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Another splendid relique of this artist consists of a large miniature of the crucifixion, executed for Gregory XIII.; it was brought from the Vatican during the campaigns in Italy, in the time of the French Revolution, by the Abbé Celotti. He was called the Michael Angelo of painters, and died in 1578, at the advanced age of eighty. His last days were spent in peace, as Vasari tells us "he does not study or do anything, but seek the salvation of his soul by good works, and a life spent wholly apart from mundane affairs."GodefroyandDutilletwere two distinguished French illuminators of the sixteenth century, andJohan Banzelof Ulm, is the one with whom Vasari concludes his anecdotes of painting. This list is scanty enough, and there can be no doubt that hundreds of names have sunk in the oblivion of the times; devotees to this beautiful art, and victims to the negligence with which the art-historians of the times treated their labors; they slumber in their unknown graves, but their works exist to the admiration and speculation of modern times. We have given a very cursory and rapid review of the rise and development of this most beautiful art; the most beautiful thing that mediaeval Christianity has bequeathed to us. We have endeavored also to give a few names of such of our countrymen who excelled in its exercise, and it only remains to say a few words upon its use, as a work of refined piety, before we proceed to glean a few historical lessons as to the doctrinal development of the church, to be drawn from these art expressions of different periods, for there is nothing upon which a nation or a community stamps the characteristics of its individuality more clearly than upon its art.
These illuminations have a great historical value, as evidences of the life of the times. Were it not for them the past as a life would be lost to us. We should be almost ignorant of the modes and manners of existence of our ancestors. We might have descriptive representations of the deeds they did, but their customs, their habits, their amusements, and their interior existence would have been lost to us forever. It is that which enables us to put as it were a soul into history, to revive a past life in our minds, to resuscitate it, and make it live again before us; all this, but for the preservation of illuminated MSS., would have been irretrievably lost. It is from them alone we can see the customs of the domestic life of our ancestors, their habits at home, at table, in the field, in society, for those pictures, though executed to represent a life of Eastern and Biblical incident, have this peculiarity about them, that the paraphernalia of the scenes are in keeping with the times of their execution; so that unconsciously these monks, when decorating their psalters and their missals, have handed down to us the very best illustration of the written history of their times. [Footnote 84]
[Footnote 84: I know of no better evidence of the value of these MSS. than the excellent and valuable work compiled by Mr. Thomas Wright, a great authority on Saxon antiquities, called The Domestic Manners and Sentiments of the Middle Ages in England. The work is compiled principally from these sources, the illustrations are copied from ancient MSS., and it contains a repertoire of nearly all that can be gleaned from them, forming a picture of the life of Saxons, Normans, and early English, as it was sketched by themselves—a most valuable work, both for the historian and general reader.]
We have hitherto reviewed this labor as a work of art, but we must not forget its higher and nobler motive. Art may be kindled by the fire of ambition or the love of gain, but the motive which inspired the monastic illuminator was a far higher one. Whatever we may think of what we sometimes call the folly of spending years in illustrating a gospel or a psalter, we must be driven to the conclusion that as these monks were situated, it was a work of devotion. No other feeling could prompt them to give their lives to such a labor, because it was labor unrequited. In our times, or in fact in all times, men will accomplish marvels for money, but these men were paid nothing for their labor, not even the flattery of admiration. In the{314}early periods of the art, it is true that in one or two cases an illuminator was made an abbot or a bishop, but those cases were so exceptional that scarcely half a dozen instances could be found in history of such honor being conferred upon an obscure monastic artist. The works over which they spent their long days and longer nights were sent into the church for use; gems of art they were, but exhibited to no public admiration, to no applauding critics; there they lay hidden in monastic libraries, in church vestries, in convent chests, to moulder in obscurity for the amusement and commercial speculation of an after age, when the life they embellished had died out in the world, and it should become impossible to ascertain the names of the men whose busy fingers were plied with such magic skill. Nothing but devotion could have prompted such labor as that, and how are we to say that in the eyes of the Almighty the devotion which could spend years lovingly over the embellishment of a gospel, to illustrate it with the choicest productions of genius, and to offer up to it all that was beautiful and good in thought, fancy, and execution—how are we to say that such an offering may not have been, under the circumstances in which they were placed, as acceptable in the eyes of God as the limited devotion of modern life, with its mechanical modes, its periodical days of worship, amid long intervals of sin? The devotion of modern times may sometimes manifest itself in the erection of hospitals and churches, but we are not always sure that such deeds are free from the taint of ostentation of wealth or jealousy of hated heirs—to flaunt the one or to balk the others; but the devotion which found vent in missal-painting and copying the scriptures by hand in the dark ages must have been pure; for we cannot, even by the most prejudiced investigation, discover any sordid or ambitious motive for it. Where there is no payment we may rest assured that labor is a labor of love. The best proof of the fact is the difficulty to get people to illuminate missals now. It was an exquisitely beautiful art, and ought not to have died out so completely. Latterly however, in the church, to the scandal of vigilant Protestants, there has been a sort of attempt at a revival of mediaevalism; it has become the vogue to appeal to the fathers to sing mediaeval hymns, and to decorate the corners of prayer-books and the interiors of churches with mediaeval art; but it has proved to be more a revival of mediaeval forms than mediaeval devotions. It has also become fashionable to study illumination—an elegant amusement for an idle hour—and many have tried it as an art, but it has failed both as an art and a work; as an art, even in these days of art excellence, it has failed, and as a work, it has not been pursued with that avidity to bring success, because the modern stimulant is wanting—it pays not; it is lifeless, automaton-like, a dead body galvanized, missal-painting without devotion. [Footnote 85] But in our admiration of the genius and piety of these monastic artists we must not overlook one great fact, that this art is not only a representation of the interior life of the nation, a representation of its manners, customs, and modes of existence, but it is also a reflection of the state of the church at each successive period. Chroniclers may differ in their accounts, historians may quarrel with each other, but the history which a church rights in its art and literature, in it's sculpture, painting, and poetry, is traced, as it were, by the events themselves, and graven by the very fingers of time.
