lecture02-第6部分
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extremer type。 In our future examples; even of the simplest and
healthiest…minded type of religious consciousness; we shall find
this complex sacrificial constitution; in which a higher
happiness holds a lower unhappiness in check。 In the Louvre
there is a picture; by Guido Reni; of St。 Michael with his foot
on Satan's neck。 The richness of the picture is in large part
due to the fiend's figure being there。 The richness of its
allegorical meaning also is due to his being therethat is; the
world is all the richer for having a devil in it; SO LONG AS WE
KEEP OUR FOOT UPON HIS NECK。 In the religious consciousness;
that is just the position in which the fiend; the negative or
tragic principle; is found; and for that very reason the
religious consciousness is so rich from the emotional point of
view。'20' We shall see how in certain men and women it takes on
a monstrously ascetic form。 There are saints who have literally
fed on the negative principle; on humiliation and privation; and
the thought of suffering and deaththeir souls growing in
happiness just in proportion as their outward state grew more
intolerable。 No other emotion than religious emotion can bring a
man to this peculiar pass。 And it is for that reason that when
we ask our question about the value of religion for human life; I
think we ought to look for the answer among these violenter
examples rather than among those of a more moderate hue。
'20' I owe this allegorical illustration to my lamented colleague
and Friend; Charles Carroll Everett。
Having the phenomenon of our study in its acutest possible form
to start with; we can shade down as much as we please later。 And
if in these cases; repulsive as they are to our ordinary worldly
way of judging; we find ourselves compelled to acknowledge
religion's value and treat it with respect; it will have proved
in some way its value for life at large。 By subtracting and
toning down extravagances we may thereupon proceed to trace the
boundaries of its legitimate sway。
To be sure; it makes our task difficult to have to deal so muck
with eccentricities and extremes。 〃How CAN religion on the whole
be the most important of all human functions;〃 you may ask; 〃if
every several manifestation of it in turn have to be corrected
and sobered down and pruned away?〃
Such a thesis seems a paradox impossible to sustain
reasonablyyet I believe that something like it will have to be
our final contention。 That personal attitude which the
individual finds himself impelled to take up towards what he
apprehends to be the divineand you will remember that this was
our definitionwill prove to be both a helpless and a
sacrificial attitude。 That is; we shall have to confess to at
least some amount of dependence on sheer mercy; and to practice
some amount of renunciation; great or small; to save our souls
alive。 The constitution of the world we live in requires it:
〃Entbehren sollst du! sollst entbehren!
Das ist der ewige Gesang
Der jedem an die Ohren klingt;
Den; unser ganzes Leben lang
Uns heiser jede Stunde singt。〃
For when all is said and done; we are in the end absolutely
dependent on the universe; and into sacrifices and surrenders of
some sort; deliberately looked at and accepted; we are drawn and
pressed as into our only permanent positions of repose。 Now in
those states of mind which fall short of religion; the surrender
is submitted to as an imposition of necessity; and the sacrifice
is undergone at the very best without complaint。 In the
religious life; on the contrary; surrender and sacrifice are
positively espoused: even unnecessary givings…up are added in
order that the happiness may increase。 Religion thus makes easy
and felicitous what in any case is necessary; and if it be the
only agency that can accomplish this result; its vital importance
as a human faculty stands vindicated beyond dispute。 It becomes
an essential organ of our life; performing a function which no
other portion of our nature can so successfully fulfill。 From
the merely biological point of view; so to call it; this is a
conclusion to which; so far as I can now see; we shall inevitably
be led; and led moreover by following the purely empirical method
of demonstration which I sketched to you in the first lecture。
Of the farther office of religion as a metaphysical revelation I
will say nothing now。
But to foreshadow the terminus of one's investigations is one
thing; and to arrive there safely is another。 In the next
lecture; abandoning the extreme generalities which have engrossed
us hitherto; I propose that we begin our actual journey by
addressing ourselves directly to the concrete facts。