man, they +say, is a creature of prejudice and passion as well as reason." + +"But God would still have given the revelation, and yet it is capable, +it appears, of being variously interpreted!" said the other. + +"Very true, and it is very plain to me that, supposing him to have +given any, he could have given no other, unless his omnipotence +had been immediately exerted separately upon each individual of the +human race, and then in such a way as to supersede all the moral +discipline which Christians affirm is involved in its reception. +Supposing this discipline (as those who believe in a revelation +contend) to be an essential condition, I cannot conceive God himself +to give a document which man's ingenuity cannot easily misinterpret. +You see man plays the same trick equally well with that faculty of +'spiritual insight,' which some say is the sole source of religious +truth, and which you say is the sole arbiter of an external revelation! +We cannot find two of you who think alike, or who will give us the +same transcript of religious truth. Similarly, we see the same +ingenuity manifested by man whenever it is his interest to find in +a document a different meaning from that which it apparently carries +on its face. Does not the endless controversy, the perpetual +litigation of men, respecting the meaning of seemingly the plainest +documents, assure us that, if a revelation were really given, the +like would be possible with that? It is doubtful with me, therefore, +whether God himself could give a revelation, such that men could not +misrepresent and pervert it; that is, as long as they were rational +creatures," he continued bitterly. "But the mischief of your theory +is, that it charges the inevitable result of man's perverseness or +ignorance on God, and the revelation he has been supposed to construct, +and that is to me an absurdity." + +"I do not see that these answers are satisfactory," said the other. + +"I must leave you to judge of that," said Harrington, "or to contest +it with my uncle here. I am keeping my next friend waiting, who, I can +see, is impatient to run a course in favor of his view of revelation. +He tells us, too, that a divine revelation, as conveyed in the New +Testament, is to be admitted, but he cannot away with the notion that +its certainty extends to any thing more than to what he calls the +'religious element.' Is not that your notion?" + +"It is." + +"You think, for example, that it is possible that the Apostles and +writers of the New Testament (in fact, whoever had the charge of +recording and transmitting to posterity the doctrines of this +revelation) were left liable, just as any other men, to all sorts +of errors, geographical, chronological, logical, historical, +political, moral--" + +"No, no, not moral," said the other; "I did not say moral: their +morality is implied in their theology." + +"O, very well! we shall better see that presently; only I have to +remind you, for the glory of your Rationalism, that other Rationalists +make the errors extend even to the 'moral element'; but it is all +one to me. You say, that, as far as regards every thing else, it is +very possible that these 'inspired' men might err to any amount?" + +"Yes; I believe it." + +"You have, doubtless, some reason for saying that they were made +infallible in religion and morality, but liable to all sorts of errors +on other subjects?" + +"Nothing but this; that, if to give us 'spiritual truth' (as is +supposed) was their proper function (and we cannot but suppose that +it was), they must have been invested (we must suppose) with all the +necessary qualities for this end, since I am supposing that even +miracles were thought worth working in order to confirm their doctrine." + +"You use the word suppose rather frequently, my friend; however, I +will not quarrel with you for that; only you ought not to be +surprised if, adopting your last supposition,--that, when miracles +and inspiration have been supposed to be vouchsafed to authenticate +a particular revelation, all such endowments, at least, will be +granted as shall secure that object from defeat,--other Christians +further suppose that the documents in which the revelation was to be +consigned to all future ages would not be disfigured (and in many +respects obscured) by the liability of their authors to all sorts +of errors on an infinity of points, hopelessly entangled, as we shall +soon see, with this one! that when heaven was at the trouble to embark +its cargo of diamonds and pearls for this world, it would not send +them in a vessel with a great hole in the bottom! If the Apostles +were plenarily inspired with regard to this one subject, men will +think it strange, perhaps, that divine aid should not have gone a +little further, and since the destined revelation was to be recorded +or rather imbedded, in history, illustrated by imagination, enforced +by argument, and expressed in human language,--its authors should +have been left liable to destroy the substance by egregious and +perpetual blunders as to the form; to run the chance of knocking out +the brains of the unfortunate revelation by upsetting the vehicle +in which it was to be conveyed!" + +"But, then, these supposed endowments are purely a supposition on +the part of Christians in general." + +"Just as yours, we may say, of an indefectible wisdom on one point +is a supposition on your part. I think in that respect that you are +both well matched. But I freely confess that I think their +supposition more plausible than yours; and, if I were an advocate +for Christianity, I should certainly rather suppose with them than +suppose with you; that is, I should think it more credible, if God +interposed with such stupendous instruments as miracles, inspiration, +and prophecy at all, he would endow the men thus favored (not with +all knowledge, indeed, but) with whatever was necessary to prevent +their encountering a certainty of vitiating their testimony." + +"But how would their testimony be liable to be vitiated? I am supposing +them to be absolutely free from error as regards the religious clement, +which they deliver pure." + +'We shall see in a minute whether their testimony was liable to be +vitiated or not, and whether the separation for which you contend be +conceivable, or even possible. I fear that you have no winnowing-fan +which will separate the chaff from the wheat." + +"To me, nothing seems more easy than the supposition I have made." + +"Few things are more easy than to make suppositions; but let us see. +I am sure you will answer as fairly as I shall ask questions. To do +otherwise would be to separate the 'moral element' from the 'logical,' +whatever the New Testament writers may have done. You believe, you +say, in the resurrection of Christ?" + +"I do." + +"As a fact or doctrine?" + +"Both as a fact and doctrine." + +"For it is both, if true," said Harrington; "and so, I apprehend, it +will be found with the other doctrines of Christianity. Whether, in +your particular latitude of Rationalism, you believe many or few of +them, still, if true at all (which we at present take for granted), +they are both facts and doctrines, from the Incarnation to the +Resurrection. But to confine ourselves to one,--that of the +Resurrection,--for one will answer my purpose as well as a thousand; +--that, you say, is a fact,--a fact of history?" + +"It is." + +"It is, then, conveyed to us as such?" + +"Certainly." + +"Were the recorders of that fact liable to error in conveying it to +us? In other words, might they so blunder in conveying that fact (as +we know the unaided historian may, and often does) as to leave us +in doubt whether it ever took place or not?" + +"Well," said the youth, "and you know they have exhibited it in such +a way as to suggest many apparent discrepancies, and those very +difficult to be reconciled." + +"I am aware of it, and for that very reason selected this particular +fact. In my judgment, there are no passages which more exercise the +ingenuity of the harmonists than those which record the transactions +connected with the resurrection. But still, in spite of them all, I +presume that you do not think that those discrepancies really call +the fact in question, else you would not continue to believe it. I +should then suddenly find myself arguing with a very different person." + +"Certainly, you are quite right. I agree that the substantial facts +are as the writers have delivered them; although they may, from +their liability to error, have delivered some of the details +erroneously." + +"But might this liability to error have led them a little further +in their discrepancies, so as to involve the fact itself in just doubt, +and so of other great facts which constitute the doctrines as well as +the facts of Scripture?" + +"Of course, I think it might, since I suppose them unaided by any +supernatural wisdom in this respect." + +"The answer is honest. I thought, perhaps, you would have answered +differently, in which case you would have given me the trouble of +pursuing the argument one step further. It appears, then, that, +though inspired to give mankind a true statement of doctrines, yet +that, when these doctrines assume the form of facts (which, unhappily, +they do perpetually), this hazardous liability to error as historians +may counteract their inspiration, and they may give them in such a form +as to throw upon them all manner of doubts and suspicions; possibly +they have done so, for aught you can tell.--But, again, you also affirm +that these so-called inspired men were liable to make all sorts of +logical blunders, just as the uninspired." + +"Certainly; and I must confess I think the logic of the Apostle Paul, +in particular, often exceedingly absurd." + +"Very fair and candid. For example, I dare say that you do not think +much of his arguments or inferences from certain doctrines; or his +proofs of those doctrines from the Old Testament or--" + +"They are not, indeed, worth much in my estimation." + +"Candid again; but then it is plain, first, that you will have to +distinguish between the pure doctrines which Paul derived from a +celestial source, and his erroneous proofs or inferences, which are +delivered in precisely the same manner and with the same assumption +of authority. And this, I think, would be an insuperable task; at +least, it seems so, for you Rationalists decide this matter very +differently. When any of you favor me with your sketches of the true +heaven-descended Pauline theology, I find them widely different +from each other. Your 'religious element' is of the most variable +volume. Some of you include nearly the whole creed of ordinary +orthodoxy; others, fifty or even eighty per cent. less, both in +bulk and weight." + +"Perhaps so." + +"Perhaps so! But then, what becomes of your principle, that you may +separate the pure 'religion element,' as conveyed to the minds of the +sacred writers by direct illumination, from the errors of vicious +logic which have been permitted to mingle with it? To me it appears +any thing but easy to separate the functions of a revealer of truly +inspired truth from the vitiating influences of a fallacious logic. +The 'heavenly vision,' however 'obedient' a Paul may be to it, will +be but obscurely represented, and suffer egregiously from that +distorted image which the ill-constructed mirror will convey to us. +--But once more, I think you do not hold Paul's rhetoric to be always +of the first excellence?" + +"Certainly not; I think his representations are often as faulty as