[Footnote 85: It must be borne in mind that the author of this paper is a Protestant, and we believe a minister of the Church of England. —Ed. C. W.]
We take up a manuscript supposed to be written about the year 900. [Footnote 86]
[Footnote 86: Cotton MSS.—Tiberius, A H. ]
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It is an evangeliarum. It contains a picture of St. Matthew, with his left hand resting upon a desk, and his right holding a pen. On the next page is the word "Liber," the beginning of the gospel written on a crimson ground in letters outlined in vermilion and gold; at page 72 there is a picture of St. Mark; all the evangelists are delineated, but no other figures. In a Psalter, [Footnote 87] written in the year 1000, the same simplicity prevails. It is written in capital letters, with an interlinear Anglo-Saxon version. The title-page contains the figure of Christ in the act of blessing, but the principal picture, which occupies a whole page, is a representation of David in his youth, playing on a lyre-shaped psalter, accompanied by six smaller figures, below which are two others dancing. In another Psalter [Footnote 88] of the same period there is a picture of the crucifixion, with Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the one side, and St. John the Baptist on the other. A Psalter of the year 1000, [Footnote 89] very fully illuminated, is a fine specimen of the purely Biblical nature of the illustrations of that period. The calendar at the beginning contains a representation of three persons at a table, and two kneeling attendants. On page 7 is a youthful Christ, holding a large scroll, upon which the word "vita" is written; also God the Father, as creator of the world, in the Mosaic type; the figure is hidden up to the face by a globe, and from the mouth issue two blue lines, representing streams of water, over one of which a dove hovers—one of the oldest specimens of this conception of the Almighty. Another representation, on the next page, is the figure of David tearing open the lion's jaws; then the temptation of our Saviour—the devil is represented as having a beaked nose and claws. On page 10 is the washing of the disciples' feet, with an angel descending from heaven with a cloth. Page 14, Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene. On page 18, the Last Judgment, in which Christ is most prominent, holding in one hand a horn, and in the other a cross; below him is the Book of Life open, and at his side are two large angels blowing trumpets. Page 30 contains David playing on the psalter; and on page 114 there is a large figure of Christ, holding in his left hand the Book of Life, in his right a sceptre, with which he is piercing the jaws of a lion beneath his feet, and a dragon at his side is biting the lion (see Psalm xci. 13).
[Footnote 87: Cotton MSS.—Vespasian, A i.][Footnote 88: Harleian MSS., 2904.][Footnote 89: Cotton MSS.—Tiberius, C vi.]
One of the most interesting specimens of the opening of the eleventh century (1006) is a manuscript called AElfric's heptateuch, in Anglo-Saxon. [Footnote 90] Its principal subjects of illumination are the fall of angels, the first person in the Trinity enthroned, Lucifer, the days of creation, the creation of Adam, the fail, and the expulsion from Paradise. But we wish to call attention to the close resemblance of the Saxon of that period to our modern English. We shall quote a passage from the Anglo-Saxon text, which might almost be translated by the same words in modern English. The passage is Genesis iv. 9, 10. The Saxon runs: "Tha cwoeth drihten to Caine, hwoer is Abel thin brothor? Tha answarode he and ewoeth, ic nat. Segat thu sceolde ic minne brothor healdon? Tha cwoeth drihten to Caine, hwoet dydest thu? thines brothor blod clypath up to me of eorthan." Which may be rendered in English by almost the same words, thus: "Then quoth the Lord to Cain, where is Abel thy brother? Then answered he and quoth, I know not Sayest thou should I hold my brother? Then quoth the Lord to Cain, What didst thou? thy brother's blood crieth up to me off the earth."
