Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER II.

THE LAW OF REFLEXION.

T the outset of this chapter I may remark, that although Religion depends on the same laws of evidence as our ordinary beliefs, it nevertheless differs from these beliefs in having as its subject-matter the Cause or causes of the phenomena of the world, and not the phenomena themselves. It is necessary, therefore, to make special and separate enquiry into the laws of the mind on which it is constructed; as when these are once discovered, we shall the more readily perceive its effects on that great end of all civilization-the elevation and expansion of the individual mind. If then, we consider Religion in general, i.e., those cardinal features common to all religions, we shall find that the laws on which it is constructed may all be included under two great principles :—

1. That by the nature of our intelligence, we are bound to represent the Cause of things in terms of ourselves, i.e., of our knowledge and culture, our social and moral ideals, and habits of thought.

2. That the Human Mind, like the World, is a balance of polar forces, and must get itself harmonised on

penalty of disruption.

A glance over the history of the world will discover to us that religions differ from each other in three great and important aspects; in the number of the gods, as seen in the passage of religions through the successive stages of Animism, Fetischism, Polytheism, and Monotheism; in the character of the gods, as seen in the gradual change from the bloody and revengeful gods of the savage, to the gods of Greek and Roman Polytheism, with their mingled virtues and vices, onwards to the Christian Deity, infinite in power, holiness, goodness, and

truth; and lastly in the relation in which men stand to their gods, as seen in the different schemes of salvation' abroad in the world, with their variety of duties, rites, and ceremonies, their rewards and punishments, present and prospective. Now it is the first and second of these great cardinal features of all religions, viz., the number and character of the gods, that depend upon the first law above enunciated-the law, viz., that men must construct their idea of the Cause of things in terms of their existing knowledge, culture, and habit of thought.

In an earlier chapter I have already shown that the number of the gods-as seen in the passage of religions through the Fetischistic, Polytheistic, and Monotheistic stages of thoughtdepends on the law that, when the natural causes of phenomena are unknown, events are attributed to the agency of wills like our own, and, consequently, that, as these phenomena become more and more reduced under the dominion of natural forces, fewer and fewer deities are necessary to account for them. And as this law is merely the intellectual side of the more general law-that we must represent the Cause of things in terms of ourselves-I shall not dwell on it any further here, but shall pass on to show that the character of the gods is the product and reflection of men's knowledge, culture, and habits of thought.

If in imagination, we picture the world as it lay around the primitive savage-a vast chaos of unknown powers and forces, in the midst of which he stood as a poor unprotected atom-it is evident that he must have regarded these powers as good or evil, according as they afforded him pleasure by ministering to his comforts and supplying his wants, or gave him pain by endangering his life and destroying his means of subsistence. And, assuming, what we know must have been the case, that he had little or no knowledge of the nature or laws of these phenomena, and that, in consequence, he was bound to refer them to the agency of wills like his own, what more natural and inevitable than that he should regard the

tempest and lightning that scathed him, the floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes that overwhelmed him, and the relentless sea that devoured him, as under the immediate control of evil and malicious deities; while the genial sun that warmed and comforted him, the earth that clothed and fed him, the fountain that cooled and refreshed him, should be presided over by friendly and beneficent powers? But, as knowledge advanced, and these phenomena were found to be due to the action of natural forces dependent on natural laws, not only did those deities that formerly exercised control over the various powers of Nature die away, as was seen at the break-up of Paganism, but the pressure of man's wants, which first urged him to investigate the properties of natural objects, urged him still further to apply the knowledge so gained to the arts of life, and thereby enabled him, in time, to control the hostile elements, and to convert what were formerly the instruments of evil to himself into the instruments of good. Not only did he make defences for himself against each of those powers of Nature that were hostile to him-as houses to shield him from the tempest, dykes from the floods, and ships from the raging waters-but, by the knowledge he had gained of the natures of things, he was enabled to turn these powers to his good. He made use of the earth to grow him corn, of the sea to transport it, of wind and water to grind it, and of fire to cook it. With the hostile powers of Nature thus tamed and subdued to his will, and devoted to his use and benefit, it was henceforth impossible for him to believe that they were either evil in themselves, or presided over by evil deities. The result was, that with no need of deities to explain what natural laws were sufficient to account for, and with no reason for believing those powers to be evil which he had made the ministers of good, nothing was left but for the old systems of Paganism to passaway, and a new religion to arise, in which the powers of Natureshould be represented as all working together for the good of man, and which should have for object of worship One God

