登陆注册
5237300000133

第133章 Lectures XI, XII, and XIII(5)

[151] Professor Starbuck expresses the radical destruction of old influences physiologically, as a cutting off of the connection between higher and lower cerebral centres. "This condition," he says, "in which the association-centres connected with the spiritual life are cut off from the lower, is often reflected in the way correspondents describe their experiences. . . . For example: 'Temptations from without still assail me, but there is nothing WITHIN to respond to them.' The ego [here] is wholly identified with the higher centres whose quality of feeling is that of withinness. Another of the respondents says: 'Since then, although Satan tempts me, there is as it were a wall of brass around me, so that his darts cannot touch me.'"

--Unquestionably, functional exclusions of this sort must occur in the cerebral organ. But on the side accessible to introspection, their causal condition is nothing but the degree of spiritual excitement, getting at last so high and strong as to be sovereign, and it must be frankly confessed that we do not know just why or how such sovereignty comes about in one person and not in another. We can only give our imagination a certain delusive help by mechanical analogies.

If we should conceive, for example, that the human mind, with its different possibilities of equilibrium, might be like a many-sided solid with different surfaces on which it could lie flat, we might liken mental revolutions to the spatial revolutions of such a body. As it is pried up, say by a lever, from a position in which it lies on surface A, for instance, it will linger for a time unstably halfway up, and if the lever cease to urge it, it will tumble back or "relapse" under the continued pull of gravity. But if at last it rotate far enough for its centre of gravity to pass beyond surface A altogether, the body will fall over, on surface B, say, and abide there permanently. The pulls of gravity towards A have vanished, and may now be disregarded. The polyhedron has become immune against farther attraction from their direction.

In this figure of speech the lever may correspond to the emotional influences making for a new life, and the initial pull of gravity to the ancient drawbacks and inhibitions. So long as the emotional influence fails to reach a certain pitch of efficacy, the changes it produces are unstable, and the man relapses into his original attitude. But when a certain intensity is attained by the new emotion, a critical point is passed, and there then ensues an irreversible revolution, equivalent to the production of a new nature.

The collective name for the ripe fruits of religion in a character is Saintliness.[152] The saintly character is the character for which spiritual emotions are the habitual centre of the personal energy; and there is a certain composite photograph of universal saintliness, the same in all religions, of which the features can easily be traced.[153]

[152] I use this word in spite of a certain flavor of "sanctimoniousness" which sometimes clings to it, because no other word suggests as well the exact combination of affections which the text goes on to describe.

[153] "It will be found," says Dr. W. R. Inge (in his lectures on Christian Mysticism, London, 1899, p. 326), "that men of preeminent saintliness agree very closely in what they tell us.

They tell us that they have arrived at an unshakable conviction, not based on inference but on immediate experience, that God is a spirit with whom the human spirit can hold intercourse; that in him meet all that they can imagine of goodness, truth, and beauty; that they can see his footprints everywhere in nature, and feel his presence within them as the very life of their life, so that in proportion as they come to themselves they come to him. They tell us what separates us from him and from happiness is, first, self-seeking in all its forms; and secondly, sensuality in all its forms; that these are the ways of darkness and death, which hide from us the face of God; while the path of the just is like a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

They are these:--

1. A feeling of being in a wider life than that of this world's selfish little interests; and a conviction, not merely intellectual, but as it were sensible, of the existence of an Ideal Power. In Christian saintliness this power is always personified as God; but abstract moral ideals, civic or patriotic utopias, or inner versions of holiness or right may also be felt as the true lords and enlargers of our life, in ways which I described in the lecture on the Reality of the Unseen.[154]

[154] The "enthusiasm of humanity" may lead to a life which coalesces in many respects with that of Christian saintliness.

Take the following rules proposed to members of the Union pour l'Action morale, in the Bulletin de l'Union, April 1-15, 1894.

See, also, Revue Bleue, August 13, 1892.