[Footnote 90: Cotton MSS.—Claudius, B iv.]
In the first half of the eleventh century, representations of the Virgin are multiplied in the MSS. of the period, though not yet as the predominant figure. In a Psalter of that date [Footnote 91] we have a representation of David in prayer; then Christ enthroned, with angels around him; below in a row are eleven heads; and below all, the Virgin and twelve Apostles in full-length figures.
[Footnote 91: Cotton MSS.—Galba, A xviii.]
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In the representation of the ascension, Christ is the main figure borne up by two angels, and below are two other angels and the Virgin with her hands raised in prayer. In a picture Bible [Footnote 92] of this period, she is again introduced.
[Footnote 92: Cotton MSS.—Nero, C iv.]
Page 8 contains a representation of the root of Jesse—below lies Abraham, then David, and next the Virgin, above all is Christ; but at page 20, we have the death of the Virgin, and the Virgin enthroned in heaven. In the thirteenth century MSS., we find the Virgin taking the most prominent position, and Christ represented as a child; saints, too, creep into the illuminations, more especially Thomas à Becket, whose murder appears to have been always diligently inserted by the monks in their MSS., as we shall see. In a Psalter [Footnote 93] of the year 1200, among many other pictures, is a burial of a saint in his episcopal mitre; and the anointing of David is followed a few pages after by the murder of Thomas à Becket.
[Footnote 93: Harleian MSS., 5102]
In Matthew Paris's History of the English nation (died 1259), there is a picture of the Virgin enthroned as the queen of heaven, with Christ as a little child; she is bending her crowned head, with her hair flowing down, toward the child, pressing her cheek against his, while with her right hand she gives him a fruit. In a Psalter [Footnote 94] of the same period we find the annunciation of the Virgin, the visitation of the Virgin, and the Virgin crowned, with Christ again as a little child.
[Footnote 94: Biblia Regia, 2 A xxii]
In a copy of the Vulgate [Footnote 95] the fourth page is full of pictures; there is the Virgin, with Christ as a child, St. Peter on one side, and St. Paul on the other; below is St. Martin, above the crucifixion, with the Virgin and St. John; above that are two cherubim and quite above all, in the position formerly accorded to Christ, is a representation of the coronation of the Virgin.
[Footnote 95: MSS. Regia, 1 D i.]
In the fragment of a lectionary [Footnote 96] executed for Lord Lovell by one John Siferwas, a Benedictine monk, there is on the title-page a portrait of Lord Lovell looking at a book, upon the cover of which is a picture of the coronation of the Virgin; on the inner border of page 3, there is the Virgin as the queen of heaven, holding the child with her robe in the left hand, and a sceptre in her right.
[Footnote 96: Harleian MSS., 7026]
After three or four more representations of her, we meet with the presentation of the Virgin; in the centre is the Virgin crowned by the first person of the Trinity, who is represented as having a long white beard; another with the Virgin and child upon the moon, surrounded with rays; on page 23, the Virgin surrounded by the pope, bishops, and others, and on page 27, the birth of the Virgin. The office of the Virgin was confirmed by Pope Urban II, at the Council of Clermont There are several of these offices extant. In an office of the Virgin and prayers [Footnote 97] of the date 1420, we find pictures of John the Baptist, St. James of Compostello enthroned, St. Thomas Aquinas, also enthroned, and St. Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata or wounds of Christ.
[Footnote 97: Bib. Regia 2 A xviii.]
On page 11, the Virgin and child seated on a bench with St. Anna; on page 13 St. Catherine, page 15 St. Margaret, and page 21 the annunciation. In another office of the Virgin, [Footnote 98] we find the evangelists, the annunciation and visitation of the Virgin, the murder of Thomas à Becket, St. Catherine, St. Margaret, the scourging of Christ, adoration of kings, and in the most prominent picture the coronation of the Virgin, in which she is represented as being supported by an angel while the Almighty is pointing with his right hand to a cherub who, accompanied by two angels is about to place the crown on her head.
[Footnote 98: Harleian MSS., 2900.]
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At the conclusion there is a picture of the Virgin on a throne with the child Christ. There are several offices of the Virgin in the Harleian collection, [Footnote 99] but we shall only notice one more, which bears date from 1490 to 1500. [Footnote 100]
[Footnote 99: Harleian MSS., 2646, 2884, 2858, etc.][Footnote 100: MSS. Addit., 17012.]
