The World as Will and Idea Volume III Part 15

-RABELAIS.

In any case, the ascetic tendency is unmistakable in the genuine and original Christianity as it developed in the writings of the Church Fathers from its kernel in the New Testament; it is the summit towards which all strives upwards. As its chief doctrine we find the recommendation of genuine and pure celibacy (this first and most important step in the denial of the will to live), which is already expressed in the New Testament.(51) Strauss also, in his "Life of Jesus" (vol i. p. 618 of the first edition), says, with reference to the recommendation of celibacy given in Matt. xix. 11 _seq._, "That the doctrine of Jesus may not run counter to the ideas of the present day, men have hastened to introduce surrept.i.tiously the thought that Jesus only praised celibacy with reference to the circ.u.mstances of the time, and in order to leave the activity of the Apostles unfettered; but there is even less indication of this in the context than in the kindred pa.s.sage, 1 Cor. vii. 25 _seq._; but we have here again one of the places where _ascetic principles_, such as prevailed among the Essenes, and probably still more widely among the Jews, appear in the teaching of Jesus also." This ascetic tendency appears more decidedly later than at the beginning, when Christianity, still seeking adherents, dared not pitch its demands too high; and by the beginning of the third century it is expressly urged. Marriage, in genuine Christianity, is merely a compromise with the sinful nature of man, as a concession, something allowed to those who lack strength to aspire to the highest, an expedient to avoid greater evil: in this sense it receives the sanction of the Church in order that the bond may be indissoluble. But celibacy and virginity are set up as the higher consecration of Christianity through which one enters the ranks of the elect. Through these alone does one attain the victor's crown, which even at the present day is signified by the wreath upon the coffin of the unmarried, and also by that which the bride lays aside on the day of her marriage.

A piece of evidence upon this point, which certainly comes to us from the primitive times of Christianity, is the pregnant answer of the Lord, quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus (_Strom._ iii. 6 _et_ 9) from the Gospel of the Egyptians: "?? Sa??? ? ?????? p???a??e??, e??? p?te ?a?at??

?s??se?; e???? a? e?pe?, ?e??, a? ???a??e?, t??tete" (_Salomae interroganti ____quousque vigebit mors?____ Dominus ____guoadlusque____ inguit ____vos, mulieres, paritis___). "???t? est?, e???? a? a? ep????a?

e?e???s?" (_Hoc est, quamdiu operabuntur cupiditates_), adds Clement, c.

9, with which he at once connects the famous pa.s.sage, Rom. v. 12. Further on, c. 13, he quotes the words of Ca.s.sia.n.u.s: "????a??e??? t?? Sa????, p?te ???s??seta? ta pe?? ?? ??et?, ef? ? ??????, ??ta? t?? a?s???? e?d?a pat?sete, ?a? ?ta? ?e??ta? ta d?? ??, ?a? t? a??e? eta t?? ???e?a? ??te a??e?, ??te ????" (_c.u.m interrogaret Salome, quando cognoscentur ea, de quibus interrogabat, ait Dominus: ____quando pudoris indumentum conculcaveritis, et quando duo facto fuerint unum, et masculum c.u.m faemina nec masculum, nec faeminium___), _i.e._, when she no longer needs the veil of modesty, since all distinction of s.e.x will have disappeared.

With regard to this point the heretics have certainly gone furthest: even in the second century the Tatianites or Encrat.i.tes, the Gnostics, the Marcionites, the Montanists, Valentinians, and Ca.s.sians; yet only because with reckless consistency they gave honour to the truth, and therefore, in accordance with the spirit of Christianity, they taught perfect continence; while the Church prudently declared to be heresy all that ran counter to its far-seeing policy. Augustine says of the Tatianites: "_Nuptias d.a.m.nant, atque omnino pares eas fornicationibus aliisque corruptionibus faciunt: nec recipiunt in suum numerum conjugio utentem, sive marem, sive fminam. Non vescunlur carnibus, easque abominantur._"

(_De hresi ad quod vult Deum. hr._, 25.) But even the orthodox Fathers look upon marriage in the light indicated above, and zealously preach entire continence, the ???e?a. Athanasius gives as the cause of marriage: "?t? ?p?p?pt??te? ese? t? t?? p??pat???? ?atad??? ... epe?d? ?

p??????e??? s??p?? t?? ?e?? ??, t? ? d?a ?a?? ?e?es?a? ?a? ?a? f???a?; ? de pa?aas?? t?? e?t???? t?? ?a?? e?s??a?e? d?a t? a???sa? t?? ?da."

(_Quia subjacemus condemnationi propatoris nostri; ... nam finis, a Deo prlatus, erat, nos non per nuptias et corruptionem fieri: sed transgressio mandati nuptias introduxit, propter legis violationem Ad._-_Exposit. in psalm._ 50). Tertullian calls marriage _genus mali inferioris, ex indulgentia ortum_ (_De pudicitia_, c. 16) and says: "_Matrimonium et stuprum est commixtio carnis; scilicet cujus concupiscentiam dominus stupro adquavit. Ergo, inguis, jam et primas, id est unas nuptias destruis? Nec immerito: quoniam et ips ex eo constant, quod est stuprum_" (_De exhort. cast.i.t._, c. 9). Indeed, Augustine himself commits himself entirely to this doctrine and all its results, for he says: "_Novi quosdam, qui murmurent: quid, si, inquiunt, omnes velint ab omni concubitu abstinere, unde subsistet genus humanum? Utinam omnes hoc vellent! dumtaxat in caritate, de corde puro et conscientia bona, et fide non ficta: multo citius Dei civitas compleretur, ut acceleraretur terminus mundi_" (_De bono conjugali_, c. 10). And again: "_Non vos ab hoc studio, quo multos ad imitandum vos excitatis, frangat querela vanorum, qui dic.u.n.t: quomodo subsistet genus humanum, si omnes fuerint continentes?