his +logic is vicious; especially when, under the influence of his Jewish +education, he throws old Gamaliel's mantle over his shoulders, and dotes +about 'allegories' founded on the Old Testament." + +"Fair and candid once more; but then, I suppose you will admit that +the divine truths which he was, nevertheless, commissioned to teach +mankind, will, like any other truths, be much affected by the mode +in which they are represented to the imagination; will become brighter +or more obscure, more animated or more feeble, and even more just or +distorted, as this task is wisely and judiciously, or preposterously +performed?" + +"No doubt." + +"Then it appears, I think, that, if there were nothing to control the +Apostle Paul's manner of exhibiting divine verities, even in relation +only to the imagination, there might be all the difference between +sober truth and fanatical perversions of it. I might, in the same manner, +proceed to show that the feelings, uncontrolled by a superior influence, +would be also likely to give distortion or exaggeration to the doctrines. +But it is enough. It appears very plain, that, according to your +hypothesis, even though the Apostles were commissioned to teach by +supernatural illumination certain truths, yet that, being liable to be +infected with all the faults of false history, bad logic, vicious +rhetoric, fanatical feeling, these divine truths might, possibly, be +most falsely presented to us. We have, really, no guaranty but your +gratuitous 'supposition' that they have been taught at all. We have no +criterion for separating what is thus divine from what is merely human. +I fear, therefore, your distinction will not hold. The stream, whatever +the crystal purity of its fountain, could not fail to be horribly impure +by the time it had flowed through such foul conduits." + +"In short," continued Harrington, with a bitter smile at the same time, +"there are but three consistent characters in the world; the Bible +Christian, and the genuine Atheist,--or the absolute Sceptic." + +"No,--no,--no," exclaimed the whole trio at once; "and you yourself +must be true to your principles, and therefore sceptical as to this." + +"It is" he replied, "one of the very few things which I am not sceptical +about. At all events, right or wrong, I am, as usual, willing to give +you my reasons for my belief." + +"Rather say your doubts," said Fellowes. + +"Well, for my doubts, then. You see, my friends, the matter is as +follows. The Christian speaks on this wise:-- + +"'I find, in reference to Christianity as in references to Theism, +what appears to me an immense preponderance of evidence of various +kinds in favor of its truth; but both alike I find involved in many +difficulties which I acknowledge to be insurmountable, and in many +mysteries which I cannot fathom. I believe the conclusions in spite +of them. As to the revelation, I see some of its discrepancies are the +effect of transcription and corruption; others are the result of +omissions of one or more of the writers, which, if supplied, would +show that they are apparent only; of others, I can suggest no +explanations at all; and, over and above these, I see difficulties of +doctrine which I can no more profess to solve than I can the parallel +perplexities in Nature and Providence, and especially those involved +in the permitted phenomenon of an infinity of physical and moral evil. +As to these difficulties, I simply submit to them, because I think the +rejection of the evidence for the truths which they embarrass would +involve me in a much greater difficulty. With regard to many of the +difficulties, in both cases, I set that the progress of knowledge and +science is continually tending to dissipate some, and to diminish, if +not remove, the weight of others: I see that a dawning light now +glimmers on many portions of the void where continuous darkness once +reigned; though that very light has also a tendency to disclose other +difficulties; for, as the sphere of knowledge increases, the outline +of darkness beyond also increases, and increases even in a greater +ratio. But I also find, I frankly admit, that on many of my difficulties, +and especially that connected with the origin of evil, and other +precisely analogous difficulties of Scripture, no light whatever is +cast: to the solution of them, man has not made the slightest +conceivable approximation. These things I submit to, as an exercise of +my faith and a test of my docility, and that is all I have to say about +them; you will not alter my views by dwelling on them, for your sense +of them cannot be stronger than mine.' Thus speaks the Christian; and +the Atheist and the Sceptic occupy ground as consistent. They say, 'We +agree with you Christians, that the Bible contains no greater +difficulties than those involved in the inscrutable "constitution and +course of nature"; but on the very principles on which the Rationalist, +or Spiritualist, or Deist, or whatever he pleases to call himself, +rejects the divine origin of the former, we are compelled to go a few +steps farther, and deny--or doubt the divine origin of the latter. It +is true that the Bible presents no greater difficulties than the +external universe and its administration; (it cannot involve greater;) +but if those difficulties are sufficient to justify the denial or doubt +of the divine authorship of the one, they are sufficient to justify +denial or doubt about the divine origin of the other.'--But as to you, +what consistent position can you take, so long as you affirm and deny +so capriciously? Who 'strain at the gnats' of the Bible, and 'swallow +the camels' of your Natural Religion? You ought, on the principle on +which you reject so much of the Bible,--namely, that it does not +harmonize with the deductions of your intellect, the instincts of +conscience, the intuitions of the 'spiritual faculty,' and Heaven knows +what,--to become Manichaeans at the least." + +"But these very arguments," said one of the youths, "are just the +old-fashioned arguments of BUTLER, Which it is surely droll of all +things to find a sceptic making use of." + +"I admit they are his, my friend; but not that there is any inconsistency +in my employing them. I affirm that Butler is quite right in his premises, +though I may reject the conclusion to which he would bring me. He leaves +two alternatives, and only two, in my judgment, open; leaves two parties +untouched; one is the Christian, and the other is the Atheist or the +Sceptic, which-ever you please; but I am profoundly convinced he does +not leave a consistent footing for any thing between. His fire does not +injure the Christian, for-comes out of his own camp; nor me, for it +falls short of my lines; but for you, who have pitched your tent +between, take heed to yourselves. He proves clearly enough, that the +very difficulties for which you reject Christianity exist equally, +sometimes to a still amount, in the domain of nature." + +"Oh!" said the youngest, "we do not think that Butler's argument is +sound." + +"Then," said Harrington, "the sooner you refute it the better. All you +have to do is, just to show that this world does not exhibit the +inequalities, the miseries,--the apparent caprice in its administration, +--the involuntary ignorance,--the enormous wrongs,--the wide-spread +sorrows and death,--it does. You will do greater service to the +Deist than the whole of the have ever done him yet. I am convinced +that Butler is not to be refuted." + +"But do you not recollect what no less a man than Pitt said,--'Analogy +is an argument so easily retorted!'" replied the same youth. + +"Then you will have the less difficulty in retorting it," said +Harrington, coolly. "Pitt's observation only shows that he had +forgotten the true object of the work, or never understood it. For the +purposes of refutation, it does not follow that an analogy may be easily +retorted; it may be, and often is, irresistible. It is when employed +to establish a truth, not to expose an error, that it is often feeble. +If Butler had attempted to prove that the inhabitants of Jupiter must +be miserable, nothing could have been more ridiculous than to adduce the +analogy of our planet. But if he merely wished to show that it did not +follow that that beautiful orb, being created by infinite power, wisdom, +and goodness, must be an abode of happiness, (just the Rationalist style +of reasoning,) it would be quite sufficient to introduce the speculator +to this ill-starred planet of ours." + +There are few who will not acquiesce in this remark of Harrington's, +however they may lament the alternative he seemed disposed to take. +Assuredly, for the specific object in view, no book written by man +was ever more conclusive than that of Butler. For if you can show to +an unbeliever in Christianity, who is yet (as most are) a Theists, that +any objection derived from its apparent repugnance to wisdom or goodness +applies equally to the "constitution and course of nature," you do +fairly compel him (as long as he remains a Theist) to admit that that +objection ought not to have weight with him. He has indeed an alternative; +that of Atheism or Scepticism; but it is clear he must give up either his +argument or his--Theism. It may be called, indeed, an argument ad hominem; +but as almost every unbeliever in Christianity is a man of the above +stamp, it is of wide application. This is the fair issue to which +Butler brings the argument; and the conclusiveness of his logic has +been shown in this, that, however easily "analogies" may be "retorted," +the parties affected by it have never answered it. I was amused with +the criticism with which Harrington wound up. "Butler," said he, "wrote +but little; but when reading him, I have often thought of Walter Scott's +wolf-dog Maida, who seldom was tempted to join in the bark of his lesser +canine associates. 