The Science of Chinese Religion

CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
THE WASON
CHINESE
COLLECTION
BL
1801.Fii
" Universi, >' Librarv
3 1924 023 203 726
The
original of this
book
is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright
restrictions in
the United States on the use of the
text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023203726
INTRODUCTION
SCIENCE OF CHINESE RELIGION.
A CRITIQUE OF MAX
Rev.
MtTLLER AND OTHER AUTHORS.
ERNST FABEE,
RHENISH MISSIONABY IN CANTON.
Bis laws our laws ;

Returns our own.
all
honour
to
him done
Milton, Paradise
Lost,
V,
HONGKONG,
LANE, CRAWFORD &
SHANGHAI,
KELLY & WALSH.
)>
Co.
PRESBYTERIAN MISSION PRESS.
VY.
/43
PEINTED AT THE " CHINA MAIL *'
OFtflCfi*
SOKGICONG*
INDEX,
Page,
Preface,
--
Introduction,
I.
Til
--
Nature of Religion,
II. Religion in Fact,
III. Religion
-------------
and Theology,
IV. Religion and Science,
VII. Religion and
18
23
27
V. Religion and Morals,

VI. Religion and Law (and
44
Politics),
Civilization,-
-----
VIII. Religion and the Arts,
51
68
89
IX. Religion and Nature (and

X. Religion and Language,
History),
102
------112
XI. Religion and Mythology XII. Classification of Religions,

XIII. True Religion,
XIV.
122
129
-
135
Divine Education,
145
Conclusion,
152
----------
PREFACE.
The work
The importance
an excuse.
by
all
I present to the public does not
readers.
That
I,
German, have ventured

owing to the great
having done
of the subject will be
to undertake such a thing is
many
on Chinese
and on
religion,
But, as
on the
if
they only had put
it is,
much
in
written
nations
on every page
method and somewhat con-
fused notions in regard to religion.

will
is
religion of other
religion in general, that betrays
a great want of clearness
book
able writers not
They, of course, could have
given a very superior production,

their pens to the task.
hope
my
little
do some good service in this respect.
Science of Religion
harm than good
is
will,
felt
a practical missionary and a
fault of so
it before.
need
More
very important indeed.
however, be done,
treated inductively in a true
scientific
if it
The
is
spirit.
not
We
PREFACE.
n
want
to learn
what
author pleases to
a highly religious
on
fine arts
taste
must
and not what any
us about it or
how he may think
tell
Religion must, besides, be treated in
ought to be.
it
religion really is
spirit.
Those who venture to write
without a cultivated artistic
fail in
gion in an unreligious
mood
author combines with
it
is for
its
To
their endeavours.
feeling*
write on reli-
wasting paper.
is
and
If the
great learning, and his book
this reason read, it gives offence in proportion to
unbecoming language.
The work
Buddhism, not to mention others,
....
of
on
an example of bad
is
taste in this respect.
There are some writers who show a tolerable acquaintance with heathen religions, but betray astonishing ignorance in regard to the Christian religion.
is
It
not sufficient to have read a few theological works
or critical commentaries on the Bible; such give only
an
We have to enter
intellectual view of Christianity.
the inner sanctuary of Christian
life
to get a full under-
standing of what Christianity really
can judge
fairly.
hope
self in this respect.

intellect,
nor of
I could in
at
my
my
we
will
recommend
it-
I shall not boast of a well-trained
learning, etc.
circumstances.
disposal.
fully selected
much
my work
only then
is;
There
I
is
have done what
no large library
The few authors quoted are not
care-
from among many others, but happened
PREFACE.
into
my
hands, and other works, perhaps more
suitable to
my
purpose, are
to
fall
unknown
to me.
My
ideas
have, however, always been ready before I used another
author.
The work shows that
most of the writers referred
have to disagree with
to,
but this deviation of
some cases of
opinion, or in
principles, does not in-
and obligation
terfere with the respect
As
merits of those authors.
I feel to the
suppose that most of
the readers of this book will be residents of China
under the same disadvantage regarding the use
living
of libraries, I have given a few quotations somewhat

longer than I myself would prefer.
or ten pages
But though eight
more are added to the book,
trouble to those
who have
it
saves the
the authors, of wasting time
aDd those who have them
in searching for the passages,
not will be glad to read such passages.
The reason that

in
German,
my
have written in English and not
native language,
work has been written
me
of
my
that a part of this
and read at the Conference
for
of Missionaries in Canton.
to
is
It
is
a great disadvantage
that I have to write in three languages.
studies
time and strength
is
and Chinese work.
have far more in
my
Most
yet devoted to Chinese
The German language
power than the English, yet
English has for such subjects the great advantage of
wider circulation.
As
have spent the best years
PREFACE.
iv
of
my
have not had
among the Chinese
life
much
in a country-station,
opportunity
cultivating
for
I hope, however, that
English composition.
my
is
at least intelligible and readable.
it
would have been better to defer publication
work on Chinese Religion

this Introduction has
is
style
In some respects
completed.
till
my
As, however,
a more universal scope there can
be no objection to a separate edition of
The hearers
it.
of my two lectures expressed their wish to see what they
Rev. R. H. Graves, M.D., has been so
heard in print.
kind to revise the sheets, and Mr. Geo. Murray Bain

of the
China Mail
office
of reading the proofs.
has done
I
turn up to pay the expenses.
hope
I
me
the great favour
buyers will
sufficient
have already convinced
myself that to publish books in China or on Chinese

matters
is
a somewhat costly pleasure.
any good service
is
If,
however,
done by this publication to
my
fel-
low-labourers, and perhaps to other persons interested,
such uncomfortable considerations will subtract nothing
from the joy
in
having performed this task.
myself
have had already the great profit of giving some de-
my own
finiteness to
and
hope
this is
ideas in writing these chapters,
an inestimable preparation for some
works I intend to write
ment of
this
in Chinese for the enlighten-
numerous race which
shadowed by the darkness of Hades.
is
as yet over-
PREFACE.
My
little
sincere wish
book to
all
be more earnest
is,
that the Lord
may
bless the
readers, and especially induce

in their
own
many
Christian religion.
to
We
are yet far behind the ideals of the religion embodied
Many
in Christ.
social evils
and private bad habits
are in striking contradiction to the clear meaning of
Yet our
the Gospel.
i.e.
is
to
overcome the world,
become master over everything which

Love and peace
against God's plan.

in the
belief is to
world
such
is
the
Kingdom
in the
mind and
of Heaven.
E. F.
Canton, August 2nd, 1879.
is
INTRODUCTION
" The Chinese," Mr. Fairbairn* writes, "
selected as a contrast to the
They are a people

faculty.
Hebrew and
may be
the Teuton.
singularly deficient in the religious
They are a
gifted race, ingenious, inventive
yet imitative, patient, industrious, frugal.
Their
civi-
lization is ancient, their literary capacity considerable,
their
But
classics
receive an. almost religious reverence.
this people has
or genius, that
known
religion
it
(!),
a so attenuated
can hardly be said ever to have
at least as Semitic
pean peoples understand

so formless
and
religious faculty
it.
fluid that it
and Indo-Euro-
Their notions of deity are
can be argued, just as one
interprets their speech, either that they are theists or

atheists.
* Studies in the Philosophy of Religion,

p,.
310.
and Hittory
1877,
INTRODUCTION.
toe
" They reverence humanity as typified, not in the

endless promise and hope of the future, but in the
pleted characters and achievements of the past.