Quasi propter aliud r.e.t.a.r.detur hoc seculum, nisi ut impleatur prdestinatus numerus ille sanctorum, quo citius impleto, profecto nec terminus seculi differetur_" (_De bono individuitatis_, c. 23). One sees at once that he identifies salvation with the end of the world. The other pa.s.sages in the works of Augustine which bear on this point will be found collected in the "_Confessio Augustiniana e D. Augustini operibus compilata a Hieronymo Torrense_," 1610, under the headings _De matrimonio_, _De clibatu_, &c., and any one may convince himself from these that in ancient, genuine Christianity marriage was only a concession, which besides this was supposed to have only the begetting of children as its end, that, on the other hand, perfect continence was the true virtue far to be preferred to this. To those, however, who do not wish to go back to the authorities themselves I recommend two works for the purpose of removing any kind of doubt as to the tendency of Christianity we are speaking about: Carove, "_Ueber das Colibatgesetz_,"

1832, and Lind, "_De clibatu Christianorum per tria priora secula_,"

_Havni_, 1839. It is, however, by no means the views of these writers themselves to which I refer, for these are opposed to mine, but solely to their carefully collected accounts and quotations, which deserve full acceptance as quite trustworthy, just because both these writers are opponents of celibacy, the former a rationalistic Catholic, and the other a Protestant candidate in theology, who speaks exactly like one. In the first-named work we find, vol. i. p. 166, in that reference, the following result expressed: "In accordance with the Church view, as it may be read in canonical Church Fathers, in the Synodal and Papal instructions, and in innumerable writings of orthodox Catholics, perpetual chast.i.ty is called a divine, heavenly, angelic virtue, and the obtaining of the a.s.sistance of divine grace for this end is made dependent upon earnest prayer. We have already shown that this Augustinian doctrine is by Canisius and in the decrees of the Council of Trent expressed as an unchanging belief of the Church. That, however, it has been retained as a dogma till the present day is sufficiently established by the June number, 1831, of the magazine '_Der Katholik_.' It is said there, p. 263: 'In Catholicism the observance of a perpetual chast.i.ty, for the sake of G.o.d, appears as in itself the highest merit of man. The view that the observance of continual chast.i.ty as an end in itself sanctifies and exalts the man is, as every instructed Catholic is convinced, deeply rooted in Christianity, both as regards its spirit and its express precepts. The decrees of the Council of Trent have abolished all possible doubt on this point....' It must at any rate be confessed by every unprejudiced person, not only that the doctrine expressed by '_Der Katholik_' is really Catholic, but also that the proofs adduced may be quite irrefutable for a Catholic reason, because they are drawn so directly from the ecclesiastical view, taken by the Church, of life and its destiny." It is further said in the same work, p. 270: "Although both Paul calls the forbidding to marry a false doctrine, and the still Judaistic author of the Epistle to the Hebrews enjoins that marriage shall be held in honour by all, and the bed kept undefiled (Heb.

xiii 4), yet the main tendency of these two sacred writers is not on that account to be mistaken. Virginity is for both the perfect state, marriage only a make-shift for the weak, and only as such to be held inviolable.

The highest effort, on the other hand, was directed to complete, material putting off of self. The self must turn and refrain from all that tends only to its own pleasure, and that only temporarily." Lastly, p. 288: "We agree with the Abbe Zaccaria, who a.s.serts that celibacy (not the law of celibacy) is before everything to be deduced from the teaching of Christ and the Apostle Paul."

What is opposed to this specially Christian view is everywhere and always merely the Old Testament, with its pa?ta ?a?a ??a?. This appears with peculiar distinctness from that important third book of the Stromata of Clement, where, arguing against the encratistic heretics mentioned above, he constantly opposes to them only Judaism, with its optimistic history of creation, with which the world-denying tendency of the New Testament is certainly in contradiction. But the connection of the New Testament with the Old is at bottom only external, accidental, and forced; and the one point at which Christian doctrine can link itself on to the latter is only to be found, as has been said, in the story of the fall, which, moreover, stands quite isolated in the Old Testament, and is made no further use of.

But, in accordance with the account in the Gospels, it is just the orthodox adherents of the Old Testament who bring about the crucifixion of the founder of Christianity, because they find his teaching in conflict with their own. In the said third book of the Stromata of Clement the antagonism between optimism with theism on the one hand, and pessimism with ascetic morality on the other, comes out with surprising distinctness. This book is directed against the Gnostics, who just taught pessimism and asceticism, that is, e???ate?a (abstinence of every kind, but especially from all s.e.xual satisfaction); on account of which Clement censures them vigorously. But, at the same time, it becomes apparent that even the spirit of the Old Testament stands in this antagonism with that of the New Testament. For, apart from the fall, which appears in the Old Testament like a _hors d'uvre_, the spirit of the Old Testament is diametrically opposed to that of the New Testament-the former optimistic, the latter pessimistic. Clement himself brings this contradiction out prominently at the end of the eleventh chapter (p??sap?te???e??? t??