'He seldom opens his mouth,' said his master; 'but when +he does, he shakes the Eildon Hills. Maida is like the great gun at +Constantinople,--it takes a long time to load it; but when it does go +off, it goes off for something!'" +____ + +Aug. 1. I this day put into Mr. Fellowes's hands the brief notes on +the three questions on which he had solicited my opinion. They were as +follows:-- + +I. Mr. Newman says that it is an idle boast that the elevation of woman +is in any high degree attributable to the Gospel. "In point of fact," +says he, "Christian doctrine, as propounded by Paul, is not at all so +honorable to woman as that which German soundness of heart has +established. With Paul the sole reason for marriage is that a man may +without sin vent his sensual desires." + +If, indeed, there were no other passage in the New Testament than that +to which Mr. Newman refers, there might be something to be said for him. +But it is only one of many, and the question really at issue is +consequently blinked, namely, what is the aspect of the entire New +Testament institute upon the relations of woman? It is true, indeed, +that the reason for marriage which Mr. Newman contends is the only +thing Paul thought about, is very properly urged; for from the +constitution of human nature, (as every comprehensive philosopher +and legislator would admits) as well as from the horrible condition of +things where marriage is neglected, prominence is very justly given +to the preservation of chastity as one of the primary objects of the +institution. But the question as between Mr. Newman and Christianity +is this: Is this the only aspect under which the relations of man and +woman are represented to us? That every thing is not said in one passage +is true enough. From the desultory manner in which the ethics as well +as doctrines of the New Testament are expounded to us, and especially +from the casual form which they assume in the Apostolic Epistles, +where the particular circumstances of the parties addressed naturally +suggested the degree of prominence given to each topic, we must fairly +examine the whole volume in order to comprehend the spirit of the whole, +and not take up a solitary passage as though it were the only one. +Now, if we examine other passages, we cannot fail to see that the New +Testament consecrates married life by enjoining the utmost purity, +devotion, and tenderness of affection. Look at only one or two of the +passages in which the New Testament enjoins the reciprocal duties of +husbands and wives; what sort of model it proposes for their love. +"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and +gave himself for it ..... Let every one in particular so love his +wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. +So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, .... giving honor +unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together +of the grace of life." + +Is this like condemning women to be "elegant toys and voluptuous +appendages"? + +Admitting, for the sake of argument, that the whole of Christianity +is a delusion; that Christ never lived, and therefore never died; that +he is a more palpable myth than even Dr. Strauss contends for; still +it is impossible not to see that the writers of the New Testament +represent his love for man as the ideal of pure, disinterested, +self-sacrificing affection; this appears whether we listen to the +words which the Evangelists have put into his mouth, or those in +which they have spoken of him. "Greater love hath non man than this +that a man lay down his life for his friends." Now, let there be as +much or as little historic truth in such statements, in the doings +and sufferings of Christ on behalf of humanity, as you will, the +conclusion is irresistible that his conduct (real or imaginary) is +set forth as the exhibition of unequalled patience, gentleness, +meekness, and forbearance; of a love anxious to purchase, at the +dearest cost, the purest and highest happiness of its objects. Now +such is the pattern of affection which the Apostles commend to the +imitation of "husbands and wives" in their conduct towards one +another. Such is to be the lofty standard which their love is to +emulate. Is it possible to go further? Does not the fantastical +observance, or rather the absolute idolatry of women cherished +by chivalry,--itself, however, rooted in the influences of a corrupt +Christianity,--look like a caricature beside the picture? And who +are the "poets of Germanic culture" who have risen to an equal ideal +of the reciprocal duties and sentiments of wedded life? I must contend +that so beautiful a picture of a real equality between man and +woman,--founded on the love of the common Lord of both,--such a picture +of woman's true elevation, was never realized in the ancient world, +nor would have been to this day had not Christianity been +promulgated; nor is now, except where Christianity is known, though, +alas! not always where it is. But if you think otherwise, beg +Mr. Newman to give you a catena of passages from the "poets of Germanic +culture" (he has not adduced a syllable in proof); and recollect it +ought to be from Germanic poets who lived before the Germans were +Christians! Or perhaps you would wish to seek the Germanic "sentiment" +towards woman pure in its source, as given in the certainly not +unfavorable estimate of Tacitus. In their respect for woman and the +stress they laid on chastity, the ancient Germans transcended without +doubt many savages. Still, few readers will suppose there was much +reason to boast of the elevation of women, or the presence of much +refined "sentiment" between the sexes! As long as women do all the +drudgery of house and field work, while their lazy husbands drink and +gamble; as long as they are liable (and their children too) to be sold +or put on the hazard of a cast of the dice; as long as they are +themselves ferocious enough to go out to battle with their husbands; +I presume you will think the "Germanic culture" very far short of the +"culture" likely to be produced by the New Testament! Well says Gibbon, +"Heroines of such a cast may claim admiration; but they were most +assuredly neither lovely nor very susceptible of love." + +II. Mr. Newman says, that undue credit has been claimed for Christianity +as the foe and extirpator of slavery. He says that, at this day, the +"New Testament is the argumentative stronghold of those who are trying +to keep up the accursed system." Would it not have been candid to add, +that the New Testament has ever been also the stronghold of those who +oppose it, as well in this country as in America? It is on the express +ground to its supposed inconsistency with the maxims and spirit of +Christianity, that the great mass of Abolitionists hate and loathe it. +A public clamor against it was never raised in the days of ancient +slavery, nor is now in any country where Christianity is unknown. +The opposition to it in our own country was a religious one; that we +know full well; and so is the opposition of the American Abolitionists +at the present day. If selfish cupidity, on the one hand, appeals to +the New Testament for its continuance, so does philanthropy, on the +other, for its abolition; and though in my judgment the inferences of +the latter are far more reasonable, the mere fact that both parties +appeal to the book shows that the New Testament neither sanctions +it--rather the contrary by implication--nor expressly denounces +it;--Mr. Newman doubtless can do it safely. This very moderation of +language, however, has to many minds, and those of no mean capacity, +(the late Dr. Chalmers for example,) been regarded as an indication +of the wisdom which has presided over the construction of the New +Testament; it was not only a tone peremptorily demanded by the +necessary conditions of publishing Christianity at all, but was best +adapted,--nay, alone adapted,--in the actual condition of the world +in relation to slavery, to make any salutary impression. + +Admitting that the great, the primary end of the Gospel was spiritual; +that it was the object of the Apostles to obtain for it a dispassionate +hearing among all nations; and that, however they might hope +indirectly to affect the temporal prosperity and political welfare of +mankind, all good of this kind was in their view subordinate to that +spiritual amelioration, which, if affected, would necessarily involve +all inferior social and political improvements;--I say, admitting this, +it is really difficult to imagine any other course open to a wise choice +than that which was actually adopted. I contend, that in not +passionately denouncing slavery, and in contenting themselves with +quietly depositing those principles and sentiments which, while +achieving objects infinitely more important, would infallibly abolish +it, the Apostles took the wisest course, even with relation to this +latter object,--though it was doubtless not the course into which a +blind fanaticism would have plunged. To enter upon an open crusade +against slavery in that age would have been to render the preaching of +the Gospel a simple impossibility, and to convert a professedly moral +and spiritual institute into an engine of political agitation; it would +have afforded the indignant governments of the world--quite prompt enough +to charge it with seditious tendencies--a plausible pretext for its +suppression. Both the primary and the secondary objects would have been +sacrificed; and the chains of slavery riveted, not relaxed. Slavery, +in that age, we must recollect, was interwoven with the entire fabric of +society in almost all nations. To denounce it would have been a +provocation, nay, a challenge, to a servile war in every country to +which the zeal of the Christian emissaries might carry the Gospel. +Contenting themselves, therefore, with the enunciation of those +principles which, where they are truly embraced, are inconsistent +with the permanent existence of slavery, and, if triumphant, insure +its downfall, the Apostles pursued that which was their great object; +and for those of an inferior order, patiently waited for the time +when the seed they had sown broadcast in the earth should +yield its harvest. + +And surely the event has justified their sagacity. For to what, after +all, have just notions on this most important subject been owing, +except to this said Christianity? Though it is true that, owing to the +imperfect exemplification of its principles by men who profess it, it +has not yet done its work, it is doing it; though some Christian +nations--more shame for them--have slaves, none but Christian nations +are without them. Not only is the sincere admission of the maxims and +principles of the New Testament inconsistent with the permanent +existence of slavery, but the history of Christianity affords perpetual +illustrations of its tendency to destroy it. Even during the Dark Ages, +even in its most corrupted form, Christianity wrought for the practical +extinction of serfdom. Mr. Newman says that it was Christians, not men, +that the church sought to enfranchise; it little matters; she sought +to abolish all villanage. He says that even Mahometans do not like to +enslave Mahometans; I ask, can he find immense bodies of Mahometans +who contend that it is Contrary to the spirit, tendencies, and maxims, +if not precise letter, of their religion, to enslave any body? For it +was such a principle which expressly called forth the abhorrence and +condemnation of slavery in our own age and nation. It cannot be denied +that the movement by which this accursed system was, after so long a +struggle, exterminated amongst us, was an eminently religious one, as +regards its main supporters, the ground they took, and the +sacrifices they made. + +"But Christian nations have defended and practised slavery!" you will say. + +They have; and Christian nations have often practised the vices which +the "Book" expressly condemns,--just as all nations have practised many +things which their codes of morals or laws condemn. The question is +whether in the one case the Book, or in the other case the codes, +approve them; not, I presume, whether man is a very inconsistent animal. +But no system is made answerable for the violations of its spirit--except +Christianity. + +Mr. Newman says that slaveholders make the "New Testament the +stronghold of the accursed system." It had been more to the purpose +if he had pointed out a passage or two which recommend it. He knows +that it is simply because it does not (for reasons already stated) +denounce it, that they say it approves it. Are you satisfied with +this reasoning? Then try it on another case,--for despotism is exactly +parallel. The New Testament does not expressly denounce that, and +for the same reasons; and the arguments for passive obedience have +been with equal plausibility drawn from its pages. Will the +Transatlantic republicans approve despotism on the same authority? +--Despotism has wrought at least as much misery to mankind as slavery, +and probably much more. Was it a duty of the Apostles, instead of laying +down principles which, though having another object, would infallibly +undermine it, to denounce despotism everywhere, and invite all people +to an insurrection against their rulers? If they had, the spiritual +objects of the Gospel would have been easily understood, and very +properly treated. Let me apply the argumentum ad hominem. Mr. Newman +has favored the world with his views of religious truth, and the +"spiritual" weapons by which its "champion" is to make it victorious +over mankind; he has also recorded his hatred of slavery and despotism, +where such magnanimity is perfectly safe, and perfectly superfluous. +Let me now suppose you, not only partly, but wholly of his mind, and +animated (if "spiritualism" will ever prompt men to do any thing, +except, as Harrington says, to write books against book-revelation), +--let me suppose you animated to go as missionary to the East to +preach this spiritual system: would you, in addition to all the rest, +publicly denounce the social and political evils under which the +nations groan? If so, your spiritual projects would soon be perfectly +understood, and summarily dealt with. It is in vain to say that, if +commissioned by Heaven, and endowed with power of working miracles, +you would do so; for you cannot tell under what limitations your +commission would be given; it is pretty certain that it would leave you +to work a moral and spiritual system by moral and spiritual means, and +not allow you to turn the world upside down, nor mendaciously tell it +that you came only to "preach peace," while every syllable you uttered +would be an incentive to sedition. + +III. The last point on which you ask a few remarks is in relation to +the early spread of Christianity. Mr. Newman makes easy work of this +great problem. He says, "Before Constantine, Christians were but a +small fraction of the empire ..... In fact, it was the Christian +soldiers in Constanline's army who conquered the empire for +Christianity." (Phases, p. 162.) + +In the first place, supposing the facts just as stated.--namely, that +it was the Christian soldiers of Constantine who conquered the empire +for Christianity,--who was it that conquered the army for Christianity? +When I find Mahometanism the prevalent religion through the English +regiments, I shall shrewdly suspect that the conquest of England for +Mahometanism will have been made an easy task, by its having already +made equal progress amongst the people generally! + +I suppose it will not be denied that the soldiers, by whose aid +Constantine achieved this great victory, were themselves professedly +converts to Christianity; and Christianity as it had existed in the +times of the recent persecutions was not likely to allure men to the +profession of arms. I think, therefore, we may fairly assume, that, +if the imperial armies were to any considerable extent--and it must +have been ex hypothesi to a prevailing extent--composed of Christians, +Christianity had made at least equal progress in the ranks of civil +life. The one may be taken as the measure of the other; though we might +fairly suppose, both from the principles and habits of the Christians, +that they would be found in civil life in a larger ratio. The camp was +not precisely the place for them; the Gospel might find them there, it +rarely sent them. So that the question returns, How came it to pass +that the bulk of the armies which "conquered the empire for Christianity" +came to be Christians,--at least in name and profession? + +"Ah!" you will say, "in name,--but they were strange Christians who +became soldiers." Very true; and it makes my argument the stronger. Mere +professors of a religious system only follow in the wake of its triumphs. +When those who do not care much for a system profess and embrace it, +depend upon it, it has largely triumphed. To suppose, therefore, that +Constantine conquered the empire for Christianity, while we admit that +the army was already Christian, is very like getting rid of the objection +in the way the Irishman proposed to get rid of some superfluous cart-loads +of earth. "Let us dig a hole," said he, "and put it in." It is much the +same here. + +Constantine became a convert, perhaps from conviction, but certainly +rather late. Supposing him a political convert, as many have done, it +could only be because he saw that Christianity had done its work to +such an extent as to render it more probable that it would assist him +than that he could assist it. This induced him to take it under the wing +of his patronage. And on such a theory, what but such a conviction could +have justified him in the attempt for a moment? How could he be fool +enough to add to the difficulties of his position--a candidate for +empire--the stupendous difficulty of forcing upon his unwilling or +indifferent subjects a religion which by supposition they were any +thing but prepared to receive? If the prospects of Christianity had not +already decided the question for him, so far from receiving credit for +political sagacity, as he ever has done, he would deserve rather to be +considered an absolute idiot! + +Again; is it not plain from history in general, and must we not infer +it from the nature of the case a priori, that Christianity must in some +fashion have conquered its millions before Constantine or any other +man was likely to attempt to conquer the empire for Christianity, or +to succeed in so doing if he had? Is there an instance on record of a +people suddenly, at a moment's notice, changing its religion, or +rather--for this is the true representation--of many different +nations changing their many different religions at the simple command +of their sovereign, and he too an upstart? In two cases, and in only +two, it may be done; first, by an unsparing use of the sword, the brief, +simple alternative of Mahomet, Death or the Koran; the other, when the +new form of belief has converted the bulk or a large portion of the +nation; of which, in this case, the conversion of the army is a +tolerably significant indication. + +But again; if it be said that the people, or rather the many different +nations, abandoned their religions out of complaisance to their +sovereign, I answer, Why do we not see the same thing repeated when +Julian wished to reverse the experiment? They were not so pliant +then; then was it seen very dearly that the people were, as in +every other case, unwilling, as regards their religion, to be mere +puppets in the hands of their governors. He was animated by at least +as strong a hatred of Christianity as Constantine by a love of it. +Yet we see all the way through, that there was not a chance of +success for him. + +"But there were some persecutions," you will say, "by Constantine." +True, but they were so trifling compared with what would have been +required had the conversion of an unbelieving and refractory empire +depended on such means, that few who read the history of religious +revolutions will believe that they were the cause of the change. Every +thing shows that a vast preceding moral revolution in the empire is +the only sufficient explanation of so sudden an event. Gibbon himself +admits Constantine's tolerant disposition. + +"But," it may be said, "the old heathenism was worn out and effete; +no one thought it worth his while to stand up in its defence." + +I answer, first, it seems to have been sufficiently loved, or at +least Christianity was sufficiently hated, to insure frequent and +sanguinary persecutions of the latter, almost up to the eve of +Constantine's accession. Secondly, you are to consider that, though +in the schools of philosophers, in the Epicurean or sceptical +atmosphere of the luxurious capital and other great cities, there was +unquestionably a numerous party to whom the old superstition was a +laughing-stock, there were vast multitudes to whom it was still, in +its various forms, a thing of power. You are to recollect that the +Roman empire was made up of many nations, each with a different mode +of religion, and to suppose that these different religions had ceased +to exercise the usual influence on vast multitudes of the people would +be mere delusion. If they were surrendered at last so easily, it could +only be because a great party--antagonistic to each--had been silently +forming in each nation, and undermining the power of the popular +superstitions. But, thirdly, if the representation were true, to +what can so singular a phenomenon--this simultaneous decay of different +religions, this epidemic pestilence amongst the gods of the Pantheon +--be ascribed, but to the previous influence of Christianity, and its +extensive conquests? And, fourthly, supposing this not the case, and +yet that the indifference in question existed, this indifference to +the old systems of religion would not presuppose equal indifference +to new, or induce the people to embrace them at the mere bidding of +their new master. If this were so, we ought to see the same phenomenon +repeated in the case of Julian. If, in their presumed indifference to +the old and the new, they listened to Constantine when he commanded +them to become Christians, why did not they manifest an equally +compliant temper when the Apostate enjoined them to become heathens, +and like Constantine, gave them both precept and example? + +But look at the historic evidence on the subject long before the +establishment of Christianity. Is it possible for any candid person to +read the Epistle of Pliny to Trajan, and not see in that alone, after +making every deduction for any supposed bias under which the letter may +have been written (though, in fact, it is difficult to suppose any +bias that would not rather lead the writer to diminish the number of +the Christians than to exaggerate it),--is it possible, I say, to read +that singular state paper, and not feel that the new religion had +made prodigious progress in that remote province? and that, a fortiori, +if in Bithynia it had conquered its thousands of proselytes, in other +and more favored provinces it must have gained its tens of thousands? +To me the letter of Pliny speaks volumes; and if so much could be said +at so early a period as A. D. 107, what was the state of things two +centuries later? + +Precisely the same conclusion must be arrived at if we consult the +uniform tone of the Christian apologists, from Justin Martyr to Minucius +Felix. Making here, again, what deductions you please for the fervid +eloquence and rhetorical exaggerations of such a man as Tertullian, it +is too much to suppose even his "African" impetuosity would have +ventured, not merely on the virulent invective, the bold taunts, with +which he everywhere assails the popular superstitions, but on such +strong assertions of the triumphant progress of the upstart religion, +unless there had been obvious approximation to truth in his statements. +"We were but of yesterday," says he, "and we have filled your cities, +islands, towns, and assemblies; the camp, the senate, the palace, and +the forum swarm with converts to Christianity." Apologist for +Christianity! Unless these words had been enforced by very much of +truth, he would have made Christianity simply ridiculous; and +Christians would have been necessitated to apologize for +their mad apologist. + +The same conclusion equally follows from the consideration of those +very corruptions of Christianity, which no candid student of +ecclesiastical history will be slow to admit had already infected +it, many years before Constantine ventured to aid it by his equivocal +patronage. It was obviously its triumphant progress,--its attraction +to itself of much wealth,--the accession, to a considerable extent, +of fashion, rank, and power,--that chiefly caused those corruptions. +So long as the Christian Church was poor and despised, such scenes +as often attended the election of bishops in the great cities of the +empire would be quite impossible. + +Under such circumstances the argument of Mr. Newman--judiciously +compressed into a few sentences--appears to me even ludicrous. How +different the course which Gibbon pursues! What a pity that the +great historian did not perceive that this statement would have led +him equally well to his desired end; that so brief a demonstration +would suffice to account for that unmanageable phenomenon, the rapid +progress and ultimate triumph of Christianity! He, on the contrary, +seems to have read history with very different eyes; and yet I suppose +no man will question either his learning or his sagacity. He finds +himself obliged to admit the conspicuous advance which the Gospel had +made before Constantine's accession, and employs every nerve to invent +sufficient natural causes to account for it. What a facile task would +he have had of it, if he had but bethought him that Christianity, +instead of having been to an enormous extent successful was, in +fact, waiting, in comparative failure, the triumphant aid of a +military conqueror! He might then have dispensed with the celebrated +chapter, and substituted for it the two pregnant sentences by which +Mr. Newmen has, in effect, declared it superfluous. +____ + +August 7. Three days ago (the evening before my return home) I managed +to prevail upon myself to have a close and formal discussion with +Harrington on the subject of his scepticism. We had a regular fight, +which lasted till midnight, and beyond. A good deal of it was (in a +double sense, perhaps) a nuktomachia. As I had no one to jot down +short-hand notes of our controversy,--perhaps it is as well for me and +for truth that there was none,--it is impossible that I should do more +than give you a succinct summary of its course. But its principal +topics are too indelibly impressed on my memory to leave me in doubt +about general accuracy. + +I hardly know what led to it; I believe, however, it was an observation +he made on the different fates of metaphysical and physical science,--the +last all progress, and the first perpetual uncertainty. He had been +reading a remark of some philosopher who attributed this difference to +the more substantial incentives offered to the cultivation of the +physical sciences. "So that," said he, "they are, it seems, what our +German friends would call 'Brodwissenschaften'! Not the brain, as some +idly suppose, but the stomach, is the true organon of discovery, and +if the metaphysician could but be punctually assured of his dinner +(which has not always been the case), or at all events of a fortune, +we should soon have the true theories of the Sublime and +Beautiful,--of Ethics,--of the Infinite,--of the Absolute,--of Mind +and Matter,--of Liberty and Necessity; whereas I think we should +only have a multiplication of doubtful theories." + +He remarked that he doubted the truth of the hypothesis in both its +parts; that not the want of adequate motives, but the intrinsic +difficulty of the subjects, had kept metaphysics back (on what +subjects had men expended more gigantic toil?); nor, on the other +hand, was it necessity that chiefly impelled man to cultivate physical +science; it was the desire of knowledge,--or rather, he added, the +love of truth; for what else was his admitted curiosity, in the last +resort, unless man is equally curious about falsehood and truth; "that +is," said he, laughing, "as curious after ignorance as after knowledge! +No," he continued, "the sciences are made arts for utilitarian purposes; +but the sciences themselves have a very different origin. For my own +part, I would as soon believe that Sir Isaac Newton excogitated his +system of the universe in hopes of being made one day Master of the +Mint." I assented, and, smiling, told him I was glad to find him admit +that there was in man a love of knowledge, identical with the love of +truth. He said he admitted the appetite, but denied that there was +always an adequate supply of food. He admitted that in physical science +man seemed capable of unlimited progress; but it seemed doubtful whether +this was the case in other directions. "What was there inconsistent +with scepticism in that?" he asked. + +I answered, that it was not for me to say at what point of the scale +a man might become an orthodox doubter; but I was, at all events, +glad that he had not gone all the lengths which some had gone, or +professed to have gone; who, if they had not reached that climax +of Pyrrhonism, to doubt even if they doubt, yet had declared the +attainment of all truth impossible. I then bantered him a little +on the advantages of "absolute scepticism"; told him I wondered that +he should throw them away; and reminded him of the success with +which the sceptic might train on his adversary into the "bosky depths" +of German metaphysics,--the theories of Schelling, Fichte, Hegel. "If +truth be in any of those dusky labyrinths," said I, "you are not +compelled to find her; the more unintelligible the discussion becomes, +the better for the sceptic; you may not only doubt, but doubt whether +you even understand your doubts. You may play 'hide and seek' there +for ten thousand years." "For all eternity," was his reply. But he +said he had no wish to seek any such covert, nor to play the sceptic. + +I told him I was glad to find that his scepticism did not--to use +Burke's expression on another subject--"go down to the foundations." +He answered that he was afraid it did on all subjects really of any +significance to man. "As to the present life," he continued, "I am +quite willing to accept Bayle's dictum: 'Les Sceptiques ne nioient +pas qu'il ne se fallut conformer aux coutumes de son pays, et +pratiquer des devoirs de la morale, et prendre parti en ces choses +la sur des probabilites, sans attendre la certitude.'" + +I was not sorry that he took Bayle's limits of scepticism rather than +Hume's: I told him so. + +Hume, he said, was evidently playing with scepticism; for himself, he +had no heart to jest upon the subject. The Scotch sceptic acknowledged +that the metaphysical riddles of his "absolute scepticism" exercised, +and ought to exercise, no practical influence on himself or any man; +that the moment he quitted them, and entered into society, "they +appeared to him so frigid and unnatural" that he could not get himself +to interest himself about them any further; that a dinner with a +friend, or a game at backgammon, put them all to flight, and restored +him to the undoubting belief of all the maxims which his meditative +hours had stripped him of. It was natural, Harrington said; for such +scepticism was impossible. He added, however, that, had Hume been +honest, he would never have employed his subtilty in the one-sided way +he did; "for," said he, "if his principles be true, they tell just as +much against those who deny any religious dogmas as against those who +maintain them. Yet everywhere in relation to religion--take the question +of miracles, for example--he argues not as a sceptic at all, but as a +dogmatist, only on the negative side. If his doctrine of 'Ideas' and +of 'Causation' be true, he ought to have maintained that; for any thing +we know, miracles may have occurred a thousand times, and may as often +occur again. Hume," he said, "was amusing himself; but I am not: nor +can any one really feel--many pretend to do so without feeling at +all--the pressure of such doubts as envelop me, and be content to +amuse themselves with them." + +I found it very difficult to attack him in the intrenchments he had +thrown up. I thought I would just try for a moment to act on the +Spiritualist's advice, and, throwing aside all "intellectual and +logical processes," all appeals to the "critical faculties," advance +"lightly equipped as Priestley himself," making my appeal to the +"spiritual faculty." I cannot say that the result was at all what +"spiritualism" promises. On the contrary, Harrington parried all such +appeals in a twinkling. He said he did not admit that he had any +"spiritual faculty" which acted in isolation from the intellect; +that religious faith must be founded on religious truth, and even +quasi-religious faith on quasi-religious truth. That the intellect +and the moral and spiritual faculties (if he had any) acted together, +since he felt that he was indivisible, and that the former man +be satisfied as well as the latter; that it was so with all +his faculties, none of which acted in isolation; that however +hunger might prompt to food, he never took what his senses of sight +and touch told him was sand or gravel; that if he indulged love, or +pity, or anger, it was only as the senses and the imagination and +the understanding were busied with objects adequate to elicit them; +that if beautiful poetry excited emotion, it was only as he understood +the meaning and connection of the words. "And what else are you doing +now, while urging me to realize by direct 'insight,' by 'gazing' on +'spiritual truth,' and so forth, the things you wish me to realize, +--I say what are you doing but appealing to me, through these same +media of the senses and the imagination, by rhetoric and logic? How +else can you gain any access to my supposed 'spiritual faculties'?" +I replied, that even the spiritualist did that,--he endeavored to +convince men, I supposed. "Yes," he replied, laughing, "because he +is privileged doubly to abuse logic at one and the same time; to +abuse it in one sense as a fallacious instrument of religious conviction +in the hands of others, and to abuse it in another sense, as an +instrument of fallacious conviction in his own. But you are not so +privileged." + +Harrington insisted on the fact, that the whole thing was a delusion; +I might appeal, he said, if I thought proper, to any faculties, or +rudiments of faculties, he possessed, spiritual or otherwise; but he +really could not pretend even to comprehend one syllable I said, if +I denied him the use of his understanding. I might as well, and for +the same reasons, appeal to him without the intervention of his senses, +--for his "soul" could not be more different from his "intellect" than +from them. "Besides," he continued, "I know you do not imagine that any +spiritual faculty acts thus independently of the intellect; and +therefore you are only mocking me." + +I thought it best to cut my cable and leave this unsafe anchorage. + +I told him that, as he doubted whether man had any distinctly marked +religious and spiritual faculties, while I affirmed that he had, +--although he was quite right in supposing that I did not believe that +they acted except in close conjunction with the intellect,--it made +it difficult to hold any discourse with him. Doubting the Bible, he had +also learned to doubt that doctrine of human depravity, which he once +thought harmonized--and I still thought did alone harmonize--the great +facts of man's essentially religious constitution and his eternally +varied and most egregiously corrupt religious development. + +However, I told him that, even in the concession of the probable as a +sufficient rule of conduct in this life, he had granted enough to +condemn utterly his sceptical position. + +He now looked sincerely interested. "Let me," said I, "ask you a few +questions." He glanced towards me an arch look. "What!" he said, "you +wish to get the Socratic weather-gage of me, do you? You forget, my dear +uncle, that you introduced me to the Platonic dialectics." + +"Heaven forgive you," said I, "for the thought. You know I make little +pretension to your favorite erotetic method: and if I did, oh! do you not +know, Harrington, my son, that, if I could but convince you on this +one subject, I would consent to be confuted by you on every other every +day in the year?