On pages 20 and 21 are autographs of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., which will justify the supposition that it belonged to both. Its illustrations include, among other things, the murder of Thomas à Becket, St. George and the Dragon, St. Christopher, the Virgin and child, with St. Anna, St. Catherine, St. Barbara, and St. Margaret. There is a religious poem, illustrated with miniatures, and bearing date from 1420 to 1430, [Footnote 101] which elaborately delineates the intercessorial attributed to the Virgin.
[Footnote 101: Cotton MSS.—Faustina, B vi.]
The picture in which this is set forth is a remarkable one. In the lower part of it is a man dying on a bed, at the foot of which stands death, in the usual form of a skeleton, making ready to pierce the heart of the dying man with a spear, and there is a black demon, with a hook reaching toward him; at the head of the bed is an angel receiving his soul, which is represented as a naked infant; about is the Virgin, with a crown upon her head, baring her bosom to Christ, and imploring him, by the breasts which nourished him, to take pity upon the soul of the dying man. They are both kneeling before the Almighty, and Christ is represented in a red mantle as showing his wounds, in token of granting his mother's request. The Almighty is represented as seated upon a throne, robed in a blue mantle, and having the usual long white beard; he is lifting his hand in benediction. An idea was set on foot that the Virgin had fainted at the crucifixion; and in some of these later manuscripts she is represented in the act. In a Psalter [Footnote 102] Page 256, there is a picture of the crucifixion, with the Virgin in the act of fainting.
[Footnote 102: MSS. Regia, 2 B vii.]
Mrs. Jamieson in noticing this fact in her History of Our Lord as exemplified in Art, has remarked that it was condemned by Catholic writers themselves. Thomas Cajetani wrote of it as "indecens et improbabile;" and other writers are quoted by Molanus, who inveighed against it, and stigmatized it as a thing "temerarium, scandalosum et periculosum."
But it was at the period of the Reformation, and after then, that these treasures of art suffered, and the natural iconoclasm of human nature broke out. Men gazed around them upon gorgeous temples, decorated with splendid paintings, stained glass windows, marvellous sculpture, and to their zealous minds it was all idolatry; and they tore down frescoes, destroyed paintings, overturned altars, broke up statues, and burned sacred books to exterminate error if possible, not by the powers of truthful preaching and godly lives, but by the battle-axe and the bonfire; not by uprooting error itself, so much as by beating down and destroying its mere evidences.
It was in consequence of this iconoclasm that much of the art productions of Christianity has been lost to us; nay, much of literature and history also, for in the sack of a monastery little discrimination was used, save as to precious metals. We frequently read of valuable books and manuscripts being consigned to the flames, but the cups, chalices, the contents of the coffers, invariably found their way to the treasury. We must always remember this, that human nature was not wholly confined to Roman Catholics, but that there was a considerable amount of it among the Reformers. Still, in spite of iconoclasm, in spite of misguided zeal, sufficient has escaped destruction, and been preserved to our inspection, to convince us of the beauty of those arts which sprang up in the wake of Christianity, though they did ultimately become tainted with human error. And we may see in all this{318}painting and sculpture, poetry and music, the marvellous adaptability of Christianity as a regenerator and stimulant, how it takes up what is good in the world—genius, skill, love, devotion, and starts them into new channels, with increased vigor and nobler aim. It took up philosophy, purged it of its errors, and of philosophers made fathers; it took up science, and bid it labor to alleviate human suffering, and assuage the physical condition of humanity; it took up art, and not only embellished it, but gave it an inexhaustible realm of subjects—a realm in which it has been laboring ever since, and though improving advancing in each age, will never exhaust its treasures; it has been, as it's Founder declared it should be, the salt of the earth; it has rescued the world in moments of darkness and danger, aroused it from apathy and indifference, purged it, stimulated it, sent it on in the right way, and brought it back again when it had peevishly wandered; and not the least evidence of its purifying, elevating effects upon the fine arts is this, which we have been endeavoring to describe in the rise and development of missal painting, that beauty of cloistered: holiness.