piety
is filial;
their worship ancestral.
There
comTheir
are, in-
deed, three established religions, but, not to speak of
an advice to have nothing to do with any one of them

given by a late emperor to his people, two would hardly
be classed as such in any other country than China,

while the third
is
a religion imported from India, and
so depraved by the change that the
Buddhism of the
Chinese stands beneath that of Tartary and
civilised
Thibet."
This one quotation, taken from the recent work of
an accomplished and erudite author, may
many
of a similar character.
Most
suffice for
of the writers on
China state that the Chinese are not a religious people,
that they are indifferent to
all
religious
Such vague assertions are commonly

truth.
I,
from
my own
far
creeds.
from the
observations, feel inclined to
maintain that the Chinese belong perhaps to the most

religious people (Acts xvii., 22, original) of the world.
Only we must not look
for
any symptoms of
reli-
gion similar to those to which we are accustomed in

Christian lands.
more temples and
There are however, comparatively,

altars,
more
idols
and more
religious
practices in China than in almost all other countries.
INTRODUCTION.
The whole
public
and private
religious observations;
we
life is
impregnated by
see every important action

j
of the government,
as
ment
inaugurated by different religious
in private
life,
well
as almost every move-
rites.
my
It is
purpose to investigate
Chinese religion.
scientifically
Such an undertaking
is
the
different
from a description of the religious practices of the present time.
Religion has in China, as everywhere,
We shall
have to trace, as
gious practice to
its origin,
its history.
far as possible, every reli-
show the connexion between
the present and the past, and explain, as far as possible,
the symbolical forms from their original ideas
which they too often have only preserved

state.
1,
in
as a missionary, want to understand the
gious state and condition of the people

deal with, just as a physician must
a disease,
a petrified
its origin
know
and development,
reli-
have to
the nature of
in order to bring
the organism again to the wished-for state of health.
The task
is
not an easy one.
What Max
Miiller says
with regard to investigating other religions applies far
more
to the study of Chinese religion.
" Any one who has worked at the history of

gion knows
how hard
it is
reli-
to gain a clear insight into
the views of Greeks and Romans, of Hindus and Per-
INTRODUCTION
any of the great problems of
sians on
have here a whole literature before

profane,
we can confront
life.
Yet we
both sacred and
us,
and hear what may
witnesses,
be said on the one side and the other.
If we
were asked,
however, to say, whether the Greeks in general, or one

race of Greeks in particular, and that race again at
any particular time, believed
in a future
tem of rewards and punishments
life,
in
a sys-
after death, in the
supremacy of the personal gods or of an impersonal

fate, in
the necessity of prayer and sacrifice, in the
sacred character of priests and temples, in the inspiration of prophets
and lawgivers, we should
find it often
extremely hard to give a definite answer.
There
is
whole literature on the theology of Homer, but there

is
anything but unanimity between the best scholars
who have
treated on that subject during the last two
hundred years.
"
Still
more
is this
the case when
we have
to form
our opinions of the religion of the Hindus and Persians.
We
have their sacred books, we have their
own recognised commentaries
but who does not know
that the decision whether the ancient
Brahmans be-
lieved in the immortality of the soul depends
sometimes
on the right interpretation of a single word, while the

question whether the Persians admitted an original
dualism, an equality between the principle of
Good and
INTRODUCTION.
Evil, has to be settled in
some
xi
cases on purely
gram-
matical grounds f*
Much
gion, yet
has been written on China and
more has
its
to be done fully to clear
reli-
up the
subject.
Investigation
is,
however,
much
would have been some years ago.

parative religion has
it
made some
easier
The
now than
science of
progress,
and
it
com-
I think
best to investigate the Chinese religion in the

light
of comparative religion.
Not that
intend to compare
other persons
the Chinese religion with other religions
may be
to
What
better qualified to do that.
come
to
I desire is
an adequate understanding of everything
connected with religion in China, and so gain an idea

of the fulness of religious
ous forms.
The
life
as
it
appears in
its vari-
results of the science of religion will
prove a valuable help towards accomplishing the desired end.
Eegarding the method I
know nothing except my own
Max Miiller,
shall
ideas, but start honestly
Is Fetishism a Primitive
MacMillan's Magazine, 1878.
not presume to
Form of Religion ?
I cannot agree, however, with this
quotation without some reservation.
The confusion about
gion and theology will be settled in Chapter III.

to solve religious problems
"on
shows a want of proper method.
Any
reli-
attempt
purely grammatical grounds"
xn
INTRODUCTION.
from
Max
Midler's "Introduction to the Science of
Eeligion."*
It will,
however, soon become
apparent, that,
though on the same road to the same destination,
we cannot walk along hand

*
and
in
hand on our way.
Four Lectures with Two Essays: London, Longmans, Green
Co., 1873.
INTRODUCTION TO THE
SCIENCE OF CHINESE RELIGION.
THE NATUEE OF EELIGION.

It will
be best to begin with a definition of the
meaning we attach to the word

says, p. 16,
means at
"It
least
will
Max
religion.
Miiller
be easily perceived that religion
two very
different things.
When we
speak of the Jewish, or the Christian or the Hindu

religion,
we mean a body
of doctrines handed
tradition or in canonical books,
constitutes the faith
of Jew,
down by
and containing
Christian,
or
all
that
Hindu.
Using religion in that sense, we may say that a man

has changed his religion, that is, that he has adopted
the Christian instead of the Brahminical body of reli-
man may
learn to speak
English instead of Hindustani.
But
religion is also
As
there
gious
doctrines just
as a
used in a different sense.
is
a faculty of
THE SCIENCE OF CHINESE RELIGION.
of all the
speech, independent
language, so there
dependent
is
of
a faculty of faith in man,

If
of all historical religions.
which distinguishes
is religion
forms
historical
man
we
in-
say that
it
from the animal,
we do not mean the Christian or Jewish religion, we

do not mean any special religion, but we mean a
mental
faculty, that faculty
which independent
of,
nay
and reason enables man to apprehend
in spite of sense
the Infinite under different names and under varying
Without that
disguises.
the
lowest
possible,
and
faculty,
no
religion,
not even
worship of idols and fetishes, would be

if
we but
listen attentively,
we can hear
in all religions a groaning of the spirit, a struggle to
conceive the inconceivable, to utter the unutterable, a
longing after the Infinite, a love of God."
Max
Midler
is
quite correct in distinguishing the
first view as religious conviction from religion itself.