--nay, to be trampled under your feet?" I added, with a +faltering voice. "And, besides that, do you not know that there can be +no rivalry between father and son; that it is the only human affection +which forbids it; that pride, and not envy, swells a father's heart, when +he finds himself outdone?" + +He was not unmoved; told me he knew that I loved him well, and desired +me to ask any questions I pleased. + +He saw how gratified his affection made me feel. I said, gayly, "Well, +then, let me ask (as our old friend with the queer face might have said), +Do you not grant there is such a thing as prudence?" + +"I do," he said. + +"But to be prudent is, I think, to do that which is most likely to +promote our happiness." + +"That which seems most likely, for I do not admit that we know what will." + +"That which seems, then, for it is of no consequence." + +"Of no consequence! surely there is a little difference between being +and seeming to be." + +"All the difference in the world," I replied, "but not in relation to +our choice of conduct, We choose, if prudent, that conduct which, on +the whole, deliberately seems most likely to promote our happiness, and, +as far as that goes, what seems is." + +"I grant it; and that probabilities are the measure of it," +said Harrington. + +"You are of Bayle's opinion, that there is in relation to the present +life a probable prudent, and that it would be gross folly to neglect it?" + +"Certainly." + +"And in proportion as the interest was greater, and extended over a longer +time, you would be content with less and less probabilities to justify +action?" + +"I freely grant I should." + +"If now a servant came into the room to say that he feared your +farm-house at King's O--- was on fire, though you might think it but +faintly probable, you would not think it prudent to neglect the +information?" + +"I certainly should not." + +"And if you were immortal here on earth, and the neglect of some probably, +or (we will say) only possibly, true information in relation to some +vital interest might affect it through that whole immortality, you +would consider it prudent to act on almost no probability at all, on the +very faintest presumption of the truth?" + +"I must in honesty agree with you so far." + +"What does your scepticism promise you, if it be well founded? +Much happiness?" + +"To me none; rather the contrary; and to none, I think, can it promise +much." + +"And if Christianity be true,--for I speak only of that,--I know there +is not in your estimate any other religion that comes into competition +with it--immortal felicity, immortal misery, depends on it?" + +"Yes; it cannot be denied." + +"You admit that scepticism may be false, even though it has a +thousand to one in its favor; for by its very principles you know +nothing, and can know nothing, on the subjects to which its doubts +extend?" + +"I acknowledge it." + +"And Christianity may be true by the very same reasoning, though +the chances be only as one to a thousand?" + +"It is so." + +"Then by your own confession you are not prudent, for you do not act +in relation to Christianity on the principles on which you say you +act in the affairs of the present life; where you acknowledge that +the least presumption will move you, when the interests are +sufficiently permanent and great." + +He told me, with a smile, I might have arrived at the same conclusion +without any argument; for he was willing to acknowledge in general +that he was not prudent, and in relation to this very subject should +always admit, with Byron, that the sincere Christian had an undeniable +advantage over both the infidel and the sceptic; "since," he added, +putting the admission into a very concise form, "their best is +his worst." + +"Very well," said I, "Harrington, only remember that your imprudence is +none the less for your admission of it." + +"None in the world," he admitted; but be contended there was a flaw +in the argument; for that it was impossible to accept any religion +on merely prudential grounds. And he then went on, in his curious +way, to lament that an unreasonable candor prevented him from here +taking advantage of an ingenious argument adopted by some of the +modern "spiritualists" in reasoning on the probabilities of a +"future life." They contend that it is necessary to insulate the soul +(if it would discover "spiritual truth") from all bias of self- +interest,--from all oblique glances at prospective advantage; in +fact, that only he is fully equipped for discovering "spiritual truth" +who is disinterestedly indifferent as to whether it be discovered or +not. Harrington said he could not pretend that even the sceptic was +so favorably circumstanced as that. "For my part," he said, "I cannot +honestly adopt this view, and always think it prudent to accept as +large an armful of happiness as I can grasp, when truth and duty do +not come in the way." + +"And in the name of common sense," I said, "what truth and duty are +to stand in your way? Is not your truth, that there is none?" + +"Yes," he replied, smiling; "but is not the truth the truth, as +Falstaff said? though to be sure it was when he was manufacturing his +eleven men in buckram out of two. However, as Mr. Newman, when some +one foretold that he would be some day a Socinian or an infidel, replied, +'Well, if Socinianism or any thing else be the truth, Socinians or +any thing else let us be'; so I must say, if no truth be the truth, +no-truth men let us be." + +"Very well," I replied. "Then, it seems, truth stands in the way of +acting prudently; and, instead of remedying our first paradox, we +have started on another, that truth and prudence are here opposed: +for in no other cases (I think) in which you apply your own rule of +the probable to the present life will a mind of your comprehensiveness +say they are opposed; I am sure you will admit the general maxims, +that to lie is inexpedient, and that honesty is the best policy, +and so on." + +He granted it. + +"But further," said I, "what sort of truth is this, which involves +duty, and yet is opposed to prudence? It is, that there is no truth, +it seems, and this completes the paradox. This strange truth--the +Alpha Omega of the sceptic, his first and his last--is to involve +duty; he is to be a confessor and martyr for it! Nothing less than +happiness and prudence are to be sacrificed to conscience in the matter. +Truly, if the truth that there is no truth involves any duty, it ought +to be the duty of believing that there is no duty to be performed; and +you might as well call yourself a no-duty man as a no-truth man." + +He smiled, but replied, that, seriously, it was impossible to adopt +any religious opinions, or to change them, at the bidding of the will. + +I admitted, of course, that the will had no direct power in the matter; +but reminded him that, if he meant it had no influence, or even a little, +on the formation or retention of opinions, no one could be a more +strenuous assertor of the contrary than he had often been. I reminded +him it was so notorious that man usually managed to believe as he wished, +that was no one maxim more frequently on the lips of the greatest +philosophers, orators, and poets. But I added that there is also a +legitimate way of influencing will, and that is through the understanding; +and was with the hope of inducing him to reconsider the paradoxes of +scepticism, and not with any expectation of instant or violent change, +that I was anxious to enumerate them on the present occasion. + +It is impossible for me to recollect exactly the course +of the long conversation that ensued; suffice it to say, that he +willingly granted many other paradoxes, some of them so readily, as +to confirm the suspicion I had sometimes felt, that he must often +have doubted the validity of his doubts. He admitted, for example, +that since men in general (whether from the possession of a distinct +religious faculty, though it might be corrupt and depraved, or a +mere rudimentary tendency to religion) had adapted some religion, +religious scepticism, in an intelligible sense, was opposed to nature; +--that it was equally opposed to nature, inasmuch as the general +constitution of man sought and loved certainty, or supposed certainty, +and found a state of perpetual doubt intolerable; and that if this be +attributed to a tendency to dogmatism, that is the very tendency of +nature which is affirmed;--that it is opposed to nature again in this +way, that whereas restlessness and agitation of mind are usually, at +all events, warnings to seek relief, scepticism produces these as its +pure and proper result;--that since, by the confession of every mind +worthy of respect, the great doctrines of religion, if not true, are +such that we cannot but wish they were; since, by his own confession, +scepticism has nothing to allure in it, and rather causes misery than +happiness; and since, by his confession and that of every one else, men +in general easily believe as they wish, it is an unaccountable paradox, +that any one should remain a sceptic for a day, except, indeed, from a +guilty fear of the truth;--that, since scepticism tends to misery, it +is better not to know its truth, and that therefore ignorance is better +than knowledge;--that, if Christianity be an illusion, it, at all events, +tends to make men happier than the truth of scepticism, and that therefore +error is better than truth;--that religious scepticism is open to the +same objection as scepticism absolute; for whereas the last is taunted +with trusting to reason to prove that reason can in nothing be trusted, +religious scepticism is chargeable with declaring the certainty of all +uncertainty, and, while proclaiming: that there is nothing true, avowing +that that is truth and lastly, that if, in consistency, it leaves +even that uncertainty uncertain, it arrives at a conclusion which +everlastingly remits us to renewed investigation! + +"But," said he, "the sceptic does affirm the certainty of all +uncertainty. That is precisely my state of mind, even in relation +to Christianity. Both its truth and falsehood are--uncertain." + +"Then," said I, "I must not say you reject Christianity, but only +that you do not receive it? + +"Precisely so," said he, with a smile and a blush at the same time. +I was much amused with this logical ceremoniousness, by which a man +is not to say that he rejects any thing so conditioned, but only +that he does not receive it. I told him I imagined they came to +much the same thing. + +"It is impossible," said he, after a pause, "to affirm any thing on +these subjects." + +"It is equally impossible?" said I, "to affirm nothing; on the +contrary, you sceptics have two conclusions, though in a negative +form, for every body else's one,--together with the pleasant addition, +that they are contraries to one another; and as Pascal said that the +man who attempted to be neuter between the sceptic and dogmatist was +a sceptic par excellence, so the genuine sceptic may be called a +dogmatist par excellence." + +"For my