?a???? t? ???st? ?.t.?.), although he will not allow that it is a real contradiction, but explains it as only apparent,-like a good Jew, as he is. In general it is interesting to see how with Clement the New and the Old Testament get mixed up together; and he strives to reconcile them, yet for the most part drives out the New Testament with the Old. Just at the beginning of the third chapter he objects to the Marcionites that they find fault with the creation, after the example of Plato and Pythagoras; for Marcion teaches that nature is bad, made out of bad materials (f?s??

?a??, e? te ???? ?a???); therefore one ought not to people this world, but to abstain from marriage (? ????e??? t?? ??s?? s?p??????, ape?es?a?

?a??). Now Clement, to whom in general the Old Testament is much more congenial and convincing than the New, takes this very much amiss. He sees in it their flagrant ingrat.i.tude to and enmity and rebellion against him who has made the world, the just demiurgus, whose work they themselves are, and yet despise the use of his creatures, in impious rebellion "forsaking the natural opinion" (a?t?ta.s.s?e??? t? p???t? t? sf??, ...

e???ate?? t? p??? t?? pep?????ta e????, ? ????e??? ???s?a? t??? ?p?

a?t?? ?t?s?e?s??, ... asee? ?e?a??? t?? ?ata f?s?? e?sta?te? ????s??).

At the same time, in his holy zeal, he will not allow the Marcionites even the honour of originality, but, armed with his well-known erudition, he brings it against them, and supports his case with the most beautiful quotations, that even the ancient philosophers, that Herac.l.i.tus and Empedocles, Pythagoras and Plato, Orpheus and Pindar, Herodotus and Euripides, and also the Sibyls, lamented deeply the wretched nature of the world, thus taught pessimism. Now in this learned enthusiasm he does not observe that in this way he is just giving the Marcionites water for their mill, for he shows that

"All the wisest of all the ages"

have taught and sung what they do, but confidently and boldly he quotes the most decided and energetic utterances of the ancients in this sense.

Certainly they cannot lead him astray. Wise men may mourn the sadness of existence, poets may pour out the most affecting lamentations about it, nature and experience may cry out as loudly as they will against optimism,-all this does not touch our Church Father: he holds his Jewish revelation in his hand, and remains confident. The demiurgus made the world. From this it is _a priori_ certain that it is excellent, and it may look as it likes. The same thing then takes place with regard to the second point, the e???ate?a, through which, according to his view, the Marcionites show their ingrat.i.tude towards the demiurgus (a?a??se?? t?

d???????) and the perversity with which they put from them all his gifts (d? a?t?ta??? p??? t?? d????????, t?? ???s?? t?? ??s???? pa?a?t??e???).

Here now the tragic poets have preceded the Encrat.i.tes (to the prejudice of their originality) and have said the same things. For since they also lament the infinite misery of existence, they have added that it is better to bring no children into such a world; which he now again supports with the most beautiful pa.s.sages, and, at the same time, accuses the Pythagoreans of having renounced s.e.xual pleasure on this ground. But all this touches him not; he sticks to his principle that all these sin against the demiurgus, in that they teach that one ought not to marry, ought not to beget children, ought not to bring new miserable beings into the world, ought not to provide new food for death (d? e???ate?a? ase??s?

e?? te t?? ?t?s?? ?a? t?? ????? d????????, t?? pa?t???at??a ???? ?e??, ?a? d?das???s?, ? de?? pa?ade?es?a? ?a?? ?a? pa?d?p???a?, ?de a?te?sa?e?? t? ??s? d?st???s??ta? ?te????, ?de ep??????e?? ?a?at?

t??f??-c. 6). Since the learned Church Father thus denounces e???ate?a, he seems to have had no presentiment that just after his time the celibacy of the Christian priesthood would be more and more introduced, and finally, in the eleventh century, raised to the position of a law, because it is in keeping with the spirit of the New Testament. It is just this spirit which the Gnostics have grasped more profoundly and understood better than our Church Father, who is more Jew than Christian. The conception of the Gnostics comes out very clearly at the beginning of the ninth chapter, where the following pa.s.sage is quoted from the Gospel of the Egyptians: ??t?? e?pe? ? S?t??, "????? ?ata??sa? ta e??a t?? ???e?a?;" ???e?a? e?, t?? ep????a?; e??a de, ?e?es?? ?a? f???a? (_Ajunt enim dixisse Servatorem: ____veni ad dissolvendum opera feminae;____ feminae quidem, cupiditatis; opera autem, generationem et interitum_); but quite specially at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth chapter.

The Church certainly was obliged to consider how to set a religion upon its legs that could also walk and stand in the world as it is, and among men; therefore it declared these persons to be heretics. At the conclusion of the seventh chapter our Church Father opposes Indian asceticism, as bad, to Christian Judaism; whereby the fundamental difference of the spirit of the two religions is clearly brought out. In Judaism and Christianity everything runs back to obedience or disobedience to the command of G.o.d: ?pa??? ?a? pa?a???; as befits us creatures, ???, t???

pep?ase???? ?p? t?? t?? ?a?t???at???? ????se?? (_n.o.bis, qui Omnipotentis voluntate efficti sumus_), chap. 14. Then comes, as a second duty, ?at?e?e?? ?e? ???t?, to serve G.o.d, extol His works, and overflow with thankfulness. Certainly the matter has a very different aspect in Brahmanism and Buddhism, for in the latter all improvement and conversion, and the only deliverance we can hope for from this world of suffering, this Sansara, proceeds from the knowledge of the four fundamental truths: (1) _dolor_; (2) _doloris ortus_; (3) _doloris interitus_; (4) _octopart.i.ta via ad doloris sedationem_ (_Dammapadam_, ed. Fausboll, p. 35 _et_ 347). The explanation of these four truths will be found in Bournouf, "_Introduct. a l'hist. du Buddhisme_," p. 629, and in all expositions of Buddhism.