But I never should call his " second thing " religion in
the proper sense of the word.
He
says, p. 18,
"We
mean a mental faculty, the faculty of perceiving the

Infinite, in German Vemunft, as opposed to reason
and
sense, in English the faculty of faith,
but confined
to those objects only which cannot be supplied either
by the evidence of the
senses, or
by the evidence of
reason."
This second thing would
the
which consists in productions of
first,
be worse
than
this faculty
and perhaps in something more. To define religion as

" a mental faculty " is as great a mistake as to define
philosophy or the fine arts as mental faculties.
It is true without such faculties
no reasoning nor
perception of beauty would be possible.

itself,
however,
is
The
faculty
nothing but the subjective condi-
THE NATURE OF RELIGION.

tion
those
for
achievements, as there
Max
needed besides.
are
objects
have said more
Miiller could
correctly, religion is the apprehension of the Infinite,
instead of calling
apprehend,
On
it
man
the faculty which enables
to
etc.
p. 20, this faculty is called " a
power indepen-
dent of sense and reason, a power in a certain sense
We
contradicted by sense and reason."
nowhere told how
how
religion differs
comprehended by reason.
far religions can be
Max
Miiller further
all religions
states
a groaning of the
;"
ing after the Infinite
is
"
that
spirit,
we hear
religion
a love of
not religion, though religious; so

life,
Max
his faculty to
or motive power,
on from
which
as faculty according to
is
etc.
see here
an impulse
something very
Max
Muller's
God
the fear
is
We
of God, the hope of a future

Miiller going
in
a struggle, a long-
but neither a groaning, nor a
struggle, nor a longing are
even
are however
from superstition and
different^
note
(p.
21)
expresses " the different modes of action of our mind,"
but a power
is
the cause of a certain action.
Faculty and power are
(p.
21) left alone,
and we
are told that " comparative theology has to deal with
the historical forms of religion, and theoretic theology

to explain the conditions under which religion, whether
in its highest or its lowest form,
is
possible
it
gives
an analysis of the inward and outward conditions

under which faith
is
confusion of faith
(in
possible"
22),
We see here a
religion, in spite of
16) above referred to.
The
form of religion would, according to
Max
the precaution taken

historical
(p.
dogmas) and
(p.
Midler's premises, be nothing but a development of the
To
religious faculty.
assigned
culous task
is
possibility of
any
religious
if
has
it
form" as
whatever.
facts
religious
theoretic theology a rather ridi-
there were no
if
Max
suppose
" the
show
to
Miiller
wanted to say that theoretic theology attempts to
why
explain the
many forms;
of the existence
comparative
of religion in so
on the
theology,
other
hand, only states and compares these different forms.
The
difference
specific
be said
between the two sciences
be that comparative
to
descriptive and historical (p.
and
their development
effect of
facts.
may
more
is scientific,
Each
fact
must
a certain cause, etc.
All the sentences, quoted from

'
is
132), stating the facts
theoretic theology
showing the necessity of these

be proved to be, the
theology
Max
however, to one and the same mistake
Miiller, point,
that
religion
nothing but a natural outgrowth of the human

mind, or a development of the faculty for the Inis
Though
finite.
grant that
human mind
the
organised for religion, and so far I agree with
is
Max
Midler's religious faculty, yet I think this faculty alone

insufficient to explain the multifarious facts of religion.
Max
rational
Miiller strangely appeals (p. 135) to " the
and
to the moral conscience " against
growth of the religious faculty.
faculty,
but what of morals
other choice
of the
left
is
Max
is,
of course,
Miiller has
no
but to create another peculiar faculty
human mind
that morality
Reason
?
some out-
for morals.
There can be no doubt
neither from the senses, nor from rea-
son (logical laws), nor from religion.
But why do we
not hesitate to ascribe to reason a
distinct
faculty
of our mind, but feel rather unwilling to allow the
same

privilege to religion
two
The answer
and morals ?
latter are connected with our will
mination, but reason, as the faculty of our
has
peculiar and definite laws in
its
tion from which
is
is,
and free
itself,
the
deter-
intellect,
any devia-
There are no such
unreasonable.
laws either in morals, in religion, or in political and

social
Though we
life.
moral laws
etc.,
are accustomed to speak of
the term only expresses what ought
to be done according to the idea of some persons, from
which idea other persons allow themselves to
differ
more or
less,
physics
(including chemistry etc.), mathematics
perhaps even diametrically.
logic are materially different.
The laws of
and
Of the first two branches
the term law* does not express what ought to occur, but
what
really occurs
law
is
there a definite formulation
of the connexion of cause and effect, in mathematics of
Though the laws
antecedence and consequence.
in
logic are definite enough, yet reasoning is influenced
by the compound human nature
so
much
that the
* "In its primary signification, a 'law' is the authoritative

expression of human Will enforced by Power. The instincts of
mankind, finding utterance in their language, have not failed to
see that the phenomena of Nature are only really conceivable to
us as in like manner the expressions of a Will enforcing itself
But, as in many other cases, the secondary or
with Power.
derivative senses of the word have supplanted the primary signification ; and Law is now habitually used by men who deny the
analogy on which that use is founded, and to the truth of which
It becomes therefore all the more necesit is an abiding witness.
sary to define the secondary senses with precision. There are at
least Five different senses in which Law is habitually used, and
these must be carefully distinguished
First, we have Law as applied simply to an observed Order
:
of facts.
Secondly To that Order as involving the action of some

Force or Forces, of which nothing more may be known.
Thirdly As applied to individual Forces the measure of
whose operation has been more or less defined or ascertained.
THE SCIENCE OP CHINESE RELIGION.
logical laws will never find their
We
by thought.
These remarks
of language upon our thoughts.

suffice to
adequate expression
see besides a remarkable influence
Max
show that
fortunate with his religious faculty.
Max
I even think that
Muller has been carried to some of his well-
known
tion
may
Muller has not been very
objectionable conclusions
by
this first proposi-
and the indefiniteness of his notion (Begriff) of
religion (comp. p.
It
is,
270
ff ).
however, not
Max
Muller alone who
is
so
unsatisfactory in his explanation of the origin of religion.
must confess
to have not yet
convincing solution of the problem.

to C. P. Tiele,*
who
As
and the superhuman powers

is
in
proof I point
rather evades our question by
his definition of religion as " the relation
Mr. Tiele. adds
met with a
in
between
man
which he believes."
a foot-note that "this definition
by no means philosophical and leaves unanswered
Fourthly As applied to those combinations of Force which

have reference to the fulfilment of Purpose, or the discharge of
Function.
Fifthly As applied to Abstract Conceptions of the mind not
corresponding with any actual phenomena, but deduced therefrom as axioms of thought necessary to our understanding of
them. Law, in this sense, is a reduction of the phenomena, not
merely to an Order of facts, but to an Order of Thought.

