”

PARS I FAL

THE FINDING OF CHR I ST THROUGHART

R ICHARD WAGNER AS THEOLOG IAN

ALBERT ROSS PARSONS }P R ES I DENT OF THE MUS I C TEA CHER S

,NA TI ONA L A S SOC I AT I ON

The God revealed to us by Jesus—th ls God w h o never c an be revea led ag a in , because then and

fo r the first tnme he w as revea led to mank ind .-R I CHA R D WA GNER .

189950

A L BER T R OSS P A R SONS

1890

t he”k nickerbocker press, mew porkElec tro typed ,

P rm ted , and Bound by

G. P . Pu tnam’s Sons

PREFA CE.

THE main text of the present w o rk is substantiallyidentical with a lecture entitled The Finding ofChrist through Art ; or, Richard Wagner as Theologian,

” delivered before the Lecture Chapter of theGuild of All Souls Church (Episcopal), New YorkCity

,Sunday afternoon

,May 19

,1889

,by invitation

of the Guild,through the Rev. R. Heber Newton

,

D .D .

,rector of the parish.

As the time at the lecturer’s command upon suchan occasion would no t admit of an exhaustive presentation of the evolution and final outcome of Wagner’sthoughts upon religion during a period of fortyyears

,the matter chosen and the form of the lecture

were determined by the circumstances of the occasion,

including the time and place of its delivery and theaudience which was likely to assemble to hear it.In preparing it for publication

,the determining

circumstances connected. with the occasion of its firstpublic reading lose their importance

,and it becomes

a duty to extend its dimensions and add to its material in ways which a regard to the larger circle of thereading community would naturally suggest. I n

the present edition of this lecture, the additional

6 PARSIFAL .

material is presented mainly in the form of notes andappendices.Of writing many books on the story and the

musical and dramatic workmanship of Wagner’smusic-dramas there is no end

,and in this interpreta

tive labor the Parsifal is by no means being neglected.

In the present work we are to consider the master’screation from quite another point of view. We areno t to ask wha tWagner wrote in Parsifal

,nor how

he wrote it,musically and otherwise

,but instead

,

how he came to write the work at all. Or,in other

words,we are to inquire what sort of a personal

relation to,and what sort of an interest in

,Christian

ity it w as which impelled him to the toil involvedin the design and execution of such a work

,and

which caused his genius to glow with the sublimedevotional and emotional inspirations which characterize this

,the Swan’s Song of his astonishing

artistic career.By some

,Wagner has been deemed a Buddhist,

and not without a show of reason for his study ofSchopenhauer would naturally lead to more or lessfamiliarity with the principles o f Hindu religion.

Indeed,in Parsifal

,in the scene in K lingsor’s gar

den,ln which we are reminded of the apostolic

expressi on,

“ in all points tempted like as we are

yet without sin,

” to meet the requirements of dramatic art

,Wagner obviously turns to the legend

of Buddha’s temptation by the daughters ofMara di sguised as beautiful women. But the w ords quoted

A STUDY. 7

on our title-page would seem to show conclusivelythat Wagner’s sympathetic attitude towards whatever o f the True

,the Beautiful

,and the Good is

contained in uncorrupted Buddhism,did not mislead

him into committing the anachronism,for a Chri stian

land and era,of reverting to Buddha as the supreme

master,and thus subordinating the Light of the

World to the Light of Asia.Wagner’s position in theological speculation maybe compared to a Continental water-shed for themore clearly we understand his position

,so much

the clearer and more far-reaching is our understanding of the course and destiny of the currents ofthought which fl ow in various directions from thatcommanding height .No study offers richer rewards to the cautious and

clear-headed explorer than that of the various streamsfrom which the children of men in all ages and climeshave been accustomed to take their portion of thewater of life which ever cometh down from above.Only we shall do well to avoid confounding theocean of commonplace

,

” in which all religions alikefind their lowest level

,with the true point of unity

discovered by following them upwards from theplane of ordinary human life to their sources alongthe way to the Throne above. For want of suchprecaution

,Major-General Forlong

,author of the

monument of human research which he publishedunder the title of “Rivers of Life

,

” who went toIndia confident that he knew all

,and that he was

8 PARSIFAL .

prepared to convert the heathen,made shipwreck

of the faith,being

,at the end of his far-reaching

researches,unable

,apparently

,to see any thing in

any religion beyond the external marks of all thedegradations which all religions have sufiered at thehands of the ignorant

,the superstitious

,and the

debased ; while, on the other hand, F. Max Muller,

who may never have thought of converting anyonefrom one religion to another

,has followed the

currents of Hindu religion upward,until

,reaching

the plane of the highest ideas to which the Hinduever attained

,he has gained for us from those

heights a new and open vision of the lofty superiority of Christianity

,

“towering o’er all the wrecks oftime .But apart from the interest and value attaching to

the lines of thought opened up by an examination ofWagner’s utterances upon the subject of Christianity

,

such an examination seems imperatively demandedby the prevalent ignorance

,not only among culti

v ated people at large,but among music-lovers as

well,and nowhere more pronounced than among

admirers of Wagner’s art,of the fact that he ever

gave any thought to sacred subjects. Indeed,so

certain were the editors of two influential newspapers thatWagner never had any religious opinions

,

that they had the temerity to review the presentlecture without having heard a word of it, in supremea ssurance that there was nothing to be said on thesubject

A STUDY. 9

Thus,on the morning of the Sunday when this

lecture was to be delivered,a Brooklyn journal

placed before its readers the following editorialparagraph

“A discourse on ‘The Finding of Christ throughArt ; or, Richard Wagner as Theologian,

’ is an

nounced for to day at All Souls Episcopal Churchin New York. Inasmuch as Wagner rejected Christianity and all other forms of religion, as he regardedutter annihilation or unconsciousness as the idealdestiny of man

,and as he avowed a purpose to teach

the philosophy of pessimism by his music,it would

seem as if Dr. Heber Newton’s pulpit guest had

undertaken a somewhat difficult task.

”

While,at the distance of four hundred miles from

New York,viz.

,in the city of Bufialo

,a long news

paper editorial was printed,f alsely purporting to re

port the lecture,the temper o f which editorial will

appear from the subjoined extractsAll Souls Church

,New York

,was filled with an

audience which listened to the Gospel according toSt. Richard. The particular Richard thus canonizedwas surnamed Wagner. Like many anothergospeller

,he has begun to be misrepresented by his

adherents since his death,even as he was falsified by

his enemies while living. Mr. Parsons assertedthat the spirit of Christianity and of music alike waslove

,and hence drew the conclusion that their essen

tial spirit was the same . Thence he argued thatmusic

,dispelling external things

,brought the soul of

I O PARSIFAL .

man into direct and powerful communion with God.

This is only one more rhapsody. Music has beenmistaken for Christianity before now

,and by much

humbler persons than Mr. Parsons . To drop— o r

rise— from Wagner through prayer-meeting hymnology and the wild improvisation of the negro campmeeting will illustrate the point where the lecturermissed the truth. Had he not missed it his lecturewould never have been written . The purposesof music and Christianity are not the same. Mr.Parsons has attempted that inartistic laborwhich thetruest artists shun, of displaying art in places andin lights where it was never meant to be seen.

”

The reader who compares the lecture itself withthese newspaper utterances will be prepared to follow Wagner where he writes (in his

“Essay onBeethoven

“With the invention of newspapers,and since

journalism has attained full bloom,the good spirit

of the people has been forced to retire altogetherfrom public life . For now only opinion rules

,and

indeed public opinion ; it is to be had for money ;whoever takes a newspaper has procured not

only the waste paper,but also its opinions ; he no

longer needs to think or to reflect ; what he is tobelieve of God and the world is already thought outfor him in black and white.Touching the statement made by the reporter of a

leading New York daily newspaper,that the lec

turer said that,FromWagner’s thirtieth year on he

A STUDY. 1:

studied Christianity until he became a sincere Christian

,

” the present writer can only say that hedoes not know at what point in the lecture thatremarkable affirmation was made 1Without presuming to determine for others precisely what constitutes a sincere Christian,

” he deems it exceedinglyimprobable that Wagner ever did become a Christian in any popular acceptation of the term . ButthatWagnerf ound the Christ, the Son of the LivingGod

,of that the writer is convinced by the simple

fact,among other things

,that to his personal knowl

edge,the reading of this lecture at All Souls Church

was the means of bringing into the sacred edificecertain intelligent persons

,unaccustomed to church

going,and in the habit of regarding Christianity as

a mixture of delusion and conventionality,who sub

sequently confessed that Wagner’s earnest wordshad illuminated their minds and caused their heartsto burn within them with a new sense of the meaning of Christianity as a great fact and factor

,not

only in civilization,past

,present

,and future

,but

also in personal life IOver against all such expar tenewspaper statements,

we may pause to place the conclusions to which theresults of the present work will be found to point.In the evolution of each individual human body

,

it passes through various phases in succession ofdefinite resemblance to fam ilar animal forms

,and the

body retains vestiges of some of those forms of existence through life ; yet for all that, a man is not an

12 PARSIFAL .

animal,nor can an animal ever be a man . Something

suggestive of this appears when we study the development of Wagner

’s religious thought. In hisearlier years the nature of his studies and thenatural revolt of conscious genius against prevalentabuses in political

,artistic

,and religious affairs

brought him into contact at many points with thespirit of scepticism yet Wagner was not a sceptic

,

nor can a sceptic ever be a Wagner.To be sure

,he

,like many another great spirit

,first

saw only as through a glass,darkly his soul had to

Draw from o ut the vastA nd strike his being into b ounds,A nd— mo ved through life o f lower phase

R esult in man, be bo rn and think .

”

But then,not having been destroyed by error

,but

like an Augustine of old,made wise by experience

,

he is gradually revealed to us as

No longer ha lf - ak in to b rute

F o r all he thought, and lo ved,and did,

A nd hoped and suffered,was but seed

Of what at last was fl ower and fruit

F o r God,who ever lives and lo ves

,

One God,one law

,o ne element,

And one far - o ff divine event,

To which the who le c reation mo ves .

(I n Memori am . )

For the Christian it must ever be a satisfaction toknow that the thoughts we are about to follow from

A STUDY. 13

the w ritings of the grandest musical and dramaticgenius who has appeared in modern times

,are not

early opinions accepted at the hands of teachers inyouth

,and subsequently disowned

,but are the last

utterances,at the ripe age of sixty-five years and up

wards,o f a mind of dauntless self-reliance

,indepen

dence,and daring

,— the deliberately expressed views

of a man who detested conventionality and policyand showed the courage of his opinions at all times

,re

gardless of consequences, and who withal was learnedin and a master of the metaphysical science which

,

certain professing,concerning their faith do swerve .

”

The Scriptural quotations which occur in thesepages are mostly from Young’s Bible Translation

,

”

which,except in following convention in translating

the titles of Deity in the Old Testament,aims at

reproducing the Holy Oracles in English literallyand in the exact idioms of the original.

GAR DEN C ITY,L ONG I SLAND

,

Lent, 1890 .

PARS IFAL.

THE F IND ING OF CHR IST THROUGH ART ; OR ,

R ICHARD WAGNER AS A THEOLOG IAN.

*

I N a sermon on “ Inspiration,delivered in All

Souls Church by the rector,Rev . R. Heber Newton,

it was said “Men of business,physicians

,inventors

,

political economists,statesmen

,novelists

,dramatists

,

painters,musicians

,— all may feel ‘ the inbreathing

of the Divine Spirit,all may be most truly inspired.

’

Every knowledge and every power forms a step inthe world’s great altar stairs that slope throughdarkness up to God .

’ God claims all the vari edfields of His own Creation as the spheres for HisSpirit’s action . All lines of true human thoughtfocus in Religion.

We propose to subject this teaching to an ap

parently severe test, by taking the case of RichardWagner

,and examining the religious views to which

,

I n Christian phraseo logy t/zeolog os meets us first a s the name o f the

autho r o f the Apoca lypse,John the D ivine

,o r the Tfieologos . This

name , however, w e are to ld,w a s given to him no t simply because he w as

wha t we ca ll a theo logian,but because he mainta ined the d ivini ty o f the

Logos. I n the third and fourth centuries tbeologos is sa id to have mean tusua lly one who defended tha t doctrine.

”

(F . Max Muller, NaturalReligion

,

"

16 PARSIFAL.

solely as an artist,he was led

,and upon which his

last and loftiest creation,Parsifal

,is based.

This is the Christian Sunday,and we are assembled

in a Christian church . It is,therefore

,neither the

time nor the place for a panegyric either on Wagneror upon Art. Neither must this Church

,its Lecture

Chapter,nor the present speaker stand committed

,

even by implication,to any peculiarities in the ideas

about to be presented for your consideration .

We are simply to examine the religious viewsfinally reached by an artist who

,orphaned in earliest

youth and never systematically educated,became in

the course of his favorite studies,in the field of the

classical drama,so thoroughly a pagan at first that

as late as 1849,at the age of thirty-six years

,he

expressly exalted the beautiful Greek god,Apollo

,

above Christ,as the true ideal of humanity.

“The Christian,

” said he,

“rejects both Natureand Self. He can make offerings to his God only onthe altar of renunciation ; deeds he dare not bring.

While Jesus teaches the Brotherhood ofMan

,Apollo puts upon that Brotherhood the seal of

strength and beauty,and leads mankind from doubt

of their own worth,to the highest consciousness of

their Divine power. ”

(Wagner,“Collected Writ

ings,

” Vol. III.

,pp. 20

,

As,subsequently

,Wagner created a series of

works which,in spite of their alleged diflficulty of

comprehension,at present rule over the opera

houses of his native land,besides drawing lovers of

A STUDY. 17

art from all lands to the remote Bavarian city wherehe celebrated his crowning triumphs

,and where his

ashes are entombed,it concerns us to ask the source

of his power. Was it culture or religion"Paganismor Christianity"Was it of man or of God" Is oris not

,great art still, as of old, the handmaid of

religionThat there is an ethical tendency in Wagner’s

works is clear.But

,since it is a common idea that the actual nu

reality of theatrical representations tends to destroyall belief in the reality of any thing ideal

,two ques

tions are asked by many,v iz

1. Was not Wagner everywhere dealing, at leastin his own opinion

,with mere myths"

2. Is not the ethical tendency in Wagner’s worksa mere artistic calculation of stage -efiect

As to the first of these questions,namely

,that of

dealing with mere myths,

” it should be rememberedthat there are various ways of looking at myths.Thus in the P opular S cienceMonthly forFebruaryand March of the current year under thetitle of “Chapters in Comparative Mythology

,

” by anAmerican College Ex-President

,the writer seems

to take for granted that all myths are at bottom bothempty and false and accordingly in the blunderingattempts made from time to time through the agesto restate and explain those astonishing stories

,the

memory of which an overruling Providence hasordained, it would seem,

that men shall preserve in

18 PARSIFAL .

some form or other and hand down to times ofgreater light

,in which both the original events and

their moral shall at last be understood,

—in all ofthis the P opular S cience writer in question seeschiefly something over which to raise a laughTo all' such barren views of the nature and signifi

cance of myths,it sufli c es to apply the words : By

their fruits ye shall know them I ”

On the other hand we have the fruitful view ofmyths entertained by such great minds as Schelling,Ruskin

,Wagner

,etc.

Says Schelling,rejecting the notion that in myths

we see simply the flower of human folly : “How,if

in mythology the ruins of a superior intelligence andeven a perfect system were found

,which would

reach far beyond the horizon which the most ancientwritten records present to us"”

Says Ruskin : We may take it for a first princ iple both in science and literature, that the feeblestmyth is better than the strongest theory mythrecording a natural impression on the imaginationsof great men and unpretending multitudes

,the

theory an unnatural exertion of the wits of littlemen and the half-wits of impertinent multitudes.The myths

,like all thoughts worth having

,came

like sunshine,whether people would or not : theori es

,

like thoughts not worth having,are little lucifer

matches people strike for themselves ”

(to“lighten

their darkness,

” Ruskin might have added) .

That these natural impressions,or myths

,were no

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O

to put up with ; and now its lips will move, and aSpirit voice will say to you something real andthoroughly comprehensible

, yet never before heard,as did once

,say

,the Marble Guest

,and the page

Cherubino,to Mozart. On hearing this

,you will

awaken as from a dream. Every thing will vanishfrom sight

,but in the spiritual hearing the message

will sound on. Something has occurred to you,and

that is a musical motive.” Wagner,

”1879, p .

Our third citation throws light on the question ofmere calculation of stage-effect

,by disclosing Wag

ner’s conscious attitude toward the amusement-seeking publicWhen I am alone by myself

,and the musical

fibres begin to tremble within me,when confused

sounds shape themselves into harmonies,and from

those harmonies arises the melody which,as Idea

,

reveals to me my whole being ; when the heartin loud beatings adds its impetuous metre

,and

inspiration pours itself out in divine tears throughthe mortal eye

,which now no longer sees

,— then

I often say to myself What a great fool art thou,

no t to keep always by thyself and dwell there inthese unique joys

,instead of pressing out into that

hideous crowd called the public "What can thatpublic

,even with its most brilliant receptions

,give

to thee,which will possess even the hundreth part

of the value of that sacred refreshing which wells upwithin thyself Wagner

,

” I .

,p.

Before proceeding to exhibit the Christian theol

A STUDY. 2 1

ogy to which Wagner was led by his labors in thefield of musical drama

,it is proper to say a word to

those who,afiected by the conduct popularly at

tributed to him,may be startled by the idea of

considering him in the light of a Christian theologian. Suffice it to say

,that certainly for years

previous to the expression of the religious conclusions which we are about to consider

,Wagner lived

subject to the forms of German law,and under the

formal sanction of the Protestant Church of Germany. That is all which we

,as good citizens

,are

concerned to know . The rest is a matter betweenRichard Wagner and the Divine Redeemer

,whom

he learned to confess before his fellow-men in wordsand tones of glowing enthusiasm.

Only in his deeds,

” says Wagner,are the

thoughts of a man convincingly revealed. Preciselyin the perfect agreement between his thoughts andhis deeds does his character consist. ” Wagner

,

p .

We have already remarked the ethical quality ofWagner’s artistic deeds

,and w e are now to follow

the thoughts which resulted from his pursuing artup to the point of its vital union with Christianity.

At the very outset of our investigation the readermay find it hard to postpone the question : DidWagner himself become a Christian" To answerthat question satisfactorily

,perhaps we should first

all have to agree as to what is essential to Christianity . Roman Catholic he was not

,nor was he

22 PARSIFAL.

either Churchman,Presbyterian

,or Unitarian. His

lofty admiration for the genius of Luther,as a fore

most representative o f German Spirit,in the courage

of its convictions and its “ irrepressible protestagainst all external burdens laid upon it of aformalistic nature

,is well known to all students

of Wagner’s writings ; but, for all that, his planeof vision was such that he viewed neither life nor

religion through Lutheran spectacles exclusively,

but,instead

,drew many a profound lesson from the

lives and teaching of Roman Catholic saints.Indeed

,there are so many sorts of Christians now

,

that it seems just as impossible for all of us to be ofone sort as for one of us to be of all sorts. I twould

seem,however

,tha twemay a ll of us either find, or f a il

to find,the Chr ist. If we shall conclude that Wag

ner found the Christ,perhaps w e may defer the

question of his Christianity until we have settledamong ourselves the question of our own.

*

A thinker on Christianity,Wagner unquestionably

became. If we furths1 ask,what sort of thinker he

became,and whether he

,self-taught in theology

,came

to think as all think who ever think a t all uponChristianity

,the questions answer themselves. God is

obviously not the author of confusion,with its neces

sary consequence— endless sameness, but, instead, ofunity in boundless diversity. Hence

,while all Chris

F o r testing the quality o f one’s own religious life, a simple criterion isaffo rded by F . Max Muller’s concentrated definition o f Religion as a per

caption of the infin ite under such manif esta tions a s a re a t": to infl uence the

mora l cha ra cter of men .

"

A STUDY. 23

tians may be united in charity,the only ones who

can think just alike are those who never think at all,

beyond the point of thinking it best to let others dotheir thinking for them.

fWagner thought for himself. Hence,what he

brought to light is in the native ore,and full of ele

ments characteristic of his own personality. To thedegree

,however

,that this ore contains real gold

,its

intrinsic value will be obvious,even in the absence

of the form and impress of products of an authorizedtheological mint.A convenient point of departure for our investiga

tion 1s offered by Wagner’s view of the attitude ofphysical science toward the least animal and mosttruly human side of human nature

,v iz. the spiritual

side. Says Wagner,with keen irony

“Since,with the advance of physical science

,all

the mysteries of being must necessarily be exposedas merely imaginary mysteries

,nothing will be left

but know ledge,and even then intuitive knowledge

w ill have to be excluded,since it might lead to

metaphysical assumptions from which abstract scientific knowledge must be kept free

,un til logic, guided

by chemistry ( I) has become clear concerning intuitive knowledge I To the Goliath of modern science

,

art daily becomes more and more of a mere rudimentof a former cognitive stage of human life

,a sort of

tail-bone surviving in us from an actual prehensiletail of earlier times . Hence this Goliath only indulges in intercourse with art so far as is necessary

24 P A R SZF A L .

for the maintenance of academies,colleges

,etc.

,hon

estly doing his best, meanwhile, to prevent any thinglike true artistic productivity from arising

,because

tha t might a ll too easily induce a relapse into the‘ insp ira tion sw indle

’of surmountedper iods of cul

ture . (“Wagner 1878

,p .

But,does some one exclaim : Is not modern science

the champion of progress Let us hearWagner again :“Those who float with the stream may fancy theybelong to the party of continual progress. It is

,at

all events,easy to let themselves be borne along by

the current,and they do not notice that their destiny

is to be swallowed up in the ocean of the commonplace . To swim against the stream must seem ridicalous to all who are not irresistibly impelled to makethe enormous effort which is required to do it. Butwe really cannot prevent being swept away by thecurrent save by swimming against it toward the truesource of life. Often it will seem impossible toavoid succumbing ; but just as often we shall emergefrom the waves and find ourselves rescued at themoment of deepest exhaustion— and lo "the astonished waves will hear a voice

,and for a moment

stand still,as when a great spirit unexpectedly speaks

to the world" Then the bold swimmer will againstrike out

,not life

,but the true source of life

being his quest "Who that has once reached thatsource could ever find pleasure in again plunginginto that current" From blissful heights he looksdown upon the distant ocean with its mutually

A STUDY. 25

destroying monsters . Can we blame him for renouncing forever all that there destroys itself" Wag

ner,

”1878, p .

Wagner was a student of the dramatic art ofthe Greeks from boyhood on. It was

,therefore

,

but natural that he should finally approach Christianity by the same path as did the ancientGreeks

,who

,occupying by virtue of the cultivation

of mythology a plane of thought superior to anymerely materialistic

,physical view of life

,developed

a metaphysic which rendered the doctrine of Incarnation at once rational and philosophical. SaysWagner :

Of the Greek belief in gods it may be said that,

conformably to their artistic endowments,that belief

was always combined with anthropomorphism,or the

manifestation of the Divine in human form. Theirgods were well-defined shapes of the most distinctindividuality

,and the names of those gods desig

nated the notion of a species precisely as names ofcolored objects designated the different colors themselves

,for which the Greeks employed no abstract

names,such as ours . Gods they were called only to

designate their nature as Divine. The Divine Himself

,however

,the Greeks called simply God . It

never occurred to them to think of God as limitedto personality. Hence they never gave Him an"artistic shape

,like the gods with names. God Him

self was left to the philosophers to define,and proved

a conception which the Hellenic mind sought

26 P A R SZF A L .

distinctly to establish" until

,by a band of wonder

fully inspired poor people,the incredible tidings

were proclaimed that the Son of God had offeredhimself upon the Cross as a sacrifice for the redemption of the world from the bonds of deceit and sin.

With this,God Himself assumed shape in the mostanthropomorphic manner

,viz.

,the highest conception

of sympathetic love embodied in a human formstretched in agonizing sufferings upon the Cross . Inthis picture

,and its effect upon the soul

,lies the

entire magic by which the Church first conqueredthe Graeco -Roman world. Wagner

,

”1880

,p .

The full measure of Wagner’s worship of Christwe cannot learn without listening to his viewsconcerning the reason why the Redeemer is no t yetfound chief among ten thousand and altogetherlovely ” by mankind in general

,and by many of the

choicest minds of all ages in particular. In following him on this point

,we must continually bear in

mind that to Wagner,a self-taught theologian

,the

names of God and Jehovah were not synonymous“ And Paul

,having sto o d in the midst o f the Areopagus , said , Men,

Athenians,in all things I perceive you as o ver- religious fo r passing through

and contemplating your objec ts o f wo rship,I found also an erectio n on

which had been inscribed To God— unknown whom,therefo re— no t

knowing,

—ye do wo rship , this one I announce to you He giving to

all life,and breath

,and a ll things He made a lso o f o ne blo o d every na tion

o f men,to dwell upon all the face o f the ea rth- having o rda ined times b e

fore appointed,and the bounds o f their dwellings— to seek the Lo rd , if per

haps they d id feel a fter Him and find,— though , indeed , he i s no t fa r o fl

from each one o f us , fo r in Him w e live and move, and are a s a lso certaino f your poets have said : F o r o f Him w e a lso a re o ff spring. (Acts , xvi i22- 23 , 25

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28 P A R SZF A L .

sons,but has in every nation those who fear Him

they became themselves isolated . The God who wasthe outcome of their own selfishness became the instrument of their to rtul e.

“In vain arose to the clouds the odor of burningbullocks and sheep from the altars of their temples.By the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah

,the true

Jehovah of Hosts and God of Israel declared untothem explicitly : ‘ I did no t speak with your fathers

,

Nor did I command them in the day of my bringingthem out of the land of Egypt

,Concerning the mat

ters of burnt-offerings and sacrifice,But this thing I

commanded them,saying

,Hearken to my voice

,and

I will be unto you for God and ye shall be my people and shall walk in the way I

_

command you,and

it shall be well with you .

’ But to the Jehovahof Jeremiah

,Israel did no t hearken ; and the false

Jehovah,the mental image which they endowed

wi th their own character,had no power to help his

worshippers. The Unlimited,Eternal

,and Infinite

God disappeared from their view,and they endowed

the false Jehovah with all the good and evil qualities which characterized their own selves. Thusthe eternal Reality

,the Truth

,was deposed from

His throne,the prophets were stoned

,and priest

craft,with its opiates and illusions

,assumed the

sceptre . Thus the worshippers of the false Jehovah forfeited their own manhood. The interestsof the Jewish Church became paramount to thepursuit of wisdom ; external ceremonies and material

A STUDY. 29

sacrifices took the place of spiritual aspirations andheart-offerings .All of this I Vagner seems to have seen ; and hefurther saw how far the Hebrews remained fromrealizing the idea of an immanent God

,such as Theism

teaches,and that they rather conceived of God deis

tically,taking so literally the command

,Thou hast

no other gods before me I that they recognized theexistence of “other gods ” by repeatedly and fl a

grantly disobeying the injunction,and worshipping

them. It is,therefore

,only unusual

,but by no

means inexplicable,that Wagner should have failed

to recognize in Jehovah of the Jews the God andFather of our Lord and Sav iour Jesus Christ ; fordid not the Lord Himself say : “Nor doth any knowthe Father

,except the Son

,and he to whom the

Son may wish to reveal Him ” " Accordingly,we

shall represent Wagner’s exact meaning more prec isely by translating,

“The Tribal Deity of the Jews,

”

or the “God of Deism,

” wherever Wagner refers to“Jehovah .

” It will be observed that in Wagner’sopinion

,materialistic physical science is destructive

of Deism only,while Christian Theism is wholly

beyond its reach . Wagner writes :That which necessarily led to the downfall of

the Church and finally to the continually more pronounced Atheism of our time

,was the idea 1nsp1red

by the mania for conquest,of deriving this Divinity

o n the Cross from the Tribal Deity of the Jews,with

the preaching of whom,as an angry and vindictive

30 PARSIFAL.

God,it seemed to the priests possible to accomplish

more than with the preaching of the self-off ering

,all-loving Saviour of the poor. Wagner

,

”

1880,p . That the God of our Saviour should

be declared to us as identical with the Tribal Deityof Israel is one of the most frightful confusions inthe history of the world. It has in all ages revengeditself

,and tod ay still revenges itself in the continu

ally more and more outspoken Atheism of thecoarsest as w ell as the finest minds. Science ismaking the god of Deism continually more andmoreimpossible. Meanwhile

,the God revealed by Jesus

has from the birth of the Church been progressivelyreduced by theologians from the most sublime obv iousness

,to a continually more and more unintelligi

ble problem.

” Wagner,

”1878

,p .

“The Gospels have now been so often and soexactly examined critically

,and their origin and the

facts concerning their compilation brought out withsuch unmistakable correctness

,that in the midst of

all that excites contradiction as ungenuine and extraneous

,the sublime form of the Redeemer and His

work,must

,it seem to us

,have become distinctly

apparent to the critics themselves. But the Godrevealed to us by Jesus

,the God which none of the

gods, sages, or heroes of the wor ld ever knew,but

who now,in the very midst of the Pharisees

,Scribes

,

and Priests,was revealed to poor Galilean fishermen

and shepherds with such power and simplicity,that

whoever once discerned Him,immediately looked

A STUDY. 3 :

upon the world with all its possessions, as worthlessand null

,— this God

,who never can be revealed

aga i n, because then and f or the first time,He was

revea led to mankind,this God the critics forever

view with mistrust,because they deem themselves

compelled to identify Him with the Tribal Deityof the Jews and Deistic Creator of the world.

Wagner,

”1878, pp . 219

“This confusion of thought is so great,that it is

really astonishing to see how the most importantminds of all times

,since the appearance of the Bible

,

have been cramped by it and betrayed into weaknessof judgment. Think of Goethe

,who deemed Christ

problematical,but held the God of Deism to be

a demonstrated fact I In so concluding,Goethe re

served,to be sure

,the liberty to find that God in his

own w ay in Nature . This of course always resultsin all sort s of physical experiments in the field ofnatural science

,the continual prosecution of which

experiments has again led the ruling human intellectof the day to the conclusion that there is no God atall

,but only Force and Matter. ” Wagner

,1880

,

p .

The God of Deism was condemned by art. TheDeity in the burning bush

,nay, even the white

bearded venerable old man looking down out of acloud

,with a blessing on his Son

,did no t

,even when

represented by the most masterly artistic hand,say

much to the faithful soul : but the suffering Godupon the Cross

,the Head bowed down with so r

3 2 PARSIFAL.

rows,

’ even in the crudest representation still fills usas in all ages

,with enthusiastic emotion. Wag

ner,

”1880

,p.

The men of physical science feel very wise overthe fact that Copernicus with his planetary systemhas taken away from God his heavenly home. Wedo not find

,however

,that the Church has felt mate

rially perplexed by this discovery. For her and allthe faithful

,God still dwells in heaven

,or as Schiller

sings,Above the starry zone . ’ But the God within

the human breast,of whom our greatest mystics

have always been so certainly and luminously conscious over and above all consciousness of being

,this

God who needs no scientifically demonstrableheavenly habitation

,has made trouble for the priests.

To us Germans that God had become profoundlyknown. Still our professors have done much tospoil Him. They are now cutting up dogs to demonstrate Him to us in the spinal cord I

1880,p .

“Nevertheless,our own God

,still evokes much

within us,and as "in the confusion wrought by

materialistic physical science"He was about tovanish from our sight

,He left us for an eternal

memorial of Himself our music,which is the living

God in our bosoms . Hence we preserve our musicand ward o ff from it all sacrilegious hands ; for ifweharken to frivolous or insincere music we extinguishthe last lightGod has left burningwithin us to lead theway to find Him anew I ” Wagner

,

”1880

, p.

A STUDY. 33

We are not to understand Wagner to mean thathearlng good music will reform a man

’s characterand renew a right spirit within him. Lectures onaesthetics may help one to appreciate and honor art,but no one knew better than Wagner that to becomean artist one must be not only a hearer

,but also a

doer of the word,developing one’s individual powers

by a diligent use of suitable means. In like manner,

although in a materialistic age,holy music

,as a wit

ness of the indwelling spirit,may lead the way to

find God anew,religious perceptions alone will not

ensure personal attainments in religion : that only adiligent use of suitable religious and devotionalmeans can do . The Church would have an easy taskbefore her in laboring for the regeneration of mankind if sinners could be turned into saints simply byhearing good sermons and good music.

Concerning the historic origin of music and whatthe divine art may say to the feeling heart, we citethe following sayings of Wagner’s

“The Christian Church bequeathed to the worlda s her noblest treasure

,music

,the all-plaintive

,all

saying,sounding soul of the Christian Religion . Fly

ing abroad from within her temple walls,holy music

goes forth breathing new life into every part ofNature. ” Wagner

,

’1880

,p . 298 “To-day art

thou with me in Paradise . ” Who does not hearthe Redeemer’s words call to him as he listens toBeethoven’s Pastoral symphony" The effect uponthe listener is precisely that of emancipation from

34 PARSIFAL .

all guilt,just as the after effectwith which we return

to everyday life is the feeling of a Paradise lost. Sodoes music preach repentance and amendment of lifein the profoundest sense of a divine revelation. AsChristianity arose under the Roman universal civilization

,so music bursts forth from the chaos of a

heartless,materialistic modern civilization . The

spirit of both Christianity and music is Love ; andboth affirm

,Our kingdom is not of this world .

’

We are from within,you from without we are the

offspring of the essential nature of things,you of the

semblance of things. Thus music excites within us,

as soon as we are filled with it,the highest ecstasy of

the consciousness of illimitability. As soon as thefirst measures only of one of Beethoven’s divinesymphonies are heard

,the entire phenomenal world

,

which impenetrably hems us in on every side,sud

denly vanishes into nothingness music extinguishesit as sunshine does lamplight. In music’s enigmatically entwined lines and wonderfully intricatecharacters stand written the eternal symbols ofa new and different world.

”

(Wagner’s “Beet

Above all thinkableness by means of concepts ofReason

,the musical seer

,speaking the highest wis

dom in a language which Reason does not comprehend

,

’ reveals to us the inexpressible truth ; whilewe listen w e have a presentiment ; nay, we feel andsee that this seemingly substantial world of theWill is only a fleeting show in the presence of the

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36 P A R S JF A L .

The sc ientific o -historic school assumes to demonstrate that every eminent individual must needs bethe product of the spirit of the race to which hebelongs and of his environment in Time and Space .

The correctness of the assumption does not seemrationally deniable. It only remains for the criticsto explain why the greater the individual

,so much

the greater the contradiction with his time in whichhe finds himself involved .

” Wagner, 1878, p. 27

To cite the sublimest of examples : neither the contemporary world nor his own race deported themselves towards Chri st as if they had brought Himforth and rejoiced to recognize in Him a typicalproduct of their own .

” Wagner,

”1878

,p .

With Wagner,human wisdom does no t count for

every thing.

“The Founder of the Christian Religion was notw ise : He was Divine. To believe in Him is toimitate Him

,and to seek union with Him.

”

Wagner,

”1880

,pp. 270

In consequence of His atoning death,every thing

which lives and breathes may know itself redeemedas soon as the Redeemer is accepted as example andpattern for life.” Wagner

,

”1879

,p .

“Amongthe poorest and most isolated people the Saviourappeared showing the way of redemption

,not by

doctrines but by His own example. ”

(“Wagner

,

1880,p. So the true saint knows

,that neither

by theorizing,disputation

,no r controversy

,can he

A STUDY. 37

communicate to the world his inner, deeply blissfulintuitions in such a way as to convince the world oftheir genuineness . He can do it only by example

,

by deeds of self-renunciation and self-sacrifice,and

by the manifestation of unalterable gentleness,and

of a sublime,serene seriousness diffused throughout

his labors. There is therefore a profound and truemeaning in the idea that only through their belovedsaints can the people turn to God . The saint

,the

martyr,the exemplar

,are the true mediums of heal

ing. In them the people may recognize in the onlyway comprehensible to them what must be the contents of the religious perceptions in which they canparticipate only by faith, instead of by direct personal knowledge . Wagner

,

” VIII,p .

“We must assume,continues he

,

“that the Idea,

or rather,the immediate perception of the religious

seer,so indescribably beneficent in its effect

,yet only

to be comprehended in the category of illusion,re

mains both as to its form and content,wholly foreign

and incomprehensible to the common mind . Hence,

all that can be announced by,or about

,those ideas

or perceptions,to the profane

,to the masses

,must

necessarily be nothing else than a sort of allegory,

as it were a translation of things inexpressible,never

seen,and only intelligible through direct intuition

,

into the language of ordinary life and forms ofknowledge intrinsically erroneous yet alone possibleto them .

” Wagner,

” VIII,p .

The only element of Revelation which the world

3s PARSIFAL

at large can grasp is Dogma. In this sacred allegoryit is sought to convey to worldly minds the

“

mysteriesof Divine revelation . This sacred allegory is relatedto the immediate v ision of the seer

,only as the

account o f a dream while awake,is related to the

actual dream of the night. (VIII , p. The confl ic t running through the centuries

,touching the cor

rectness and rationality of Dogma,affords us the

painfully repulsive instruction of the history of theillness of a maniac. Two modes of perception andknowledge

,absolutely incongruous and in their

nature entirely different,are entangled in this con

troversy , without its being perceived that they arefundamentally different. In this conflict

,the truly

religious defenders of Dogma are right,as far as

they proceed on principle from a consciousness thattheir mode of knowledge is difierent from all mereworldly know ledge ; while the terrible wrong intowhich they have snfl ered themselves to be driven

,

lies in the fact,that as they could do nothing with

everyday human reason,they have allowed them

selves to be carried away by passionate zeal into themost inhuman abuse of power

,and so have degen

erated into a state the most completely opposite tothat of holiness. On the other hand

,we are in

debted for the comfortless,materialistic

,empty

,and

wholly Godless condition of the modern industrialworld

,to the opposite zeal of a common practical

reason,which seeks to explain Dogma in accordance

with the causal laws of everyday life, and rejects all

A STUDY. 39

which resists such explanation as senseless braincobwebs"” Wagner

,

” VIII,pp. 31

,

Turning now from the Divinity of Christ and theIndispensability of Religious Dogma or Doctrine

,let

us consider whatWagner has to say of the Christianvirtues. He writes

“The Christian commandments are quite clearlyexhibited in the so -called Theological Virtues . Yetthese are presented to us in an order which does no tseem to us quite right for the purpose of an introduction to Christianity ; for we would like to seeFaith

,Hope

,and Love transposed to Love

,Faith

,

and Hope . The degree of merit involved in ac

quiring these virtues we soon perceive when wereflect what an almost superfluous demand is madeupon the natural man by the command to Love

,

’ inthe sublime sense of Christianity. What is the disease from which our entire civilization suffers

,but

want of love " As the youthful soul learns withever-increasing distinctness to know the modernworld

,he may indeed ask

,how can he love it"

since mistrust and precaution are everywhere commended to him for self-protection in his intercoursewith the world. There certainly is but one wayopen before him

,viz .

,that of recognizing that the

essential cause of the unloveliness in the world liesin the sufferings which are in the world . Pityawakened by those sufferings implies a consciousrenunciation of their cause

,namely

,the cravrngs

of our passions,

—in order that we may do our part

40 PARSIFAL

towards ameliorating and warding o ff the sufferingsof others. But how is the natural man to attain tosuch perceptions

,seeing that the most inexplicable

thing of all is our fellow-man" Truly,the natural

man cannot be led to the duty of self-sacrifice bycommandment. He can only be brought to thefulfilment of that duty by a right understandingof the origin of all living beings . Here

,to the best

of our knowledge,a wise use of Schopenhauer’s

philosophy is the surest,nay

,almost the sole way to

attain to a rational understanding of the problem,

the result of that philosophy alone,to the shame of

all other systems be it said,being the recognition of

a moral significance to the world,such as (the crown

of all knowledge I ) is practicably deducible fromSchopenhauer’s Ethics . ” Wagner

,1880

,p .

Only love rooted in sympathy,and expressed in

action to the point of a complete destruction ofself-will

,is Christian Love .” Wagner

,

”1880

,p.

“In it Faith and Hope are of themselvesincluded Faith as the infallibly sure consciousness

,

confirmed by the Divinest Prototype,of the moral

significance of the world ; and Hope as the blissfulassurance of the impossibility of any deception inthe consciousness of Faith .

” Wagner,

”1880

,p .

Closely connected in idea with what has beencited from Wagner concerning human unlovelinessas the expression of human snfiering, are the following observations

A STUDY 4 :

When at last we necessarily recognize in thepeople the artists of the future

,the intelligent

artistic egotist of the present day breaks out incontemptuous astonishment . He views the peopleonly in the shape in which they now appear beforehis culture-bespectacled eyes . From his sublimestandpoint he believes that his own antithesis

,the

raw common man,alone constitutes the people .

Hence in glancing at them he is only aware ofthe fumes of beer and bitters in his nose. Heseizes his perfumed handkerchief

,and wi th civilized

indignation exclaims : ‘What"the mob will eventually replace us in artistic productivity I That mobwhich does not even understand our artistic wares IFrom the nauseous tavern and the steaming dunghill

,the types of beauty shall arise I

"uite right"” (rejoins Wagner) no t from thedirty substratum of your modern culture

,not from

the repulsive soil beneath your modern fine education

,not from the conditions which your modern

c ivilization deems the sole conceivable basis of human existence

,will the art-work of the future arise .

Reflect,however

,that this mob is in no wise a

normal product of real human nature,but

,instead

,

the '

artific ial product of your unnatural culture ;that all the crimes and horrors which you findso repulsive in this mob

,are only desperate inci

dents o f the war which real human-nature is wagingagarnst its cruel oppressor— modern civilization andthat the terrifying feature in their grimaces is in no

4 2 PARSIFAL .

wise the true mien of nature,but instead

,the direct

reflex of the grimaces of our State and Criminalculture . ”

The scientific doctrine of the Transformation andEquivalence of Force

,Wagner applies to the prob

lem in hand,as follows

As long as you intelligent egotists of fineculturebloom in an artificial atmosphere

,so long there must

necessarily be the human material from whose Vitalforces your sweet perfume of life is distilled ; andthat material from which for your benefit its naturaland agreeable vital fragrance is abstracted

,necessarily

becomes the ill-smelling refuse of human life whosepresence rightly disgusts you

,but from which you

are distinguishable mainly by the perfume whichyou have pressed out of their natural cheerfulness.As long as a large part of the entire people wastescostly vital power in useless occupations

,so long

must an equally large,if not a larger

,part be over

taxed with necessary labor in order to replace by itso wn toil the work wasted or evaded by others . Butthis is not all ; for when among the inordinatelyburdened workingmen the useful

,that which serves

utility alone,becomes the sole end of activity

,the

soul of life itself,the revolting spectacle must follow

of absolute egotism everywhere making the laws oflife

,whilewith hateful grimaces it grins back to law

makers from the countenances of town and countrymobs"Neither the pampered few nor the vulgarmob do we mean when we speak of the people.

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44 P A R S JF A L .

hungering,or thirsting

,or a stranger

,or nak ed

,or

infirm,or in prison

,and we did not minister to thee"

Then shall he answer them,saying

,Verily I say to

you,inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these

,the

least,ye did it not to me . ” Says WagnerCould

’

our scientific investigator,regaining sin

cerity from the contemplation of animals,turn his

gaze to the multitudes of his really suffering fellowmen

,who— born in naked want

,and from earliest

childhood driven to health-destroying and excessivetoil

,while prematurely enfeebled by bad food and

heartless treatment of all sorts,— look up question

ingly to him in mute submission, perhaps our manof science would then say to himself : This being isalso human

,like myself.’ That would indeed be a

success . If then we cannot emulate the sympathizing animal which voluntarily starves with its master

,

let us at all events try to surpass the animal byhelping the poor to their necessary food

,as might

easily be done if we could place them on the samediet with the rich by contriving to hand over tothem the excess of food which at present makes therich sick" But we cultivate needless sciences only.

Upon prolonging to a certain distant day the life ofa dying Hungarian magnate depended the fate ofenormous claims to inheritance . The interestedparties ofiered rich rewards to the doctors to prolong the man’s life to that day. Here was a chancefor science " God only knows how much bleedingand poisoning was done. They triumphed"The

A STUDY. 45

inheritance was ours I Science was brilliantly remuneratedi It must not be assumed that so muchscience ought to be employed for the relief of ourpoor Wagner

,1879, p.

In following Wagner further in his utterancesupon economic questions, it is interesting to notethat in the ancient order of things upon which hedwells with evident approbation

,neither communism

nor unqualified rights of private property obtained.

The right of possession was regulated by the needs,

not the luxurious cravings,of the individual. Among

conquering races,all excess of spoils was awarded to

those who rendered distinguished services to thecommunity.

Of the role played in history by possessions,Wagner writes

“From possessions which have become pri vateproperty

,and which now

,strangely enough

,are

regarded as the very foundation of good order,

spring all the crimes,both of myth and of history.

”

Wagner,

” IV.,p .

Thus in the Nibelung Myth we recognize theview

,drawn with uncommon distinctness

,of all

those races by which that myth was invented,

developed,and matured

,concerning the nature of

I f the Empero r William I I I,who is an o pen patro n of Wagner’s art

at Baireuth ,sha ll succeed in evo lving a method whereby to put an end to

the cruelties of industria l slavery,and secure to rea l wo rkingmen a due

amoun t of wo rk with reasonable ho urs,together with an amount o f c om

pensation which w ill bo th encourage and enab le them to live,tho ugh

humbly, yet like m en,the homage o f a world will a ttest anew how much

greater are the vic to ries of pea ce than tho se of w ar.

46 PARSIFAL.

possessions and private property. While in the mostancient

,religious vi ew

,the treasure-hoard represents

the splendors of earth revealed by sunlight,we find

it later on,in poetic form

,as the might-giving spoils

of the hero,which

,as the reward for the most daring

and astonishing deeds,he has w on by overcoming a

cruel foe . This hoard,this might-giving possession

,

is thenceforth craved by the descendants of thedivine hero ; but it is in the highest degree characteristic

,that the possessions are never acquired by

them in indolence,but instead only by deeds similar

to those of the first winner. These views,in accord

ance with which man was originally ennobled,and

conceived to be an initial point of all power,corre

spond entirely with the mode in which ancientlypossessions were disposed of in real life . While

,in

the remotest antiquity,the natural and simple prin

c iple obtained of regulating the measure of the rightof possession or of enjoyment in accordance withthe needs

,not the luxurious cravings of the indi.

vidual,it was no less natural that among con

quering races,wherever there was an excess of

spoils,the might and daring of the most famous war

rior should be deemed to entitle him to a richer andmore luxurious share. In the historic application ofthe feudal system we still see

,as long as it lasted ln

its original purity,the heroic-man principle distinctly

expressed : the bestowal of favors was solely uponthe one man who could lay claim to them by reasonof some great deed done

,some important service

A STUDY. 4 7

rendered . From the 1nstant that fiefs became sub

ject to inheritance, men, as regards personal valorand deeds

,lost in worth

,this passing over to their

possessions instead. Their possessions,acquired by

inheritance,not their virtues as individuals

,gave to

their descendants their importance ; and the c onse

quently steadily deeper depreciation of the man overagainst the . steadily higher appreciation of his possessions

,were finally embodied in the most inhuman

of arrangements,such as the right of primogeniture.

