The Religious Sentiment Part 5

The manifestations of motion which the child first notices, or which the savage chiefly observes, relate to himself. They are a.s.sociated with the individuals around him who minister to his wants; the gratification of these depend on the volitions of others. As he grows in strength he learns to supply his own wants, and to make good his own volitions as against those of his fellows. But he soon learns that many events occur to thwart him, out of connection with any known individual, and these of a dreadful nature, hurricanes and floods, hunger, sickness and death.

These pursue him everywhere, foiling his plans, and frustrating his hopes. It is not the show of power, the manifestations of might, that he cares for in these events, but that they touch _him_, that they spoil _his_ projects, and render vain _his_ desires; _this_ forces him to cast about for some means to protect himself against them.

In accordance with the teaching of his experience, and true moreover to the laws of mind, he refers them, collectively, to a mental source, to a vague individuality. This loose, undefined conception of an unknown volition or power forms the earliest notion of Deity. It is hardly a.s.sociated with personality, yet it is broadly separated from the human and the known. In the languages of savage tribes, as I have elsewhere remarked, "a word is usually found comprehending all manifestations of the unseen world, yet conveying no sense of personal unity."[78-1]

By some means to guard against this undefined marplot to the accomplishment of his wishes, is the object of his religion. Its primitive forms are therefore defensive and conciliatory. The hopes of the savage extend little beyond the reach of his own arm, and the tenor of his prayers is that the G.o.ds be neuter. If they do not interfere he can take care of himself. His religion is a sort of a.s.surance of life.

Not only the religion of the savage, but every religion is this and not much but this. With n.o.bler a.s.sociations and purer conceptions of life, the religious sentiment ever contains these same elements and depends upon them for its vigor and growth. It everywhere springs from _a desire whose fruition depends upon unknown power_. To give the religious wish a definition in the technic of psychology, I define it as: _Expectant Attention, directed toward an event not under known control, with a concomitant idea of Cause or Power_.

Three elements are embraced in this definition, a wish, an idea of power, ignorance of the nature of that power. The first term prompts the hope, the third suggests the fear, and the second creates the personality, which we see set forth in every religious system. Without these three, religion as dogma becomes impossible.

If a man wishes for nothing, neither the continuance of present comforts nor future blessings, why need he care for the G.o.ds? Who can hurt him, so long as he stays in his frame of mind? He may well shake off all religions and every fear, for he is stronger than G.o.d, and the universe holds nothing worth his effort to get. This was the doctrine taught by Buddha Sakyanuni, a philosopher opposed to every form of religion, but who is the reputed founder of the most numerous sect now on the globe.

He sought to free the minds of his day from the burden of the Brahmanic ritual, by cultivating a frame of mind beyond desire or admiration, and hence beyond the need of a creed.

The second element, the idea of power, is an intellectual abstraction.

Its character is fluctuating. At first it is most vague, corresponding to what in its most general sense we term "the supernatural." Later, it is regarded under its various exhibitions as separable phenomena, as in polytheisms, in which must be included trinitarian systems and the dualistic doctrine of the Pa.r.s.ees. But among the Egyptians, Greeks and Aztecs, as well as in the words of Zarathustra and in the theology of Christianity, we frequently meet with the distinct recognition of the fundamental unity of all power. At core, all religions have seeds of monotheism. When we generalize the current concepts of motion or force beyond individual displays and relative measures of quant.i.ty, we recognize their qualitative ident.i.ty, and appreciate the logical unity under which we must give them abstract expression. This is the process, often unconscious, which has carried most original thinkers to monotheistic doctrines, no matter whence they started.