These great leading significations of the word Law all circle
round the three great questions which Science asks of Nature, the
Why :
What are the facts in their established Order ?
Howthat is, from what physical causesdoes
What, the How, the

( 1)
(2)
der come to be
that Or-
Why
have these causes been so combined ? What rela(3)

tion do they bear to Purpose, to the fulfilment of Intention, to
the discharge of Function? (The Reign of Law, by the Duke of
Argyll, p. 64, 65).
* Outlines of the History
of Religion : London, Triibner
&
Co., 1877.
The powers
the question of the essence of religion.
are designedly not described as supersensual, as visible
in reality, but in the estimation
We
their worshippers."
lation."
reader
Mr.
where
life
more
to say, and the
going through his book, as
nature
Far more
of
speak more of the " re-
shall
Tiele has nothing
feels, in
museum where
in a
They are superhu-
would thus be excluded.
deities
man, not always
if
he were
animals are well preserved, but
religion itself
interesting
is
are not met with.
A. M. Fairbairn
in his
" Studies in the Philosophy of Eeligion and History,"
but though deep and suggestive we see nearly the
same indefiniteness as in Max Miiller.

Mr. Fairbairn says (p. 12), " Faith
sult of sensations.
Mind
the formation of beliefs.
what mind brings
is
is
not the re-
not passive, but active in
The
constitutive element
to nature, not
is
what nature brings to
mind, otherwise no spiritual and invisible could be

conceived.
'
This would exclude
all
immediate
(direct)
action of mind upon mind or spirit upon spirit

spiritual
and
the
Invisible thus conceived could be nothing
but one's own mind.

proved.
We
Such a proposition must be
fully agree,
however,
part of the statement that faith
is
with
the
first
not the result of
sensation.
Mr. Fairbairn speaks (p. 13) against "a primitive

revelation as a mere assumption, incapable of proof,
capable of most positive disproof.
satisfy or rectify,
Eevelation
may
but cannot create a religious capa-
city or instinct.'"
We
have already
spoken
of
this
attempt to
reduce religion to nothing but a subjective state of
mind.
Of course
eyes to perceive
not light to us without

But what is the religious capacity
the light
it.
or the instinct of the
themselves revelations ?
is
mind ? Are they not perhaps

The question will be treated
hereafter.
The
capacity
religious
faculty
or
is
again de-
scribed differently by Mr. Fairbairn and by other

" The Epicurean held that fear had created
writers.
the gods
Hume
(p. 8).*
tried to evolve
gods out of the ignorance and

the
'
unknown causes
cities
of
'
'
Nature "
tion on causation,
'
the idea of
fear that
personified
of the accidents and eccentri" causes " presuppose reflec-
but
i.e.
reason,
plies either abstraction or
and personification im-
imagination or both;
Hume
call
reason and
imagination the sources of any idea of God.
" Dupuis,
would thus have been more correct to
a French
writer, held that all religions
had
their origin
in a worship of nature pure and simple, and that
But he did not
Dieux sont enfants des hornmes.
explain the one thing needing explanation,
why man
They
all
had begun to worship at

suppose that
man was
les
how and
all
originally
destitute
of religious belief and that religion is derived from the
lower faculties and passions of man."
We
see that the assumption of a faculty of our
mind for religion is rather old and of no
service,
because
* Dr. Jos. Beck, "Encyclopaedia der Theoretischen Philosophic" aays (380), " Epicur us ought to have added 'hope' that
those powers would determine human destiny.
This Theory is,
however, a thoughtless confounding of effect and cause. The
feeling of dependency is prius, fear and hope are sentiments,
which follow the reflexion on conscious dependency." A. Trende-
lenburg
is also
defective in this respect; see Naturrecht, 171.

too general.
its signification is
satisfied, of course,
Mr. Fairbairn
with such low faculties
is
not
he himself
takes refuge in the highest faculties, conscience and

imagination,
39.
p.
"Conscience knew of
dependent and obligatory, to Some One.

discovered the
Some One on whom
relation,
Imagination
the individual and
the whole alike depended in the Heaven (or somewhere
Neither faculty could be satisfied with the sub-
else).
jective
(why
not?),
each was driven by the law of
constitution to seek an objective reality.
so far as
it
own
revealed obligation, revealed relation to a
being higher than

its
its
Conscience,
Imagination,
self.
when
turned
it
eye to Heaven, beheld there the higher Being, the
great Soul which directed the varied celestial move-
ments and created the multitudinous
Without the
conscience, the
life,
terrestial
lives.
which imagination
saw, would have been simply physical; without the imagination, the relation which conscience revealed would
have been purely
ideal, the relation 6f
a thinker to his
thought, not of one personal being to another
... Of
course in terming these 'the faculties generative of
the idea '
we do not mean that they acted
faculty can be isolated in action, whatever
as an object of thought.
We
only
alone.
it
No
may be
mean that
these,
for the time being the governing faculties of the mind,
were the two from whose continued instincts and

actions the idea of
God
rose into form."
Mr. Fairbairn here comes near to saying that
human
nature as such and not one faculty or two etc.
But Mr. Fairbairn has

task.
fice,
it is
to begin again his Sisyphus
" In the oldest religion
(p.
42)
worship, sacri-
prayer and such rudimentary ideas as faith, piety,
10
holiness can be discovered,
and
their existence implies,
as their creative faculty, a moral

require, therefore, a faculty, so
"We
generative of these primary
we have
it
in
mind conscious
'
But
and
says,
ideas, as
" Consciousness and conconscious of self was also
Mind
The
of obligation.
ought ' were twins, born
Mr. Fairbairn
religious acts
conscience.
science rose together.
(see above).
sense''''
at the
to be conscious of obligation
am' and the
'I
same moment.
was to be conscious
and the same act mind was

who owed obedience and a Not-self
The idea of God
to whom the ebedienee was due.
was thus given in the very same act as the idea of self,
Mind
neither could be said to precede the other.
of relation, and so in one
conscious of a self
could be mind as
God
without the consciousness of
little
as without the consciousness of self."
Conscious mind
is
On
thus the religious faculty.
page 100 the same idea
is
expressed in another way.
" Mind, the consciousness, in which both self and the

universe (including God, see above) are revealed."
Fairbairn cannot help using here the word

tion
'
before so
much
permanent and
He
says
universal
(p.
12),
satisfied with
"Religion
characteristic of
normal and necessary 'product of his nature
mean mind
is
"revela-
objected to).
But Mr. Fairbairn seems not yet

the conscious mind.
(Mr.
in its state
(this
of unconsciousness).
simply spirit expressing in symbol
its
is
man,
a
a
must
Beligion
consciousness
of relations other and higher than physical and social.'"