"My beloved is the mountains,The solitary wooded valleys."—St. John of the Cross.I.Mountains, that upward to the clouds arise,Odorous with thyme, whereon the wild bees linger,Jewell'd with flowers of a thousand dyes.Their petals tinted by no mortal finger;How solemn in their gray-worn age they stand,Hills piled on hills in silent majesty!Lofty and strong, and beautiful and grand:All this and more is my belov'd to me.II.Come forth into the woods,—in yonder valley.Where rippling waters murmur through the glade;There, 'neath the rustling boughs of some green alley,We'll watch the golden light and quivering shade:Or couch'd on mossy banks we'll lie and listenTo song-birds pouring forth their vernal glee.Wave on, ye woods; ye faery fountains, glisten:But more, far more is my beloved to me.{319}III.Know ye the land where fragrant winds awakenIn spicy forests hidden from the eye:Where richest perfumes from the boughs are shaken,And flowers unnotic'd bloom and blush and die?Sweet is th' eternal spring that there reposesOn wondrous isles that gem the sunny sea,And sweet the gales that breathe o'er beds of roses:But sweeter far is my belov'd to me.IV.The roaring torrents from the ice-cliffs leaping—I see them foaming down the mountain side,Through the green dells and valleys onward sweeping,They fill the hollows with their mighty tide:Their voice is as the voice of many waters;Onward they rush, exulting to be free;But ah! their thunder fails, their music falters:Far more than this is my belov'd to me.V.A gentler sound wakes in the hush of even.The whisper of a light and cooling breeze;It stirs when twilight shades are in the heaven,'And bows the tufted foliage of the trees;It fans my cheek; its music softly stealingSpeaks to my heart in loving mystery.Ah, gentle breeze! full well thou art revealingThe joy that my beloved is to me.VI.Night comes at last, in mystic shadows foldingThe nodding forest and the verdant lawn,Till the day breaks, and Nature starts, beholdingThe golden chariot of the coming dawn:Then on each bough the feathered chanters, waking,Pour forth their music over bush and tree.Cease, cease your songs, ye birds; my heart-strings breakingLack words to say what Jesus is to me.VII.Yea, all the fairest forms that Nature scatters.And all melodious sounds that greet the ear;The murmuring music of the running waters.The golden harvest-fields that crown the year,The crimson morn, the calm and dewy even,The tranquil moonlight on the slumbering' sea,—All are but shadows, forms of beauty givenTo tell what my beloved is to me.
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But we must return to Cambridge. Eugene made inquiries respecting his late visitor, M. Bertolot, and finding that he taught his own language as a means of subsistence, he applied to him for instruction, not indeed to learn the language, which he knew how to read already, but, as he said, for practice in speaking and so forth.
"I will come to you," said Eugene, "for lessons in your philosophy; you shall give them to me in French. I will write them down, you will correct the phraseology, and thus I shall improve in two departments at once."
"I will teach you French, if you desire it, my young friend," said M. Bertolot, "and by conversation, or any other mode you may desire; but to enter on moral or mental philosophy is quite another affair, and might lead to results unexpected on your part. I am not quite prepared to promise formal instructions on these subjects at this early stage of our acquaintance; my views might shock your preconceived ideas."
"Fear not for that," said Eugene, "my preconceived ideas, if ever they were definite, are now confused; that mind acts upon mind, irrespectively of matter, seems the only clear thought I have on the subject. Further than this all is blank. The mesmeric agencies of which we hear so much, and the appearances of spirits, in some instances well attested, seem to prove mental rinses to be direct; but what more do they prove? I have sometimes fancied that the nursery tales may be true, and that it is possible that angels of light and demons of darkness do exist, and that we are operated upon at times by spiritual agencies not detected by our senses."
"Some of the wisest of the earth, even among the pagans, have held this opinion," replied M. Bertolot, "and, as I told you in our first interview, the traditions of the fallen angels were handed down to the Jews, and dealings with any one of them prohibited. Sorcery and witchcraft were considered 'sins' in the Mosaic law, although the generation of the present day scouts such ideas as beneath the dignity of the human intellect, and ascribes every discovery in knowledge to the progress of human intelligence alone."
"Yet," said Eugene, "history might teach all students that the best-laid schemes have often been overset by apparently inadequate exterior causes. The pagan doctrine of the 'Fates,' which evidently exercised a vast influence over men's minds, must have originated from their perception of the fact, that human wisdom cannot absolutely dispose events; preordination or the counteracting influence of invisible agencies, has formed more or less an ingredient in every rational belief, ancient as well as modern. But does it follow from this that supernatural agencies are at work? may it not be a delusion in principle as well as in form; for that the form was erroneous in heathenism at least, I suppose we must acknowledge, since heathenism is exploded now.
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"I suspect," said M. Bertolot, "that instead of originating, as you have supposed, from human observation of facts, that the doctrine of the 'Fates' is but a corruption of the doctrine of divine providence handed down by primitive tradition. When paganism is considered at first sight, it seems strange to modern ideas, that we term it aninvention, or a growth, or material embodiment of our abstract deduction from reasoning on observation. But what if it were none of these things? What if it were simply a perversion of the primitive traditions? A materializing, so to speak, of spiritual doctrine? It has often been asserted that beneath the veil of all myths, positive knowledge might be discovered by a thinking soul. If this be true, as, to a certain extent, facts seem to warrant our acknowledgement, then in the latent truths that are supposed to be hid beneath the mystic words, we may faintly trace the ancient pristine traditions, defaced first by the material shape they wear, but more, much more, by their fixing the attention of the world on animalism and materialism, as the true ends of existence."