In truth, Judaism, with its pa?ta ?a?a ??a?, is not related to Christianity as regards its spirit and ethical tendency, but Brahmanism and Buddhism are. But the spirit and ethical tendency are what is essential in a religion, not the myths in which these are clothed. I therefore cannot give up the belief that the doctrines of Christianity can in some way be derived from these primitive religions. I have pointed out some traces of this in the second volume of the Parerga, -- 179 (second edition, -- 180). I have to add to these that Epiphanias (_Haeretic_.

xviii.) relates that the first Jewish Christians of Jerusalem, who called themselves Nazarenes, refrained from all animal food. On account of this origin (or, at least, this agreement) Christianity belongs to the ancient, true and sublime faith of mankind, which is opposed to the false, shallow, and injurious optimism which exhibits itself in Greek paganism, Judaism, and Islamism. The Zend religion holds to a certain extent the mean, because it has opposed to Ormuzd a pessimistic counterpoise in Ahriman.

From this Zend religion the Jewish religion proceeded, as J.G. Rhode has thoroughly proved in his book, "_Die heilige Sage des Zendvolks_;" from Ormuzd has come Jehovah, and from Ahriman, Satan, who, however, plays only a very subordinate role in Judaism, indeed almost entirely disappears, whereby then optimism gains the upper hand, and there only remains the myth of the fall as a pessimistic element, which certainly (as the fable of Meschia and Meschiane) is derived from the Zend-Avesta. Yet even this falls into oblivion, till it is again taken up by Christianity along with Satan. Ormuzd himself, however, is derived from Brahmanism, although from a lower region of it; he is no other than Indra, that subordinate G.o.d of the firmament and the atmosphere, who is represented as frequently in rivalry with men. This has been very clearly shown by J.J. Schmidt in his work on the relation of the Gnostic-theosophic doctrines to the religions of the East. This Indra-Ormuzd-Jehovah had afterwards to pa.s.s over into Christianity, because this religion arose in Judaea. But on account of the cosmopolitan character of Christianity he laid aside his own name to be denoted in the language of each converted nation by the appellation of the superhuman beings he supplanted, as, ?e??, _Deus_, which comes from the Sanscrit _Deva_ (from which also devil comes), or among the Gothico-Germanic peoples by the word G.o.d, _Gott_, which comes from _Odin_, _Wodan_, _Guodan_, _G.o.dan_. In the same way he a.s.sumed in Islamism, which also sprang from Judaism, the name of Allah, which also existed earlier in Arabia. a.n.a.logous to this, the G.o.ds of the Greek Olympus, when in prehistoric times they were transplanted to Italy, also a.s.sumed the names of the previously reigning G.o.ds: hence among the Romans Zeus is called Jupiter, Hera Juno, Hermes Mercury, &c. In China the first difficulty of the missionaries arose from the fact that the Chinese language has no appellation of the kind and also no word for creating; for the three religions of China know no G.o.ds either in the plural or in the singular.(52)

However the rest may be, that pa?ta ?a?a ??a? of the Old Testament is really foreign to true Christianity; for in the New Testament the world is always spoken of as something to which one does not belong, which one does not love, nay, whose lord is the devil.(53) This agrees with the ascetic spirit of the denial of one's self and the overcoming of the world which, just like the boundless love of one's neighbour, even of one's enemy, is the fundamental characteristic which Christianity has in common with Brahmanism and Buddhism, and which proves their relationship. There is nothing in which one has to distinguish the kernel so carefully from the sh.e.l.l as in Christianity. Just because I prize this kernel highly I sometimes treat the sh.e.l.l with little ceremony; it is, however, thicker than is generally supposed. Protestantism, since it has eliminated asceticism and its central point, the meritoriousness of celibacy, has already given up the inmost kernel of Christianity, and so far is to be regarded as a falling away from it. This has become apparent in our own day by the gradual transition of Protestantism into shallow rationalism, this modern Pelagianism, which ultimately degenerates into the doctrine of a loving father, who has made the world, in order that things may go on very pleasantly in it (in which case, then, he must certainly have failed), and who, if one only conforms to his will in certain respects, will also afterwards provide a still more beautiful world (with regard to which it is only a pity that it has such a fatal entrance). That may be a good religion for comfortable, married, and enlightened Protestant pastors; but it is no Christianity. Christianity is the doctrine of the deep guilt of the human race through its existence alone, and the longing of the heart for deliverance from it, which, however, can only be attained by the greatest sacrifices and by the denial of one's own self, thus by an entire reversal of human nature. Luther may have been perfectly right from the practical point of view, _i.e._, with reference to the Church scandal of his time, which he wished to remove, but not so from the theoretical point of view. The more sublime a doctrine is, the more it is exposed to abuse at the hands of human nature, which, on the whole, is of a low and evil disposition: hence the abuses of Catholicism are so much more numerous and so much greater than those of Protestantism. Thus, for example, monasticism, that methodical denial of the will practised in common for the sake of mutual encouragement, is an inst.i.tution of a sublime description, which, however, for this very reason is for the most part untrue to its spirit. The shocking abuses of the Church excited in the honest mind of Luther a lofty indignation. But in consequence of this he was led to desire to limit as much as possible the claims of Christianity itself, and for this end he first confined it to the words of the Bible; but then, in his well-meant zeal, he went too far, for he attacked the very heart of Christianity in the ascetic principle. For after the withdrawal of the ascetic principle, the optimistic principle soon necessarily took its place. But in religions, as in philosophy, optimism is a fundamental error which obstructs the path of all truth.