It is difficult to say
whether the two sentences have
the same meaning or not.

of
human nature
And
Is this spirit
is
the product
religion nothing but the
THE NATURE OP RELIGION.

expression of higher relations?
have
still felt
some doubts,
for
another turn of explanation.
11
Mr. Fairbairn must
he surprises us with yet

" The feelings of depen-
dence, reverence, devotion are universal
everywhere
And
seek out and worship an appropriate object.

object must be personal,, a Being to love and
We
be loved and obeyed."

his readers
a wide
choice;
see
Mr. Fairbairn allows
the few passages quoted
refer us to the religious capacity,
product of the nature (of mind),
From
all
instinct,
spirit, feelings.
the quotations given above one thing
apparent enough,
that our problem
viz.
far
is
ing settled, but is waiting yet for solution.
Germany
all
faculties,
moral sense, consciousness,
imagination,
conscience,
the
command,
is
from be-
Tnough
in
the great philosophers have treated the
religious question, they
have done so
in
connection
with their metaphysical systems, and as their method
has been logical, a mere logical explanation has been

arrived at, which,
of course,, always proves to be a.
failure.
Science on the other hand, starting from matter
and mechanical laws, though rather too often venturing into the sacred fields of religion and sometimes
making crazy havoc among religious forms and parasites, scarcely ever came in contact with the true life'
Most of the Theologians, in modern
of religion.*
times at least (but
it
might be said from the 2nd
century after Christ to the present day), have been led

astray by the metaphysical aud scientific speculations
* Jacobi said justly,
"The
belief in
God
a virtue;" see Dr. Jos. Beck, Ency. der Theor.
is
not science but
Phil., 382.
12
rut
of the day, or they have walked in the convenient
preroof tradition, State church theories, hierarchical
and
gatives of priests
pastor's, 'rituals
Schleiermacher was the
and
man who
creeds, etc.
with superior
ability treated religion as a sphere of her own.
He
separated religion from the sciences of reason, but did

not free her from the bondage of the abstract laws of
logic to
which metaphysics and
are subject.
feeling of
all rationalistic
Schleiermacher based religion on the
dependence*
not on
misunderstood to have done.
escape from the torture
systems of modern
it
he
is
often
This feeling did
good
feelings, as
service in so far as it allowed to religion
and
systems
a chance of
had to undergo
in the
philosophy from Descartes to Hegel
his followers.
Max
Muller with his religious faculty
but a Schleiermacherian.t
Schleiermacher
is,
therefore,
Miiller already given above.
subjective,
and as men
is
nothing
The great objection to

the same as to Max
Eeligion is made merely
differ in
the intensity etc. of
their feeling of dependence, their religion
must
differ,
* His system, however, Schleiermacher construed more on a

cosmical than on a moral dependence. His pantheistic-monistic
mental philosophy influenced his theology. Religion is explained
in a naturalistic way, even grace is made a cosmological power.
Comp. D. Bender Schleiermacher's Theology, 1878.
t Dr. Richard Rothe, one of the most distinguished followers
of Schleiermacher, differs from his master in this respect. "There
is no special faculty (Organ) for religion in man.
Man has religion because he is man, i.e. his I is the faculty, in it God can
find a Thou and can have its Thou in man.
God acts on the
human conscience and becomes thus its object. The idea of God
in man is God's own action (Wirkung) on him. In the relation
between God and the creatures every impulse originates in God,
human love to God comes from God's love to man, is its response,"
etc.
See Theologische Ethik, 2nd Edition, 117 ff. 177.
THE NATURE OP RELIGION.

and one
religion
other because
13
must be as right and as good as the
it is
always the only possible expression
of the human factor under the given circumstances.
Such
theories are ruinous to a healthy development of
genuine religion and obstructive

understanding and
truth.
hearty appreciation of religious
may, therefore, be pardoned for a new at-
tempt to
an appropriate
to'
find the proper
myself
feel
interest
lively
missionary, but as a
key to the problem before
human
in
being.
it,
Religion
not an external calling but the element of

I find
life.
human
my
may
as belonging to
it is
another
world.
therefore be called the manifestation of
a spiritual world of which the

link*
me
inner
Eeligion gives evidence of the
soul.
soul (spirit)
Eeligion
is to
my
not only in one faculty but in the very
it
substance of
us.
not only as a
human
soul forms one
the shadow of Eternity cast upon Earth-
life.
It
thus not only the acknowledgement of
is
higher power as a source of
parent in
of the,
all religions,
life
and happiness ap-
but also a feeling of
man
to be
same kindred with the supreme power and to
be destined
There
for
is,
some kind of divine blessedness.
on the other hand, penetrating the most
religious minds, a deep
and sad
feeling of the loss of
the once-existing state of direct intercourse with the
world of
Spirits' (of course
and with the heavenly

plaints heard from the
not in the
regions.
spiritistic sense)
There
are
com-
highest geniuses and noblest
Those who take interest in the preexistence of the human

read what I. H. Fichte says on the subject in .his "Anthropology " and in his " Psychology."
*
soul
may
14
men
of
and ages, that we are strangers
countries
all
on earth and as
were in prison
it
in
our present
body; that death liberates the soul and brings her
The
home.
Miiller
groaning
longing,
human
of which
Max
explanation only
its satisfactory
speaks finds
in this fact; the
etc.
soul does not find herself in her
.congenial element, not in the region
from which she
his sprung and to which her very nature tends, where

can develope
,alone she
all
her faculties, where alone
she can feel free and happy.
We
may
Man
religious.
divine race,
the gods.
say her divine origin makes the soul

bears the image of God,
man may
mankind
is
partake in the blessed state of
Not only Jewish,
Christian, Greek, Indian
and Persian* authors contain sentences with such purport, even
among Chinese
writers similar passages
may
be found.
Licius,t for example, says
(I.
73) " the soul is the
portion from Heaven, the body
Earth.
ing,
What
belongs to
what belongs
When the
to
Heaven
Earth
is
is
the portion from
is
clear
and expand-
turbid and contracting.
soul leaves the (bodily) form each (soul
and
They
(the
body) returns to
its
genuine being (truth).
deceased) are, therefore, called departed (here Kwei,

the
common word
for
demon
is
used).
Departed
(Kwei) means returned, returned to their true manBunsen, God in History, and E. H. Gillett, God in
Thought.
t Der Naturalismus bei den alten Chineaen, etc. oder sammtliehe Werke des Philosophen Lieius, zum erstenmale vollstandig
iibersetzt und erklart von Ernst Faber, 1877.
Elberfeld R. L. Fridrichs, London, Trubner & Co.; Shanghai
Press, Mission Press Kelly and Walsh ; Hongkong, Lane, Crawford & Co.
* See
Human
15
sion.
The Yellow Emperor
spirit)
enters her gate, the body returns to
how may
The
remain
said, the soul
its
root;
!"
question at the end
doubtless
is
put by
The con-
as his doctrines are pantheistic.
Licius,
sethereal
{lit.
tinuance of the terrestrial bodily personality must, of
In the designation " depart-
course, cease in death.
ed " (daemon, Kwei), however, a continued existence as

self-conscious
and active
This pas-
spirit is expressed.
sage reminds us besides of Plato's dualism.