"I do not quite understand you," said Eugene.
"I will explain by reference to Bible history," said M. Bertolot. "Man's first sin of disobedience appears to have disturbed the relationship of his soul previously held with superior intelligences, nay, to have disordered his own organization, and to in the sway to inferior appetites rather than to the superior part of the soul, which primarily subjected these inferior appetites to its control. The primal order united the soul to God, and necessarily then all his faculties were equipoised and his passions held in subjection. That union destroyed, the passions rose, fierce and uncontrollable; first man having become a rebel, begot the second, who was a murderer through envy of his brother's spiritual superiority. Since then tradition says that only through violence done to the disordered passions, by humility and patience and long toil, can the pristine order be restored and the primal supremacy of soul regained. This is the office of true spirituality. Paganism also treats of good lost—and of well-being to be acquired through prayer to the immortal gods; but the good it supposes lost, is that of bodily gratification, or of power, or grandeur, and its gods are propitious only when they avert the sufferings which should discipline the soul and prepare it for the reception of the regenerative truth."
"Something of this," said Eugene, "I have heard Euphrasie say; but she would not explain her words, and they came to us like enigmas which we could not solve."
"The solution cannot be comprehended by all," said M. Bertolot; "a preparation of mind is necessary ere we can solve the enigmas of history; and melancholy, indeed, are the facts presented. Look at the first events. Piety, which is another word for the endeavor to seek reunion with God, was renewed in the race of Seth, and, through them the pristine traditions were preserved. But soon these sons of God looked on the daughters of men and saw that they were fair, and again spirituality was overpowered, and the race lost itself in sensuality, and was destroyed by the flood. To the eight who survived, of course, the traditions were known, and Noah, priest, patriarch, king of the new race, lived three hundred and fitly years after the flood, to bear a long testimony to their truth. But the perversity of the human inclination was too strong. Man's choice had been to know good and evil; evil could only be known by separation from God, and it would seem as if he were fated to have his choice gratified; it was inevitable at any rate, if he must know evil. Accordingly we find that even one hundred and thirty-three years before the death of Shem, who had witnessed the deluge, and who lived five hundred years after it, in order to perpetuate the memory of it in the minds of men, it was necessary to set apart Abraham, by special provision, to keep intact the spiritual{322}meaning of the traditions of true religion. Already had the creature again taken the first place in human affection, to the neglect of the Creator. Already impersonations of human passion had arisen and mixed themselves with the traditions they received from their fathers. These traditions they hid under the false imagery that stole into their hearts; but perverted and debased though they may be, they form the basis of whatever truth may be discoverable under the garb of my theology, and the peopling the world with invisibly acting spirits is one of these notions which the heathens did not invent, but only perverted."
"I think I see what you mean," said Eugene; "but tell me if your philosophy has discovered why man himself is such an enigma, such a compound of loftiness and meanness, so grand in idea and so poor in execution? Why is truth so difficult, seeing that it is so necessary to him?"
"Man is a fallen being," mournfully responded the mentor. "The divine spark once inbreathed, though dimmed and clouded, still prompts to high hopes and high deeds; but severed from God, he can effect nothing to satisfy himself. That reunion is in fact the sole aim and object of existence. None other can satisfy the inward yearning. How that reunion is to be accomplished revelation comes to tell us, for human philosophy was at fault, and the first step I have already pointed out is prayer."
"There are many religions," said Eugene, "and how is the true one to be known?"
"Nay, that question is beyond philosophy, and philosophy was to be the subject of our interviews. I will assist you in distinguishing the functions of the mental faculties, but at the present stage of the inquiry I will not forestall your conclusions. We have already seen that the nature of man is compounded, and that his physical nature is the inferior portion of that compound, his moral and spiritual nature the highest. Intellect is the servant of one or the other, according as to which is accorded the predominance, and it is because that predominance is so often given to the inferior part of our being that we must be so surely on our guard against an undue bias; not but that even our spiritual and moral qualities need also to be watched, for pride and egotism corrupt even these. In fact, man's life here is the only that of an exile consequent his being born, severed from truth, his true end of being, but the consequences of that severing causes his life to be one struggle to replace his faculties in their pristine equilibrium, and to accord to each its fitting office. As for instance, when giving to the spiritual that precedence which is due to it we must beware lest we employ it to any other purpose than the worship of 'The True.' There is a spurious spirituality as well as a spurious morality."
"But why do you distinguish morality from spirituality? Will not one term comprehend both?"
"Scarcely, since morality means the relationship of man to man: spirituality, his relationship to God. The law of God may and does regulate man's morals in those persons who acknowledge that law; but were man to live without God, as is too often the case, he must have laws to regulate his intercourse with his kind; that is the spiritual man necessarily acknowledge the moral law, but the moral man does not necessarily acknowledge the spiritual law."
"And what, then, is the sanction of the moral law?" asked Eugene.
"Apart from the spiritual law, it must be regulated by reason," returned his friend.
"But," said Eugene, "reason differs in different minds; nat, in different localities. Turkey sanctions what England condemns, and ancient Sparta taught her children to practice what all Europe would now punish them for doing."
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"Probably; but that only proves that there is no absolute certainty for man, when relying on his own unassisted light. Nevertheless, law does exists, and must exist, to keep society together, and to protect life and property. To be consistent, it should propose itself a definite purpose, and frame its rules to meet that purpose. As persons are not agreed on spiritual matters, and as life and property can be protected without their so agreeing, modern lawgivers incline to leave out of the question the higher law appertaining to the interior life, and to legislate purely on materialistic principles; provided they do not by legislation contravene that higher law or compromise its principles in any degree, no mischief can come of such a course; but, unfortunately, a neutral position is a difficult one to uphold. Unconsciously, as it were, man infringes the conditions sooner or later, and the anomaly of enforcing the worship of 'reason' at the point of the bayonet is enacted again and again?"
"And what part does reason take in religion?" asked Eugene.
"A most important one," said his friend, "since reason is a direct gift of God to man, and all natural gifts, when unperverted, have a direct co-relation to a spiritual gift. Man's nature is not changed by spiritual Grace, it is sanctified, purified, elevated, replaced in the position of grace in which Adam was created, or rather in the superadded grace of the redemption. Reason, consequently, must examine the evidences concerning the truth of facts presented to her—must demand by what authority they are assumed to be facts—must compare them with other facts—examine, prove, judge. But remember, reason does not create facts, and may not ignore them when proved, however contrary in the ordinary course of our experience. The Eastern despot caused the traveler to be strangled because he asserted that he had seen water in a solid form. So, many a man strangles the evidence of a fact, because he assumes the fact itself to be beyond belief."
"Can you give me any rules respecting the exercise of reason?" asked Eugene.
"Beware, in the first place, of confounding it with actual experience. Experience is, having personal evidence of fact, as true history is having our neighbor's evidence of the same. But the facts must be ascertained before we can reason upon them, otherwise we may draw conclusions from false premises. But in sifting evidence regarding facts, beware of rejecting any on the sole ground that they are not of ordinary occurrence, or of a class within the personal experience of yourself or your neighbor. Incredulity is as great a folly as credulity: let each question rest on its individual merits, and receive the investigation due to its importance. In the second place, remember that the process of establishing a fact is essentially different from reasoning on that fact when established. The latter is common to all, but the evidence which establishes facts acts differently on minds of different dispositions. Thirdly, a certain series of facts already assumed to be established, often appears to throw light upon and render probable, or even self-evident, another series of facts which, without their precursors, would be of doubtful authority. But that which it is most difficult to realize is, that certain states of the mind render it easier to admit the probability of certain facts than certain other states; so that ere we proceed to the investigation of foreign ideas, we must, as far as in us lie, examine ourselves as to the impartial state of our dispositions, divest ourselves of any prepossessions founded on the lower principles of our being."
"As for example?" said Eugene.
"As for example, my young friend, we take the proposition already discussed this evening: 'Man is a fallen being!' This is either an historical fact or a falsity. Now some men persist in rejecting all agency that is not in accordance with the ordinary{324}consequences observed to occur in the material portion of the creation, consequently they deny the primary fact as matter of history, though compelled by experience to admit that man often fallsde facto. This, they say, is in consequence of his non-observance of nature's laws, the knowledge of which provided he acted on that knowledge would remedy this weakness. The knowledge of physics is, then, to these minds, a necessary and important ingredient in what to them constitutes virtue, while physical ignorance must, by the same theory, bring with it vice and misery."
"The history of the creation given by Moses is to such persons a sublime myth, conveying no other idea than that it presents a splendid manifestation of beauty, power, and grandeur. The aim and object of these men is necessarily materialism—the contentment of animal existence; and while this is their aim, their mental vision cannot see the doctrine of the fall of man from spiritual life. Convince these men, however, of their own inherent spiritual affinities, which, though now in abeyance, are ready to be called into operation if only they will that they should be so called—let them experience the yearning for higher life, which now lies dormant if not dead within them, then will the cloudy myth become reality, and the fallsde factobe viewed as the necessary result of the original fall from spiritual unity. A new vigor will be infused into the frame, and a desire to re-establish the pre-existing supernatural relationships will become the absorbing interest. The rationalist will become a Christian, not by force of human reasoning, but because a change has taken place in his disposition, in his aspiration."
"But does the reception or apprehension of truth, then, depend on human disposition?" asked Eugene. "Should not truth be self-evident, or be at least demonstrable to those whom it concerns?"
