登陆注册
4619900000003

第3章

I find, therefore, that though these Allegory theorists are on the way towards truth in this matter, they have not reached it either. Pagan Religion is indeed an Allegory, a Symbol of what men felt and knew about the Universe; and all Religions are symbols of that, altering always as that alters: but it seems to me a radical perversion, and even inversion, of the business, to put that forward as the origin and moving cause, when it was rather the result and termination. To get beautiful allegories, a perfect poetic symbol, was not the want of men; but to know what they were to believe about this Universe, what course they were to steer in it; what, in this mysterious Life of theirs, they had to hope and to fear, to do and to forbear doing. The _Pilgrim's Progress_ is an Allegory, and a beautiful, just and serious one: but consider whether Bunyan's Allegory could have _preceded_ the Faith it symbolizes! The Faith had to be already there, standing believed by everybody;--of which the Allegory could _then_become a shadow; and, with all its seriousness, we may say a _sportful_shadow, a mere play of the Fancy, in comparison with that awful Fact and scientific certainty which it poetically strives to emblem. The Allegory is the product of the certainty, not the producer of it; not in Bunyan's nor in any other case. For Paganism, therefore, we have still to inquire, Whence came that scientific certainty, the parent of such a bewildered heap of allegories, errors and confusions? How was it, what was it?

Surely it were a foolish attempt to pretend "explaining," in this place, or in any place, such a phenomenon as that far-distant distracted cloudy imbroglio of Paganism,--more like a cloud-field than a distant continent of firm land and facts! It is no longer a reality, yet it was one. We ought to understand that this seeming cloud-field was once a reality; that not poetic allegory, least of all that dupery and deception was the origin of it. Men, I say, never did believe idle songs, never risked their soul's life on allegories: men in all times, especially in early earnest times, have had an instinct for detecting quacks, for detesting quacks. Let us try if, leaving out both the quack theory and the allegory one, and listening with affectionate attention to that far-off confused rumor of the Pagan ages, we cannot ascertain so much as this at least, That there was a kind of fact at the heart of them; that they too were not mendacious and distracted, but in their own poor way true and sane!

You remember that fancy of Plato's, of a man who had grown to maturity in some dark distance, and was brought on a sudden into the upper air to see the sun rise. What would his wonder be, his rapt astonishment at the sight we daily witness with indifference! With the free open sense of a child, yet with the ripe faculty of a man, his whole heart would be kindled by that sight, he would discern it well to be Godlike, his soul would fall down in worship before it. Now, just such a childlike greatness was in the primitive nations. The first Pagan Thinker among rude men, the first man that began to think, was precisely this child-man of Plato's. Simple, open as a child, yet with the depth and strength of a man. Nature had as yet no name to him; he had not yet united under a name the infinite variety of sights, sounds, shapes and motions, which we now collectively name Universe, Nature, or the like,--and so with a name dismiss it from us. To the wild deep-hearted man all was yet new, not veiled under names or formulas; it stood naked, flashing in on him there, beautiful, awful, unspeakable. Nature was to this man, what to the Thinker and Prophet it forever is, preternatural. This green flowery rock-built earth, the trees, the mountains, rivers, many-sounding seas;--that great deep sea of azure that swims overhead; the winds sweeping through it; the black cloud fashioning itself together, now pouring out fire, now hail and rain; what _is_ it? Ay, what? At bottom we do not yet know; we can never know at all. It is not by our superior insight that we escape the difficulty; it is by our superior levity, our inattention, our _want_ of insight. It is by _not_ thinking that we cease to wonder at it. Hardened round us, encasing wholly every notion we form, is a wrappage of traditions, hearsays, mere _words_. We call that fire of the black thunder-cloud "electricity," and lecture learnedly about it, and grind the like of it out of glass and silk: but _what_ is it? What made it? Whence comes it?

Whither goes it? Science has done much for us; but it is a poor science that would hide from us the great deep sacred infinitude of Nescience, whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as a mere superficial film. This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, _magical_ and more, to whosoever will _think_ of it.

That great mystery of TIME, were there no other; the illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean-tide, on which we and all the Universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are _not_: this is forever very literally a miracle; a thing to strike us dumb,--for we have no word to speak about it. This Universe, ah me--what could the wild man know of it; what can we yet know? That it is a Force, and thousand-fold Complexity of Forces; a Force which is _not_ we. That is all; it is not we, it is altogether different from us. Force, Force, everywhere Force; we ourselves a mysterious Force in the centre of that. "There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has Force in it; how else could it rot?" Nay surely, to the Atheistic Thinker, if such a one were possible, it must be a miracle too, this huge illimitable whirlwind of Force, which envelops us here; never-resting whirlwind, high as Immensity, old as Eternity. What is it? God's Creation, the religious people answer; it is the Almighty God's!