I shall for the present quote only one
markable passage from

tired of study
Licius,
I.,
re-
"Tsi-kung was
II.
and said to Confucius,
more
'
wish for
rest.
Confucius (here always called Chung-ni) answered,

there
life
no
is
then to give
rest?
Confucius answered, 'There
Behold the graves yonder,
kung,
'
The
superior
ones to submission.
Tsi-kung) you
sure of
ease
know
man
Confucius said, 'Tshi (name of

it
to
know the
all
know
its
of death, but not the rest.
'Beautiful was, said
Ngan
Tsi,* 'the death
the humane come to
submission.
plea-
bitterness;
life's
age, but do not
of the ancients,^
mane
Men
now.
but they do not yet know
life,
in death.
brings to rest, the low
it
know the frailty of old

they know the horror
they
is!
ridge-like, roof-
hall-like,
there you will understand what

'0 how great is death! exclaimed Tsi-
hatchet-like
like,
gives rest.
In
Tsi-kung said, 'Is there nothing
rest.
me
'
Death
is
rest,
virtue's
the inhu-
chance
(re-
* Premier of the State of Tshi; see Mayers' Manual, 917.

i
f In the work ascribed to Ngan Tsi the text differs,
S %
^
man
A.
as good."
E H #.
"
"*-*
held the death of
<
16
The
compense).
(returned)."
ancients called the dead gone
home
"If the dead are gone home, the living
He who
XVI.)
are pilgrims (compare Tao-te-king,
is
home
a
;
a pilgrim and forgets to go home
man who has lost his home is blamed by the whole
But the whole world having lost their
generation.
home there is nobody to blame them for it." So far
loses his
a Chinese philosopher about 400 B.C.

Such sentiments as these quoted from Licius,
which can easily be multiplied from other authors of
China and other countries, are a valid proof of the
above-given theory of religion.
may, however, point
to another not less valuable confirmation of
the universal belief in a
it,
that
is
I purposely
hereafter.*
life
do not say " immortality," as that term implies a more

abstract philosophical notion.
tinguished after the frame

its
Our
life,
to animate our corporeal frame,
feel
chemical elements
is
we
the soul
will
not be ex-
broken and dissolved into
the thoughts
we
think, the feel-
we foster, the will we obey, the self-consciousness

we enjoy will not disappear after the organism which
served as a medium for the connexion with this world
ings
has befm removed.

Fairbairn
"Death
(p. 115), "is
as annihilation," says
a notion as
a primitive or undeveloped
mind
Mr.
little intelligible
as immortality.
to
child cannot understand death as loss of being, can-
not imagine the dead as otherwise than
(Why
soul).
still
alive."
not? because against the nature of the
human
"It thinks of them as existing somewhere, as
* A very good work on this subject is that by Ed.

Spiess,
Entwicklungsgeschichte der Vorstellungen vom Zustande naoh
dem Tode auf Grund vergleichender Religionsforschung.

doing something, and neither the
17
lifeless
body, nor
the grave, nor the burial can break their simple faith.
The
very attempt to represent them in thought
attempt to represent living not dead men."

agree with Mr. Fairbairn
116),
(p.
" But
belief in the future life springs out of

call, for
tion
want of a better term, an

as
alike
is
an
I further
while the
what we must
instinct, its evolu-
the time occupied and the order of
thought observed, depends on the development of the

mental faculties as in their turn at once conditioning
and conditioned by the history and situation of the

people."
The weakness however

becomes apparent
"Not
as a
dogma
of Mr. Fairbairn's theory
113:
in the following sentence, p.
of religion, or a doctrine of philoso-
phy, but as a specifically
human property
involved in
the very nature of man, evolved in the evolution of

the belief in immortality needs to be
that nature,
Does
discussed."
nature,
and
religion then not belong to
human nature
Mr. Fairbairn
least, in contradiction
"We have, of
human
religious belief not also developed with
is
is
here,
say the
to
with his own theory of religion,
course, to fall
back on human nature
in
any thorough treatment of the question, but we have to

take into account not only human nature as
it
is,
but
a whole other world with other connexions and other

laws and forms of existence.
ever, it is not
Strictly speaking,
human nature but
which forms the basis
how-
the nature of the soul
for the life hereafter.
Human
nature implies one important factor, the bodily or^

ganisation which
is
left
behind.
Morals and
politics
have to start from human nature, whereas religion and
18
immortality have their root in the nature of the soul,

though they both culminate in the resurrection of the
body.*
Our theory makes
it
comparatively easy to
The
treat these difficult problems.
soul enters with
death into her own natural sphere, only her relation to

the material world
the
is
then changed.
clear statements
of
all
Against Mr. Fairbairn we may

belief in
religion,
Such at
religions
also
least are
of the
world.
add, that the
a life hereafter is everywhere connected with

and most naturally so. The exception of very
few metaphysicians only confirms the rule.
II.
RELIGION IN FACT.
Max
Miiller says, p. 153, "
We
may
distinguish
religion as a silent
power working in the heart of man
from religion
outward appearance."
in its
The
science
of religion, however, cannot confine herself to the lat-
Although we are unable to investigate the

inner heart as we scrutinize outward actions, etc., yet
ter only.
we may
perceive
the influence of religious feelings,
thoughts and maxims on the
common
practices of
The Christian doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body

and involves the notion that there is some deep connexion between Spirit and Form whioh is essential, and which
cannot he finally sundered even in the divorce of Death.
The
Btign of Law, by the Duke of Argyll, p. 309.
*
sanctions
KELIGION IN FACT.
individual, social
and
It
is,
respects to learn
than to know
fices,
by
etc.
all
The
all religions,
be for
Purification
life.
and
and body are required by many
sanctification of soul
religions.
political
19
perhaps, of more interest in some
how
different religions differ therein,
their different
names
God,
for
practice of benevolence
is
sacri-
inculcated
but again in different ways and
it
may
different purposes.
Max
on another page (263) " The
Miiller says
tention of religion, wherever
we meet
it, is
in-
always holy.
However
imperfect, however childish the conception of
God may
be,
it
always represents the highest ideal of
human
perfection which the
can reach and grasp.
human
it
soul, for
the time being,
Religion, therefore, places the
soul in the presence of its highest ideal,
above the
level of ordinary goodness,
at least a yearning after a higher and better
life,
life
God."
in the light of
Max
it lifts
and produces
Miiller also quotes (p. 152) Sir
H. Maine,
that in ancient times religion as a divine influence was
"underlying and supporting every relation of
every social institution.
life
and
supernatural presidency
supposed to consecrate and keep together
all
is
the car-
dinal institutions of those early times, the state, the
race and the family ;" and
(p.
224) " Neither their art,
nor their poetry, nor their philosophy would have been

possible
without religion, that
is,
religion cannot be
separated from anything human, but art can, poetry

can,
philosophy can."
that religion
is
faculty, but is spirit
the whole man.
Such are to us strong proofs
not the development of one mental
and inspiration to
all faculties,
to
THE. SCIENCE OF CHINESE RELIOION.
2D
Man
as a being in the universe has relations to
and
his fellow-men
These relations are
nature.
to
mediated by sensations, actions and reactions through

the body upon the soul.
man
a Something kindred to the intelligent
ible world, to
and self-conscious
first
within himself, to which however
life
more or
feels himself
there again
the
religious being
another relation to a superior power, to an invis-
feels
he
As a
less
estranged and opposed
action and reaction, but different from
is
mentioned.
Any
on Spirit
action, however, of Spirit
in
an-
way than through bodily sensation and common

reflection we must call revelation.
Revelation is thus
other
taken in a wide, yet in the most proper sense.