part," said he, smiling sadly, "I hardly think it is very +difficult either to believe nothing or every thing. Fellowes, you see, +has believed everything, and now he is in a fair way to believe nothing. +However, all I mean is, that the evidence on these subjects reduces +one to a state of complete mental suspense, in which it is equally +unreasonable to say that we believe, as to say that we believe not. +However, I grant you most of the paradoxes you mention; but a sceptic +is not to be startled by paradoxes, I trow; alas! they prove nothing." + +"Prove nothing! nay, I think you do your system injustice; I think it +is entitled to the distinction of making great discoveries. You confess +that the only truth on these subjects is, that there is no truth; that +to act on this truth necessitates a conduct opposed to nature, to +prudence, to happiness; that it is a knowledge worse than ignorance; +that it is a truth that is worse than error; that it never did, will, +or can be embraced by many, and that it makes the few who embrace it +miserable; you admit further, with me, that men generally believe as +they wish. Why, then, do you not fly from so hideous a monster, on +the very ground (only in this case it is stronger) on which you doubt +all religious systems,--that is, on account of the supposed paradoxes +they involve? It may be but a little argument with you, who seem to +demand demonstration of religious truth; but for myself, I feel that, +whatever be the truth, such a chimera as scepticism, bristling all +over with paradoxes, must be--a lie." + +"Well," he replied, "but then which religion is the true?" + +"Nay," I said, "that is an after consideration; if you can but be +brought to believe that any is true, I know you will believe but one." + +"You touched just now," he replied, "on the very difficulty. I shall +believe as soon as any one gives me what you truly say I ask,-- +demonstration of the truth of some one of the thousand and one religious +systems which men have believed." + +"And that, demonstration," said I, "you cannot have; for God has not +granted demonstration to man on that or any other subject in which +duty is involved." + +"But why might I not have had it? and should I not have had it, if it +had been incumbent on me to believe it?" + +We had now come to the very knot of the whole argument. + +"Incumbent on you to believe! I suppose you mean, if there had been +any system which you could not but believe; which you must believe +whether you would or not. No doubt, in that case, the requisite +evidence would have been such that scepticism would have been +impossible; that word 'incumbent' implies duty; and that word duty +is the key to the whole mystery, for it implies the possibility of +resisting its claims. We do not speak of its being incumbent on a man +to run out of a burning house, or to swim, if he can, when thrown +into deep water. He cannot help it. If there be a Supreme Ruler of the +universe, and if the posture of his intelligent creatures be that of +submissive obedience to him, it is inconceivable that a man can ever +have experience of his being willing to perform that duty with the +sort of demonstration which you demand; and, for aught we know, it +may be impossible, constituted as we are, that we should ever be +actually trained to that duty, except in the midst of very much less +than certainty. Now, if this be so,--and I defy you or any man to +prove that it may not be so,--then we are asking a simple impossibility +when we ask that we may be freed from these conditions; for it is +asking that we may perform our duty, under circumstances which shall +render all duty impossible." I pursued this subject at some length, +and reminded him that the supposed law of our religious condition was +throughout in analogy with that of the entire condition of our present +life, and in conformity with his own rule of the probable; that it is +probable evidence only that is given to man in either case, and +"probable evidence," as Bishop Butler says, "often of even wretchedly +insufficient character." Nature, or rather God himself, everywhere +cries aloud to us, "O mortals! certainty, demonstration, infallibility, +are not for you, and shall not be given to you; for there must be a sphere +for faith, hope, sincerity, diligence, patience." And as if to prove to +us, not only that this evidence is what we must trust to, but that we +safely may, He impels us by strong necessities of our lower nature +operating on the higher (which would otherwise, perhaps, plead for the +sceptic's inaction in relation to this as well as to another world) +to play our part; if we stand shivering on the brink of action, +necessity plunges us headlong in; if we fear to hoist the sail, the +strength of the current of life snaps our moorings, and compels us to +drive. I reminded him, that the general result also shows that, as man +must, so he may, can, will, shall, (and so through all the moods and +tenses of contingency,) do well; that faith in that same sort of evidence +which the sceptic rejects when urged in behalf of religion, prompts the +farmer to cast in his seed, though he can command no blink of sunshine, +nor a drop of rain; the merchant to commit his treasures to the deep, +though they may all go to the bottom, and sometimes do; the physician +to essay the cure of his patient, though often half in doubt whether +his remedy will kill or save. "It is," said I, "in that same faith +that we build, and plant, and lay our little plans each day; sometimes +coming to nothing, but generally, and according to the fidelity and +manliness with which we have conducted ourselves, securing more than +a return for the moral capital embarked; and even where this is not +the case, issuing, when there have been the qualities which would +naturally secure success, a vigor and robustness of character, +which, like the rude health glowing in the weather-beaten mariner, +who has buffeted with wind and wave, are a more precious recompense +than success itself. In these examples God says to us in effect, +'On such evidence you must and shall act,' and shows us that we +safely may. Without promising us absolute success in all our plans, +or absolute truth in the investigation of evidence, he says, in either +case, 'Do your best; be faithful to the light you have, diligent and +conscientious in your investigations of available evidence, great or +little,--act fearlessly on what appears the truth, and leave the +rest to me.'" + +Harrington here asked the question I expected:--"But suppose different +men coming (as they do) on religious subjects to different conclusions, +after the diligence and fidelity of which you speak, what then?" + +"Then, if the fidelity and diligence have been absolute,--if all has +been done which, under the circumstances, could be done,--I doubt not +they are blameless. But I fear there are very few who can absolutely +say this; and for those who cannot say it at all, their guilt is +proportionate to the demands which the momentous nature of the subject +made on diligence and fidelity." + +"I suppose" said he, with some hesitation, "you will not allow that +I have exercised this impartial search; and yet, supposing that I have, +will you not hold me blameless on the very principles now laid down?" + +It was a painful question; but I was resolved I would have nothing +to reproach myself with; and therefore answered steadily, that it was +not for me to judge the degree of blame which attached to his present +state of mind, which I trusted was only transient; that the argument +from sincerity was itself only one of the probable things of which we +had been speaking; that, so subtle are the operations of the human mind, +so mysterious the play of the passions and affections, the reason and +conscience, so intimate the connection amongst all our powers and +faculties, that it is one of the most difficult things to be able to +say, with truth, that we are perfectly sincere; that I did not see +any difficulty in believing that there is many a man who, without +hesitation and without any conscious hypocrisy, would avow his +sincerity, who, upon being suffered to look into his own mind through +a moral solar microscope, would see there all sorts of misshapen +monsters, and turn away from the spectacle with disgust and horror; +that such a microscope (to speak in figure) might one day be applied +by that Power to whom only the human heart is fully known. I added, +however, that, if I knew more of his mental history for some years +past, (into which my affection-should never induce me impertinently +to pry,) I might, perhaps, in some measure, account for his scepticism; +that I could even conceive cases of minds so "encompassed with +infirmity," or so dependent on states of health, as to render such a +state involuntary, and therefore to take them out of the sphere of +our argument. But, apart from some such causes, I plainly told him I +could not permit myself to believe that religious scepticism could be +free from heavy blame, if only on the ground that such as feel it do +not act consistently with its maxims in other cases, where the +evidence is of the same dubious nature, or rather is much more dubious. +The parallel case would be, (if we could find it,) of a man whose +interest urgently required him to act one way or the other, and who, +instead of acting accordingly, sat down in absolute inaction, on the +score that he did not know what course to pursue. That indecision +would be always blamable. "Ah!" said I, "those cool heads and skilful +hands which pilot the little bark of their worldly fortunes amidst +such dangerous rocks and breakers, under such dark and stormy skies, +what can they say, if asked why they gave up all thought of religion +on the score of doubt, when its hopes are at least as high as those of +the schemes of earthly success, and its claims at least as strong as +those of present duty? What will they be able to say? + +"O Harrington!" I continued, in some such words as these, "supposing +the draught of our present condition not to be such as I have sketched; +that the sceptical view of the gloom in which we are placed is the true +one, and that the Christian's is false; which, nevertheless, is likely +to be not merely the happier, but the nobler being,--he who sits down +in querulous repining or slothful inactivity, as the result of doubt, +or he who, buoyant with faith and hope, encounters the gloom, and, +while longing for the dawn, is confident that it will come? But if +that sketch be a true one,--if the trial of which I have spoken be +necessary for you and for all, to develop and discipline those qualities +which alone will elicit and mature an Immortal Virtue, and secure to us +at last the privilege of indefectible 'children of God,'--then with +what feelings will you hear the Great Master say, 'In every other case +but this, you acted on the principles and maxims by which I taught +you (not obscurely) that I summoned you to act in this case also: +doubts and difficulties were necessary to you as to all, and I +exacted of you no more than were necessary ultimately to secure for +you an eternal exemption from them. But because you could not have +that certainty which the very necessity of the case excluded, you +declined the trial, and have accounted yourself unworthy of eternal +life!' Ah! how different if you could hear him say, 'It was indeed a +temptation; amidst numberless blessings denied to others, I yet +gave you, too, your trial;--the questionable talent of an