It is from this strangely reversed order of things thatthe later nobility have imbibed all their arroganceand pride

,without considering that just because

their worth is derived from petrified family possessions

,they have openly denied and rejected real

human nobility. But what a cruelly inhuman formthe right of private property now assumes in ourhaggling world of machine-factories

,in which

,to

speak precisely,workingmen are men only to the

extent which the demands of capital will permit"Wagner

,

’I,p . And now

,according to the

conscience of the State,property has greater sanctity

than religion . For injury to the cause of religionthere is toleration ; but for injury to property-rightsonly the most merciless severity. Wagner

,

’1881

,

p . Our God is gold ; and money-getting is ourreligion. Wagner

,

”I I I

,p .

And now we have,in Wagner’s words

,

“ the terribly amazing spectacle of seeing a philosophy likeSchopenhauer’s

,which is based on a perfect ethics

,felt

4s P A R S JF A L .

to be ‘ hopeless,

’whence it follows that we would liketo be hopeful without a knowledge of true morality.

”

Wagner,

”1880

,p .

After Wagner’s endorsement of Schopenhauer’sEthics

,it

‘

is interesting to hear what Schopenhauerhas to say touching the matter of rights betweenman and man .

“A bad man,says Schopenhauer

,is a man who

has so high a degree of egotism that he seeks hisown well-being alone

,while completely indifierent

to the interests of others,whose existence is to him

altogether foreign and divided from his own by awide gulf

,andwho are regarded by him as mere masks

with no reality behind them.

”

(“World as

.W ill and

Idea,

” Book IV.,p . Thus the bad man

,

“theegotist

,feels himself surrounded by strange and

hostile individuals,and all his hope is centred in his

own good. The good man,on the contrary

,lives in

a world of friendly individuals,the well-being of any

of whom he regards as his own . (“World as Will

and Idea,

” Book IV.

,p.

“The essential character of his conduct is that he makes less distinctionthan is usually made between himself and others. ”

(“World as Will and Idea

,

” Book IV.,p .

Thus,while egotism is unsympathetic

,all love is

sympathy.

“The teaching of this kind which liesnearest to hand is Christianity

,the ethics of which

lead not only to the highest degree of human love,

but also to renunciation,perfect indifference to

worldly things,dying to our own will and being

A STUDY 49

born into God. World as Will and Idea,Book

IV.

,p .

The foregoing passage is worthy of the greatSchopenhauer

,who said : There is nothing in which

one has to distinguish the kernel so carefully fromthe shell as in Christianity. Just because I prizethis kernel highly

,I sometimes treat the shell with

little ceremony ; it is, however, thicker than is generally supposed .

” World as Will and Idea,

” Vol.I I I

,p . Christianity belongs to the ancient

,

true,and sublime faith of mankind

,which is opposed

to the false,shallow

,and injurious optimism which ex

hibits itself in Greek paganism,Judaism

,and Islam

ism.

”

(“World as Will and Idea

,

”Vol. I I I,p.

Touching egotism in religion,Wagner

,whose

artistic nature ”

(we quote his words)“and the

sufferings it had had to undergo,had opened his

eyes to see into the deepest depth of things in sucha manner that death alone could ever close themagain

,

” writes as follows :The la st letter written by Wagner is da ted January 31, 1883 , thirteen

days befo re his dea th . I t is addressed to V on Stein , who had written awork

,Hero es and the Wo rld , in a series of drama tic scenes. Wagner

approved this setting o f histo ry in a drama tic frame,and one sentence o f

his letter is : No step in advance is more pregnant w i th success than tha tfrom reflecting like a philoso pher to seeing like a dramatist. To see

,to

see,to rea lly see here is where they all fa i l I Have you eyes"’ is a ques

tion tha t may be fo rever addressed to this eterna lly cha ttering and listeningwo rld , in which gaping takes the place o f seeing. Whoever has really seenknows how he stands with it .

One hour of real , true seeing taught me mo re than all philo sophy or allhistory . I t w as on the clo sing day o f the Paris Exhibi tion o f 1867 , whenall the schools of the city w ere admitted free. At the exit from the building I was deta ined by the entrance o f thousands of the pupils, male and

50 PARSIFAL .

If any one explains Christianity as an attempt togratify boundless egotism on the basis of an arrangement by which one of the contracting parties

,in

return for deeds of self-renunciation and voluntarysufferings in this relatively brief and fleeting life

,is

to receive eternal life,he thus designates precisely

the sole mode of contemplation which is possible toinvincible human egotism

,but by no means the dis

illusioned view held by those who actually practisevoluntary self-sacrifice and submission to suffering.

For,by such renunciation and suffering

,egotism is

practically abolished,so that whoever practises them

female,of the Pa ris schoo ls

,and remained an hour wrapped in the review

of almo st each individua l in this youthful a rmy that represented a Who lefuture. The experience of this hour a ffected me so terribly tha t in mydeep emotion I finally burst into tears and sobs. This was noticed by oneo f the nuns , who wa s, with touching care, conducting one of the pro cessions of girls

,and who at the entrance do o r ventured , as if by stealth , to

look up . Her glance fell upo n me for too short a time to give her , evenunder the most favo rable circumstances

,a conception o f my co ndition

,and

yet, so versed and practised w as I a lready in the art of Seeing,that in this

glance I could recognize an ineffably beautiful so licitude as the soul o f herli fe. The impressio n this vision created w as all the deeper , as I nowhereelse in the in terminable thro ng saw any thing like o r resembling it. Onthe contra ry

,every thing had filled me wi th ho rro r and so rrow. I saw in

pro phetic outlines all the vices of the grea t cap ita l , w ith its weakness , sickness

,grossness

,and greed

,dulness and degrada tion of na tura l vivacity,

fear and anguish,insolence and trickery . All this led on by teachers mo stly

belonging to religious o rders in the hideous garb of fashionable priesthood ,teachers themselves without w ills , strict and stem ,

but ra ther obeying thanruling. Every thing soulless— except tha t o ne poor Sister.A lo ng , deep silence revived me from the impressio n of that terrible

Sight . To see and to be silent— these would be the elements of deliverancefrom this busy w o rld. ”

Wagner concludes : To speak of the things of this wo rld seems to bevery ea sy , because all the world speaks of them ,

but to present them so

tha t they speak themselves is given to few .—N . Y.Musica l Cour ier .

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52 PARSIFAL .

men which bri ng us nea r to them,and make them

worthy of our thoughts : that to the defeated hero,

no t to the victor,our sympathies belong. In all sur

rounding nature,in the violence of the elements

,in

the unalterable,self-asserting lower will

,alike in sea

and in desert,in the insect and in the worm on which

we tread,we see manifested around and beneath us

the enormous tragedy of earthly existence. As thespectacle overmasters our feelings

,let us daily look

to the Redeemer on the Cross as our last sublimerefuge . Wagner

,1880

,p .

To cease from worldly-mindedness is assuredly nolight matter. Says Wagner :The greatest miracle for the natural man cer

tainly is the conversion of the Will, in which eventis involved a suspension of the laws of Nature itself.Whatever can effect this conversion must necessarilybe sublimely supernatural and superhuman

,and

union with it becomes the one thing needful. Thissomething the disciples were taught to call theK ingdom of God

,in Opposition to the kingdoms of

this world. He who called to Himself the weary,

the heavy-laden,the suffering

,the meek

,and the

lovers of enemies,taught them that the all-loving

was their Heavenly Father as whose Son He Himself was sent to them

,His brethren . Here we see

the greatest of miracles and call it Revelation.

”

Wagner,

”1880

,p.

We have now followed Wagner to the end of life.What of the Beyond"Wagner writes

A STUD Y. 53

If it be rational to assume that"

the certain destruction of our globe is only aquestion of time, weshall have to accustom ourselves to think of thehuman race as doomed to extinction. But, then, thematter may involve a destiny lying outside of time

and space and the question whether or not theworld has a moral significance

,we may attempt to

answer by asking ourselves howwe propose to perish,

like brutes or in a godlike manner" Wagner,

”

1881,p.

In true religion there occurs a complete reversalof all those aims upon which the State is based andorganized. The happiness which in that way is unattainable

,the soul abandons the effort to attain

,in

order by a diametrically opposite way to attain it.The truth dawns upon the religious consc iousnessthat there must be another world besides this

,

because in thi s the inextingui shable craving forhappiness is not to be stilled

,and accordingly an

other world is required for our redemption . (VIII ,What an indescribable gain would it be to

those who,on the one hand

,are terrified by the

threats of ecclesiasticism,and on the other

,are dr iven

to despair by our men of physical science,if to the

sublime edifice of Love,Faith

,and Hope we could

annex a distinct recognition of the ideality of thisworld

,conditioned by the laws of Time and Space

as at present the sole foundation of our perceptions IFor from the point of view of that ideality

,all

questions of the disquieted soul after a where and a

54 PARSIFAL.

when of the other world, will, nay, must be, answerable by a bli ssful smile. For if to these seeminglyinfinitely weighty questions there is any answer, ithas been given by Schopenhauer with unequalled

precrsron and beauty in these words : ‘Peace,rest

,

and happiness dwell only where there is neither anywhere nor any when.

’ Wagner,

”1880

,p.

Says SchopenhauerDying is certainly to be regarded as the real aim

of life in the moment of death all that is decided forwhich the whole course of life was only the preparation and the introduction.

” World as Willand Idea

,

” Vol. I I I,p.

“Abolish the coneentration of consciousness in the brain by magneticsleep, and our existence shows itself beyond ourpersons

,and in other beings most stri k ingly by direct

participation in the thoughts of another individual,

and ultimately by the power of knowing the absent,

the distant,and even the future

,thus by a kind of

omnipresence. I believe that at the moment ofdeath we become conscious that it is a mere illusionthat has limited our existence to our persons.”

World as Will and Idea;” Vol. I I I

,pp. 418

,

With this we reach the end of our lecture. Wehave heard Wagner’s assertion of the right of humannature to claim scientific recognition for both thespiritual intuitions and the spiritual inspirations ofman ; we have heard his eloquent conf ession of theDivinity of Christ as at once Redeemer and SoleR efuge : we have heard his defence of religious

A STUDY. 55

Dogma from the attacks of every-day commonhuman reason we have heard his denunciation of allways by which selfishness exalts itself at the cost ofplunging multitudes of fellow-creatures into continually deeper abysses of want and degradation ; andfinally, we have heard his declaration of belief inanother world of redemption . It only remains toask how he was led to these doctrines.In the passage cited at the beginning of this

lecture from Dr. Newton’s sermon,it was said that

All lines of true human thought focus in religion .

”

Wagner saysMy thoughts upon these matters came to me as

creative artist in my intercourse with the public.

Havrng thus attained to the conviction that true artcan thrive only upon the basis of a true morality

,I

could but recognize a proportionately higher missionfor art

,since I found true art to be at one wi th true

religion .

” Wagner,

”1880

,p .

Do we ask the moral of Wagner’s lifeIn 1851Wagner wrote to LisztI have erred much in my artistic efforts, not

being one o f the elect who,like Mendelssohn

,re

ceived the only true,infallible

,solid food of art like

Heavenly Manna in their mouths,and who there

fore are able to say,I have never erred.

’ Onlythrough error c an we poor earthworms get to aknowledge of the truth

,which

,how ever

,for that

very reason,we love passionately like a bride whom

we have won,instead of with the genteel approval

56

with which we regard a spouse selected for us by ourdear parents. ”

Accordingly,we may say the moral of Wagner

’slife was Accept

,like Mendelssohn

,and ye shall

Have ; but Seek, like Wagner, and ye shall Find.

As Columbus once sought a more direct route to thealready known Indies

,and found a new world

,so

Wagner,seeking a higher type of musical drama

,

explored both myth and philosophy to their inmostdepths

,and discovered

,beneath and above all

,as

sole foundation for a true Humanitarianism,the

Logos,the Christ

,the Son of the Living God.

On this discovery he placed an enduring seal.In 1856 he wrote to Liszt of a splendid subject

he meant to execute,entitled

,Victory

,the most

Perfect Salvation.

”

In 1872 he said to the writer of this lectureWhat a grand thing is youth To youth all thingsare possible. I am now old ; but I am no t as old assome would like to have me. In three or four yearsI shall produce the Nibelung’s Ring entire

,and

then I sha ll br ing out onemore w ork

In 1880 the one more work ” was really broughtout at Baireuth. But then

,in naming it

,his mind seems

It is a remarkable fact, tha t about thirty years a fter Wagner thusmodestly classed himself among the earthw o rms , M r. Da rwin published hisfamous work o n the Formatio n o f Vegetable Mould , ”

in which he exhibitsthe ea rthworm as a worker o f va st geo logical changes, a planer down o fmountain sides

,and an ally o f the Society fo r the Preserva tion o f Ancient

Monuments ” in a wo rd, the ma in instrumentality , under Providence, forconserving the best things belonging to the past, by burying them o ut ofsight

,while providing fo r future generations the very soi l whence their

nutrimen t must be drawn I

A STUD Y. 57

to have reverted to a remarkable passage in S t. Paul’sFirst Epistle to the Corinthians

,where the expression

“foolishness ” is dwelt uponwith striking persistency :“For the word of the cross to those indeed perish

mg is foolishness, and to us— those being saved— it

is the power of God,for it hath been written

,I

will destroy the wisdom of the wise,and the intelli

gence of the intelligent I will bring to nought ’

;

where is the wise"where the scribe"where a disputer of this age" Did not God make foolish thewisdom of this world" For

,seeing in the wisdom

of God the world through wisdom knew not God,

it did please God thr ough the foolishness of preaching to save those believing. Since Jews ask a sign

,

and Greeks seek wisdom,also w e— w e preach Christ

crucified,to Jews

,indeed

,a stumbling-block

,and to

Greeks foolishness,and to those called— both Jews

and Greeks— Christ the power of God,and the wis

dom of God,because the foolishness of God is wiser

than men,and the weakness of God is stronger than

men . that no flesh may glory before Him.

He who is glorying— in the Lord let himglory.

And now,— Wagner having long since learned

,

contrary to his former opinion,that the Christian

da/re bring deeds to ofier to his God— the name forthe “Victory

,or the most Perfect Salvation ” was

found. It was,Par-si-fal

,which being interpreted

,

is Fool without Guile,

” or as St. Paul writes,The

foolishness of God,which is wiser than men

,

” namely,

“Christ crucified.

”

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A P PEND I X .

NOTE I . Tha t there is an ethica l tendency in Wagner’

s worhs is clea r .

"

I t has no t escaped notice that , in the Flying Dutchman ,the heroine,

Senta , illustrates the precept , Grea ter love than this hath no one,that any

one his life may lay down fo r his friends tha t in Tannhaueser,

as the

R ev . Mr. Haweis po inted out,w e see contrasted the Tremendous Em

pire o f the Senses , and the Immense Supremacy o f the So ul I ” that , inLohengrin ,

”

we have a parable Of the human soul as typified by Elsa ,who

after seeking supernatura l a id,Should have abo de in fa ith and trust , saying

I have known in whom I have believed , and have been persuaded that heable tha t which I have committed to him to guard— to that day . ” 1

It is no t,however, so generally recognized tha t in Tristan and Isolde

,

where neither a Swinburne,a Tennyson

,no r even a Ma tthew Arno ld discov

ered the po ssibility o f any thing no t invo lving a sinful intrigue,Wagner

gives us tw o characters ideally crea ted fo r ea ch o ther , and whom King Markwould gladly have seen wedded

,and

,but fo r the jealousy o f the nobles

,

actua lly sea ted o n his throne,but who se fa tes are cro ssed by purely external

c ircumstances and conventionalities,as well as in part by their o wn blind~

ness beforei t was to o late to redeem their fo rtunes. They are led to committhemselves to each o ther in the sight o f suspi cious Observers a t a momen twhen each one believes death imminent , and thenceforth meet but once, andthen at the treachero us instiga tio n o f a fa lse friend who induces them to

meet in o rder tha t he may profit by betraying them . In tha t hour , swayedby the loftiest principles o f honor

,they exhibit a conversion o f will such as

Wagner has termed the grea test o f mira c les fo r the natura l man,since i t

invo lves a suspension o f the laws o f Na ture,and hence wha tever can effect

it must be sublimely superna tura l and superhuman .

” Acco rdingly,that to

which the noble pair dedicate themselves is no t any earthly house, ” but a“ house no t made with hands— age

- during— in the heavens that1 A chi ld o f tw elve years gave the fo l low ing interpreta tion o f Lohengrin ,

”a fter a firs t

hearing There w as an idea back o f all they did on the s tage . N0 one believes a man

rea lly c ame dow n a river ima bo a t draw n by a sw an but Elsa prayed in trouble , and her

prayer w as answ ered . Lohengrin c ame to her a id l ike Chris t , and they tried to kil l him ,

and Elsa hersel f did no t firmly believe in him and so he w en t aw ay a nd she died .

”

62 APPENDIX.

the mo rtal may be swallowed up o f the life . Meanwhile, King Mark has ,unknown either to his court o r to the wo rld

,spared Iso lde the misery o f the

consummation o f a lo veless marriage to himself, and has thus w on her

bo undless filia l devo tion and when,by c ircumstances which

,a t the time

,he

himself canno t understand , he is placed befo re his court in the po si tio n o f

an injured husband , he becomes a roya l embodimen t o f obedience to the

command to ‘s‘ Judge no t acco rding to appearance, but the righteous judg

ment judge.

”

.After the fo regoing instances w e are prepared to see in the Master-Singers o f Nuremburg , ” conventiona l art taught by the inspired artist , Wa lter

,

tha t The letter do th kill , and the spirit do th make alive ”

; while bo thWalter and Eva learn from Hans Sachs From all appearance o f evil abstain ye.

” We also understand the scene, by some deemed aestheticallyunintelligible, in Rhine-Go ld

,Where Alberich , to a ccumula te the go lden

hoard,grinds the faces of the poor until they are mo re brute than human ,

and almo st to o degraded and contemptible to evoke pity. I n the same music al drama

,the giants , Fafner and Faso lt , show tha t Who so is hasting to be

rich is no t a cquitted the thesis Of the Nibelung’s Ring,

” in its entiretybeing

,tha t greed of ga in is fatal to all the ideal and innocent joys o f life.

I n the Valkyrie w e see, in the person o f Brynhilda , the free impulsebased on sympathy and unselfish love, which is the distinguished mark o f

Christianity, introduced in the midst o f the fa ta listic circle o f go ds andheroes Brynhilda

’

s pro tecting flames reminding us o f the promise in Zechariah

,I am to her a wa ll o f fire round about . ”

I n Siegfried , ”

the seed o fthe woman ,

bo rn in the drago n ’

s cave,bruises the serpent’s head and in

the Do oms-Day o f the Gods , ” Love and Free Will , in the perso n o f

Brynhilda , triumph o ver paganism in the destructio n o f Wa lhalla,the sla in

Siegfried and Brynhilda being , in spite o f Wagner’s clo se superficial adherence to the traditional details o f the legend o f the Nibelungs , remarkablysuggestive o f the s lain Lamb and His loving Bride the Church , which fo llows Him Out o f this wo rld to the heavenly city. While, finally

,in

Parsifal ”

w e are reminded o f the saying o f the great Seer o f SwedenInasmuch as all things subsist from the Divine Principle, and all thingsthence derived must needs be representa tive o f tho se things by which theyhad existence, i t fo llows , tha t the visible universe is no thing but a thea trerepresenta tio n of the Lo rd ’

s Kingdom,and this latter is a theatre representa

tion of the Lord Himself. ”

NOTE II . The f eeblest my th is better tha n the str ongest theory my th

r ecording a na tura l impression on the imagi na tions of g rea t men and unpre

tending multitudes .— (P .

Herbert Spencer argues aga inst the superiority o f rationa l theo ries tona tural impressions as follows

APPENDIX. 63

Reason has been instrumental in putting down fo rms o f mental go vernment— the government by prejudice,

the go vernment by traditio n ,etc . and

wherever i t has replaced them tends to play the despot in their stead.

By extinguishing o ther superstitions Reaso n makes itself the fina l Object o fsuperstition . In minds freed by its help from unwarranted beliefs , i t becomes tha t to which an unwarran ted amount o f belief is given .

The remarkable fact is that this excessive co nfidence in Reaso n ,as c om

pared with the simpler modes o f intellectual action ,is no t seen in tho se by

whom Reaso n has been employed with such aston ishing results . Men o f

science, now as in all past times , subo rdinate the deliverances Of consciousness reached through media te pro cesses to the deliverances reached throughimmedia te pro cesses . The chemist whose reasoned- out fo rmula fo ra new compound implies tha t the separated precipitate put into his scalesshould weigh a gra in

,and who finds tha t it weighs tw o grains , at o nce aban

dons the verdict o f his reasoning , and never dreams o f calling in questionthe verdict o f his direct perception . SO it is with all classes o f men who se jo inteffo rts have brought our knowledge o f the un iverse to its presen t coherentcomprehensive sta te. It is rather among the specta to rs o f these vast achievements o f Reaso n tha t w e find this exaggera ted estima te Of its powers and

in the minds o f these spectato rs its usurpation is Often marked in propo rtiona s their converse with Na ture has been remo te. In describing thewo rship o f that which puts down superstitions as in itself the final superstition , w e come, indeed , much nearer to l iteral truth than a t first appears.

F o r this wo rship implies the assumption tha t by shaping consciousness into a

particular fo rm,there is given to i t some power independent o f the power

which belongs intrinsica lly to its substance. While it is impo ssiblefor Reason to prove its own superio r trustwo rthiness , it is quite possible fo rit to prove its own inferior trustwo rthiness . Self- analysis shows tha t allits dicta being derivative , are necessarily less certa in than tho se from whichthey are derived . By its own a ccount , i t cannot possibly do mo rethan compare and intercept the evidences which perception has given . So

long as i t limits itself to detecting incongruities among the evidences o f perception , and finding o ut where they have arisen ,

Reason performs an allimportant function but i t exceeds its function

,and commits suicide , when

i t concludes the evidence Of perception to be f a lse in substance. Reaso ncan do no thing mo re than reconcile the testimonia ls o f perception with oneanother. When i t proved that the sun do es no t mo ve round the earth

,but

tha t the earth turns o n its axis,Reason substituted fo r an Old interpreta tio n

which was irreconcilable with the various facts a new interpretation whichwas reconcilable with them

,while it equally well a ccounted fo r the mo re

Obvious facts . B utR eason did not question the existence of the Sun ,theEa r th

,

and thei r rela tive motion Principles o f Psychology , 390 , 391,

64 APPENDIX.

(Would that our men o f physica l scienceOftener to ok this ground in regardto religious dogmas as well , many o f which represent the mo st ancient spiritual perceptio ns o f m ankind , and embo dy problems which c an no mo re beigno red out Of existence than Sun ,

Mo on,o r Earth I)

I n ea ch sermo n ,I have passed quickly through the husks o f popular

do gma s, to find out and bring to you somewhat o f tha t which I understand tobe the inner substance o f these do ctrines seeking to Show that

,so far from

representing explo ded superstitio ns , these do ctrines stand for mo st real problems problems which are still befo re us as they were befo re our fathers ;problems which we must sta te, as best w e can

,in the thought and language

o f our day , as our fathers stated them in the thought and language o f theirday o r that

,fa iling in any satisfacto ry statement , w e must rest content in

the Old fo rmulas , until the D ivine Spirit causes the do c trine o f knowledgeto appear as the light . ’ I have thus sought to indicate to you tha t the Oldbeliefs , when stripped o f the glo sses Of the popular imagination

,read far

mo re nobly than mo st men dream and tha t w e c an see tha t they are capable o f taking on still higher fo rms o f which dim shadows fall

I

a thwart our

path to - day , assuring us that there will be a theo logy o f the future,in which

the o ld do ctrines shall quicken into beliefs full o f power'

over life. Our w is

dom,in this trying age, when change fo llows change in our menta l o utlo ok ,

is to hide pa tiently under the Old fo rms,even when no t satisfacto ry reject

ing the fo llies and wrongs o f the popular theo logy, but ho lding by the do ctrines o f which they are disto rted images.

” — (R ev . R . Heber Newton ,D .D . ,

Philistinism,o r Plain Wo rds Concerning Certain Fo rms Of Modern Skepti

c ism,

” Putnam’

s Sons,New Yo rk .)

The theo logica l thaw go ing o n so rapidly all aro und us is o ne o f words

only , the truth remains unchanged .

”

NOTE III . A spir i t voice w ill say to y ou something rea l and thor oughly

comprehensible, y et never bef ore hea rd.

—(P .

At the side o f the wo rld , which we perceive byvirtue o f the functions o fthe waking bra in

,stands

,as is co rrobo rated in every o ne’

s experience bydreams

,a seco nd wo rld quite equal to the first in distinctness a

wo rld which as Object , canno t lie outside o f us . A s the o rgan o f

dreams canno t be excited to a ctivity by externa l impressions (against whichthe bra in ' is then entirely c losed) this excita tion must o ccur by means ofchanges in the inner organism which manifest themselves to our waking consc iousness only as obscure feelings. But i t is through this inner life that weare a llied to all nature

,and thus partakers in the essentia l nature o f things in

such a way tha t the fo rms o f externalknowledge, Time and Space, are no longerto be applied to o ur relatio ns with tha t nature whence Schopenhauer conv inc ingly argues the o rigin o f prophetic dreams which make the mo st distant

APPENDIX. 65

things perceptible, and in extreme cases , the entrance o f somnambulisticclairvoyance. TO this let us now add the o ther phenomeno n ofspiri t- seeing and with reference to it as well , emplo y Schopenhauer’s hypothetical explanation

,a ccording to which it is a cla irvoyance which takes

place while the brain is awake . The shape which from the interioris pro jected befo re the eye ,

in no wise belongs to the real , phenomenalwo rld i t lives

,nevertheless , befo re the spirit- seer, with all the charac teris

tics Of an a ctual being. With this pro jection befo re the waking person ’seyes o f the image beheld by the inner Will a lo ne , let us compare Shakespeare’s wo rk

,in o rder to expla in him to ourselves as the sp iri t- seer and

spirit- conjurer who w as able, from his inner perception ,to p la ce the shapes

o f men o f all times befo re his and our waking eyes in such a mannertha t they seem actually to live befo re us.

”-(Wagner’s Beethoven , ”

G . Schirmer, N . Y . )The Abbe Trithemius who in magic art was the master of Agrippa , ex

plains in his Stenography the secret o f conjurations and evocations in an

exceedingly na tura l and philo sophica l manner. To evoke a spirit,he says

,

is to enter into the ruling idea o f that spirit , and if we rise mo ra lly higher inthe same line, we shall draw that spirit after us and it w ill serve us.

”

The

Mysteries o f Magic,

” Waite.)

NOTE IV. To the Golia th of Modern Science a r t da ily becomes more and

mor e of a mere rudiment of a f ormer cognitive stage of human life.

” — (P .

I have almost lo st my taste fo r pictures o r music . My mindseems to have become a kind o f machine for grinding genera l laws o ut o flarge co llections o f facts

,but why this should have caused theatrophy o f that

part o f the bra in alone, on which the higher tastes depend , I canno t conceive.

If I had to live my life again,I would have made a rule to read

some po etry and listen to some musi c at least once every week fo r perhapsthe parts o f my bra in now atrophied would thus have been kept a ctivethrough use. The loss Of these tastes is a loss o f happiness , and may po ssibly be injurious to the intellect , and more probably to the mo ra l character,by enfeebling the emo tiona l part of our nature.

- (Charles Darwin ,Auto

biography,

”

i . , pp . 101,

NOTE V . True a r tistic produc tivi ty may a ll too ea s ily induce a relapseinto the inspira tion- swindle of surmountedper iods of culture - (P .

Savants,who are only savants

,have been able to deny God. That can

be conceived o f,fo r when the heart do es no t communica te to the brain i ts

generous burnings which illumine and fecundate when i t do es no t inflamethose intuitions which constitute genius , the mind canno t go very far. Fromthat comes the cold reasoning condemned to a pro found sterility, tha t dry

66 APPENDIX.

ness o f perception and narrowness o f vision which expla in in some sort thea theism which certain savants pro fess . But fo r any artist to

,

deny God, Godthe cause, the beginning and the end of his art, God the sour ce of his inspirations a nd his genius ,

- let us say i t without fear o f contradiction , let us procla im it to the eternal hono r o f art, never has such a monstro sity beenproduced . No

,never" Never has an artist denied his God. F o r him

,art

is a magnificent Objective upon whose field appears an entire transluminouswo rld

,and to

'who se visions he incessantly tends to unite himself. F o r him,

art is still a mystic founta in from which escapes a celestial perfume and

acro ss which he feels, he sees , he touches in some sort tha t God who fills himwith irrepressible raptures .

If you own one o f tho se co stly instruments called telescopes,why do you

value it" I s it no t because o f the property it po ssesses o f showing to yoursurprised eyes vast and pro found perspectives invisible without its a id" Itis

,then

,the astounding views brought within the range o f your vision that

you lo ve the instrument fo r certainly you would no t say you loved the telescope fo r the telescope I Now art is the telesco pe o f a supernatural world.Love art fo r art I Wha t do es tha t mean" It is ido latry. It is to love thepo rtrait o f a friend no t fo r the friend , but fo r a po rtra it to love an imagefo r the image ,

no t fo r what it represents I I n art one must love something besides art if o ne would know how to love art I True art purifies the life,illumines the mind , makes perfect and sanc tifies the soul , and transfigures itto identity with things divine.

” — (Francis Delsarte.)

NOTE V I I I nstead of wor shipping the true fifehovah,who rej oices w ith

in the hea r ts of men w hen they hill their anima lpa ssions and sacr ifice to Him

their er roneous opinions,they crea ted a bloodthir sty God whom they ca lled

j7ehovah.— (P .

Sanconiatho,B .C . 1000 ,

gives the origin o f human sacrifices thus : Itw as the custom among the ancients in times o f grea t calamity , in order toprevent the ruin o f all

, fo r the rulers o f the city o r the nation to sacrifice to theavenging deity the mo st belo ved o f their children as the price o f redemption .F o r the Supreme God 11had an only son whom o nce

,when great danger

beset the land,he o ffered up as a sacrifice to Heaven .

” byRago zin ,

chap . v . ,Putnam’

s Sons . )

Bo th the na tura l parenta l shrinking o f the anc ients from the sac rifice o f their o ff springand the lengths to w h ich they c ou ld summon up reso lu tion to go in their eff o rts topropitia te the avenging power to wh ich the supreme god I I had sac rificed his only son , is

show n by an o ccurrence in the history o f the Carthaginians , who having been bea ten in a

very impo rtant ba ttle , made a severe investiga tion ,w hich showed tha t the c ity nobles had

fo r some time purchased and fa ttened low—born children and subs tituted these fo r theirown ch ildren in the sac rifices . To th is impiety the anger o f the god w as a ttributed , and ana tiona l expia to ry sacrifice w as o rdered on a large sca le : tw o hundred boys o f the nobles t

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68 APPENDIX.

Hezekiah 2 Chronicles xxxu And Saul sweareth to her by Jehovah

, saying, Jehovah liveth , punishment do th no t meet thee for this thing .A nd the woman sa ith, Whom do I bring up to thee"and he saith

,Samuel

— bring up to me. A nd the woman seeth Samuel. And the kingsa ith to her what hast thou seen"and the woman saith unto Saul ,E lohim have I seen coming up out o f the earth . A nd he sa ith to her, Wha tis his fo rm".

and she sa ith,An aged man is coming up,

and he is covered withan upper robe and Saul knoweth he is Samuel . ” — ( I Samuel xxviii . , 10The incommunicable name Jehovah , which stands o ver against Elohim in

the preceding passage, is variously derived from ro o ts signifying,respect

ively , He who exists,He who causes , and He who causes (ra in ,

l ightning,

heavenly bodies) to fall . Thus A nd the day is, tha t sons of Elohimcome in to statio n themselves by Jehovah , and there do th come also theHa ter (Sa tan) in their midst . A nd Jehovah sa ith to the Hater

,L o ,

all tha t he bath is in thine hand . While this o ne is speaking ano theralso hath come and saith

,Fire o f Elohim "the star"hath fallen from

the heavens. A nd Job riseth and he sa ith Je

hovah hath given and Jehovah hath taken let the name o f Jehovah beblessed .

” — (Job i . , 6

We believe tha t we shall no t err if, in the Scriptura l distinction betweenJehovah and Elohim

,w e perceive, on the one hand

,in Jehovah

,God objec

tively conceived , God as Transcendent above His Creation and on the

o ther hand,in E l

,Elah

,Elo ah , Elohim ,

E l Shaddai,etc . ,

we perceive Godsubjectively conceived , God as Immanent in His Wo rld

,and particularly in

the grea t men and o ther intelligences through who se instrumentality the destinies o f na tions

,races , mankind at large, nay , even that o f planets them

selves,are w ro ught out.

Mo dern metaphysics render such a view easy o f comprehension . Who

ever has learned from Spencer to view the antithetica l conceptions o f Spiritand Matter as rendered necessary to us o nly through the relation of subjectand object, while Spirit no less than Matter is regarded as but a sign o f an

underlying Reality,must find i t but natura l to view the antithetical concep

tions in Ho ly Scripture o f God Transcendent and God Immanent , Jehovahand Elohim

,a s also rendered necessary o nly through the same relation o f

subject and object , bo th Jehovah and Elohim being regarded a s signs o f theunderlying Unity. To tha t which underlies Spirit and Matter Spencer givesthe name o f the Unknowable Reality to Him who appears to us in the OldTestament now as Elohim and ano n as Jehovah , English transla tions of theBible give the names o f Lo rd and God. As Elohim ,

o r God Immanent , 0bviously is the heart o f creation , no t fashioning things from w ithout , but insteadevo lving all things from within ,

in placing Elohim at the very beginning o fGenesis, the Old Testament may be said to take Evolution fo r granted from

APPENDIX. 69

the very outset , and to meet the demands o f modern thought still further byits recognition o f the fundamental antithesis o f subject and object in representing the one God now as Elohim o r God Immanen t , and again as Jehovahor God Transcendental . Hence i t would seem that Spencer himself musteventua lly reach the conclusion ,

tha t i f God be Unknowable to man,this

can be true o f Him only as Jehovah or God Transcendental while as Elo

him,o r God Immanent in His Wo rld

,this God Unknown who

did make the wo rld and all things in i t giving to all life and

brea th is no t far from each one of us,for in Him we live, and

move, and are being Him o f whom (acco rding to certain ancient poets)we also are o ff spring the Lo rd o f the conscience and the D ivinity(acco rding to a mo re modern po et) that shapes our ends

,rough hew them

how we may.The idea o f God which is thus developed is represented in the emblemknown as So lomon ’s Seal . I n i t the Evo lution o f matter upward toward spiritis symbo lized by a triangle resting on its base, A the three sides o f which represent the Three who are testifying in the earth , the Spirit and the wa terand the blo o d while the Invo lution o f spiri t into matter is symbolizedby an inverted triangle

, V the three sides o f which represent the Three whoare testifying in the heaven

,the Father , the Word , and the Holy Spiri t ”

The latter three, who are o ne,

”

and the fo rmer three,who are into the

one,fo rm when combined the six-po inted star so prominent among ec clesi

astical symbo ls , reminding us at once o f the ancient Assyrian sign o f divinityin general , and a lso o f the star which at the birth o f Emmanu- cl was seeno f the magi in the east and sto od o ver where the child lay.

The accoun t given by Sanconiatho o f the sacrifice o f his only son by thesupreme god I I when danger beset the land , plainly connects I I with thegods and heroes o f earth

,and sati sfacto rily explains

,i f no t

,as he supposes ,

the or ig in o f human sacrifices , at least the reason fo r their perpetuation . We

have, however , in our day , seen no less a scho lar than F . Max Muller,o f the Po lynesian sto ry o f the destruction of sky- suppo rting Ru

,

who se bones came tumbling down and were shivered on the earth into countless fragments o f pumice- stone

,which are scattered o ver every hill and va lley

o f Mangaia, to the very edge o f the sea ; tha t this tearing asunder ofheaven and earth was o riginally no mo re than a description o f wha t might beseen every mo r ning when

,a fter a dark night

,the sun of the mo rning

appeared , the dawn was hurled away, and the sky seen lifted high above theearth . ”

(Pro f. Muller admits , however, tha t Why pumice- stone should becalled the bones o f Ru

, the Dawn ,"we canno t tell , w ithout hnow ing a

g rea t dea l more of the lang uage of Ma nga ia than we do a t present I ) If agreat modern authority c an soberly offer such an interpretation o f a story

India : Wha t can i t teach us Lec ture V .

70 APPENDIX.

manifestly relating to the supreme ca tastro phe o f histo ry,myth

,and legend

,

(see No te we may be pardoned fo r no t accepting litera lly the statement o f Sanconiatho , and fo r preferring instead to draw from it the conclusion tha t human sacrifices o riginated in a gro ss , ma teria listic m isconception o f a primitive do ctrine o f sacrifice dating from the time o f the greatca tastrophe in the so lar system to which reference has been made.

By the Hebrew priests clearly the history and meaning of the sacrificemade by 11were understood and perpetua ted in a way which kept theirfo llowers clo sely in sympathy with the ideas on which were based thea trocities o f the worship o f surrounding nations ; whence w e understand thecontinua l lapses of the Hebrew people into thewo rship o f Baal , Molo ch , etc . ,

in which wo rship they may have felt tha t they found the original o f whichtheir own w as a copy. By the Hebrew prophets , however, obviously thesacrifice made by E1 was understood in a to tally differen t and purelyspiritual way fo r they declare explicitly tha t the Sacrifices o f Elohim are

a broken spirit , a heart broken and bruised, ” — (Psalm HFrom this po int o f view, the do ctrine o f the sacrifice o f his only son by the

supreme god E1is a witness , from the time o f a catastrophe which may be

o utlined from ,if indeed it be no t actually symbo lized fo r us in , the Bo ok o f

Job ,o f the f

‘ Natura l law o f sacrifice which runs through all creation and isthe expression o f the very heart o f God himself under which law men

are lifted into the human life divine , as men are ready to sacrifice everything ,even to life i tself, in the vicariousness o f love who se perfect manifestation isJesus Christ ”

the foundation o f the do ctrine being belief in the existenceo f a Power (to use the words o f the R ev . Dr. Parkhurst , o f New Yo rk City)who is the most tremendously obligated Being in the universe, and who

meets His obligations to the uttermo st in behalf o f all who will hearken untoHis voice and walk in His ways.

In the light o f the fo rego ing facts o f etymo logy , and histo ry, sac red andpro fane, i t is significant tha t no t only was our Lord’

s ministry mainly assoc iated with the services o f the synagogues , which thus became the rallyingpoints fo r the primitive Christian congrega tions , the whole influence o f Hisministry being to put an end to the blo ody rites o f the Temple but wha t iseven mo re to the po int He distinctly connected His Being and Mission withthe grea t event o f whi ch o nly a dim shadow survives in Sanconiatho

’

s a o

coun t o f the deed of I I whence human sacrifices o riginated : and the New

Testament writers and early Fathers supply further links which seem to turnthe fabric from a chain into ma il-armor.Thus

,if Sanconiatho tells us tha t o nce when danger beset the land the

Supreme God 11sacrificed his only son the New Testament says tha t ourLo rd was truly Emanu-el, that is El with us . Of the time when , acco rdingto Sanconiatho

,danger beset the land , He who was seen in Patmo s with the

APPENDIX. 7 1

seven stars in His right hand, elsewhere a ffirmed I w as beho lding Satanfalling like lightning from the heavens . ” He further reminded Nicodemus(who as a master in Israel should have known these things), tha t God Theos

,

i . e. ,Dyaus

,the shining one

,identica l with E1), did so love the wor ld tha t

His Son— the only begotten—He ga ve tha t every one helieving in Him may not

per ish,hut may ha ve life age-dur ing . F or God did not send His Son to the

w or ld tha t he may j udge the wor ld, hut tha t the wor ld may he sa ved through

Him.

Again,in the agony of His death- throes upon the cro ss , just before He

gave up the ghost , He cried w ith a loud vo ice, no t to Jehovah , but insteadto the Supreme God El Eli , Eli , lama Sabachthan i , ” — El

,El

,why didst

Thou forsake me I

Mo st fittingly , then , when the Lamb slain from the founda tion o f the

w orld appeared to His disciples after the cruc ifixion ,—He asked Was

it no t behoving the Christ these things to suffer"The Christian Church has ever loved to see the Redeemer’s fo rm in themysterious Melchizedek , King o f Jerusalem and King of Peace

,as a lso in

other divine manifestations recorded in the Old Testament . Hence w e may

come to understand the profound meaning o f the learned St . Augustine ,when he writesTha t in our times is called the Christian religion , which to know and to

follow is the most sure and certain health , ca lled a cco rding to tha t name,but not a cco rding to the thing i tself o f which i t is the name

,fo r the thing

itself which is now called the Christian religio n rea lly was known to the

ancients , no r w as wanting at any time from the beginning o f the humanrace until the time when Christ came in the flesh , from whence the true re

l igio n , which had previously existed , began to be ca lled Christian and thisin our days is the Christian religion ,

no t as having been wanting in fo rmertimes

,but as having in later times received that name.

” Opera Augustini , ”

vo l. i . , p .

According to this,hea thenism would represent a co rruptio n o f the o rigina l

doctrine, while the truth as i t is in Jesus would be the ancient do ctrinerestored to mankind by the Incarnation and Precio us Dea th o f Christ.Human and o ther sacrifices o riginated in a misapprehension o f the sp iritua l

Sc orn and contumely and the c ries o f an angry c row d surround tha t a l tar o n w hichthe Son o f God makes obla tion o f H imsel f and c ro ss a fter c ro ss s trew s the long V ia Do

lo t o sa o f the narrow pa th tha t leadeth unto Life .

The w rongs o f o thers w ound the Son o f God, and the s tripes o f o thers fa l l on His flesh.He is smitten w ith the pa in o f a ll c rea tures

,and His hear t is pierced w i th their w ounds .

There is no o ffence done and he suffers no t , nor any w rong, and he is no t hur t thereby.F o r h is heart is in the breas t o f every c rea ture and his blo od in the veins o f a ll flesh .A nd inasmuch as a man loves and succours and saves even the leas t o f God ’

s c rea tures ,he m inisters unto the Lo rd.

7 2 APPENDIX.

meaning o f the primitive do ctrine o f the sacrifice by the Supreme God 11o f ‘

His o nly S on to save the wo rld.Now let our souls o n wings sublimeRise from the vanities o f time

,

Draw back the parting veil and see

The glo ries o f eternity. ”

NOTE VII . Ma ter ia listic phy sica l science is destructive of D eism only ,

while Chr istian theism is wholly hey ond i ts r each.

” — (P .

The celebra ted contention between Herbert Spencer and Frederick Harrison

,touching The Na ture and Reality o f Religion

,

”

w as purely on theplane o f Theism . Mr. Spencerwho , in the o pinion o f competen t autho ri ties ,po ssesses perhaps the grandest intellect which has appeared in philo sophy intw o thousand years

,summed up a paper entitled Religion

,a Retro spect

and Pro spect , by saying : The fina l outcome o f that speculation c om

menced by primitive man, is tha t the Power manifested throughout the

Un iverse distinguished as ma terial , is the same Power which in ourselveswells up under the fo rm o f consciousness .

” Mr . Harrison,who is admit

tedly o ne o f the mo st brilliant o f modern criti cs and essayists,fo llowed up

Spencer’s paper with one en titled The Gho st o f Religion,

”in which he

a ffirmed tha t to him , Spencer’s paper seemed frankly unanswerable as a sum

mary o f philo sophical conclusions on the theo logical problem but Harrisono bjects that there is no religion in the consciousness o f being ever in thepresence o f an Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed."Religion ,

says Harrison , must be an thro pomo rphic to be a wo rking reali ty

,and he cla ims tha t the future will have to return to the Knowable, to

the religion o f Realism , the religion o f Humanity,as the grandest object of

reverence within the region o f the real and known .

“You can have noreligion ,

” writes Harrison , without kinship , sympathy,relation o f some

k ind between the believer, worshipper, servant , and the object o f his belief. ”

To this Spencer rejoined , tha t as religion began ,historica lly

,with the wor

ship o f dead men,fo llowed by that o f gho sts continually less human and

mo re superhuman in a ttributes , to be to ld now that there is coming an era inwhich the Universa l Power men have come to believe in ,

will be igno red, andhuman individualities , regarded now singly and now in their aggrega te, willaga in be the o bjects o f religious feeling ,— this is Retrogressive Religion.A spectato r, ”

says Mr. Spencer , who,seeing a bubble floating o n a great

r iver, had his a ttention so abso rbed by the bubble tha t he ignored the riverout o f which the bubble arose would fitly typify a disciple o f M .

Comte, who centreing all his higher sentiments on Humanity, holds it absurdto let either thought or feeling be o ccupied with that great stream of Creative Power of which Humanity is a transitory product . ”

APPENDIX . 73

From this point on,no advance was made in the debate.

'

Harrison c o n

tinued to see the need o f relation o f some kind between the wo rshipper andthe object o f his belief while Spencer continued to be conscious o f the existence o f a Superhuman Power unreached by the deepest analyses o f matter,motion and thought and feeling , which will hereafter continue to be, underits ,

transfigured fo rm ,an object o f religious sentiment , a Power which , far

from dwelling apart from man and the wo rld , like the God o f Deism , isman ifested through man and the wo rld from instan t to instant . ”

Yet neithero f the combatants could name the name o f the Christ

,the Mediator between

the Unknowable and Human ity,though this name held the key to the situa

tion,so that , if Spencer had named it

,he must have w on the case by ho lding

his own and showing that with it he a lso po ssessed what Harrison insistedupon as essentia l I The precise po sition o f the L ogos do ctrine betweenTheism and Humanitarian ism may be seen from the fo llowing cita tio nsAs the heart of God the Fa ther, the Son o f God is a t the "same time

'

the

heart o f theworld , through whom the D ivine Light streams into creation . Asthe L ogo s of the Father , He is a t the same time the eterna l Logo s o f theworld

,through whom the Divine Light shines into crea tion . He is the

ground and source o f all reason in the crea tion ,be i t in men o r angels

,in

Greek o r Jew . ,He is the principle o f the law and promises under the O ld

Testament , the eterna l light which shines in the darkness o f heathenism and

all the ho ly gra ins o f truth which a re found in heathenism were sowed by theSon o f God in the souls o f men . It w as the D ivine Logo s Himselfwho imaged Himself befo rehand in elect sons o f men under the Old Co venant

,who moulded human personalities to a limited extent after His own

holy nature, and thus rea lized befo rehand some features o f the image whoseentire D ivine and human fulness He purpo sed to express in His revelation asthe Christ . Nay , mo re in the sons of theg ods of hea thendom ,

and in the men

who stoo d forward as witnesses o f a noble, God- related humanity, we maytra ce individua lf ea tures of His image, which He stamped on them ,

althoughthe heathen misapprehended them and did no t lay ho ld on the promise theyconta ined .