lation
is,
mind
to our
to the eyes.
We
no religion!
it,
than the higher.
may
what the
Revelight
is
boldly assert, without revelation
Every religion leans on revelation,
occasioned by
in
(soul or spirit),
is
the lowest religions perhaps more
But we are sure
different state in
to find revelation
different religions.
We
have
nothing to fear from the objection made by Schelling
that a primordial revelation
makes the natural man

altogether void of religion "an original Atheism of
consciousness.'"
No
Man
is
conscious of his con-
nexion with G-od and the invisible world
till
the grow-
ing consciousness of nature overwhelms the other.
man had remained
If
in his status integritatis
he could
have lived with his mind in connexion with the spiritual world, as he
is
not
the
all lost.
life
now does with the
material.
But
it
Religion shows the remaining portion of
of the soul in those higher spheres.
to gather carefully
what each
We
religion takes as
have
revela
RELIGION IN FACT.
We
tion.
shall find, even in Chinese religion, quite
number of
to
whom
21
it
perhaps astonishing to many scholars
facts,
seems without doubt that the Chinese do
not believe in revelation
they do believe in
it,
perhaps
too much.
We
may
distinguish revelations of the past which
happened only once, as the creation of the world,

certain miracles called forth by peculiar circumstances,
as at the birth of great men, etc
may
and revelations which
occur even at the present time through dreams,
Without
divination, etc.
revelation, especially of the
second kind, no religion could keep
As a
the minds of the people.
upon
its influence
we have
revelation
fur-
ther to consider anything taken as an indication of the

divine guidance of the world, especially of
fairs,
as
retribution,
human
rewards or punishments
af-
of
superhuman kind.
We shall have to look
at the manifestations
least so far as they are believed in) of
perhaps
influences,
Many
powers.
evil
taken as caused by
an
natural
evil spirits^
evil
(at
power or
calamities are
there are dsemoniac
and even possessions.
We
have for our
immediate purpose nothing to do with the explanation of such things, but have to state
facts, as traces of
it
is
is
not the only
gious subject.
religions
a preternatural revelation.
But, though revelation

religion,
them as
'
We
the principal factor in

one.
Man
find in all religions a
is
the
more or
developed religious psychology, something on the

gin of man, his
life,
spirit,
soul,
reli-
less
ori-
the great problems of
the temptations from within and without, a spi-
ritual life contrary to the natural
life,
sin,
sickness,
22
death, the
life
hereafter
as topics of almost every
all
religion.
Lastly,
we see many things done through the
in-
as an expression of the relation
fluence of religion
between man and the spiritual world, performances

which have no other meaning whatever.
we
of such
see in all the
temples,
Indications
altars,
sacrifices
and
mineral,
(human, animal), offerings (vegetable
wine, spirits, etc.), vessels used for sacred purposes,
and ornaments,
clothes
and
tions of gods
curses,
blessings,
idols
oaths,
other purifications,
as faith,
we
mediums,
We
devotion,
judge from
to
by a
of a peculiar character,
respects from our
all
common
inspirations,
these facts,
life
saints,
martyrdom,
abstinence,
holy scriptures and
find
priests,
find peculiar religious
Eeligion,
life
and watchings and
modes of augury and
different
clairvoyance and ecstacy.

virtues,
meet with prayers,
fastings
divination, sorcery, charms,
etc.;
and other representa-
We
spirits.
is
different
whose face
is
etc.
animated
in
many
towards
earth and whose connexions are with the mundane
world ; but religion has her face towards heaven,
i.e.
to
the supramundane (though immanent), the Spiritual,

the Divine world.
We
China.
shall
see all these things verified even in
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY.
23
III.
From
religion
theology.
Religion
we have
is
carefully
to
nature, theology
distinguish
is art, i.e.
not
a necessary growth out of the nature of the human

soul, but it is explanation and structure, a deed of
the intellect of man.
The
religious
and
facts
intellectual interpretations, the religious ideas
and systems
theological developments
are very different things.
theology
is
quently in
most perfect systems always
Mfiller
acknowledges
upon them,
intellectual science
subject to the laws of reason,
its
Even Max
in
As an
built
their
and the
(p. 17)
and
is
conse-
rationalistic.
that religion
is
certain sense necessarily, because naturally, con-
tradicted by reason.
can never become
Theology and
identical,
adequate to each other.
In
religion, therefore,
but only more or less
Max
Miiller's
lectures,
however, religion and theology run, imperceptibly but

continuously, one into the other.
not
Max
the
same
Miiller's alone
disease.
This serious fault
our whole age
is sick
is
from
There are only very few booksj
24
if
any, written on religion in general or
on the
religion
of a certain nation, where mistakes of this kind are
Views and theories of renowned or obscure
avoided.
They may, perhaps, be of some

us towards a better understanding of the mean-
authors are not religion.

help to
may
ing of a strange religious practice or idea, but they
which
also,
find
is
among
We
oftener the case, be misleading.
the adherents of every religion different
explanations of the same religious facts, different views

in regard
These
the same religious ideas.
to
may be
ferences of theological opinion
dif-
tolerated by
a religion and remain more in books than in public

as
is
now
the case in China
or they
may
life,
lead to the
formation of different churches and creeds, as in India
Yet
and among Mohamedans and Christians.
all
and not to
these controversies belong to theology

religion.
do not mean to disparage theology
necessary
more
man cannot remain
intuitive state of religion;
to understand
theless,
what
what he
is
in
theology
is
the primitive and
he must make attempts
doing and believing.
I think of greatest
importance
is
Neverto raise
the voice* again and again against every identification

of theology with religion, which mistake
damage
Nearly
to the churches
all
and
is
doing great
to scientific endeavours.
the works written on religion belong, with
very few exceptions indeed, to theology or philosophy,
but not to religion.
They may be
religious
an
in
eminent sense, yet so far as they contain reflections
and reasonings they have

religion itself.
gion, religious
to
Where reason
life
will
be distinguished from
gains the sway over
reli-
turn shallow and more super-

stitious in other respects.
sult of every
of religion.
effect
and
will
be a sure re-
undue entrance of reason upon the domain

Reason has only a purifying and healthy
on religious
religion
Scepticism
25
life if it
clears
up the true nature of
But this nature and these laws

must be found by induction from religion itself; it
must be proved that such laws are really the laws
its laws.
Too
of religion.
often metaphysical or even physical
notions have been smuggled
By a
in.
reason superstition can be dispelled, as

to be contrary to
legal use
it will
of
be shown
the nature and the laws of
true
religion.
Much
has been spoken of a natural or rational
which commonly meant a religion developed
religion,
from the laws of logic without any other than formal

contents a mere negation of revealed religion a ra-
tional belief, Denkglaube, "
which thinks to believe and
Other theologians and philosophers
believes to think."
assumed a universal primitive

says of
is
it (p.
137),
only another
"This
name
revelation.
Max
Miiller
universal primeval revelation
for natural- religion,
and
it
rests
on no authority but the speculations of philosophers."