同类推荐
  • Myths and Legends of the Sioux

    Myths and Legends of the Sioux

    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。
  • 朝鲜赋

    朝鲜赋

    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。
  • 太清元道真经

    太清元道真经

    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。
  • 舍利忏法

    舍利忏法

    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。
  • 审分览

    审分览

    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
  • 理智与情感

    理智与情感

    《理智与情感》是简·奥斯丁富于幽默情趣的处女作。埃诺莉和玛丽安娜两姐妹生在一个英国乡绅家庭,姐姐善于用理智来控制情感,妹妹的情感却毫无节制,因此面对爱情时,她们做出了不同的反映……小说以这两位女主角曲折复杂的婚事风波为主线,通过“理智与情感”的幽默对比,提出了道德与行为的规范问题。本书和作者的《傲慢与偏见》堪称姐妹篇,同样以细腻的笔触和生动的对白叙述没有富裕嫁妆的少女恋爱结婚的故事。
  • 异界霸主

    异界霸主

    凡灵帅王圣尊宗皇佛仙魔神十二个级别的炼兵传奇……看穿越而来的猪脚怎样在这个异界掀起一番炼兵狂潮……本书群:95715260感兴趣的朋友请加入~~
  • 察舌辨症新法

    察舌辨症新法

    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。
  • 神秘:总裁一撞钟情(大结局)

    神秘:总裁一撞钟情(大结局)

    她,一名普通的海上救生员。他,跨国公司年轻总裁,未及三十岁,已经身价数百亿。两个貌似不搭界、人生轨迹绝无交集的人,却因为一次人为意外相遇。她一个没站稳,跌落在他怀里。她只当他是被众多女人宠出来的,自以为是的大男子主义型男;他却因为她颈上滑落的那条项链,想起一个温婉、清秀的女子,那枚独特的贝壳型吊坠,虽然不及钻石珠宝名贵,他却珍藏了二十几年。而怀中的这个女人,脖子上却吊着个一模一样的吊坠,难道她……
  • 何宦无妻

    何宦无妻

    傅明娴无比纠结的看着那人群中众星捧月的大奸臣。样貌堂堂,身材凛凛,位高权重,一表人才……可惜为什么要是督主呢呢呢……— 霸气型简介:大太监何宦无妻!!!— 某浪:周自衡
  • 我的盗墓故事

    我的盗墓故事

    据相传古有一六指棺,其设计精妙绝伦,传说只有六根手指的人才能打开,棺内埋藏着一个惊世的秘密。而我不知为何生来右手便有六根手指,在一次偶然得机会中,拜了一位师傅习得了其六指绝技“太昆指”。原本只是为了赚钱才走上盗墓,却不想趟入这浑水之后,再也没用解脱,一切都好像是命中注定。古代将魂的诅咒,巨人文明的消失,盗墓家族的秘密,一切的一切在背后究竟隐藏着什么?
  • 景物写作指导与好词好句好段(上)

    景物写作指导与好词好句好段(上)

    景物描写,是对自然环境和社会环境中的风景、物体的描写。景物描写主要是为了显示人物活动的环境,使读者身临其境。景物写作的训练有助于提升对事务的洞察力,使人能更有心的留意生活方方面面的细节。
  • 八零神医小媳妇

    八零神医小媳妇

    新文已发《贵女重生:侯府下堂妻》上辈子母亲再嫁,她成了小白菜,妹妹吃肉,她喝汤,妹妹吃面,她喝水,妹妹是公主,她是垃圾,她被那对母女算计了整个人生,她的家,她的丈夫,也是窝囊了一辈子。而后一场车祸,让她变的血肉模糊,她对他说,我的钱都给我父亲,我的肾给你,因为你是一个好人。三十三岁,她死于一场车祸,她将她的肾给了一个好人。三岁时,她重生了,这一世,面对算计,她迎面而对,什么妹妹,她连亲妈都是没有,哪里来的妹妹,而这一生,不知道,她会不会再是遇到了那个好人……
  • 神劫

    神劫

    在众神山顶,有一座金碧辉煌的大殿,名‘众神殿’。在大殿之中,坐着两排被众生称为神灵的人物,正中央便是诸神之王,其中男的俊俏潇洒,女的绝色妖娆。
  • 笔著华夏:郦道元

    笔著华夏:郦道元

    《中国古代科技史话:笔著华夏郦道元》在深入挖掘和整理中华优秀传统文化成果的同时,结合社会发展,注入了时代精神。