From all this it seems to me that Catholicism is a shamefully abused, but Protestantism a degenerate Christianity; thus, that Christianity in general has met the fate which befalls all that is n.o.ble, sublime, and great whenever it has to dwell among men.

However, even in the very lap of Protestantism, the essentially ascetic and encratistic spirit of Christianity has made way for itself; and in this case it has appeared in a phenomenon which perhaps has never before been equalled in magnitude and definiteness, the highly remarkable sect of the Shakers, in North America, founded by an Englishwoman, Anne Lee, in 1774. The adherents of this sect have already increased to 6000, who are divided into fifteen communities, and inhabit a number of villages in the states of New York and Kentucky, especially in the district of New Lebanon, near Na.s.sau village. The fundamental characteristic of their religious rule of life is celibacy and entire abstention from all s.e.xual satisfaction. It is unanimously admitted, even by the English and Americans who visit them, and who laugh and jeer at them in every other respect, that this rule is strictly and with perfect honesty observed; although brothers and sisters sometimes even occupy the same house, eat at the same table, nay, _dance_ together in the religious services in church.

For whoever has made that hardest of all sacrifices may _dance_ before the Lord; he is a victor, he has overcome. Their singing in church consists in general of cheerful, and partly even of merry, songs. The church-dance, also, which follows the sermon is accompanied by the singing of the rest.

It is a lively dance, performed in measured time, and concludes with a galop, which is carried on till the dancers are exhausted. Between each dance one of their teachers cries aloud, "Think, that ye rejoice before the Lord for having slain your flesh; for this is here the only use we make of our refractory limbs." To celibacy most of the other conditions link themselves on of themselves. There are no families, and therefore there is no private property, but community of goods. All are clothed alike, in Quaker fashion, and with great neatness. They are industrious and diligent: idleness is not endured. They have also the enviable rule that they are to avoid all unnecessary noise, such as shouting, door-slamming, whip-cracking, loud knocking, &c. Their rule of life has been thus expressed by one of them: "Lead a life of innocence and purity, love your neighbours as yourself, live at peace with all men, and refrain from war, blood-shed, and all violence against others, as well as from all striving after worldly honour and distinction. Give to each his own, and follow after holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. Do good to all so far as your opportunity and your power extends." They persuade no one to join them, but test those who present themselves by a novitiate of several years. Moreover, every one is free to leave them; very rarely is any one expelled for misconduct. Adopted children are carefully educated, and only when they are grown up do they voluntarily join the sect. It is said that in the controversies of their ministers with Anglican clergy the latter generally come off the worse, for the arguments consist of pa.s.sages from the New Testament. Fuller accounts of them will be found particularly in Maxwell's "Run through the United States," 1841; also in Benedict's "History of all Religions," 1830; also in the _Times_, November 4, 1837, and in the German magazine _Columbus_, May number, 1831. A German sect in America, very similar to them, who also live in strict celibacy and continence, are the Rappists. An account of them is given in F. Loher's "_Geschichte und Zustande der Deutschen in Amerika_," 1853. In Russia also the Raskolniks are a similar sect. The Gichtelians live also in strict chast.i.ty. But among the ancient Jews we already find a prototype of all these sects, the Essenes, of whom even Pliny gives an account (_Hist.

Nat._, v. 15), and who resembled the Shakers very much, not only in celibacy, but also in other respects; for example, in dancing during divine service, which leads to the opinion that the founder of the Shakers took the Essenes as a pattern. In the presence of such facts as these how does Luther's a.s.sertion look: "_Ubi natura, quemadmodum a Deo n.o.bis insita est, fertur ac rapitur_, FIERI NULLO MODO POTEST, _ut extra matrimonium caste vivatur_"? (_Catech. maj._)

Although Christianity, in essential respects, taught only what all Asia knew long before, and even better, yet for Europe it was a new and great revelation, in consequence of which the spiritual tendency of the European nations was therefore entirely transformed. For it disclosed to them the metaphysical significance of existence, and therefore taught them to look away from the narrow, paltry, ephemeral life of earth, and to regard it no longer as an end in itself, but as a condition of suffering, guilt, trial, conflict, and purification, out of which, by means of moral achievements, difficult renunciation, and denial of oneself, one may rise to a better existence, which is inconceivable by us. It taught the great truth of the a.s.sertion and denial of the will to live in the clothing of allegory by saying that through Adam's fall the curse has come upon all, sin has come into the world, and guilt is inherited by all; but that, on the other hand, through the sacrificial death of Jesus all are reconciled, the world saved, guilt abolished, and justice satisfied. In order, however, to understand the truth itself that is contained in this myth one must not regard men simply in time, as beings independent of each other, but must comprehend the (Platonic) Idea of man, which is related to the series of men, as eternity in itself is related to eternity drawn out as time; hence the eternal Idea _man_ extended in time to the series of men through the connecting bond of generation appears again in time as a whole. If now we keep the Idea of man in view, we see that Adam's fall represents the finite, animal, sinful nature of man, in respect of which he is a finite being, exposed to sin, suffering, and death. On the other hand, the life, teaching, and death of Jesus Christ represent the eternal, supernatural side, the freedom, the salvation of man. Now every man, as such and _potentia_, is both Adam and Jesus, according as he comprehends himself, and his will thereupon determines him; in consequence of which he is then condemned and given over to death, or saved and attains to eternal life.