The idea of power controlling the unknown would of itself have been of no interest to man had he not a.s.sumed certain relations to exist between him and it on the one hand, and it and things on the other. A dispa.s.sionate inquiry disproves entirely the view maintained by various modern writers, prominently by Bain, Spencer and Darwin, that the contemplation of power or majesty in external nature prompts of itself the religious sentiment, or could have been its historical origin. Such a view overlooks the most essential because the personal factor of religion--the wish. Far more correct are the words of David Hume, in the last century, by which he closes his admirable _Natural History of Religions_: "We may conclude, therefore, that in all nations the first ideas of religion arose not from a contemplation of the works of nature, but from a concern with regard to the events of life, and from the incessant hopes and fears which actuate the human mind." A century before him Hobbes had written in his terse way: "The natural seed of religion lies in these four things: the fear of spirits, ignorance of secondary causes, the conciliation of those we fear, and the a.s.sumption of accidents for omens."[81-1] The sentiment of religion is in its origin and nature purely personal and subjective. The aspect of power would never have led man to worship, unless he had a.s.sumed certain relations between the unseen author or authors of that power and himself. What these a.s.sumptions were, I shall discuss in the next chapter.

Finally, as has so often been remarked in a flippant and contemptuous way,[82-1] which the fact when rightly understood nowise justifies, religion cannot exist without the aid of ignorance. It is really and truly the mother of devotion. The sentiment of religious fear does not apply to a _known_ power--to the movement of an opposing army, or the action of gravity in an avalanche for example. The prayer which under such circ.u.mstances is offered, is directed to an unknown intelligence, supposed to control the visible forces. As science--which is the knowledge of physical laws--extends, the object of prayer becomes more and more intangible and remote. What we formerly feared, we learn to govern. No one would pray G.o.d to avert the thunderbolt, if lightning rods invariably protected houses. The Swiss clergy opposed the system of insuring growing crops because it made their parishioners indifferent to prayers for the harvest. With increasing knowledge and the security which it brings, religious terror lessens, and the wants which excite the sentiment of devotion diminish in number and change in character.

This is apt to cast general discredit on religion. When we make the discovery that so many events which excited religious apprehension in the minds of our forefathers are governed by inflexible laws which we know all about, we not only smile in pity at their superst.i.tions, but make the mental inference that the diminished emotion of this kind we yet experience is equally groundless. If at the bottom of all displays of power lies a physical necessity, our qualms are folly. Therefore, to the pious soul which still finds the bulk of its religious aspirations and experiences in the regions of the emotions and sensations, the progress of science seems and really does threaten its cherished convictions. The audacious mind of man robs the G.o.ds of power when he can shield himself from their anger. The much-talked-of conflict between religion and science is no fiction; it exists, and is bound to go on, and religion will ever get the worst of it until it learns that the wishes to which it is its proper place to minister are not those for pleasure and prosperity, not for abundant harvests and seasonable showers, not success in battle and public health, not preservation from danger and safety on journeys, not much of anything that is spoken of in litanies and books of devotion.

Let a person who still clings to this form of religion imagine that science had reached perfection in the arts of life; that by skilled adaptations of machinery, accidents by sea and land were quite avoided; that observation and experience had taught to foresee with certainty and to protect effectively against all meteoric disturbances; that a perfected government insured safety of person and property; that a consummate agriculture rendered want and poverty unknown; that a developed hygiene completely guarded against disease; and that a painless extinction of life in advanced age could surely be calculated upon; let him imagine this, and then ask himself what purpose religion would subserve in such a state of things? For whatever would occupy it then--if it could exist at all--should _alone_ occupy it now.

FOOTNOTES:

[49-1] _Address to the Clergy_, pp. 42, 43, 67, 106, etc.

[49-2] E. von Hardenberg [Novalis], _Werke_, s. 364.

[50-1] _Treatises Devotional and Practical_, p. 188. London, 1836.

[50-2] In Aramaic _dachla_ means either a G.o.d or fear. The Arabic Allah and the Hebrew Eloah are by some traced to a common root, signifying to tremble, to show fear, though the more usual derivation is from one meaning to be strong.

[51-1] "Wen die Hoffnung, den hat auch die Furcht verla.s.sen." Arthur Schopenhauer, _Parerga und Paralipomena_. Bd. ii. s. 474.