the parent of all good, the provider of all natural bounties; the Devil alone being still retained as necessary to account for those evils which have resulted from human nature itself, and which the civilization and culture of centuries have not yet been able to eliminate. The old systems of Paganism seem absurd to us now, and yet how natural it was for the savage to believe that those elements which harmed him, and which he was unable to control, were the workings of malicious powers, may be realised by ourselves whenever we lose control over the forces of Nature, and find ourselves for the time being at their mercy. As we ride in safety, for example, over the bosom of the deep, how patronizingly we regard it as a mere bulk of water; but let an accident precipitate us into the devouring element, unable to swim, and some of my readers may remember with what terrible vividness they then realised, for the first time, that it was a living demon, relentless and implacable.

In so far, then, as the gods of the various religions were personifications, as it were, of the powers of Nature, their characters corresponded to the civilization and stage of thought of the people by whom they were worshipped. But there are other objects of human thought besides the phenomena of Nature; there is also the nature of Man, and the changes through which he has passed in knowledge, culture, and modes of life. And if, in the early religions, some deities were personifications of the powers of Nature, others, again, reflected the mental and moral lineaments of the people themselves. The former, as representing the larger and more general operations of Nature, became the greater gods-the Dii majores-and among many savage tribes are so still; the latter as representing the special concerns of human beings, became the lesser gods— the gods of the tribe, the lares and penates, and the like. But it was not long before the operations of the great powers of Nature were found to be due to natural forces which obeyed natural laws. The result was, that the Dii majores of Paganism disappeared, and one of the tribal gods, as the Jehovah of the

Jews, was elevated to the supreme direction of the world of Nature, as well as of Man. And, further, while the Naturegods, who were the reflection of forces that were good or evil in general, were represented as endowed with the moral qualities of good or evil in general; the tribal-gods, who were the reflections of human life, were endowed, not merely with the general moral qualities of good or evil, but with the special forms this good or evil assumed among the tribes and peoples themselves. In that worship of ancestral spirits, for example, which is not only the most primitive form of existing religion, but is, perhaps, the earliest form of all religion, the gods are in every way the express image of the chiefs of the tribe, not only morally, but physically also. Being the spirits of these departed chiefs, they have not only the same occupations and tastes, inclinations and aversions, as the living chiefs, but are propitiated by the same offerings-offerings, too, of the most gross and material kind, as food to eat, scalps and trophies taken from conquered tribes, weapons with which to fight the enemy in the land of spirits. In every respect they have the same bloody and revengeful natures as the people themselves by whom they are worshipped; their rewards and punishments are of the same character, and are distributed in the same way, and for the same kinds of conduct and action. In this stage of culture, it may be remarked, there is every probability that the Nature-gods as some have supposed, were figured in the popular imagination as the spirits of departed chiefs, friendly or hostile. As Civilization and Knowledge continued to advance, and the gods of the tribe became farther removed in time and distance, they cease to be quite palpable and material, and become more grey and indistinct in outline, dwelling far away in dim remoteness; nevertheless, they still continue to reflect the virtues and vices of the great mass of the people who own their sway. In the Iliad, the gods have precisely the same qualities, idealised and expanded, as the Greek and Trojan heroes; the same physical strength, intellect, courage, passion, cunning, and revenge; and,

« PreviousContinue »