Now these truths, both in their allegorical and in their real acceptation, were completely new as far as Greeks and Romans were concerned, who were still entirely absorbed in life, and did not seriously look beyond it. Let whoever doubts this see how Cicero (_Pro Cluentio_, c. 61) and Sall.u.s.t (_Catil._, c. 47) speak of the state after death. The ancients, although far advanced in almost everything else, remained children with regard to the chief concern, and were surpa.s.sed in this even by the Druids, who at least taught metempsychosis. That one or two philosophers, like Pythagoras and Plato, thought otherwise alters nothing as regards the whole.

That great fundamental truth, then, which is contained in Christianity, as in Brahmanism and Buddhism, the need of deliverance from an existence which is given up to suffering and death, and the attainableness of this by the denial of the will, thus by a decided opposition to nature, is beyond all comparison the most important truth there can be; but, at the same time, it is entirely opposed to the natural tendency of the human race, and in its true grounds it is difficult to comprehend; as indeed all that can only be thought generally and in the abstract is inaccessible to the great majority of men. Therefore for these men there was everywhere required, in order to bring that great truth within the sphere of its practical application, _a mythical vehicle_ for it, as it were a receptacle, without which it would be lost and dissipated. The truth had therefore everywhere to borrow the garb of the fable, and also constantly to endeavour to connect itself with what in each case was historically given, already familiar, and already revered. What _sensu proprio_ remained inaccessible to the great ma.s.s of mankind of all ages and lands, with their low tone of mind, their intellectual stupidity and general brutality, had, for practical purposes, to be brought home to them _sensu allegorico_, in order to become their guiding star. So, then, the religions mentioned above are to be regarded as the sacred vessels in which the great truth, known and expressed for several thousand years, indeed perhaps since the beginning of the human race, which yet in itself, for the great ma.s.s of mankind always remains a mystery, is, according to the measure of their powers, made accessible to them, preserved and transmitted through the centuries. Yet, because all that does not through and through consist of the imperishable material of pure truth is subject to destruction, whenever this fate befalls such a vessel, through contact with a heterogeneous age, its sacred content must in some way be saved and preserved for mankind by another. But it is the task of philosophy, since it is one with pure truth, to present that content pure and unmixed, thus merely in abstract conceptions, and consequently without that vehicle, for those who are capable of thinking, who are always an exceedingly small number. It is therefore related to religions as a straight line to several curves running near it: for it expresses _sensu proprio_, thus reaches directly, what they show in veiled forms and reach by circuitous routes.

If now, in order to ill.u.s.trate what has just been said by an example, and also to follow a philosophical fashion of my time, I should wish perhaps to attempt to solve the profoundest mystery of Christianity, that of the Trinity, in the fundamental conception of my philosophy, this could be done, with the licence permitted in such interpretations, in the following manner. The Holy Ghost is the distinct denial of the will to live: the man in whom this exhibits itself _in concreto_ is the Son; He is identical with the will which a.s.serts life, and thereby produces the phenomenon of this perceptible world, _i.e._, with the Father, because the a.s.sertion and denial are opposite acts of the same will whose capability for both is the only true freedom. However, this is to be regarded as a mere _lusus ingenii_.

Before I close this chapter I wish to adduce a few proofs in support of what in -- 68 of the first volume I denoted by the expression ?e?t????

p????, the bringing about of the denial of the will by one's own deeply felt suffering, thus not merely by the appropriation of the suffering of others, and the knowledge of the vanity and wretchedness of our existence introduced by this. We can arrive at a comprehension of what goes on in the heart of a man, in the case of an elevation of this kind and the accompanying purifying process, by considering what every emotional man experiences on beholding a tragedy, which is of kindred nature to this. In the third and fourth acts perhaps such a man is distressed and disturbed by the ever more clouded and threatened happiness of the hero; but when, in the fifth act, this happiness is entirely wrecked and shattered, he experiences a certain elevation of the soul, which affords him an infinitely higher kind of pleasure than the sight of the happiness of the hero, however great it might be, could ever have given. Now this is the same thing, in the weak water-colours of sympathy which is able to raise a well-known illusion, as that which takes place with the energy of reality in the feeling of our own fate when it is heavy misfortune that drives the man at last into the haven of entire resignation. Upon this occurrence depend all those conversions which completely transform men such as are described in the text. I may give here in a few words the story of the conversion of the Abbe Rance, as it is strikingly similar to that of Raymond Lully, which is told in the text, and besides this is memorable on account of its result. His youth was devoted to enjoyment and pleasure; finally, he lived in a relation of pa.s.sion with a Madame de Montbazon. One evening, when he visited her, he found her room empty, in disorder and darkness. He struck something with his foot; it was her head, which had been severed from the trunk, because after her sudden death her corpse could not otherwise be got into the lead coffin that stood beside it.

After overcoming an immense sorrow, Rance now became, in 1663, the reformer of the order of the Trappists, which at that time had entirely relaxed the strictness of its rules. He joined this order, and through him it was led back to that terrible degree of renunciation which is still maintained at the present day at La Trappe, and, as the methodically carried out denial of the will, aided by the severest renunciation and an incredibly hard and painful manner of life, fills the visitor with sacred awe, after he has been touched at his reception by the humility of these genuine monks, who, emaciated by fasting, by cold, by night watches, prayers and penances, kneel before him, the worldling and the sinner, to implore his blessing. Of all orders of monks, this one alone has maintained itself in perfection in France, through all changes; which is to be attributed to the profound earnestness which in it is unmistakable, and excludes all secondary ends. It has remained untouched even by the decline of religion, because its root lies deeper in human nature than any positive system of belief.

I have mentioned in the text that this great and rapid change of the inmost being of man which we are here considering, and which has. .h.i.therto been entirely neglected by philosophers, appears most frequently when, with full consciousness, he stands in the presence of a violent and certain death, thus in the case of executions. But, in order to bring this process much more distinctly before our eyes, I regard it as by no means unbecoming to the dignity of philosophy to quote what has been said by some criminals before their execution, even at the risk of incurring the sneer that I encourage gallows' sermons. I certainly rather believe that the gallows is a place of quite peculiar revelations, and a watch-tower from which the man who even then retains his presence of mind obtains a wider, clearer outlook into eternity than most philosophers over the paragraphs of their rational psychology and theology. The following speech on the gallows was made on the 15th April, 1837, at Gloucester, by a man called Bartlett, who had murdered his mother-in-law: "Englishmen and fellow countrymen,-I have a few words to say to you, and they shall be but very few. Yet let me entreat you, one and all, that these few words that I shall utter may strike deep into your hearts. Bear them in your mind, not only now while you are witnessing this sad scene, but take them to your homes, take them, and repeat them to your children and friends. I implore you as a dying man-one for whom the instrument of death is even now prepared-and these words are that you may loose yourselves from the love of this dying world and its vain pleasures. Think less of it and more of your G.o.d. Do this: repent, repent, for be a.s.sured that without deep and true repentance, without turning to your heavenly Father, you will never attain, nor can hold the slightest hope of ever reaching those bowers of bliss to which I trust I am now fast advancing" (_Times_, 18th April 1837).

Still more remarkable are the last words of the well-known murderer, Greenacre, who was executed in London on the 1st of May 1837. The English newspaper the _Post_ gives the following account, which is also reprinted in _Galignani's Messenger_ of the 6th of May 1837: "On the morning of his execution a gentleman advised him to put his trust in G.o.d, and pray for forgiveness through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Greenacre replied that forgiveness through the mediation of Christ was a matter of opinion; for his part, he believed that in the sight of the highest Being, a Mohammedan was as good as a Christian and had just as much claim to salvation. Since his imprisonment he had had his attention directed to theological subjects, and he had become convinced that the gallows is a pa.s.sport to heaven." The indifference displayed here towards positive religions is just what gives this utterance greater weight, for it shows that it is no fanatical delusion, but individual immediate knowledge that lies at its foundation. The following incident may also be mentioned which is given by _Galignani's Messenger_ of the 15th August 1837, from the _Limerick Chronicle_: "Last Monday Maria c.o.o.ney was executed for the revolting murder of Mrs. Anderson. So deeply was this wretched woman impressed with the greatness of her crime that she kissed the rope which was put round her neck, while she humbly implored the mercy of G.o.d." Lastly this: the _Times_, of the 29th April 1845 gives several letters which Hocker, who was condemned for the murder of Delarue, wrote the day before his execution. In one of these he says: "I am persuaded that unless the natural heart be broken, and renewed by divine mercy, however n.o.ble and amiable it may be deemed by the world, it can never think of eternity without inwardly shuddering." These are the outlooks into eternity referred to above which are obtained from that watch-tower; and I have had the less hesitation in giving them here since Shakspeare also says-

"Out of these convert.i.tes There is much matter to be heard and learned."

-_As You Like it_, last scene.

Strauss, in his "Life of Jesus," has proved that Christianity also ascribes to suffering as such the purifying and sanctifying power here set forth (_Leben Jesu_, vol. i. ch. 6, ---- 72 and 74). He says that the beat.i.tudes in the Sermon on the Mount have a different sense in Luke (vi.

21) from that which they have in Matt. (v. 3), for only the latter adds t?

p?e?at? to a?a???? ?? pt????, and t?? d??a??s???? to pe????te?. Thus by him alone are the simple-minded, the humble, &c., meant, while by Luke are meant the literally poor; so that here the contrast is that between present suffering and future happiness. With the Ebionites it is a capital principle that whoever takes his portion in this age gets nothing in the future, and conversely. Accordingly in Luke the blessings are followed by as many ??a?, woes, which are addressed to the rich, ?? p???s???, the full, ?? epep??se???, and to them that laugh, ?? ?e???te?, in the Ebionite spirit. In the same spirit, he says, p. 604, is the parable (Luke xvi. 19) of the rich man and Lazarus given, which nowhere mentions any fault of the former or any merit of the latter, and takes as the standard of the future recompense, not the good done or the wickedness practised, but the evil suffered here and the good things enjoyed, in the Ebionite spirit. "A like estimation of outward poverty," Strauss goes on, "is also attributed to Jesus by the other synoptists (Matt. xix. 16; Mark x. 17; Luke xviii. 18), in the story of the rich young man and the saying about the camel and the eye of a needle."

If we go to the bottom of the matter we will recognise that even in the most famous pa.s.sages of the Sermon on the Mount there is contained an indirect injunction to voluntary poverty, and thereby to the denial of the will to live. For the precept (Matt. v. 40 _seq._) to consent unconditionally to all demands made upon us, to give our cloak also to him who will take away our coat, &c., similarly (Matt. vi. 25-34) the precept to cast aside all care for the future, even for the morrow, and so to live simply in the present, are rules of life the observance of which inevitably leads to absolute poverty, and which therefore just say in an indirect manner what Buddha directly commands his disciples and has confirmed by his own example: throw everything away and become bhikkhu, _i.e._, beggars. This appears still more decidedly in the pa.s.sage Matt. x.