同类推荐
  • 东山存稿

    东山存稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Thorn Birds

    The Thorn Birds

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 善谋下

    善谋下

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 唐易州龙兴观道德经碑文

    唐易州龙兴观道德经碑文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 华严融会一乘义章明宗记

    华严融会一乘义章明宗记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 矩阵游戏

    矩阵游戏

    柏拉图说:真正的世界只是存在于我们的想象中。大概我们每个人都有过这样的疑问:或许这个世界是为我设计的;或许所有的一切在我所不能感知的时候都不曾存在;或许有一天我会“醒来”。也许世界无穷嵌套,也许真实无法触及。我思故我在,但谁知道呢?也许世俗的幸福,正是来自无知——然而,正是因为是不确定的未知,所以才能够有着如此的魅力。这是一个科学交汇传说,幻想变成现实的故事……大概。
  • 可以摇晃的躺椅(中国好小说)

    可以摇晃的躺椅(中国好小说)

    本书的主人公是一个独守的老人,老伴因病去世多年,养女也下岗离婚独自去城里打工,他觉得自己的人生来日无多,没有了生活的热情,于是他每天养花写字,消磨时光。突然有一天一个女子闯入了他的生活,是否会让他重燃生活的希望?
  • 快穿之佛系少女流浪记

    快穿之佛系少女流浪记

    作为一个佛系少女,生活过的有滋有味,可是,因为一不心踩空,掉进了一个洞,她觉的是无底洞,毕竟头上的洞口翻了数次晨昏,江木只能表示:-.-再后来,江木在这里渡过了一生!全剧终!哈哈,怎么会呢。欲知后事,请看正文!嘻嘻!~_~
  • 国朝宋学渊源记

    国朝宋学渊源记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 蹴罢秋千

    蹴罢秋千

    她,刚刚毕业进入公司上班的小职员一枚。细细数着天数,只等第二天发工资的时候,车祸穿越了。看着漫天的黄沙,破旧的衣裳,遍体鳞伤的身体,短小的四肢,欲哭无泪。装死装傻只为求得一席生存之地。他,杜府大少爷,天子骄子,见证杜府被族人亲戚瓜分衰败,弟弟妹妹更是寄宿他人篱下。舍弃一切,努力打拼,只为可以为弟弟妹妹撑起一片天。情景一:好不容易被人收留,正打算歇一口气的时候,怎么是他?这不是之前那个求收留失败,反倒被发现的某男吗,怎么他会在这里。好啊,不仅敢欺骗他,竟然还欺骗他弟弟妹妹,现在更是住进了自己府上。绝对不能这么放过她。情景二:“清莲,你这个月的工钱已经被扣完了。”管事翻开账簿,一项一项跟她分析。林清莲怒了,一个月下来竟然一文钱的收入也没有。不行,她得赶紧赎身出去赚大钱去。拿着钱袋,将里面的钱数了有数,还是不够。“咯咯咯咯。”院子传出一阵鸡叫。“怎么会有鸡的?”“今天刚从集市上买回来的,留着过年的。”“今天晚上就吃火爆鸡块。”“这个,大少爷——”“他说不能吃吗?”“没有。”“那不就得了,今天晚上就吃这个。”反正再节约,他也不会多给她一个铜板。干脆直接吃了,索性把那些被扣的钱给吃回来。
  • 虎穴龙潭

    虎穴龙潭

    她为了寻回属于自己的东西,而深入财团内部,竟遇见了杀人不眨眼的魔头,开始了她身不由己的寻物之旅。上一辈的恩怨纠缠着他们的命运,到底是跟他一起沉沦,还是刮骨疗伤回到亲人的身边?她该何去何从?
  • 乾坤布劫

    乾坤布劫

    大荒世界,自上古至今衍化生灵无数,期间百族林立,仙宗门派,十万皇朝并立而起,神州大地,海外仙岛,天外仙境,无不是追古之大道之士,无谓正邪,只为埋藏在心中的那枚大道种子绽放。
  • 乔布斯给年轻人的30个忠告

    乔布斯给年轻人的30个忠告

    乔布斯,一个用苹果魔咒撬动地球的商界奇才,凭敏锐的触觉和过人的智慧,勇于变革,不断创新,颠覆了一个行业,并引领全球资讯科技和电子产品的潮流,他把电子产品变得简约化、平民化,让曾经是昂贵稀罕的电子产品变为现代人生活的一部分。是什么让乔布斯成为了改变世界的天才呢?本书将谜底一一给你揭开,于此同时还深度剖析了乔布斯式的智慧精髓和人生哲学,相信我们年轻人从中会受到启发,找到完美人生的途径。
  • 废柴逆天:权谋王妃

    废柴逆天:权谋王妃

    文琪遇到一个坑比系统,穿越成废柴。爹不疼,娘已故,后娘把她当眼中钉、肉中刺,恨不得拔之而后快。没事儿!不就是废柴逆袭么,王爷来相助,皇上来帮忙,翻出这个围墙,姐就要天翻地覆!感谢阅文官方书评团提供书评支持
  • 玉皇下凡间

    玉皇下凡间

    本是草根一书生,万中无一好运行。替天行道除妖魔,还我凡间皆太平!不一样的玄幻,不一样的精彩表现,不一样的另类发展,不一样的……屌丝,宅男,苦逼,只想说,越努力越幸运!