[52-1] Alexander Bain, _On the Study of Character_, p. 128. See also his remarks in his work, _The Emotions and the Will_, p. 84, and in his notes to James Mill's _a.n.a.lysis of the Mind_, vol. i., pp. 124-125.

[53-1] Wilhelm von Humboldt's _Gesammelte Werke_, Bd. vii., s. 62.

[53-2] De Senancourt, _Obermann_, Lettre xli.

[54-1] _Elements of Medical Psychology_, p. 331.

[56-1] Lessing's _Gesammelte Werke_. B. ii. s. 443 (Leipzig, 1855).

[57-1] See Exodus, xxiii. 12; Psalms, lv. 6; Isaiah, x.x.x. 15; Jeremiah, vi. 16; Hebrews, v. 9. So St. Augustine: "et nos post opera nostra sabbato vitae eternae requiescamus in te." _Confessionum Lib._ xiii. cap.

36.

[59-1] "Filioli, diligite alterutrum." This is the "testamentum Johannis," as recorded from tradition by St. Jerome in his notes to the Epistle to the Galatians.

[59-2] Alexander Bain, _The Senses and the Intellect_, Chap. I.

[60-1] _A Christian Directory._ Part I. Chap. III.

[60-2] "The very nature of affection, the idea itself, necessarily implies resting in its object as an end." _Fifteen Sermons by Joseph Butler, late Lord Bishop of Durham_, Preface, and p. 147 (London, 1841).

[61-1] Dr. J. Milner Fothergill, _Journal of Mental Science_, Oct. 1874, p. 198.

[62-1] The most recent work on the topic is that of Messrs. Westropp and Wake, _The Influence of the Phallic Idea on the Religions of Antiquity_, London, 1874.

[63-1] Schoolcraft's _History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes_, Vol.

iv. p. 224.

[63-2] Richardson, _Arctic Expedition_, p. 412.

[63-3] Most physicians have occasion to notice the almost entire loss in modern life of the instinctive knowledge of the s.e.x relation. Sir James Paget has lately treated of the subject in one of his _Clinical Lectures_ (London, 1875).

[64-1] Dr. J. P. Catlow, _Principles of Aesthetic Medicine_, p. 112.

This thoughtful though obscure writer has received little recognition even in the circle of professional readers.

[66-1] This is probably what was condemned in Deuteronomy xxii. 5, and Romans, i. 26.

[66-2] "The worship of Siva is too severe, too stern for the softer emotions of love, and all his temples are quite free from any allusions to it."--Ferguson, _Tree and Serpent Worship_, p. 71.

[67-1] W. von Humboldt, in his admirable essay _Ueber die Mannliche und Weibliche Form_ (_Werke, Bd. I._). Elsewhere he adds: "In der Natur des Gttlichen strebt alles der Reinheit und Vollkommenheit des Gattungsbegriff entgegen."

[68-1] I have collected the Haitian myths, chiefly from the ma.n.u.script _Historia Apologetica de las Indias Occidentales_ of Las Casas, in an essay published in 1871, _The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations_.

[71-1] _The Koran_, Suras,[TN-5] cxii., lxii., and especially xix.

[73-1] _Elements of Medical Psychology_, p. 281.

[73-2] J. Thompson d.i.c.kson, _The Science and Practice of Medicine in relation to Mind_, p. 383 (New York, 1874).

[76-1] Dr. Joseph Williams, _Insanity, its Causes, Prevention and Cure_, pp. 68, 69; Dr. A. L. Wigan, _The Duality of the Mind_, p. 437.

[78-1] _The Myths of the New World, a Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America_, p. 145.

[81-1] _Leviathan, De Homine_, cap. xii.

[82-1] For instance, of later writers from whom we might expect better things, Arthur Schopenhauer. He says in his _Parerga_ (Bd. ii. s. 290): "Ein gewisser Grad allgemeiner Unwissenheit ist die Bedingung aller Religionen;" a correct remark, and equally correct of the pursuit of science and philosophy. But the ignorance which is the condition of such pursuit is not a part of science or philosophy, and no more is it of religion.

THE RATIONAL POSTULATES OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT.