CHAPTER IX.

RELIGION--PHILOSOPHY: WHICH IS THE TRUTH?

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 an _invention_, 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 falls _de 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 falls _de facto_ be 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."

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"But," said Eugene, "if I understand you theologians aright, it is the prayer of faith that pierces the clouds. How am I to attain this faith?"

"Begin with the graces which you have already: I mean that of a sincere desire of truth, and that of the consciousness that you have not truth in actual possession yet. These two facts of your mind are gifts immensely great. Follow them closely and in simplicity, and greater results will follow. They contain already the germs of faith, and if you are true to their teachings you will be led to throw yourself, in child-like abandonment, into the arms of God, and contentedly follow where he leads. Your yearning for truth will then be gratified."

"And how am I to discover which historic facts are true? By divine light also?"

"Divine light will aid you even here. Yet in this case you must use the best human means you can command. You must study the evidences, examine the prophecies, and contemplate the manner in which these prophecies have been fulfilled. You must endeavor to penetrate the spiritual meaning of all the types, of all the allusions. You must mark well the connection between the old law and the new law, and distinguish the essential differences between what revelation from God _is_, and that which is simply man's idea of what a revelation from God should be. Study the developments of heathenism, modern as well as ancient; you will find more similarity than at first appears on the surface: and you will also easily trace therein, the divine truth, borrowed from the first traditions, and from the developments of revelation, which mingled with their perversions form the basis of their system, a system which is built on a materialized version of a spiritual teaching, which, parted from the centre of good, went astray by following its own fancies, relying on its own unassisted judgment. Finally, meditate sedulously the truths of the religion taught at the foot of the cross. Do not wait till you believe ere you do this, but learn what religion is as taught by Christian apostles; then, if you reject Christianity, you will at least know what you reject, and if you embrace it you will find many of your difficulties melt away, as if the very atmosphere dissolved them. But through every process, 'pray.'"

"I will," said Eugene, "certainly I will; until I have found the truth it is but reasonable that I should submit to your guidance. Yes, for a while I will study, meditate, pray, and endeavor to keep my mind unbiassed." Mentally he added, "Yes, Euphrasie, I will endeavor for a while to forget all that could bias me--even you."