”- (Bisho p Martensen ,

ChristianChrist is the Word o f whom the entire human race are partakers those

who live acco rding to reason are Christians,though accounted a theists , while

tho se who live without reason are enemies to Christ each man o f the hea thenwriters spoke well in pro portio n to the share o f the Wo rd o f God he had inhim .

” — (Justin Martyr.)The Son o f God is never displaced not being divided , no t severed , not

passing from place to place being always everywhere, and being containednowhere complete mind

,the complete paterna l light . Christ is called VVis

dom by the prophets. This is hewho is the teacher of all created beings , thefellow -counsellor of God

, who foreknew all things. There was always a na

74. I I I ZZZELAKZI I JYI

tural manifestation o f the one Almighty God among all right- thinking men.

He whom w e ca ll Savio r and Lo rd gave philo sophy to the Greeks . He has

dispensed His beneficence bo th to Greeks and to Barbarians. F o r the imageo f God is His Wo rd

,the genuine S on o f Mind , the Divine Wo rd

,the arche

typa l light o f light. ” — (Clement o f Alexandria .)Co ncerning which salva tio n seek o ut and search o ut did prophets

searching in regard to wha t manner o f t ime the Spir it of Chr ist tha t was in

them w as manifesting,testifying befo rehand the sufferings of Christ and the

glo ry a fter these.

” Peter i . ,Jesus answered them ,

I s i t no t having been written in your law I said,ye are go ds" If then he did call them go ds unto whom the wo rd o f God

came, (and the writing is no t able to be broken ,) o f him whom the Father didsanctify, and send into the w o rld

,do ye say

—Thou speakest evil , because Isa id, Son o f God I am" —(John x. , 34

As many as did receive Him ,to them gave He autho rity to become sons

o f God.

” — (John iThere may be observed in the synchronizing o f the history o f faiths

a remarkable tidal wave o f intensity which seems acutely to affect the race,physically and mentally, and .with remarkable regularity every 600 to 650years

,reminding us o f the So thic and o ther cycles

,but especially of the

mystica l Phoenix o r so lar eras o f Egypt and the East.B.C . 3500 Egyptian Sacred Ritual .

3000 Zo ro aster (Bunsen).2500

2250 j"Flo od , Tower o f Babel .1750

1700Exo dus , Hmdo Veda , Zend Avesta.

1200

1100Ki ng Davi d

,Hebrew Psa lms.

600 Buddha,Chinese Sacred Bo oks.

0 Jesus Christ .A .D . 600 Mahomet , the Ko ran .

1100 Crusades .

288j" Luther, Pro testant Bible.

— (Fo rlong : “ Chart o f Rivers o f Life.

Five hundred years , Ananda , ’

said Buddha in the Culavagga ,

’

w illthe do ctrine o f the truth abide.

’ He a lso prophesied that a new Buddha (i .e. ,Divine Intelligence would come. He shall be the last to obtain the

grea t spiritua l light ; and he will become a Lord called the Buddha o fBrotherly Love.

”Saddharma Buddha died 470 B .C. , so

exactly 500 years after his death , the Buddha o f Brotherly Love began to

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6 APPENDIX .

St . Paul goes on to tell how the o ld things become new , which is by ourreco ncilia tion to God. This brings no t religio n

, but Christianity , squarelyto the front . In these la ter times , when all there is o f every thing c learround the earth has been brought to o ur no tice and knowledge

,it has been

suggested tha t religion w as no t limited to Christianity that, fo r instance,

Buddhism may make its contribution and Mohammedanism do its share.

This suggestion do es no t frighten o r puzzle us as on ce i t did. When wewere children Buddhism and Mahommedanism were regarded as unmixedlyevil

,but we don’t think o f them in that w ay now . We have come to ho pe

that every religio n may have something o f va lue in it, and tha t that veryelement o f va lue may be the do o r through which the truth o f God is at lastto enter.

But a long with this larger view has travelled the idea tha t one religionis as go od as ano ther

,and that the Church o f America has its hands full at

home. Here exactly is our po in t . We know how truly Jesus has completedour own knowledge o f the na ture o f go o d therefo re we pray and give tha tall the wo rld may have what w e know and the peace which a ccompanies it.I canno t believe tha t Buddha has done fo r a single pagan wha t Christ hasdone fo r me. Therefo re I stand here to speak fo r the agency which is sending Christ’s message to the wo rld . —( R ev . E . Winchester Donald , D .D .)

NOTE VIII . A n ang ry and v indictive God.

” — (P .

God spake in His wo rd acco rding to appearances as when itis said tha t He is angry, tha t He avenges

,tha t He tempts

,that He pun

ishes,that He casts into Hell

,that He condemns , yea ,

tha t He does evil ; whilethe truth is tha t God never is angry with any one , tha t He never avenges ,tempts , pun ishes , casts into hell , o r co ndemns . Such things are as far

from God,nay , infinitely farther, than hell is from heaven . They a re fo rms

o f speech then ,used only a c co rding to the appearances. Inferna l

fire comes from the same o rigin as heavenly fire,namely, from the sun o f

heaven,o r the Lo rd but it is made infernal by tho se who receive it . F o r

all influx from the sp iritua l wo rld varies a cco rding to reception ,o r a cco rding

to the fo rms into which it flows no t differently from the hea t and light fromthe sun o f the wo rld . The hea t flowing thence into planta tions and gardensproduces vegetation ,

and a lso brings fo rth gra teful and delicious o do rs and the

same hea t flowing into excrementitious and cadavero us substances pro ducesputrefaction , and draws fo rth noisome and disgusting stenches . It is thesame with the heat and light from the sun o f heaven , which is love. Whenthe heat o r lo ve thence flows into go ods ,— as in go o d men and Spirits ,— it

renders their go ods fruitful but when i t flows into the wicked i t pro duces acontrary effect , for their evils either suffo ca te o r pervert it . So with thelight o f heaven ; (on the one hand) it gives intelligence and wisdom ; but(on the other hand) i t is turned into insanities and fantasies of various kinds .

APPENDIX. 77

There is none besides Me,I am Jehovah , there is none else fo rming

light and preparing darkness,making peace , and preparing evi l , I am

Jehovah , doing all these things .

’

(Isa iah , x1v . , 4 , A man who is in

evil is bound.to hell , and even as to his spirit,is ac tually there and after

death he desires nothing mo re than to be where his evil is. A man therefore casts himself into hell a fter death , and no t the Lo rd . ”

NOTE IX . The God who w as then and f or the fir st time revea led to

manhind.— (P .

There exists an immense fact , equally appreciable by fa ith andby science ,a fact which renders God in a certa in sense visible on earth an incontestablefact

,and one o f immense significance i t is the manifestati on in the wo rld ,

from the epo ch of the Christian revela tio n ,o f a Spiri t unknown to the

ancients , a spirit evidently divine, more po sitive than science in its wo rks,mo re magnificently idea l in its asp irations than the highest poetry , a spiritfo r which it has been necessary to create a new name, wholly unheard o f inthe sanctuaries o f antiquity, and which in religion , bo th fo r science and fo r

faith , is the expression o f the abso lute. This wo rd is Charity , and the spirito f which we speak is called the sp iri t o f charity , which is God in His earthlymanifestation . Before charity , fa ith pro strates i tself, and science bows down ,

overcome, for i t is evidently something greater than human ity i t is strongerthan all passions

,i t triumphs o ver suffering and death it revea ls Deity to

every heart , and seems already to fill eternity by tha t realizatio n o f i ts legitima te ho pes which it commences here below. By the spirit o f charity

,Jesus

,

expiring o n the cross,triumphed over the anguish o f the most frightful to r

ments by the spirit of chari ty twelve a rtisans o f Ga lilee conquered thewo rld i t is by charity

,in fine

,tha t the fo lly o f the cro ss has become the

wisdom o f the na tions , because all noble hearts have felt it a mo re sublimeand wo rthy thing to believe with tho se who love and sacrifice themselves

,

than to doubt with the ego tists and slaves o f self- indulgence I ” — (AlphonseLouis Constant in the Mysteries of Magic , ” by Wa ite.)

NOTE X . This conf usion of thought is so g rea t tha t it is rea lly a stonish

ing to see how the most important minds of a ll times,s ince the appea rance of

the B ible, ha ve been cramped by i t and betrayed in to weahness of j udgment.”

— (P .

I n view o f Wagner’s antipathy towards the Jewish O ld Testament and theJewish race, —no t however toward the latter in their ind ividual capa city, fo rhe had many distinguished friends and warm admirers among the Jewishpeople , from Carl Tausig , the inventor of the plan o f Wagner So cieties , bywhich the Baireuth perfo rmances were rendered financially po ssible ,

down toprivate conno isseurs

,—it is curious to no te tha t he himself, as a Saxon , may

have been an Israelite, o r a descendant o f Israel , though not a Jew ,o r a

78 APPENDIX.

descendan t o f Judah. The histo rical da ta a re as fo llows : When TiglathP ileser carried the Ten Tribes o f Israel into captivity

,he called them in a

monumental inscription , a copy o f which is in the British Museum, the

people o f the land o f Beth-Khumri . These Khumri , called sometimes theGimiri , were known to the Greeks as Cimmero i , and to the Romans asC imbri . The Crimea is believed to have been called a fter them

,and many

Israelitish tombstones have been found there. Acco rding to Rawlinson,

the ethnic name o f Gimiri o ccurs in the cuneifo rm reco rds as the Semiticequivalent o f the Aryan name Saki . The Saco e Scythians were termed theGim iri by their Semitic neighbo rs . The Anglo - Saxons were a Teutonic

,i . e. ,

a Go thic o r Scythian tribe. They gave to the mo st fertile part o f Armeniathe name o f Sak asena (Saxonia). These Saka i were called in their own country sho rtly befo re their captivity (i . e. , in Samaria) Beth- Isaac , the o rientalpronunc iation o f the latter name being with the emphasis o n the last syllable,I — saa t . (The Danes , No rmans , Jutes, Frisians , Welsh

,etc . ,

are descendedfrom the same primitive race as the Anglo - Saxons .) From this po in t o fview certain no tewo rthy fea tures o f the Refo rmation in England a re strikingly suggestive o f a vivid reviva l o f race self- consciousness as

,fo r example,

the extrao rdinary revival o f Bible, and especially Old Testament , readingand study ' the partiality for Hebrew names in baptism , and the instinctivefondness fo r the science o f genealogy . We all had our genealogies . No

o ther na tion had this science as had the Jews fo r all our land belonged tofamilies

,and the scribes kept a reco rd o f the boundaries o f every piece o f

land,so tha t if i t were so ld

,i t should return to the same house a t the end

of fifty years. Life and Times o f Jesus,

" James Freeman Clarke. ) Inview o f Old Testament prophecies, such as tha t o f Amo s I destroy no tutterly the house o f Jacob . I have shaken among all the na tions thehouse o f Israel , as one who do th shake with a sieve, and there falleth no ta grain to the earth and that in Genesis concerning Ephra im (i . e. , the

Israelites o r lo st tribes , no t the Jews o r children o f Judah), his seed is thefulness o f the nations and their apparent present fulfilmen t in the supremacy of the Saxon (Teuto n ic) race in England , America , and Germany, it is tobe regretted that Wagner should never have had disclo sed to him any patho f appro ach to the Old Testament which would have so ftened his asperitytowards tho se venerable writings and the ra ce fo rever histo rica lly identifiedwith them .

(See Our Ra ce,by Lieut . C . A. L. To tten , U . S. A Our Race

Publishing C0 . ,New Haven ,

Conn .)

NOTE XI . The continua lprosecution of phy sica l exper iments in thefield

of na tura l science has aga in led the r uling human intellect of the day to the

conclusion tha t there is no God a t a ll,but only f orce and ma tter .

— (P .

The invento r Thomas A . Edison is obviously an exception to the aboverule . I n a recent talk to a newspaper repo rter, he said I do no t believe

APPENDIX. 9

that matter is inert , a cted o n by o utside fo rces . To me i t seems that everyatom is po ssessed by a certa in amoun t o f primitive intelligence. L o ok atthe thousand ways in which a toms o f hydrogen combine with tho se o f o therelements having a most diverse substance. Do you mean to say tha t theydo this without intelligence" Atoms in harmonious and beautiful relationsa ssume a beautiful order, interesting shapes and co lo rs , o r give fo rth apleasant perfume as if expressing their sa tisfaction . In sickness , death ,decompo sition

,o r filth

, the disagreemen t o f the a toms immediately makesitself fel t by bad o do rs. Ga thered together in certa in fo rms , the a tomsconstitute animals o f the lower o rders . Finally, they combine in man , whorepresents the to ta l intelligence o f all the a toms . But where does thisintelligence come from asked the repo rter. From some Power grea terthan o urselves , ” responded M r. Ediso n .

“Do you believe then in an

intelligent Creator and persona l God"” Certa inly , said Mr. Ediso n.“The existence o f such a God can to my mind almo st be proved fromchemistry.Herbert Spencer ’s Do ctrine o f the UnknowableMa tter, Motio n ,

and Fo rce , are but symbols o f the Unknown Reality. APower o f which the na ture remains forever inconceivable and to which nolimits in Time o r Space c an be imagined , wo rks in us certain effects .Every vo luntary ac t yields to the primitive man proo f o f a source o f energywithin him . When producing mo tion in his l imbs , and through themin o ther things , he is aware o f the a ccompanying feeling o f effo rt . Andthis sense o f effo rt , which is the perceived antecedent o f changes producedby him

,furnishes him with a term o f thought by which to represen t the

genesis o f these objective changes . Tha t internal energy which inthe experiences o f the primitive man w as a lways the immediate antecedento f changes wrought by him . is the same energy which , freed fromanthropomorphic a ccompaniments , is now figured as the c ause o f all externalphenomena . Consequently , the fina l o utcome o f tha t speculationcommenced by primitive man

,is tha t the Power man ifested through

o ut the Universe distinguished as ma teria l,is the same Power which in

ourselves wells up under the fo rm o f consciousness . The ultimatefo rm o f the religious consciousness is the final developmen t o f a consciousness which a t the outset contained a germ o f truth obscured by multitudinouserro rs . S o far from regarding tha t which transcends phenomena asThe All-No thingness ’ I regard i t as the All-Being. Everywhere I have

spoken o f the Unknowable as the U ltimate Reality— the so le Existenceall things present to consciousness being but shows o f it . I mightenlarge on the fact that , though the name Agno sticism fitly expresses theconfessed inability to know o r to conceive the na ture o f the Powermanifestedthrough phenomena , i t fa ils to indica te the confessed ability to recognizethe existence o f tha t Power a s o f all things the mo st c erta in . I might make

80 APPENDIX.

clea r the co ntrast between the Comtean Agnosticism which says that Theo logy and Onto logy a like end in the Everlasting No .

’

w ith the

Agno sticism set fo rth in"my"First Principles o f Philo sophy, ’ whichemphatically utters an Everlasting Yes . A nd I might show the erro r o fimplying tha t Agnosticism as I ho ld it , is any thing mo re than silentwith respect to the question o f persona lity in the convictio n tha t thecho ice is no t between personality and something lower than personality

,

but between personality and something higher. It is true tha t w e are

to tally unable to conceive any such higher mode o f being But this isno t a reason fo r questioning its existence ; i t is ra ther the reverse. Inall imaginable ways we find thrust upon us the tr uth

,that we are no t

permitted to know— nay , are no t permitted even to conceive— tha t Rea litywhich is behind the vei l o f Appearance.

” — (Herbert Spencer.)Martin Luther’s Do ctrine o f the Unknowable God and the KnowableLogo s

“ Although God is omnipresent , He is nowhere ; I canno t lay ho ld o f

Him by my own thoughts without the Wo rd . But where He Himself haso rdained to be present , there He is c erta inly to be found. The Jews foundHim in Jerusalem at the thro ne o f grace ; w e find Him in the Wo rd

,in

Baptism , .in the Lo rd ’

s Supper. Greeks and Heathens imitated this bybuilding temples fo r their gods in particular places , in o rder tha t they mightbe able to find them there in Ephesus , fo r example, a temple w as built toD iana in Delphi to Apo llo . God cannot bef ound in H isMaj esty— tha t is

,

outside of His r evela tion of Himself in H is Word. TheMaj esty of God is

too exa lted and g r and f or us to be able to g ra sp i t. He therefo re showsus the right w ay , to wit, Christ , and says , Believe in Him and you will findout who I am ,

and wha t are my na ture and will . This wo rld meanwhileseeks in innumerable ways with great industry , co st , trouble, and labo r, tofind the invisible and incomprehensible God in His Majesty. But God is andremains to them unknown

,a lthough they have many thoughts about Him,

and disc ourse and dispute much ; f or God ha s decreed tha t He w ill be

Unhnowable and Unappr ehensible apa r t f r om Chr ist.” Luther’s Table

That the physica l evo lution o f man has been eno rmous within the periodco vered by authentic histo ry , is well-known . When ,

however , we come to

compare the do ctrine o f the Unknowable, o n the one hand , as expressed byLuther, and on the o ther, as fo rmula ted by Herbert Spencer, with the Kabbala ,with its do ctrine o f Divine emanations , derived , w e are assured , from the

teachings o f Zo roaster, i t does no t seem that the spiri tual perceptions of manhave made a co rresponding advance ; indeed it hardly can be claimed theyhave held their own I A compariso n o f Spencer’s do ctrine with that o f the

APPENDIX. 81

Kabbala, go es far to suppo rt the view o f Laurence Oliphant in his Seientific Religion

,

” that the Fall o f Man co incided with his spirit’s assuming a

gro ss anima l co vering , while the histo ry o f human evo lution has been the

histo ry o f the effo rt o f human spirit to ra ise this vile body into somethingmo re wo rthy to serve as the temple o f the Ho ly Spirit . Says Mathers , inhis Intro ductio n to the Kabbala

“The prima l fo rms o f the Unknowable and Nameless One, whom in

the mo re manifest fo rm w e speak o f as God,are these

1. Shut Out from Mo rta l Comprehension .

(a) A in .

Negative Existence .

( I n a seed , the tree which may spring from it is hidden it is in conditiono f potential existence i t is there but i t will no t admit o f definition . The

seeds which that potential tree may yield are in a condi tion analogous topo tentia l existence, but are hardly so far advanced . They are nega tively

existent.)(b) Ain Soph .Limitless Expanse.

2 . Only a D im Conception Fo rmable(c) Ain Soph A ur .

The Illimitable Light .These three kabbalistic veils o f the Negative Existence

,viz . , A in- Nega

tivity Ain Soph— the Limitless ; and A in Soph A ur— the Limitless Light ,shadow fo rth to the mind the idea o f the Illimitable One. A nd befo retha t idea

,and o f tha t idea

,we c an o nly say in the wo rds o f an ancien t

o racle : I n Him is an illimitable abyss o f glo ry,and from it go eth fo rth

one l ittle spark which maketh a ll the glo ry o f the sun,and o f the mo on

,

and o f the stars . Mo rtal " Beho ld how little I know o f God ; seek no t

to know more o f Him, fo r this is far beyond thy comprehension , however

wise tho u art ; as fo r us who are His ministers , how sma ll a part are we

o f Him .

”

This primal Negative Existence , which bears , hidden in itself, positive life,and in the limitless depths o f who se negativity lies hidden the power o f standing fo rth from itself, the power o f pro jecting the scintilla o f thought into theutter, the power o f re- invo lving the syntagma into the inner ; and which ,shrouded and veiled , is the abso rbed intensity in the centreless whirl o fexpansion ,

manifests in itself ten Sephiro th o r Numerical Emanations,o f

which Number One is K ether,the Crown

,and first Sephira. The D ivine

name attributed to K ether is the name o f the Fa ther, given in Exodus ii i . , 4Eheih, I AM . It signifies Existence. Among the epithets applied to K ether ,

the Crown ,are the Concealed o f the Concealed the Ancient of theAncient

6

82 APPENDIX

Ones ; the Mo st Ho ly Ancient One ; the Ancient o f Days ; the Primo rdialPoint the Inscrutable Height .Among these Sephiro th , jo intly and severa lly, we find the developmentof the persons and attributes o f God. Of these some are ma le, and some are

female. The translato rs o f the Bible have translated a feminine plura l by amasculine singular in the case o f the wo rd Elohim , thus crowding out of existence the fact that the Dei ty is bo th masculine and feminine. Genesis i27 : A nd Elohim prepareth the man in His image and in the image o f

Elohim He prepared him ,a ma le and a female.

”

Eheih,Existence

,is the A ncient One. Macropro spus , the first Sephira ,

the Crown o f the Kabbalistic greatest Trinity, is the F a ther in the Chr istianaccepta tion of the Tr inity .

Jehovah conta ins all the Sephiroth w i th the exception of K ether , theCrown and specially signifies Micro scopus, and is the Son in his human inca rna ti on and in the Chr istian a ccepta tion of the Tr ini ty .

The first Sephira,Eheih,

the Crown (and Fa ther), is called InscrutableHeight the remaining Sephiro th, included in 7 ehovah (the Son), are ca lled ,respectively, Wisdom ,

Intelligence, Love, Justice, Beauty, Firmness , Splendour , and Righteousness . ”

(In comparing Spencer’s Unknowable with Kabbalism ,we must not

forget his famous fo rmula o f Evo lution : Evo lution is an integra tion o f

ma tter and concomitant dissipation o f mo tion during which matter passesf rom an indefinite

,incoherent homogeneity ,

to a definite, coherent heteroge

Between Luther and the Kabbala , stands Swedenbo rg, who teaches thatJehovah God Himself descended and became MAN ,

and became a lso theRedeemer in suppo rt o f which do ctrine he cites numerous passages ofScripture

,such as these

Understand tha t I am He, befo re Me there w as no God formed, andafter Me there is none, I — I am Jehovah , and besidesMe there is no saviour.— (Isaiah xliii . , 10 ,

Thus sa id Jehovah,King o f Israel

,and his Redeemer, Jehovah of

Hosts I am the first and I am the last , and besides Me there is no God.(Isaiah xliv. ,I John was in the Spiri t on the Lord ’

s-Day,and I heard be

hind me a great voice, as o f a trumpet , saying , I am the Alpha and the

Omega,the First and the Last and I did turn to see the vo ice

tha t did speak to me, and having turned , I saw seven go lden lampstands, andin the midst like to a son o f man and His countenanceas the sun shining in its might . And when I saw Him ,

I did fall at His feetas dead , and He placed His right hand upo n me

,saying Be no t

afraid I am the First and the Last , and He who is living, and I did become

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84 A PPENDIX.

wither i ts a ttra ctive power. After nineteen centuries o f assault and misrepresentation ,

w e can still lo ok on the picture o f Jesus , as i t stands out in the

Go spel Story , and ado re without ido latry fo r theWo rd was made flesh anddwelt among us , and we beheld His glo ry , the glo ry as o f the Only-bego tteno f the Father, full o f Grace and Truth. ’

The Picture o f Jesus R ev.

H . A . Haweis, M .A .)

NOTE XV . H is F a ther ’

s voice seems to r oll on the summer thunder,the

w ind tha t bloweth where i t listeth is f ull of whispers of the heavenly rea lm .

”

— (P .

By the immed i ate consciousness o f ourselves alone a re w e rendered capable o f understanding the inner essentia l na ture o f things external to ourselves ,and tha t to o in such a w ay that we rec ognize in them the same fundamentalna ture which manifests itself in o ur consciousness o f o urselves as being our

own. All illusio n with regard to this pro ceeds so lely from our seeing a wo rldexterna l to us

,which

,in the semblance o f light , we perceive a s something

entirely different from us . Our c onsciousness may at last feel impelled toexcla im with Faust : Wha t a spectacle I But

,a las , o nly a spectacle I

Where can I grasp Thee, Infinite Na ture"’The mo st certain o f answers

to this cry is given by music . The o uter wo rld speaks to us with such inc omparable intelligibility here because by virtue o f the effect o f sounds

,it

communicates to us through hearing precisely what w e call out to i t from thedepths o f our soul . We understand immediately the cry fo r help , o r o f

mourning o r joy , which w e hear , and answer at o nce in the co rrespondingsense and no i llusion

,as in the semblance o f light

,to the effect tha t the

fundamental nature o f the wo rld external to us is no t completely identicalwith o ur own essentia l nature is possible here by which , the gulf tha t to thesight seems to exist at o nce vanishes. So the child awakes from the night ofthe mo ther’s womb w ith a cry o f longing , and the so o thing caresses o f themo ther reply so do es the longing youth understand the a lluring songs o ffo rest birds so speaks the mo an o f animals

,the sighing o f winds, and the

raging shriek o f the hurricane to the meditative man who falls into tha t stateo f revery in which he perceives through the hearing , that with reference towhich his sight has kept him in the illusion o f disper"sion"i . e. ,

that his inmo st nature is one with the inmo st nature o f all tha t he perceives, and thato nly in this perception is the nature o f things externa l to him really recognized.

” — (Wagner Beethoven ,

” pp . 25-

7 , 33 , Schirmer, N .

For w e have known tha t all the creation do th groan together, and travailin pain together till now .

— (Romans viii . ,

P a rsif a l. Methinks to -day the meads are wondrous fair IThe frondage, flowers , and blossoms ,

APPENDIX. 85

Their fragrance pure as child’

s delight ,And speaking fondest trust to me.

”

Gurnemanz.

’

T is all Goo d Friday ’s Magic,Lord I ”

P a r sifa l. Alas I HI S day o f ago ny IWhen surely all tha t buds and bloomsAnd breathing lives , and lives again ,

Should mourn and weep and so rrow.

— (PARSIFAL ,Act II I .)

To believe in Him is to imita te Him,a nd to seeh union

— (P .

Prayer in a particular degree pertains to wo rthy men,because it conjoins

them with divinity f or simila r s love to be un ited together ; but a wo rthy man

is in an eminent degree simila r to the d ivine na ture. All nations whohave flourished in the exercise o f wisdom have applied themselves to divineprayers . Since w e are a part o f this universe

,it is consonan t to reason

that we should be dependent upon i t fo r suppo rt . F o r a conver sion to theun iver se pro cures safety to everything which i t contains . If therefo re youpossess virtue, it is requisite you should invoke tha t divinity which previouslycomprehended every virtue ; fo r un iversal good is the cause o f thatgoo d which belongs to you by participation . A nd if you seek a fter somecorporea l go od , the wo rld is endued with a power which conta ins universalbody. From hence therefo re i t is necessary tha t perfectio n should extendto the parts. We must no t conceive (say the ancients) tha t our prayerscause any animadversio n in God

,o r draw down his beneficence, but rather

they are the means o f elevating the soul to divin ity,and disposing i t fo r the

reception o f the supernal illumination .

” — (Porphyry , Neo -Platonist,A .D .

233—3o s

If w e are saved by the love o f Christ,i t is by love a lso that we manifest

Christ to o thers. If we have received freely , we a lso give freely, shining inthe midst o f n ight

,tha t is , in the darkness o f the world . For so long as this

darkness preva ils o ver the earth , Love hangs on the Cro ss ; because the

darkness is the wo rking o f a will at variance with the D ivine Will , doingcontinual violence to the L aw of Love.

” — (Dr. A . Kingsford.)

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born ,But no t within thyself

,thy soul will be fo rlo rn

The cross o f Golgo tha tho u lo okest to in va in ,Unless w ithin thyself it be set up again .

—(Scheffler , 17 th century.)

86 APPENDIX.

NOTE XVII . So the true sa int hnows tha t neither by theorizing ,disputa

tion,nor controver sy can he communica te to the w or ld his inner

,deeply blissf ul

intuitions .

” — (P .

Wo rds,wo rds

,— nay , finally

,mere letters and letters , but no living

fa ith I ” — (Wagner, 1879, p .

The master o f the house fo rmerly read to his family and his guests fromthe co stly wri tten bo ok ; now , however , every o ne reads fo r himself insilence in printed bo oks , and the autho r writes for "popularity with"thereader. We must reca ll the religious sects o f the Refo rmation

,with their

disputa tions and petty tracts , in o rder to ga in an insight into the ragingdelirium tha t has usurped contro l over human heads litera lly po ssessed ’

with printers’ type. It may be assumed tha t only Luther’s glo rious cho ralrescued the hea lthy spiri t o f the Refo rmation , because i t stayed the mindand thus hea led the cerebra l typomania. ” —Wagner Beethoven

,

” p .

NOTE XVIII . The only element of R evela tion which the wor ld a t la rge

can g ra sp,is dogma .

- (P .

A distinction is sometimes drawn between Dogma and Do ctrine, as in thefollowing citationDogmatic Christianity I have a llowed to creep into these studies a lmo st

as little as it does into the Go spels . Thewant o f defin ition which Paul , thedisciple

,already begins to feel

,do es no t seem to have troubled the Master

,

o r,indeed

,his fo llowers

,during His l ifetime. Definitions— explanations

suitable to the times,intelligible to the catechumens— natura lly enough

came la ter,and no one need object to definitions in creeds o r articles which

a im at embodying sound and teachable truth fo r a time— fo r that is doctr ine.

Every one has a right to object to the definitions o f truth framed in one age

being riveted without apology or explana tion upon ano ther— fo r so doctr ine is

petrified into dogma . Mo st o f the schisms and n icknames and heresiesand theo logica l miseries in Chr istendom

,much tha t has sinned against the

Life and den ied the Go spel o f Christ , has come from man’s wrong-headedpassion fo r having a fixed definition . The Picture o f Jesus, ”

R ev.

H. A . Haw eis,M .A.)

The po sition o f the Father o f the Pilgrim Fa thers , John Robinson , on

the question o f Doctrine versus Dogma,is manifest from his counsell to

tha t part o f the church o f which he w as pasto r, a t their departure from himto begin the great wo rk o f Plantation in New England, on which occasion“hee used these expressionsWe are now ere long to part assunder, and the Lo rd knoweth whether

ever he should live to see our faces aga in but whether the Lo rd had ap

po inted it o r no t, he charged us befo re God and his blessed angels , to f ollowhim no f ur ther than hef ollowed Christ. A nd if God should revea l any thing

APPENDIX. 87

to us by any other instr ument of his, to be a s ready to receive it,a s ever we

were to receive any truth by hisMinistry F or he w a s very confident the L ord

had more truth and lighty et to breahef or th out of his holy Word. He to oko ccasio n a lso miserably to bew aile the state and co ndition o f the Reformedchurches

,who w ere come to a per iod in Religion , and would goe no f ur ther

than the instr uments of their R ef orma tion as fo r example, the L utherans ,they could not be drawne to goe bey ond wha t L uther saw

,fo r wha tever part o f

God’s will he had further imparted and revea led to Ca lvin , they will ratherdie than embrace it. A nd so also , saith he, you see the Ca lvinists , they stich

where he lef t them A misery much to bee lamented ; fo r though they wereprecious shining lights in their times , yet God had no t r evea led his whole w ill

to them A nd were they now living, sa ith hee, they w ould bee a s r eady and

w illing to embrace f ur ther light, a s tha t they had received . Here a lso heeput us in mind o f our Church-Covenan t whereby wee promise and co venantw ith God and with one ano ther, to receive whatsoever light and truth sha ll bee

made hnown to us f r om his wr ittenWord : but w ithal exhorted us to tahe heedwha t wee receivedf or tr uth, and well to examine and compa re, and w eigh i tw ith

other S cr iptures of tr uth bef ore wee received i t for sa ith hee, I t is notpos

sible the Chr istian wor ld should come so la tely out of such thich A nti-christian

darhnesse, and tha t f ullperf ection of hnowledge should breahe f or th a t once.

”

NOTE XIX. I n Chr istian L ove, F a i th and Hope a r e of themselves

included.— (P .

Fa ith and Hope there may and must be,but Love is still the greatest ,

because i t includes the o ther two, fo r i f we love we must have some Fa ith in

those whom we lo ve, and if we have Faith who sha ll deprive us o f Hope,

since in Faith we rea lise the very substance o f things hoped fo r— the evi

dence of things no t seen . Therefo re o f Faith , Hope and Love ,the greatest

o f these is Lo ve. It is not a Co nception ,o r a Sentiment , o r a Dream ,

o r anImpulse

,o r an Aspiratio n . Love is A Way. It is the w ay out o f every

difficulty— it is the so lvent o f every doubt— it brings man clo se to man— it

leads man stra ight to God thro ugh Christ . Love is enough— it takes theplace o f bodily comfo rt— it compensates fo r material losses— it soo thes alldisappointments— it supplies all needs— it s lays death— it is a fo retaste o f

heaven . Paul fo und i t sufficient , and he preached i t without the least c oncealment o r misgiving as the one divine panacea for all the i lls tha t couldhappen to the body o r assault and hurt the soul.Love meant to St . Paul the self- life merged in the lives o f o thers , yet

w ithout the loss of an ever energetic individua lity, by which it enriched andbuilt up others w ith innumerable sympa thetic ministries and was itselfreciprocally blessed .

“ The ground o f this love was a Common Humanity. This aga in hadits source in the Central Humanity of God Himself, and thus every true and

88 APPENDIX.

love- redeemed life w as sa id to be hid with Christ in God.

’ God’

s humanna ture rema ined the ground o f o ur human nature— the centra l power o f thatna ture w as LOVE

,o r the go ing fo rth o f Being blessing and to bless . The

who le c rea tion w as no thing but that— all diso rders which had crept into thatcreatio n would be set right by tha t . Human lo ve is delegated power. We

who are his o ffspring have received the spirit o f sons and are c alled upo n tolo ve o ne ano ther, even as He has loved us and given Himself fo r us .

The philo sophy o f this is deep— it will bear inspection o n every s ide.

You can put in your test rod anywhere and the living wa ters will rise.

I n human so ciety that which a lone resists disintegration is LOVE .

The cementing power o f the sta te is no t the swo rd,but self- devo tio n .

You call i t patrio tism,o r a llegiance to the throne o r the Republic

,o r en

thusiasm fo r leaders— Paul called i t LOVE.

That which ho lds families together, and makes people to be o f one mindin a house is no t interest

,o r argument , o r law ,

o r fo rce,o r avarice, o r am

bition,o r selfish pleasure— but LOVE.

Tha t which tempers the adm in istra tion o f justi ce i s aga in mercy,o r a

fo rm o f L o vn.

That which go es fo rth to seek and to save the lo st in our great cities,

which feeds the hungry,c lo thes the naked

,which gives to the suffering the

necessaries o f life, which binds up the broken-hearted,warms the Spiritually

fro st-bound back to life, converts an o utward Hell into an inward Paradise,

compo ses disco rds and brings back peace to a to rmented wo rld , makingHeaven po ssible to the soul— is ever LOVE.

” Picture o f Paul ”

R ev . H . A. Haweis,M .A.)

NOTE XX . This being is a lso human lihe my self . —(P .

Only by means o f the highest power o f love do w e atta in true freedom ,

fo r there is no true freedom save that which is shared in commo n by allmen

,high and low ,

rich and po o r. Two hundred millions o f human beingsruthlessly thrown together in the Roman empire , so on found tha t where all

all are no t equally free and happy,all must be slaves and miserable.

"

(Wagner.)My friends , if you would see men again the wild beasts they seemed in

the nineteenth century, all you have to do is to resto re their na tura l prey intheir fellow-men ,

and to find their ga in in the lo ss o f o thers . No doubt itseems to you tha t no necessity, however dire, would have tempted you to subsist on what superio r skill o r strength enabled you to wrest from o thersequally needy. But suppo se i t were no t merely your own life tha t you wereresponsible for. The gentlest creatures are fierce when they have young toprovide fo r. F o r the sake o f tho se dependen t upon him a man might notc hoose, but must plunge into the foul fight,

- cheat , o verreach , supplant,

APPENDIX. 89

defraud , buy below wo rth and sell above, break down the business by whichhis neighbo r fed his young o nes , tempt men to buy what they ought no t andsell wha t they should no t

,grind his labo rers

,swea t his debto rs , co zen his

credito rs . Even the ministers o f religio n were no t exempt from this cruelnecessity. While they warned their flocks aga inst the lo ve o f money, regardfo r their families compelled them to keep an outlo ok fo r the pecuniary prizeso f their ca lling. Po o r fellows , theirs w as indeed a trying business , preaching to men a genero sity and an unselfishness which they and everybodyknew would , in the existing sta te o f the wo rld , reduce to poverty those whoshould practice them ; laying down laws o f conduct which the law o f selfpreserva tion compelled men to break. I t is no t hard to understand the desperation with which men and women , who under o ther conditions wouldhave been full o f gentleness and truth , fought and to re each o ther in thescramble fo r go ld, when w e rea lize wha t i t meant to miss i t , wha t po vertywas in tha t day . F o r the body i t w as hunger and thirst

,torment by hea t

and fro st in sickness,neglect in health , unremitting to il fo r the moral

na ture i t meant oppression ,contempt

,and the patien t endurance o f indig

nity , brutish asso ciations from infancy , the lo ss o f all the innocence o f childho od

,the grace o f womanhood

,the dignity o f manho od ; fo r the mind i t

meant the death o f igno rance, the torpo r o f all those faculties which distinguish us from brutes

,the reduction o f life to a round o f bod ily functions .

Ah,if such a fa te were offered you and your children as the o nly a lternative

o f success in the accumulatio n o f wealth , how long do you fancy would yoube in sinking to the mo ra l level o f your ancesto rs" A number o f Englishprisoners were shut up in a room containing no t enough air to supply onetenth o f their number. The unfortunates were ga llan t men , devoted c om

rades in service , but as the agonies o f suffocation began to take hold o f them ,

they fo rgo t all else, and became invo lved in a hideo us struggle, each o ne fo rhimself, and against all o thers to force a way to one o f the small apertures o f theprison at which a lone i t was po ssible to get a breath o f a ir. Yet in the BlackHo le of Calcutta there were no tender women , no little children and o ld

men and women , no cripples . They were a t least all men,strong to bear

,

who suffered .

“ You know the sto ry o f that last , grea test , and mo st blo odless o f revolutions . In the time of one generatio n men la id aside the so cia l traditionsand practice o f barba rians

,and assumed a so cia l o rder wo rthy o f rational

and human beings. Ceasing to be predato ry in their habits. they becameco -wo rkers

,and found in fra ternity a t o nce the science o f wea lth and happi

ness. ‘Wha t sha ll I eat and drink , and wherewithal shal l I be clo thed 7 '

stated as a problem beginn ing and ending in self, had been an anxio us andendless one. But when i t w as conceived no t from the individua l , but fromthe fraternal standpo int , What shall w e eat and drink, and wherewithal

90 APPENDIX.

shall w e be clo thed"’i ts difficulties vanished . Loo king Backward

, by

Bellamy .)NOTE XXI . I n a ll sur r ounding N a ture we see manifested a round us

the enormous tragedy of ea r thly ex istence.

” — (P .

The fo rego ing paragraph has a pessimistic sound. Yet Wagner w as noabso lute pessimist . He anticipa ted a future state o f mankind which , farfrom being a hateful chao s , should b e extremely well o rdered

,and one in

which Religio n and Art should no t o nly be preserved, but should , fo r thefirst time

,a tta in their true propo rtions . (Wagner, 1880

,p . As he

fo und in Schopenhauer’s philo sophy the o nly adequate foundation fo r a philo sophy o f music

,without

,however, fo llowing Scho penhauer in his conclu

s ions tha t musi c was the mo st sinfully sensuous o f a rts,and the vo luptuous

Ro ssin i the truest type o f musician ; so to o Wagner found in Schopenhauer’s philo so phy

,wisely used

,the surest

,nay, a lmo st the o nly

,w ay to

attain to a ra tional understanding o f the problem o f life,without

,however

,

fo llowing him in his universal pessimism . Says Wagner The assumptiono f a degeneration o f the human ra ce (fall o f man), contradicto ry as it seemsto the idea o f a steady progress

,must be

,seriously considered

,the o nly

thing which can lead us to a well-grounded hope. The so - called pessimisticview o f the wo rld a cco rdingly appears tenable only with the proviso that itis based on the criticism o f histor ic man . Pessimism ,

however,would have

to be considerably modified if prehisto ric man were to become so far knownto us that

,from an accurate knowledge o f his natural endowments

,w e could

conclude upon a subsequent degeneration which w as no t unconditionallyinvo lved in tho se natura l endowments .

”

(Wagner , 1880 ,p . From

the continually ill- advised crea tio ns o f statesmen we are able to demonstra temo st distinctly the bad results of the want o f such a knowledge o f realhuman nature. Even Marcus Aurelius could o nly arrive at a perceptio n o fthe van ity o f the wo rld

,without

,however

,a tta ining even to the mere

assumption o f a Fa ll o f a world which perhaps might have been differentfrom the present o ne, to say no thing o f the cause o f tha t fall .* Yet upon* “

I t is curious tha t (ma teria listic) evo lutionism has i ts fa l l , l ike theism ; fo r if the

spiri tua l na ture w as aw akened by some a c c ess o f fear , o r some grand and terrible physica lphenomenon and if thus the idea o f a h igher in tel ligence w as s truck ou t and the descendant o f apes bec ame a supers ti tious and ido la trous savage tha t aw akening o f the religioussense mus t be so des igna ted. How much trouble and d iscussion w ould have been savedhad he been aw are o f his humble o rigin, and never enterta ined the va in imagina t ion tha the w as a ch i ld o f God, ra ther than a mere produc t o f physica l evo lution I On tha t theo rythe aw akening o f the rel igious sense and the know ledge o f go od and evi l mus t surely bedesigna ted as a fa l l o f man , s ince i t subverted in his c ase the previous regular Opera t ion o f

na tura l selec tion , and,

introduced all tha t debasing supers tition , pries tly domina t ion , and

religious c ontroversy wh ich have been among the chief curses o f our race , and w h ic h a redoubly ac cursed i f, as the evo lut ionis t believes , they are no t the ruins o f something nobler

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92 APPENDIX.

mo ral regenera tive thoughts upon which a lo ne i t depends,whether o r no t

the Asso c iations shall become a power.Next to the vegetarians , and w ith somewhat mo re extended practical

activity a lready,come the So cieties fo r the Pro tection o f An imals from

Cruelty. Under the guidance o f the fo rego ing so cieties , and,ennobled by

them,the tendency o f the so - called Temperance So cieties would lead to no

less impo rtant results. (Wagner, 1880 ,p . 289 I n certa in Ameri

can prisons experiments have shown tha t the wo rst criminals were changedby a wisely o rdered vegetable diet into gentle and responsible men . Who sememo ry would the members o f these Vegetarian and Temperance So cieties ,together with that fo r the Prevention o f Cruelty to Animals

,commemo rate ,

if,a fter the labo rs o f the day , they a lways assembled to refresh themselveswith bread and wine — (VVagner , 1880 ,

p .

Do w e still awa it a new religion which shall preserve us from lapsinginto subjec tion to the power o f the blindly raging (selfish) Will in Nature"I n o ur da ily mea l w e are taught to c ommemo rate the Redeemer. ” —(Wag

ner,1880

,p .

The Lo rd’

s Supper is the so le saving rite o f the Christian Faith . In itsobservance lies the fulfilment o f the entire teaching of the Saviour. The

Christian Church , with an'xious to rments o f conscience

,perpetua tes this

teaching without ever being able to bring it into use in its purity a lthough,

seriously considered , that teaching should fo rm the mo st universally c omprehensible kernel o f Christianity. The Lo rd’

s Supper early became transfo rmed into a symbo lic actio n by priests ,* while i ts true sense continued tobe expressed only in the fasts o ccasionally prescribed, a stri ct observance o f

Pers ian Gulf . I ts flo ra a ff orded abundance o f edible fru its.— (Sir John D aw

son : The S tory o f the Earth andAc c o rding to the do c trine o f evo lution , the presen t stru c ture o f the c arnivo rous anima lsdoes no t c ontradic t the sta tement above quo ted from Genesis i . , 29—30 .

One o f the mo s t interesting o f the changes from the o rigina l fo rm o f the Lo rd’s Sup

per was the change from the use o f s imple bread to tha t o f w a fers . These w a fers c arryus back to the Persian sun w o rsh ip , in the sacramen t o f w h ich the bread used w a s a

“round c ake ,”

emblem of the sola r di sh , and c al led Mizd. Th is rel igion, known as

Mithrac ism , firs t made i ts appearance in I ta ly upon Pompey’s reduc tio n o f the C il ic ian

pira tes. Co ns tantine reta ined upon his c o inage, long a f ter his c onversion , the figure o fSo l, w ith the legend : To the invinc ible Sun , my Guard ian ,

”a type c apable o f a double

interpreta tion , meaning equa l ly the anc ient Phoebus and the new Sun o f R ighteousness .

S imila rly the o ld festival held on the asth day o f Dec ember in hono r o f the Birthday o fthe Invinc ible One , and celebra ted by the grea t Games o f the Circus , w as transferred to thecommemo ra tion o f the birth o f Christ , o f which the F a thers say the rea l day w as unknown.

I n l ike manner,ho t—c ro ss buns remind one o f the Bouns o r c akes o f flour , o il, and honey

o f the Egyptians, Assyrians , and Jew s (Jeremiah xliv 18 and a lso o f the roundc akes (the chaputty o f evi l no to riety a t the o u tbreak o f the Sepoy mu tiny) w h ich a re

,

among the H indo o s , the es tabl ished o ffering to the Manes o f their ancestors .—(See The

Gno stic s and their R ema ins,

” by K ing.)