inquisitive +intellect, and leisure to use or abuse it. Tempted to absolute doubt, +you would not succumb to it; you would not be so inconsistent here +as to relinquish those maxims on which I compelled you to act in +every other case in life, nor deny to ME the confidence which you +granted to every common friend! Warned by the very misery which was +sent to caution you that in that direction lay death, you struggled +against the incursions of your subtle foes, and you overcame. Welcome, +child of clay! welcome to that world in which there is no more NIGHT!'" + +We had been talking on till long past midnight; and the lamp suddenly +warned us that its light was just expiring. Harrington took off the +shade, and was about to light a candle by the dying flame, when it +went out. "It matters not," he said, "I have the means of kindling a +light close at hand." "Let it alone," said I, rising, and gently laying +my hand on his arm, and speaking in a low voice, but with much +earnestness; "this darkness is an emblem of our present life. You +cannot see me, but you hear my voice and feel the touch of my hand. For +any thing you know, I may be seized with a sudden fit of insanity. I may +be about to stab you in this darkness; such things have been. You have +lost, with the light, more than half the indications of affection which +that would disclose. But you trust to the probable; your pulse does not +beat any the quicker, nor do your nerves tremble. You may have similar, +nay, how much stronger proofs (if you will) of the confidence with which +you may trust God, and Him, the compassionate One, "whom he hath sent," +in spite of all the gloom in which this life is involved. That certainty +for which you have just now asked will only be granted when the darkness +is passed away; and then you will 'rejoice in the light of his +countenance.' And, further," I continued, "there is yet one thing which +I wish to say to you; and I feel as if I could say it better in this +darkness; for I will not venture to say that I should not manifest more +feeling than is consistent in a hard-hearted metaphysician. Yes! it +is on the side of feeling that I would also address you. You will say, +feeling is not argument? No; but is man all reason? I firmly believe, +indeed, that man is not called upon to do any thing for which his +reason does not tell him that he has sufficient evidence; but a part +of that very evidence is often the dictate of feeling; and genuine +reason will listen to the heart, as not always, nor perhaps more +frequently than otherwise, a suspicious pleader. If, as Pascal says +so truly, it sometimes has its reasons which the reason cannot +comprehend, it has also its reasons which the reason thoroughly +understands. + +"You were early an orphan; you do not remember your mother; but I do; +ah, how well! I saw her the last time she ever saw you. You were +brought to her bedside when she was in the full possession of all +her faculties, and deeply conscious that she had not many hours to +live. She looked at you as you were held in your nurse's arms, smiling +upon her with to me an agonizing unconsciousness of your approaching +orphanage. She gazed upon you with that intense look of inexpressible +affection which only maternal love, sharpened by death, can give; she +looked long and earnestly, but spoke not one syllable. As you were at +length taken from the room, she followed you with her eyes till the +door closed, and then it seemed as if the light of this world had been +quenched in them for ever. 'I charge you,' she said at length, 'let +me see him again.' I made a motion as if to recall the attendant +'Not here,' she added, laying her hand gently on my arm, and I +understood her but too well. You know whether I have in any degree +fulfilled my trust. But is it possible that I can think of an utter +failure, and not be more than troubled? And if Christianity be true, +and if I am so happy as to obtain admission to that 'blessed country +into which an enemy never entered, and from which a friend never went +away,' and she whom I loved so well should ask me why you come +not,--that she had tarried for you long,--must I say that you will +never come? that her child had wandered from the fold of the Good +Shepherd, and had gone I knew not whither? that I sought him in the +lonely glens and mountains, but found him not? I hardly know, but I +almost think--such was the love she had for you--that such reply +would shade that radiant face even amidst the glories of Paradise. +And now--let all this be a dream--suppose that not simply by your +own fault you will never see that mother more, but that from the sad +truth of your no truth--you never can; that the 'Vale, vale, in +aeternum, vale,' is all that you can say to her: yet I say this,--that +to live only in the hope of the possibility of fulfilling the better +wishes of such a friend, and rejoining her for ever in (if you will) +the fabulous 'islands of the blest,' would not only make you a happier, +but even a nobler, being than your present mood can ever make you. +My FABULOUS is better than your TRUE." + +I felt that he was not unmoved. I was myself moved too much to allow +me to stay any longer, and saying that I could find my way very well +to my chamber in the dark, where I had the means of kindling a light, +I softly closed the door and left him. +____ + +As I was to leave very early in the morning, I had told Harrington +that I should depart for the neighboring town (whither his servant +was to drive me) without disturbing him. But I could not tear myself +away, after the singular close of our interview on the last evening, +without a more express farewell. I tapped at his chamber door, but, +receiving no reply, gently entered. He was resting in unquiet slumber. +A table, lamp, and books, by his bedside, bore witness to his +perseverance in that pernicious habit which he had early formed! I +gently drew back one of the curtains, and let in the light of the +summer morning on his pallid, but most speaking features, and gazed +on them with a sad and foreboding feeling. I recalled those days +when I used nightly to visit the slumbers of the little orphan, and +trace in his features the image of his mother. He was not aroused by +my entrance; most likely he had sunk to slumber at a late hour. +Presently he began to talk in his sleep, which was almost a constant +habit in his younger days, and which I used to consider one of the +symptoms of that intense cerebral activity by which he was +distinguished. On the present occasion I thought I could interpret +the fitful and fleeting images which were chasing each other by the +laws of association through his mind. "But how shall I know that +these thing which I call real, are different from the phenomena +of sleep which I call real?" Alas! thought I, the ruling passion +is strong in sleep, as in waking moments! How I dread lest it should +be strong "in death" itself, of which this sleep is the image! After +a pause, an expression of deepest sadness crept over the features, +and he murmured, with a slight alteration, two lines from Coleridge's +translation of that glorious scene in which Wallenstein looks forth +into the windy night in search of his "star," and thinks of that +brighter light of his life which had been just extinguished. +Harrington used to say, that he preferred the translation of that +scene even to the magnificent original itself. These lines, (now a +little varied,) I had often heard him quote with delight:-- + +"Methinks +If I but saw her, 't would be well with me; +She was the star of my nativity." + +Was he, by the magic of dream-land, transported back to childhood? Was +he as an orphan child thinking of his mother, the image of whose dying +hours I had so recently called up before him? Or was it the +recollection of a still brighter and more recently extinguished "star," +which thus troubled his wandering fancy?--There was another pause, and +again the fitful breeze of association awakened the sad and plaintive +melody of the AEolian lyre; but I could not distinguish the words. + +Presently the scene again changed; and he suddenly said, "Beautiful +shadow! if thou art a shadow,--thou hast said, Come to me all ye +that are weary,--and surely if ever man was weary--To whom can I +go--" It was with intense feeling that I watched for something more; +but to my disappointment, (I may almost call it anguish,) he continued +silent. I could not find it in my heart to rouse him, and, softly +leaving the chamber, departed for home. +____ + +October 31. The young Sceptic has since gone where doubts are solved +for ever; but I am not without hope, that in his last hours he was +able to finish the sentence which his dream-left incomplete. "To +whom can I go, but unto Thee? THOU ONLY HAST THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE." +For me, I have nothing more to live for here. In a few weeks I gladly +go to join my brother in his distant exile;--and for Thee, my Country, +"Peace be within thy dwellings, and prosperity within thy palaces!" +And that it may be so, may that Christianity, which, all imperfectly +as it has been exemplified, has yet been thy Palladium and thy Glory, +be ever and increasingly dear to thee! +____ + +December 27. I have resolved that the fragments which originally +constituted this journal shall not be destroyed. I have employed the +interval since the last date in adapting and disguising them +for publication. How far an embroidery of fiction has been necessary +in attaining this object, is a matter of no consequence to any one; +since the book aspires to none of the appropriate attractions of +either a novel or a history. No doubt a much stronger interest, of +a certain kind, might have been secured by a free employment of +fictitious embellishment, or even by a more liberal indulgence in +biographical details. But I have been content, for a special object, +to do what some tell us is to be done with the Bible,--to separate, +from the mass of incident which might have varied or adorned the +narrative the exclusively "Religious Element." If the discussions +in the preceding pages shall in any instance convince the youthful +reader of the precarious nature of those modern book-revelations +which are somewhat inconsistently given us in books which tell us +that all book-revelations of religious truth are superfluous or +even impossible; if they shall convince him how easily an impartial +doubter can retort with interest the deistical arguments against +Christianity, or how little merely insoluble objections can avail +against any thing; if they shall convince him that the differences +with which the assailants of the Bible taunt its advocates are +neither so numerous nor half so appalling as those which divide +its enemies; or, lastly, if they shall, par avarice, in any degree +protect those who, like Harrington D----, are being made, or are +in danger of being made, sceptical as to all religious truth, by the +religious distractions of the present day,--I shall be well content +to bear the charge of having spoiled a Fiction, or even of having +mutilated a Biography. + +F.B. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Eclipse of Faith, by Henry Rogers + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH *** + +***** This file should be named 16866.txt or 16866.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/6/16866/ + +Produced by Michael John Madden + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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