9-15, where all possessions, even shoes and a staff, are forbidden to the Apostles, and they are directed to beg. These commands afterwards became the foundation of the mendicant order of St. Francis (_Bonaventurae vita S.

Francisci_, c. 3). Hence, then, I say that the spirit of Christian ethics is identical with that of Brahmanism and Buddhism. In conformity with the whole view expounded here Meister Eckhard also says (Works, vol. i. p.

492): "The swiftest animal that bears thee to perfection is suffering."

Chapter XLIX. The Way Of Salvation.

There is only one inborn error, and that is, that we exist in order to be happy. It is inborn in us because it is one with our existence itself, and our whole being is only a paraphrase of it, nay, our body is its monogram.

We are nothing more than will to live and the successive satisfaction of all our volitions is what we think in the conception of happiness.

As long as we persist in this inborn error, indeed even become rigidly fixed in it through optimistic dogmas, the world appears to us full of contradictions. For at every step, in great things as in small, we must experience that the world and life are by no means arranged with a view to containing a happy existence. While now by this the thoughtless man only finds himself tormented in reality, in the case of him who thinks there is added to his real pain the theoretical perplexity why a world and a life which exist in order that one may be happy in them answer their end so badly. First of all it finds expression in pious e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns, such as, "Ah! why are the tears on earth so many?" &c. &c. But in their train come disquieting doubts about the a.s.sumptions of those preconceived optimistic dogmas. One may try if one will to throw the blame of one's individual unhappiness now upon the circ.u.mstances, now upon other men, now upon one's own bad luck, or even upon one's own awkwardness, and may know well how all these have worked together to produce it; but this in no way alters the result that one has missed the real end of life, which consists indeed in being happy. The consideration of this is, then, often very depressing, especially if life is already on the wane; hence the countenances of almost all elderly persons wear the expression of that which in English is called disappointment. Besides this, however, hitherto every day of our life has taught us that joys and pleasures, even if attained, are in themselves delusive, do not perform what they promise, do not satisfy the heart, and finally their possession is at least embittered by the disagreeables that accompany them or spring from them; while, on the contrary, the pains and sorrows prove themselves very real, and often exceed all expectation. Thus certainly everything in life is calculated to recall us from that original error, and to convince us that the end of our existence is not to be happy. Indeed, if we regard it more closely and without prejudice, life rather presents itself as specially intended to be such that we shall _not_ feel ourselves happy in it, for through its whole nature it bears the character of something for which we have no taste, which must be endured by us, and from which we have to return as from an error that our heart may be cured of the pa.s.sionate desire of enjoyment, nay, of life, and turned away from the world. In this sense, it would be more correct to place the end of life in our woe than in our welfare. For the considerations at the conclusion of the preceding chapter have shown that the more one suffers the sooner one attains to the true end of life, and that the more happily one lives the longer this is delayed. The conclusion of the last letter of Seneca corresponds with this: _bonum tunc habebis tuum, quum intelliges infelicissimos esse felices_; which certainly seems to show the influence of Christianity. The peculiar effect of the tragic drama also ultimately depends upon the fact that it shakes that inborn error by vividly presenting in a great and striking example the vanity of human effort and the nothingness of this whole existence, and thus discloses the profound significance of life; hence it is recognised as the sublimest form of poetry. Whoever now has returned by one or other path from that error which dwells in us _a priori_, that p??t?? ?e?d?? of our existence, will soon see all in another light, and will now find the world in harmony with his insight, although not with his wishes. Misfortunes of every kind and magnitude, although they pain him, will no longer surprise him, for he has come to see that it is just pain and trouble that tend towards the true end of life, the turning away of the will from it. This will give him indeed a wonderful composedness in all that may happen, similar to that with which a sick person who undergoes a long and painful cure bears the pain of it as a sign of its efficacy. In the whole of human existence suffering expresses itself clearly enough as its true destiny. Life is deeply sunk in suffering, and cannot escape from it; our entrance into it takes place amid tears, its course is at bottom always tragic, and its end still more so. There is an unmistakable appearance of intention in this. As a rule man's destiny pa.s.ses through his mind in a striking manner, at the very summit of his desires and efforts, and thus his life receives a tragic tendency by virtue of which it is fitted to free him from the pa.s.sionate desire of which every individual existence is an example, and bring him into such a condition that he parts with life without retaining a single desire for it and its pleasures. Suffering is, in fact, the purifying process through which alone, in most cases, the man is sanctified, _i.e._, is led back from the path of error of the will to live. In accordance with this, the salutary nature of the cross and of suffering is so often explained in Christian books of edification, and in general the cross, an instrument of suffering, not of doing, is very suitably the symbol of the Christian religion. Nay, even the Preacher, who is still Jewish, but so very philosophical, rightly says: "Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (Eccles. vii. 3).

Under the name of the de?t??? p???? I have presented suffering as to a certain extent a subst.i.tute for virtue and holiness; but here I must make the bold a.s.sertion that, taking everything into consideration, we have more to hope for our salvation and deliverance from what we suffer than from what we do. Precisely in this spirit Lamartine very beautifully says in his "_Hymne a la douleur_," apostrophising pain:-

"_Tu me traites sans doute en favori des cieux,_ _Car tu n'epargnes pas les larmes a mes yeux._ _Eh bien! je les recois comme tu les envoies,_ _Tes maux seront mes biens, et tes soupirs mes joies._ _Je sens qu'il est en toi, sans avoir combattu,_ _Une vertu divine au lieu de ma vertu,_ _Que tu n'es pas la mort l'ame, mais sa vie,_ _Que ton bras, en frappant, guerit et vivifie._"