APPENDIX. 93

it being impo sed at last upo n certa in religious o rders only,and even there

mo re in the sense o f an a c t o f self- renunc ia tion ,promo ting humility , than o f

a physica l and spiritua l means o f sa lva tion . Perhaps the impo ssibility o finsisting tha t all who pro fessed Christianity should continua lly fo llow thiso rdinance o f the Saviour by who lly absta in ing from an ima l fo o d w as o ne o f

the ma in causes o f the ea rly fa ll o f the Christian religion as a ChristianChurch . ” —(Wagner

,1880

,pp . 283

A s Wagner gives no autho rity fo r his views touching the na ture and end

o f the Lo rd ’

s Supper , the presen t writer has co nsulted the R ev . Dr. Nea le ’

s

co llection o f all known fo rms o f ins titution . Of the eighty- tw o fo rms theregiven ,

the fo llowing o ne called Syro - Jacobite,and taken from the first

liturgy o f St . Peter (the primitive communion o ffi ce w as liturgica l see The

Teaching o f the Twelve Apostles , ” by R ev . Dr. Schaff), is especia llysignificant

A nd when he was prepa ring tha t banquet o f His Body and Ho ly Blo od,

imparting i t to us,and near w as His salutary Passion , He to ok bread in His

immacula te Hands , and lifted i t up,and vouchsafed to bestow upon i t His

visible aspect and insensible benediction,and blessed i t , and sanctified it

,

and gave it to the disciples, His Apo stles , and said L et these mysteries bethe suppo rt o f your j ourney ; a nd whenever y e ea t this in the way of f ood,believe and be certain tha t this is my Body, which fo r you and fo r many isbroken and is given fo r you fo r the Expia tio n o f Transgressions

,the Remis

sion o f Sins and Life Eterna l . In l ike manner the Chalice also a fterHe had supped

,He mingled wa ter and wine

,and blessed and sanctified it

,

and gave to the disciples,His Apo stles

,saying : Take , drink ye all o f i t ;

fo r this is my Blo o d o f the New Testamen t which fo r you and fo r many ispoured and given fo r the Pardon o f Transgressions

,the Remission o f Sins

,

and Eterna l Life. A nd tha t they might receive the most sweet fruito f tha t divine o pera tion

,He commanded them a fter this fashion A s o ften

as ye shall be gathered together , keep memo ry o f Me,and ea ting this o ffered

bread,and drinking this prepared cup, ye sha ll do i t in remembrance o f Me

and sha ll c onfess My death , until I come.

”- (Dr . Nea le . )

The primitive Eucharist embraced the Agape and the Communionproper. The Christian Agape w as a much simpler feast than the

Jewish Passover. Tertullian describes it as a scho o l o f virtue rather thana banquet

,

’

and says as much is eaten as sa tisfies the c ravings o f hunger ;as much is drunk as befits the chaste.

’

But o ccasiona l excesses o f intemperance o c curred a lready in Aposto lic congregatio ns , as a t Co rinth , and musthave multiplied with the growth o f the Church . Ea rly in the seco nd century the so cial Agape was separa ted from the Communion ,

and held in theevening , the mo re so lemn Communio n in the mo rning ; and a fterwards the

94 APPENDIX.

Agape was abandoned a ltogether , o r changed into a charity fo r the poor.(Schaff The Teaching o f the Twelve

He to ok bread and wine to teach the do ctrine o f life and sacrifice,of

un ion with Himself and with each o ther,and He said

,This is My Bo dy

and Blo od , ’ just as He sa id,I am the Do o r— the Shepherd— the Vine.

’

Was He a Do o r,a Shepherd

,a Tree" Was i t His Bo dy and Blo o d" It

w as the sign,the symbo l

,and the outward rite w as given as a memo rial o f

Himself, as a means o f realizing spiritually the life imaged in the nourishingbread ; the sacrifice imaged in the sign o f the blo od- red wine ; the unionimaged in the common fo od

,uniting the Christian group to Himself and to

o ne another in the commo n fellowship o f a c ommon mea l . I n everyChristian househo ld i t w as usual fo r the head o f the family a t the eveningmeal to hand round bread and wine ‘

in remembrance o f Him. Froma so cia l usage this a c t a t the family supper grew into an ecc lesiastical sacrament

,administratio n being o nly valid a fter consecra tion by the priests , and

thus became, in the hands o f the Church , a so rt of magicaL rite o f mysteri

o us efficacy , to be granted o r withheld a t the go od-will and pleasure o f the

clergy . F ar may w e have travelled from the simplicity which is inJesus

, but if w e wish to know wha t he meant w e must go back and assist atthe first c elebra tion in that upper ro om after the departure o f Judas

,and

then all fo rms will be equally go od fo r us o r at least to lera ted by us . We

shall be free w e shall see the Lo rd’

s intent , simple and pure , through everymist and veil o f man ’

s invention , and w e shall use the rite as an intense and

ea rnest fo rm o f prayer , summ ing up the grea t cardinal po ints o f Christianity,Christ’s life

,Christ's sacrifice

,o ur union with each o ther

,Christ’s union with

us and ours with Him .

”

The Picture o f Jesus , ”

R ev . H . A . Haweis , M .A.)

NOTE XXII . The human ra ce must ha ve sur vived a mighty transf or

ma tion of a t lea st the g rea ter por tion of our planet. ” — (P .

Consider the greatness o f tha t Creato r by wha tever name w elike to call Him

,who has in some inscrutable way set all this

stupendous machinery in mo tion ; yes , and a s perfect in its co lo ssal andillimitable who le, as in its minutest deta ils ,— in the path o f the sun throughthe wastes o f space , as in the flash o f the lightning a long our wires , o r in the

*The no tes prepared o n this po int have assumed such pro po rtions tha t they mustb e reserved fo r a separate wo rk to fo l low the Parsifa l ," entitled , The Lo st Pleiad 3o r, the F a l l o f Luc ifer, the K ey to the So lar Myths and the Orig in o f all K now n F o rmso f R el ig ion.

” The c onc lusion developed b y the testimo ny ga thered being ,that , in

Christianity , far from “something sma l l and l o c a l ”

(v ide R o bert Elsmere w e

po ssess the rel ig io n o f Prehisto ric Man , a nd tha t it is now in pro c ess o f being t e- os

tablished upo n its anc ient intel lec tua l fo unda tio ns la rgely b y the invo luntary agencyo f M o dern Sc ienc e. The hypo thesis is o utlined in the above selec tio ns the

demo nstra tio n must be reserved fo r the bo ok to fo l low .

APPENDIX. 95

structure o f the insect ’s wing. L et us try to rea lize wha t all thesemo tions really mean

,and wha t the result o f the sudden disarrangement

,no t

to say sto ppage, o f any one o f them in our own system would bethe ca tastro phe would be o f so stupendous a na ture that we could hardlyconjec ture its effect . — (Gen . Fo rlo ng : Rivers o f Fa ith .

The scientist Bode enterta ined the o pinion that the planetary distancesabove Mercury fo rmed a geometrica l series , but this law seemedto be in terrupted between Mars and Jupiter. Hence he inferred tha t therewas a planet wanting in the interval which is now supplied by the disco veryo f the numerous star- fo rm planets o ccupying the very place o f the unex

plained vacancy. Many eminent a stro nomers are o f the o piniontha t these telesco pi c planets a re the fragments o f a large c elestia l body whicho nce revo lved between Mars and Jupiter , and which burst asunder by sometremendous convulsio n . From this disco very

,Dr. Olbers first c on

c eived the idea tha t these bodies might be the fragments o f a fo rmerwo rld .

*

Dr. Brewster a ttributes the fall o f meteo ric sto nes to the smallerfragments o f these bodies happening to come within the sphere o f the earth’

s

a ttractio n .

” — (Burritt’

s Geography o f the Heavens , revised by Ma ttison ,1873

Acco rd ing to the Kabbalah,there were certa in primo rdia l worlds

crea ted , but these could n o t subsist,as the equilibrium o f the ba lance w as

no t yet perfect , and they were co nvulsed by the unba lanced fo rce and

destroyed . These primo rdial wo rlds are called (in Scripture) the kings o fancien t time , ’

and the kings o f Edom who reigned between the monarchso f Israel . ’ — Genesis xxxvi . , 31.

-(Ma thers Kabba lah Unveiled ”

)It is the o pinion o f many tha t the planeto ids (astero ids) are the frag

ments o f a planet which has been destroyed . The idea has been advancedtha t this planet w as the seat o f a fa llen ra ce

,and tha t the powers and

principa lities o f the a ir,

’

aga inst which the peo ple o f this earth have to c on

tend,a re in rea lity the lo st souls o f the planet in question . "Sir W .

Thomso n and Pro f. Helmho ltz agree in suggesting the meteo ric hypo thesisas a po ssible w ay o f a ccounting fo r the o rigin o f terrestria l life, i ts germshaving been wafted to us from some o ther wo rld o r its fragments . See pp .

10 2 Many suppo sed mytho logica l traditions o f ancient Greece havebeen shown to have a foundation in histo ry and we may assume tha t this ispo ssibly the case to a far grea ter extent than has yet been pro ven ,

and thati t applies to o ther lo ca lities and peoples as well . Isa iah makes reference to

While recognizing the inc ompleteness o f the evidence , i t seems to me to g o far to

justify the hypo thesis o f O lbers tha t the planeto ids resu l ted from the burs ting o fa planet o nce revo lving in the region they o c cupy and is qui te incongruous w i ththa t o f Laplace .

”The Nebu lar Hypo thes is ,” by Herber t Spenc er , o rigina l ly printed

in 1864 , revised and extended to presen t the au tho r’s la tes t V iew s

,

96 APPENDIX.

Lucifer as having falling from his shining place i n the heavens,and inti

mates tha t its people were no t suffered to rest even in their graves (Isaiah ,xiv 12- 16

,This would be litera lly true if the planet had been de

stroyed . We have to confront numerous traditio ns regarding the fallenrace ,

— tempters o f Adam and Eve, etc . The Talmud speaks o f the anc ientpeo ple o f earth as having faces tha t sho ne like the sun

,and natures that

reached into the heavens . The mo rn ing star ’

has vanished,and where

once w as un ity , l ight , and power, we now have but a c o nfused mass o f

planeto ids mo ving in eccentric o rbits . The extremity o f individualismstands exemplified , and the mind and na ture o f human ity is broken and

divided in like manner , fo r this w as no t merely the experience o f a planet ,but a tragedy o f the so lar system ,

the effect o f which is spread o ver thousandso f years , though it is probable tha t w e are now well advanced in the resto ra

tion o f o rder. Will this lo st star be re- lit in the materia l heavens"We

judge no t. The so lar system has established a new equilibrium.

Was this calamity unfo reseen We judge no t. Man ’

s extremity is said tobe Go d’

s o ppo rtunity and from that perio d dates a new cyc le o f this so larsystem . Neither this earth , no r yet the so lar system

,are complete in them

selves,but are merely parts , physi cally and spiritually

,o f o ne perfect who le.

In the c areer o f Abraham ,Isaac

,and Jacob

,and the Twelve Tribes

o f Israel,w e see a pro cess o f spiritual development culminating in the ad

vent o f Christ , in whom the nature o f the human race becomes enjo inedaga in to the o rder o f the heavens . There is a law o f invo lution as wella s o f evo lution ,

and there must be some po int where fo rces meet and balance,o r find equilibrium . Humanity ascends (evo lution) and unfo lds into spiritspirit descends (invo lution) and finds embodiment in humanity . If no t asparrow falls to the ground without no tice, i t is presumable tha t the fall o fLucifer is no t witho ut an ultima te go o d to this earth and so lar system ,

and

as a necessary consequence to the c ountless wo rlds o f the starry heavens.

Christ sto o d in the place o f the fallen son o f the mo rning. The new heavenw as to replac e the fallen star . Acco rding to His own testimony, He and His

Father were o ne , and all power w as given into His hands , bo th in the heavensand o n the earth . This is a vast saying, yet what if i t be true"It is no t inc onsistent with the mysteries and wo nders o f the heavens . No r oughtwe to deem it inconsistent with the mysteries o f the Lumino us and MightyOne o f the heavens tha t He should once have walked this earth . therebyjo ining the least to the greatest, and carrying a lo ft the cho rds o f this humanna ture

,thereby rendering mo rta l a c cess easy, and the kingdom o f heaven on

earth no t only po ssible, but certain .

”-(John Latham , selected . )

It is the god incarnate , mo re than the God o f the Jews o r o f Nature ,who

has taken so grea t and sa lutary a ho ld on the modern mind . A nd

wha t ever else may be taken away from us,

Christ is still left a

APPENDIX. 97

unique figure,not mo re unlike all his precurso rs than all his fo llowers , even

tho se who had the benefi t o f his persona l teaching . It is o f no use to say

tha t Christ as exhibited in the Go spels is no t histo rical , and that w e knowno t how much o f wha t is admirable has been superadded by the tradition o f

his fo llowers . Who among his disciples o r among their pro selytes w ascapable o f inventing the sayings asc ribed to Jesus , o r o f imagining the lifeand character revealed in the Go spels Certa inly no t the fishermen o f

Ga lilee ; as certa inly no t St . Paul , who se character and idio syncrasies wereo f a to tally differen t so rt still less the early Christian writers , in whomno thing is mo re eviden t than tha t the go o d which w a s in them w as all de

rived , as they a lways pro fessed tha t i t w as derived , from the higher source .

But about the life and sayings o f Jesus there is a stamp o f personalo riginality, combined with profundity o f insight , which must place theProphet o f Nazareth in the very first rank o f the m en o f sublime geniuso f which our species c an bo ast , combined with the qualities o f probablythe greatest mo ra l refo rmer , and martyr o f tha t missio n ,

who ever existedupon earth . To the c onception o f the ra tio na l sceptic i t remains a

po ssibility that Christ a c tually w as charged with a specia l , express ,and unique commission from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue.

— (John Stuart Mill Three Essays o n

Tho se who admit my interpretation o f the evidence now adducedstrictly scientific evidence in its appea l to facts which are clearly wha t oughtnot to be, o n the materialistic theo ry— will be able to a ccept the spiritualnature o f man as no t in any w ay inconsistent with the theo ry o f evo lution ,

but as dependen t upon tho se fundamental laws and causes which furnish thevery materials fo r evo lution to wo rk with . They will a lso be relieved fromthe crushing menta l burden impo sed upo n tho se who— mainta ining that we,in common with the rest o f nature

,are but products o f the blind eterna l

forces o f the universe,and believing a lso tha t the t ime must come when the

sun will lo sehis heat and all life o n the earth necessarily cease— have to c on

template a no t very distant future in which all this glo rious earth— which,

fo r untold millions o f years has been slowly developing fo rms o f life and

beauty to culminate at last in man— sha ll be as if i t never had existed who

are compelled to suppo se tha t all the slow growths o f o ur race strugglingtowards a higher life , all the agony o f martyrs

,all the groans o f victims , all

the evil and misery and undeserved suffering o f the ages,all the struggles

fo r freedom ,all the effo rts towards justice

,all the aspira tions fo r virtue and

the well-being o f humanity,shall absolutely vanish

,and

,like the baseless

fabric o f a vision,leave no t a wra ck behind .

’

A s contrasted with this h0peless and soul- deadening belief

,w e who a ccept the existence o f a spiri tua l

wo rld can lo ok upon the universe as a grand , consistent ‘who le, adapted inall its parts to the develo pment o f spiritual beings capable o f indefinite life

7

98 APPENDIX.

and perfectibility. To us the who le purpo se ,the o nly r a ison d

’

e'

tre o f the

wo rld— with all i ts complexities o f physica l struc ture , with its grand geo logical progress

,the slow evo lutio n o f the vegetable and anima l kingdoms

,and

the ultimate appearance o f man— was the development o f the human spiri tin association with the human body. From the fact tha t the Spirit o f man

the man himself- is so developed , we may well believe tha t this is the o nly,

o r at least the best , way fo r i ts development and w e may even see , in wha tis usually termed evil ’ on the earth , o ne o f the mo st efficient means o f its

growth. For we know tha t the noblest faculties o f man are strengthenedand perfected by struggle and effo rt ; i t is by unceasing warfare againstphysica l evils and in the midst o f diffi culty and danger tha t energy, courage,self- reliance, and industry have become the common qualities o f the no rthernraces i t is by the ba ttle with mo ra l evil in all its hydra-headed fo rms , tha tthe still nobler qualities o f justice and mercy and humanity and self-sa c rifice have been steadily increasing in the wo rld. Beings thus tra ined andstrengthened by their surroundings , and po ssessing la tent faculties capableo f such noble development , are surely destined fo r a higher and mo re permanent existence. We thus find tha t the Darwinian theory, even whencarried out to its extreme logica l conclusio n ,

no t o nly does no t oppo se, butlends a decided support to

,a belief in the spiritua l nature o f man . It shows

us how man ’s body may have been developed from that o f a lower anima lfo rm under the law o f natura l selection ,

but i t also teaches us tha t w e po ssess intellectual and mo ra l fa culties which could no t have been so developed

,

but must have had ano ther o rigin and fo r this o rigin we can find an ade

quate cause only in the unseen un iverse o f Spirit . ” — (Alfred RusselWallaceDarwinism

,

”

NOTE XXIII . Our ex istence shows i tself bey ond our persons,by direct

pa r ticipa tion in the thoughts of other individua ls , a nd by thepower of hnaw

ing the absent,the distant

,and even the f utur e. I t is a mere illusion tha t

limi ts our ex istence to our per sons .

” — (P .

To understand the full fo rce o f this illustra tio n,i t is necessary to recall

the investiga tions o f Schopenhauer’s grea t master. and fo rerunner, EmanuelKant

,the celebrated autho r o f the Critique o f Pure Reason ,” touching

the reality o f the power o f knowing the absent , the distant , and even the

n(I tEarly in 1856 Lyel l advised me to w rite out my v iews pretty ful ly Origin o f

Spec ies and I began a t onc e to do so . But my plans w ere o verthrown , fo r, early inthe summer o f 1858,Mr. Wa l lac e , then in the Ma lay A rchipelago , sen t me an essay

c onta ining exac t ly the same theo ry as m ine.

” — (Darw in : You mus tlet me say how I admire the generous manner in which y ou speak o f my bo ok Origin o f

Spec ies Mos t persons w ould , in your po sition , have fel t some envy o r jea lousy. But

y ou speak far to o modestly o f yoursel f. You w ou ld , i f y ou had my leisure , have done thew o rk jus t a s w el l—perhaps better than I have done it ."—Darw in Letter to A lfredR usse l Wa l lace ,”

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10 0 APPENDIX.

she mentioned tha t she had read in the Go ttingen Gazette an accoun t o f aman a t Sto ckho lm who pretended to speak with the dead . SaysCapta in S talhammer (o ne o f the many autho rities who se narra tives o f whatpassed between Swedenbo rg and the"ueen have been preserved) A sho rttime after the dea th o f the Prince o f Prussia Swedenbo rg c ame to court(being summoned thither by the senato r, Count Scheff er). A s soon as he

w as perceived by the "ueen she said to him : Well,Mr. Assesso r, have

you seen my bro ther"’ Swedenbo rg answered : No .

’

VVhereupo n she

replied If you should see him ,remember me to him .

’ Eight days afterward Swedenbo rg came to court so early that the"ueenhad no t left her apartment called the white ro om

,where she w as c onversing

with her maids o f hono r and o ther ladies . Swedenborg did no t wa itbut entered directly into the"ueen’

s apartment and whispered in her ear.

The "ueen , struck with astonishment , w as taken ill,and did no t recover

herself fo r some time. After she came to herself she said to tho se abouther There is o nly God and my bro ther who can know wha t he has justto ld me.

’

She owned tha t he had just spoken o f her last co rrespondencewith the prince

,the subjec t o f which w as known to themselves a lone.

” OfSwedenbo rg the capta in adds I knew him fo r many years , and I can c on

fidently affi rm that he was as fully persuaded tha t he conversed with spiritsas I am that I am writing at this moment . A s a citizen and as a friend hew as a man o f the greatest integrity , abho rring impo sture ,

and leading an

exemplary life.

Says the Cheva lier Beylon I found an o ppo rtunity o f speaking withthe"ueen herself concerning Swedenbo rg , and she to ld me the anecdo terespecting herself and her bro ther with a conviction which appeared extrao rdinary to me. Every one who knew this truly enlightened sister o f thegreat Frederick will give me credit when I say tha t she w as by no meansenthusiastic o r fanatical , and tha t her entire menta l character w as who llyfree from such conceits. Nevertheless , she appeared to me to be so convinced o f Swedenborg’

s supernatural intercourse with spirits tha t I scarcelydurst venture to intimate some doubts fo r when she perceived mysuspicion

,she sa id with a royal air I am no t easily duped .

’ And thus sheput an end to all my a ttempts at refuta tion .

” Emanuel Swedenbo rg a

Biographica l Sketch , ” by J . J . G . Wilkinson , M .D .)That death is the bourne from which no traveller has ever’ returned

,has

always seemed to me a po etic but unwarranted assumption . Therewas probably never a time in the histo ry o f the wo rld when thousands o fpeople , by no means lunatics , were no t convinced that the dead were alivetha t they were able by thought , wo rd , o r deed to make their existence feltthat they o ccasiona lly had appeared. Such beliefs , founded , i t is o ften sa id ,on imposture o r delusion , have been smitten by mo dern science with paraly

APPENDIX. 10 1

sis,and are fast dying out amongst educa ted people which reads extremely

well , only facts are aga inst the theo ry , since i t would be diffi cult to po int toany past age in which there were so many thousands o f educated people as

are at present convinced tha t the dead are a l ive , that they are able bythought

,wo rd

,and deed to make their presence felt , and tha t they have

o ccasionally appeared .

’ A superna tura l vein will be found running through all history , sacred and pro fane. F o r my part , withthe obvious limita tion— suggested by the prevalence o f impo sture, the humanliability to err

,and the equally human propensity to be deceived— I find i t

easier to admit the o ccurrence o f some so - called superna tura l events inhistory

,sacred and pro fane, both in times past and present , than to deny

it with the superficial , ignore i t with the scientific,or expla in i t away with

the sceptica l and the explanations which are put fo rward , to

get rid o f such evidence as there is , have always seemed to me qui te as

wonderful and no t quite as credible as the a lleged o ccurrences which theyare intended to get rid o f.

” Picture o f Jesus ”

R ev . H. A .

Haw eis , M .A .)The great scientific principle o f the Law o f Continuity means that thewho le un iverse is o f a piece that it is something which an intelligen t beingis capable o f understanding better and better the mo re he studies it.*L et us suppo se tha t the sun

,moon ,

and stars were to move about instrange and fantastic o rbits during one day , after which they returned totheir previous courses. Here we should have an example o f a breach o f

Continui ty,fo r even if things were so arranged as to prevent physical disaster ,

i t is evident tha t the whole intelligent universe would be plunged into ~irre

trievable mental confusion . Never aga in would i t be said that Astronomy iscompetent to explain the varied mo tions o f the heavenly bodies } But the

concluding wo rds o f the Te Deum have been abundantly fulfilled in theexperience o f the astronomer. He has trusted in God , and he has neverbeen confounded .1:Continuity does not preclude the o ccurrence o f strange

,abrupt

,unforeseen

events in the universe, but only of such events as must finally and foreverput to co nfusio n the intelligent beings who regard them ."Now we can hardly escape from the conclusion tha t the visible universemust come to an end. But the principle of Continuity still demanding acontinuance of the universe, we are fo rced to believe tha t there is somethingbeyond tha t which is visible,— tha t the things which are seen are temporal,but the things which are not seen are eterna fl

The Unseen Universe, 264.

1 The Unseen Universe, 76.

1 The Unseen Universe, 74.

a The Unseen Universe , 576.

I The Unseen Universe, s84.

10 2

Again , it is perfectly certa in tha t the visible universe must have had a

beginning in time but if i t be all tha t exists , then the first abrupt manifestation of i t is as truly a break o f Continuity as its fina l overthrow.

*

I n fine , the visible universe canno t comprehend the who le wo rks o f God,

because it had its beginning in time, and will also come to an end. Perhapsit fo rms only an infinitesima l po rtion o f that stupendous who le which isa lone entitled to be called The Universe }We are led by scientific logic to an unseen

,and by scientific analogy to

the spirituality o f this unseen ; in fine, that the visible universe has beendeveloped by an intelligent resident in the Unseen . fLife can be pro duced from life o nly. It is some time since science gave

up the idea tha t life could genera te energy i t now seems that w e must giveup

-the idea tha t energy can generate life."In bo th wo rlds

,alike o f energy and o f life , the principle o f Co ntinuity

requires tha t , to accoun t fo r the o rigin o f phenomena ,w e sha ll no t reso rt to

the hypo thesis o f separate creations . Darwin especially imagines tha t allthe present o rgan isms , including man

,may have been derived by the pro cess

o f natura l selection from a single primo rdia l germ. When , however, thebackward pro cess has reached this germ ,

an insuperable diffi culty presentsitself. How w as this germ pro duced"All scientific experience tells us tha tlife c an be produced from a living antecedent only ; wha t then w as the

antecedent o f this germ" We are thus fo rced to contemplate an antecedentpo ssessing life and giving life to this primo rdia l germ ,

an antecedent in theuniverse. Life is a lways pro duced from life, but l ike is by no means a lwaysproduced from like . In this case, mo re especially, the living antecedentmust be in the invisible universe, and therefo re altogether different from thevisible germ ."Our hypo thesis

,in which the ma terial as well as the life o f the visible uni

verse a re regarded as having been developed from the Unseen ,in which

they had existed from Etern ity, presents the o nly ava ilable method o f avo iding a break o f Co ntinuity

,if we are to a ccept loya lly the indica tions given

by observatio n and experiment . It thus appears , tha t the visible universe is not eterna l , and that it has not the power o f o riginating life. Lifeas well as matter comes to us from the Unseen Universe.1"The explanation o f the o rigin o f life propo sed by Sir “7. Thomson had

a lso o ccurred to Pro fesso r Helmho ltz . This latter physicist , in an a rticle on

the use and abuse of the deductive method in Physical Science (Na ture

The Unseen Universe , 85.

1' The Unseen Universe,

86.

I The Unseen Universe, 22 1.

"The Unseen Universe ,229.

The Unseen Universe, 230 .

1 The Unseen Universe , 5243 .

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104

The truth is , tha t science and religion nei ther a re no r c an be two fields o fknowledge with no po ssible communicatio n between them . There is anavenue leading from the o ne to the o ther through the unseen universe, butunfo rtunately it has been walled up and ticketed with no ro ad this w ay ,

”

pro fessedly a like in the name o f Sc ience at the one end and in the name o f

Religio n at the o ther.Whether w e take the scientific o r the religious po int o f view , one great

object o f our l ife in the visible universe is obviously to learn,and advance in

learning implies a high purpo se kept steadily befo re us,and an a rduous pur

suit . This is the victo ry which o vercometh the wo rld , even our faith . ”

Through fa ith w e understand tha t the wo rlds were framed by the wo rdo f God so that things which are seen were no t made o f things which doappear. — (Hebrews xi . ,Faith is belief in the unknown po rtio n o f the grand to ta lity

,who se ex

istenc e is demonstrated by i ts known parts i t c an be no negation o f reason ,

and the objec t o f faith being necessarily hypo thetical in fo rm ,since knowl

edge, no t fa ith , a lo ne can define, all definitio ns o f i t are a c onfusion o f faithand science. The true a c t o f fa ith , therefo re ,

consists so lely in the adhesiono f our intelligence to the immovable and universal reason ,

which excludesall monstro sity and fa lseho o d from the doma in o f first causes . The R ea

sonable Being suppo ses necessarily the ra ison d’

etre,i t is the absolute, it is

the law . God himself, in whatever manner he conceived canno t exist withoutr a ison d

’

etre,o nly insanity will provide a personal , a rb i trary, and inexplica

ble autho rity as the c ause o f immutable law . The impo ssible ,unmerited ,

and irresponsible supremacy o f God would be the highest o f injustices , andthe mo st revo lting o f absurdities . What

,then

,is Deity fo r us" I t is the

undefined conception o f a S upreme P er sona lity . True certitudeis the recipro ca l a cquiescence o f the reason which knows in the sentimentwhich believes

,and o f the sentiment which believes in the reason which

knows . The Mysteries o f Magic A . E . Wa ite.)The eff o rt o f the human intellect is to explain the wo rld and man.

Trusting the illusion o f the senses,the ancient Greeks set astronomy the

task o f expla ining the apparent movements o f the sun,planets, and fixed

stars,on the supposition that they were the true o nes . But the thought of

Co pernicus— anticipated in the secret teaching o f Pythago ras and the Kabbalah— exposed the sense- illusion in which human understanding lay impriso ued . Philo sophy would expla in the wo rld . But what wo rld" The worldmanifested to us by o ur senses . A nd philo sophy

,l ike astronomy, to ok the

appearance fo r the reality. I t was believed tha t the who le real world, as i tlay o utside o f us

,pro jected itself, by means o f o ur sense-apparatus , into our

brain " Thus the materialist is impriso ned in appearance, and holds theThe Unseen Universe, 264- 6.

APPENDIX. 105

world to be just wha t it is for his senses . But, says Huxley , in one o f his

L ay Sermons When materialists ta lk about there being no thing in the worldbut matter and force and necessary laws , I decline to fo llow them . Ma tterand force are, so far as w e can know ,

mere names fo r certain fo rms o f c on

sciousness meanwhile , as Descartes tells us , Our knowledge of the soul ismo re intima te and certain than our knowledge o f the bo dy. ”

-Darwin haspro ved that from the standpo int o f o rgan ism

,a transcendental wo rld is c on

tinually given ,and Kant has pro ved the same thing fo r man by his distinc

tion between the thing in itself ”

and the phenomenon . We know nowtha t we canno t grasp the reality with o ur present number o f senses . We

thus find ourselves a t a masquerade, since w e are no t truly cognizant of thereality o f things , but only o f the modes in which our senses react uponthem .

’

The resul t o f human thought upo n the wo rld-problem may thus be ex

pressed by saying Co nscio usness does no t exhaust its object,theWo rld .

We pass to the second grea t problem fo r the intellec t Man . A s the

world is the object o f co nsciousness , so is the Ego the object o f self- consc iousness . A s regards the wo rld and consciousness , the co nceptio n o f

materia lism has been eliminated but i t is still partia lly maintained in regardto self- conscio usness and the Ego . Materialism still flatters i tself with thehope o f being able to reduce all psychology to physio logy. But here againwe find tha t our self- consciousness do es not exhaust its object , the Ego ,

fo r

co rresponding to the transcendental wo rld we find a transcendental Egohence our sense o f personality, by which we know ourselves

,do es no t coin

cide with o ur who le Ego . The sphere o f our earthly personality is o nly thesmaller circ le included in the larger concentric circle o f our metaphysicalSubject , and our earthly self- consciousness do es no t cast its beams to the

periphery o f o ur being. Man is a monisti c double-being,having two per

sons,o ne empirical , the o ther transcendenta l . Our no rmal self- conscio usness

do es no t exhaust its object,o ur Self— it comprehends o nly one o f the two

persons o f our Subject , namely , the emp irical , no t the transcendental .Somnambul ism proves tha t Schopenhauer and Hartmann are right in

laying at the founda tion o f human phenomena a Will and an Unconsciousbut i t also proves tha t this Will is not blind, and that wha t to the Ego is unconscious

,is not unconsc ious in i tself ; that between us and the wo rld- sub

stance a transcendenta l Subject must be interpo sed , a willing and knowingbeing tha t thus the individua li ty of ma n a va ils bey ond his tempora ry phenomena lf orm ,

and the ea r thly ex istence is only one of themany possiblef orms

of exi stence of our Subj ect. The human psyche, not by exa lta tion

of sense consc iousness,but on suppression of the same

,r evea lspowers which

phy siolog ica lly a re qu ite inexplicable, hence the soul is something else thanthe ej fect o f the o rganism

,thinking is something else than a mere secretion

106 APPENDIX.

o f the bra in . The substance of man belong ing to the transcendenta l world,

existing behind the sense- consciousness,and only exceptionally encroaching

upo n i t,is the pr ime cause of the o rganism . It is certa in that

in man there is a kernel to which the laws o f sensibility do no t apply— an

o rgan fo r which the cognitiona l fo rms o f time and spa ce avail differentlythan fo r the sense- consciousness . Since the functions o f this o rgan a tta into f r eer a ctivi ty in the deg ree tha t the sense- consciousness is suppressed

,so that

the latter shows itself to be a hindrance to the development o f that a c tivity,

i t fo llows that the to tal annulment o f our sense- consciousness c an o nly belo oked upon as a to tal removal o f this hindrance thus dea th does not afi

'

ect

the tr ue substa nce of man nay ,i tpermits the cognitiona l mode which was

suppressed in the ea r thly lif e aga in to a tta in unimpeded a ctivity .

W e po ssess o ur past in the fo rm of images lying in o ur memory. The

feeling o f personality arises because w e refer the succession o f our experi

ences to an identica l Subject which knows i tself as permanent in all changeo f the feelings . As the plant grows in the l ight

,but its ro o ts

are sunk in the dark bo som o f the earth,so is o ur Ego sunk with a meta

physica l ro o t in an o rder o f things lying beyond our knowledge.

There is certainly a wo rld beyond , tha t is , beyond our consciousness ; ino ther wo rds , our sense- consciousness has its limits just in its senses we our

selves belong already now to tha t wo rld beyond , so far as o ur Ego exceedsself- consciousness, thus as— but o nly relatively— unconscious beings . We

are no t tempo rarily and spatially divided from tha t wo rld beyond , are not

first transpo sed there by death , but are a lready ro oted therein, and what

divides us therefrom is merely the subjective barrier o f our threshold ofsensibility. Were our five senses suddenly taken away. andsenses o f an entirely different kind given to us

,though standing on the same

spo t,w e should believe ourselves inhabitants o f ano ther star. ”

The Phi

lOSOphy o f Mysticism Baron du P rel.)If w e are abro ad in the sto rm o f tempestuous seas, where the mo untain

ous waves rise and fall,dash themselves furiously aga inst steep cliffs, and

to ss their spray high in the a ir while the sto rm howls, the sea bo ils , thelightning flashes from black clouds , and the peals o f thunder drown the voiceo f storm and sea,— then ,

in the undismayed beho lder , the twofold nature o f

his consciousness reaches the highest degree o f distinctness. He perceiveshimself

,on the one hand , as an individual , as the frail phenomenon o f w ill,

which the slightest touch o f these fo rces can utterly destroy,helpless against

powerful nature , dependent , the victim o f chance,a vanishing no thing in

the presence o f stupendous might and,on the o ther hand , he perceives

himself as the eternal , peaceful , knowing subject , the conditio n o f the

object,and therefo re the suppo rter o f this who le wo rld the terrific strife of

nature only his idea ; the subject itself free and apart from all desires and

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108 APPENDIX.

who se majesty and glo ry, a ll natura l things , although glorious , might plainlyvan ish and be annihilated and so

, leaving the inferio r and lesser l ight , heshould suddenly betake himself to and fo llow the grea ter and superio rLight B ut these things a r e notpr opounded and w r itten to tha t end tha t they

should happen in contempt of philosophy ,or of na tural sciences

,a r ts

,and

f aculties , which are and flourish among men,and which in this l ife canno t

but be ; but r a ther tha t we, being f r aught w ith the saga ci ty of the L ight ofN a ture

,may be ledf ur ther , may go f orwa rd and be excited to the hnow ledge

of theg rea ter L ight, which may confer upon us a new birth,eternal life and

salvation .

” — (Astro logie Theo logized ,We read in Deuteronomy My do ctrine shall dro p a s the rain ,

myspeech sha ll distill as the dew ,

or be as the small dew upo n the tender herband as the showers upon the grass ”

and in the Go spel acco rding to St.John : If any man thirst let him c ome unto me and drink.

” Hence,acco rding to the symbo lism o f the Scriptures , water, in the go o d sense,signifies divine truth in the Ho ly Wo rd , and in the Human Mind. But in

its oppo site sense , wa ter signifies man’

s self-derived intelligence and fleshly

o r physica l wisdom . By the fishes o f the sea are signified all the principleso f scientific truth ; thus in the Bo ok o f Revelations

,John hears every

creature tha t w as in the sea pra ising the Lo rd . Hence , the curious miracleo f the piece o f money in the mou th o f the fish is interpreted thus : “

The

D ivine command to Peter, G0 to the sea and cast a ho ok , ’ meant Go and

investigate the inner principles o f the sciences , and every one o f them w illbe found to contain within itself the tribute which it owes to spiritualreligion ,

and which it cheerfully renders up.

’The Lord said to Peter

Take up the fish tha t first cometh up,and thou shalt find a piece o f money,

to instruct us that every science, no ma tter wha t , contains its own tribute,which it pays at the shrine o f religion . Every fish when its mouth is o pened,every s cience when its interio r principles are explo red by Peter, o r tho segrounded in a pure faith , w ill be found to contain the tribute money.When this is discovered and demanded fo r the interests o f true religio n , i t isinstantly yielded up. These sciences , when internally explo red , will befound to contain infallible pro o fs of the existence o f a Supreme Being,po inting at the same time to the sp iritua lity and superio rity o f religion ,which they constantly serve, and to which they are tributary. ”

(See The

Science o f Scriptura l Correspondences Elucida ted, ” by Madely and Barrett .)The present growing discord between the TREMENDOUS EMP IRE OF THE

SENSES and the SOL ITARY SUPREMACY OF THE SOUL must be reso lved.Hitherto ,

churches , whether Catho lic o r Pro testant , have dealt with the

Senses separately by crushing them , and with the Soul separa tely by isolatingi t but Ascetic ism and Mysticism combined have failed a ltogether to grapplewith the who le truth o f life, to pla ce the Senses , to mahe r oom fo r the various

APPENDIX. 09

noble a ctivities and desirable pursuits which , in many ways no t essentia llyreligious , make life wo rth living . The Christianity o f the Futurewill recogn ize tha t some are bo rn to be Reservo irs o f spiritual power fo r theworld

,as o thers are bo rn to be Reservoirs o f po litica l , poetic , industrial ,

artistic,o r scientific power fo r the world. The notio n tha t Felix

Mendelssohn would have been better occupied in preaching the Gospel thanin compo sing music

,o r that Charles D ickens would have been better em

ployed as a missionary than in writing bo oks , is pla inly erroneous . The

Christian Church (although it began with such- like teaching in a season o f

protest and reaction) has long since practically abandoned i t in detai l butthe Christian Church has never changed its theory

— it ha s never r e- sta ted i ts

rela tions w ith the w or ld,a lthough the w or ld ha s entirely changed i ts r ela tions

w ith the Chur ch. The Christianity o f the future must set itself to so lve thisproblem . You may say i t has been practically so lved by a thousand noblelives . So i t has ; but not by our Christianity. The Christianity o fthe Future, whilst procla iming with the vo ice o f an archangel the SOL ITARYSUPREMACY OF THE SOUL ,

the majesty o f the higher intuitions,man ’s

spiritual affinity with God, and the paramo unt duty o f aiming at a mo ra lharmony here as the prelude t o a blessed immo rtality

,must recognize as on

a parallel,but no t antagonisti c, plane, the EMP IRE OF THE SENSES

,the

claims o f the o utward and visible world , and the d ivini ty o f secular knowledge. Christiani ty must learn what the religio n o f Jesus is , a fter all , bestfitted to teach— that what God has permitted to be true in the wo rld o f

Nature canno t really be o pposed to any religious truth . She must fi t inscience she must re- state her theological conceptions until they are broughtinto some so rt o f harmony with that state o f progress which God has permitted the human mind to reach. Jesus is the Soul-master, no t theSchool-master but those ministers and stewards o f the mysteries who teachin His name. are bound to p lace us in right rela tions with the constitutio nof human nature and all the permanent facts o f life , and neither to ignorethem . violate them ,

no r denounce them . If the Religion of Jesus is,

as so many o f us feel and believe i t to be, the Religion of Human ity and theH0pe o f the Future, i t will be able to deal w ith the world and all i ts l ightsand shadows

,all the weal and all the wo e i t will have the courage a t due

seasons to come out of the cloister and throw o ff the cowl i t will know howto rejo ice with them that do rejo ice as well as to weep with those tha t weepi t will not only burn up wickedness and warm our congealed life o f selfish

ness with Philanthropy, but i t wil l glow with the painter’s colo rs , thrill withthe musician ’s harmonies

,brighten with the w reathed smiles o f women and

children ; and yet , beyond all these , be full also o f the things whicheye hath no t seen no r ear heard. ”

The Conquering Cross R ev. H. A.

Haw eis , M .A.)

110 APPENDIX.

Man has instinctively felt , in all times and under all rel igions,that he

must lo ok to Art to express and interpret the feelings into which Science andPhil Ophy and Ethics lead him ,

and to fo rm fo r him a wo rship fo r the I nfinite Truth and Beauty and Go odness. Thus , the a rchitect has reared themassive temple and the beautiful minster and the sculpto r has ado rned themwith the noblest figures o f saints and heroes , with dim visions o f angelssto oping fr

lom the shadowed n iches in the wa lls and the pain ter has lifted

above the altar the seraphic form o f theMo ther and the'

Child through therich ro se-window the go lden light stream ing in upon the fretted vault andlong-drawn nave and shadowy a isle on the choicest symbols which man has

fashioned through the ages wherewith to express his awe and reverence, histhought and feeling befo re the Infinite Mystery while the musi c o f themasters fi lled the vast building with tumultuous waves o f sound

,

'

thrilling the

soul with joy unspeakable and full o f glo ry,whispering secrets o f peace to

hearts bowed down with w o e, bearing w ithin souls tempted and tried theecho es o f tha t vo ice heard o f o ld Come unto me

,all ye that labo r and are

heavy laden , and I will give you rest. ” All this has been right. I f worshipis the highest act o f man , i t demands for its rightful rendering the highestpowers o f man . Whatever can be brought into the service o f the church

,

wherewith to express i ts faith and hope and charity, is legitimate. It needsno apo logy: It vindicates its place by appealing to the mind and heart andconscience o f men . Our wo rship ought to be just as noble and dignified andbeautiful and rich as i t is po ssible for us to make it , _

so long as i t is chargedw ith true thought and pure feeling, so long as i t is an uplift o f the soul.The moment tha t the symbol obscures the rea lity ; tha t the music tichles the

ea r and sta r ts thef eet to the mea sures of the dance,instead of brea thing upon

the soul and stir r ing the w ings of a spira tion ; tha t the picture above the a lta ra r rests themind a s well a s the ey e, hnd one stops w ith thinhing a bout it

,instead

of through i t f eeling i ts way into tha t which i t s igns in f orm and color ; thatthe things round about the a ltar absorb the a ttention o f the wo rshippers , andin their due arrangement the sense o f wo rship is discharged—tha t moment

thepresence of a r t is an imper tinence,and being an imper tinence becomes a

blasphemy . Then the stern , grim Puritan needs to enter our temple, hewdown o ur statues , tear o ur pictures from the walls , white-wash the frescosstained in the p laster, strip the a ltar

,rear the table aga in , banish the cho ir

and the o rgan,and bring us back to the stern s implicity o f mind and c on

science in which we wo rship that God who is spiri t in spirit and in truth.But surely, friends , i t is po ssible fo r us now at length to be Catho lics in all

rightful emphasis o f the imagination ,and yet to be Pro testants in all right

ful emphasis o f the reason and conscience ; and in w orship a s in lif e to

decla re Tha t which God has j o ined together ,let no manput a sunder . Only

let us be on our guard. The mo re dignified and noble w e seek to make our

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

112 APPENDIX.

w e can all remember the doubtful Shudder which ran through some art circ les

,as a rule no t o ver-squeamish , and all religious co teries , when i t was

proposed to put the Lord’s Last Supper on the stage "True,Parsifal

does no t quite do tha t , but i t is next do o r to it . The associations are there,the function is there, the communicants are there, even the scenic suggestiono f our Lo rd Himself is there, and an incident in His life finds expressio n inthe perso n of Parsifa l and the woman Kundry, who , in the hour o f her penitence, bathes his feet with her tears , and wipes them with the hair o f herhead ; and yet no one who has seen Parsifa l ’ comes away without themo st reverent sympathy fo r this idea l representa tion o f all tha t was mo st pureand elevating in mediaeva l Roman Ca tholicism .

Once mo re I seem to be at Bayreuth when first tha t stage drama unro lleditself before the eyes o f the pilgrims assembled in the dim musical sanctuary , fo r such it was to us . We were all silent nothing moved nothingwas visible

,save an eager mist o f faces ha lf seen in the weird light reflected

from the i lluminated stage,and the grea t parables o f life and death

,o f

frailty and sanc tificatio n, the spiritua l secrets o f time and eternity, unro lledthemselves before us

,august revela tions o f the soul

,convincing the world o f

judgment and o f righteousness and o f sin . Yes, there w as the terriblestruggle between the flesh and the spirit in Kundry’s own double nature ;there w as the dread but triumphant passage from innocent igno rance to theknowledge o f go od and evil in the victo rious guileless One. There w as thelove that had power to pardo n , because i t had been tempted w ithout Sin .

Was ever , in all art creation , balm fo r the broken Spirit and the contrite heartlike the tender benison o f that Go od-Friday music which comes with the

weeping o f the penitent woman and the waving o f the hands that blessedBut who can tell o f the songs o f the angels far abo ve the high dome o f

Montsalvat, wha t time the knights o f the Sangra il are met in ho ly conclaveto celebra te their love- feast"

The pain o f the crucifixion has lo ng passed . The agony o f the Beloved ’

has become a memory and a faith , enshrined in celestia l peace and glory itall seems to visit earth fo r a momen t to hallow , to feed , to lift up the faithful as the Grail passes , buoyed up o n the o cean o f strange sound , andsmi tten with superna l light , ro se-red with beatings in i t . ’

I shall never fo rget the indescribable emo tio n which seized the wholeassembly on the first representation o f tha t daring and unparalleled scene.

The knights seated in semicircle , with go lden goblets befo re them ,in the

halls o f Montsalvat. The faint plash o f distant fo unta ins adown the marblecorrido r is heard . Amfo rtas rises pale w ith pa in and to rn by remorse, yet

holding o n high the crystal goblet. The l ight fades out o f the golden dome,a holy twilight falls , and strange melodies flo at down from abo ve , till , in the

'

deepening glo om , the goblet slowly glows and reddens like a ruby flame,

APPENDIX. “ 3

and the knights fall prostrate in an ecstasy o f devotion a moment o nly,the

crimson fades o ut, the crystal is dark , the Gra il has passed. I looked ro undupon the silent audience whilst this astonishing celebration was taking place.

The who le assembly was mo tionless ; all seemed to be so lemnized by theaugust spectacle— seemed a lmo st to share in the devout contemplation andtrance- like wo rship o f the ho ly knights . Every thought o f the stage hadvanished . Nothing was further from my own tho ughts than play- acting . Iwas sitting in devout and rapt contemplation . Before my eyes had passed asymbo lic vision of prayer and ecstasy

,flooding the soul w ith o verpowering

thoughts o f the divine sacrifice and the mystery o f unfathomable love.

The people seemed spellbound . Some wept , some gazed entranced withw ide- open eyes, some heads were bowed as in prayer. ” — (R ev. H. A.

Haweis, M .A.)

THE END .