"To pure natures doubtless it is so," said M. Bertolot, "but I need not point out to you that facts of every-day occurrence show us that man's nature is no longer pure, and therefore is it that he is blinded by prejudice and five bent of his inclination. Few have been found willing to lay aside the pride of rank, the demands of human comfort, and the conceit of human learning, and come like little children to be taught by the inspired angel of truth."
"I, at least, would like to try," said Eugene. "Would that the angel of truth were to be found!"
"Pray! and you may find him yet!" replied M. Bertolot.
"Prayer is your constant theme, I perceive," said Eugene, smiling.
"It is man's most constant friend, and the powerful preserver of his soul," replied M. Bertolot. "Man's soul is by its origin aspirative, panting after reunion with God, even when ignorant of the cause of his disquietude. The soul has faculties which need gratification, and can be gratified only in God. These faculties are nourished by prayer, and to prayer is annexed the promise of being heard; but then we must accept and fulfil the conditions."
"And what are those conditions?" asked Eugene.
"The prayer must be humble," said his friend, "diffident of self, confident in God; and it must be accompanied by a firm resolve to let no private bias, no motive of interest, interfere with the inspirations sent in answer. The influences exercised over us by the exterior world, with all the empire of physical enjoyment, must be ready to give way as soon as they interfere with the recognition of the divinity speaking to our souls, as this interference is most fatal; for the 'fall of man' in the first place, the rise of paganism in the second, and in the third place the failure of the Jews in recognizing the spiritual character of our Lord's kingdom, all arose from this undue empire of self-love, of private interest, latent or patent, in the human soul. And this empire must be subdued ere we can hope to regain our position as 'sons of the eternal and essentially spiritual God.'"
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"And yet," said Eugene, "we are of flesh as well as of the spirit, and the demands of the flesh are loud and manifold."
"Yes, and to a certain extent they must be gratified, or life would fail. Only, let the body be the servant and not the master of the soul. Let the object of existence be reunion with God, not the mere gratification of animalism. This aspiration, or this object—and, I may say, this alone—forms the distinctive mark between paganism and true religion. It is not the outer idol that injures the soul, but the inward feeling that is directed to false worship; that accords to beauty, glory physical power, and animal gratification, the inward adoration due alone to God, the creator, redeemer, sanctifier. Have I made myself understood?"
"I think so," said Eugene; "and by this measure, the great mass of population must be as essentially, pagan as they were in the days of Mars, Jupiter, Bacchus, and Apollo."
"I fear many will be found so," said M. Bertolot. "Men appear to be more eager than ever they were for exterior improvements; they are fast losing hold of the aspirations of the past; they have destroyed old theories, and substituted new philosophies and new remedies for evil that our sapping the very foundations of spiritual truth in men's minds. Yet man cannot utterly stifle his inward yearnings, nor annihilate his spiritual affinities. The soul who rejects the true worship bows, although unconsciously, to inferior agencies, and animal magnetism and spirit-rappings provide their poisoned food for the sickly appetite, and exercise their baneful empire ever the craving souls who reject the hallowing operations of religion. Meantime the world is in a miserable state of trouble and confusion."
"Yes," said Eugene, "but modern philosophy ascribes this state to ignorance, and says a proper educational development would obviate all. If so, what becomes of the fall of man?"
"If so! rather a large if," said M. Bertolot. "The world is nearly six thousand years old, and is it but now to begin to discover truth? and is that beginning to be the laying aside of all received traditional lore? Well! it is a new era, and everything will wear a new aspect soon. It is as though it were in the councils of the Most High, that every form of man's folly and self-seeking should have full development. Good, if he learn at last that from God alone, by supernatural means, comes true light to the soul. Good, if when all other means have been tried and found to fail, he seek it there at last. Good, if at length he recognizes the fact, that the soul's proper sphere is divine, is supernatural; that it is a consequence as legitimate for the purified soul to tower above, to command matter, as it is for heat to melt ice. Good, if he become aware that from the Eternal alone proceeds light and warmth and power and due action, and that the human soul, the proper recipient of these graces, cannot exercise its own proper vitality (so to speak) without these gifts from God, which form at once its nutriment and its stimulus. Now, the unbeliever uses not the means, consequently feels not the divinity stir within him; and that positive inertia of his spiritual existence is the great cause of his remaining an unbeliever. It is as though a man were to refuse to believe that equal proportions of sulphuric acid and of water, being mixed together at the temperature of fifty degrees, the compound will immediately acquire a temperature as high as boiling water, and not believing it possible, he refuses to test it, and so remains unconvinced. Nevertheless, the rise of temperature in this case is as certain a fact in chemistry as the fact in theology is certain, of the rise in the soul, when it approaches God by the means he himself has appointed."