This
is
true in so far as the two terms have been used
as synonyms.
In another sense revelation
and the human mind the congenial
soil (p.
is
the
germ
133, 140) of
religion.
" The controversial writings of

thought and
faith,
all
different schools of
claiming to be orthodox, yet
from each other like day and night," Max

Miiller (p. 110) calls, " The inevitable parasites of
differing
theological literature."
From
the statements above we
may
take warn-
26
ing not to call the science of religion "theology."
Max
have to disagree with
who makes com-
Miiller,
parative theology the equivalent, or synonymous with
Comparative theology ought to
comparative religion.
compare the theological speculations of

times, the
all
nations and
problems they have treated, the methods
they have pursued and the results they have gained.
Comparative
to
however, ought to confine itself
religion,
a comparison of
all religious facts
may
Theoretical theology
stated above.
and
beliefs, as
investigate
the metaphysical questions connected with both
gion and
Any
theology.
confusion
distinct seienees is unscientific, will
reli-
of these three
produce miscon-
ceptions and lead to misunderstandings.
Another source of serious mistakes we have yet to

mention, of which
is,
Max
Miiller,
however,
epochs and from far differing parties.

if
that
is free
the promiscuous use of authorities from different
one
may
vails to
a nauseating extent in works on the religion
of China;
future.
Such nonsense,
use the most appropriate expression, pre-
ought not to be tolerated in the
this
What should we say if a Chinaman in England
or America were to write a book on Christian Cosmo-
gony and mix up
in it the views
of
modern
writers
on Geology and Darwinism, together with quotations

from church-fathers, scholastics, gnostics, and passages
from the Bible
or
if
one were to take the views of
David Strauss as those of Christ, because they are

generally (though fortunately with
many exceptions)
in Germany
No
by the educated classes

Chinaman has yet done such a thing, but Western
believed in
scholars
have done
it
in
works on China.
It
may
RELIGION AND SCIENCE.

suffice
27
to mention the subject without exposing any
author.
As I have already criticised Max Muller very

and as
freely,
under obligation to state some further
1 shall be
disagreements in the following chapters, I take here a
welcome opportunity to express a sincere agreement

with
Max
parative
Miiller's
chapter on false analogies in com-
theology (p.
recommend
it
to
all
283-334),
and would warmly
who undertake
to write on similar
topics.
IV.
By
Science a systematic knowledge of nature
Nature we
here understood.
ter,
its
changes.
is
the realm of mat-
various forms of existence, appearances and
The human mind desires to understand the

itself r man attempts to interpret nature
world around
He may
call
in
two
is
then understood when
do so
mind, nature
different
ways
starting from his

it
is
made
to
conform to mind, the laws of mind are shown to be

those of nature
nature
is
thus only another appearance
of one and the same mind.

interpretation of nature.
from the external
This
is
the idealistic
The other explanation
realities of
nature
all
facts,
starts
though
represented by the mind, are supposed to be beyond
28
laws established by induction, and mind
then
itself is
only another appearance of nature or matter.
made
This
made and
Abstractions are
any influence of the mind.
is
sults of
both interpretations are, of course, very
we may
ferent,
reason
The
the realistic interpretation of nature.
is,
say,
exclusive of each
delusion of idealism that for
mind
dif-
The
other.
they are both onesided and delusive.
re-
It
is
unconsciously and
commonly the human mind is taken and not the universal mind (different from a mind of the universe)
It
a delusion of realism that nature
is
the cause of mind and mind
mere
We
abstraction, different
is
may be
tions
Religion,
difficulties.
by any explanation of nature,
perhaps even less than poetry.
perfect
considered
from the real human mind.
here merely point to these
itself is little affected
is
thus more or less a
But
religious specula-
" Im-
upset by scientific researches.
and transitory doctrines
in theology can,
how-
ever, as little disprove religion as provisional theories

11
in science can discredit nature. *
Religion shows the connexion of the soul with an-
There
other world.
is,
however, a relation between
this Spiritual world, or the divine world, or
we may
ever
relation
call it,
may be
Mr. Fairbairn
God, howThis
and the material world.
conceived under forms the most varied.

says, (p. 22), "
Man
borrows from na-
ture the symbols by which he tries to articulate his

faith.
The phenomena
of generation have
suggested
an emanational relation of Deity to the world
Fairbairn, Studies in the Philosophy of Religion
tory, p. 72.
those
and His-

of organic
life
29
an immanent, those of adaptation an
architectonic.
" The deistic idea and the cosmic form may thus so
grow together as to seem indissoluble aud even identical.
In ages when science is active and progressive,
it
may
so revolutionize our knowledge of natural pro-
cesses and laws as to break up our cosmic conception,
and change
into antiquated errors the forms in which
the theistic idea had been expressed.
cosmic notions
old
gical formulae, but
may
This decay of
involve the decay of theolo-
need not touch the
truth
they
provisionally expressed."
" The world needed
God
God
(p.
Men
were theists before they were
in
the Being of
either
ff.)
to
become intelli-
did not need the world to become credible.
gible
God
before they had
a creator or a cause.
was conceived as
scientists, believed
And
thought of
even where he
creator, he was not conceived as a
manufacturer or mechanic, but as a maker by a process as
natural and immanent as the thinking, the
speech and the, volition of man.
Any
interpretation
of nature that leaves out any creative and causal
energy or force must be inadequate.

tion of
God
Any
concep-
that leaves out His active qualities, His
energies and their action, must be insufficient."

far all is true
and
well said,
and has
my
full
So
consent.
I must however ask permission to disagree with Mr.
Fairbairn's following sentence, "Nature realises our

God " has the idea no reality elsewhere ?
idea of
" shows His energies in action, His life in contact

with ours." True again, if we do not presume that
God's energies are, as
it
were, exhausted in nature.
30
We
must at
guard against here confining
least
the meaning of nature to the nature of this world,
Our
subject to our sense-perception.
which
is
(soul)
has a nature too;
God
Spirit
himself has a nature,
the inaccessible light, the eternal glory that surrounds
His divine nature
him.
the adequate manifestation
is
of the divine Being, the outside of the inner thought of
God, the external formation of the eternal ideas, a

world which
is
an emanation of God, not a creation,
as the material world
is.
Only by thus distinguishing
God which emanates
the nature in
His
only-begot-
ten son, the " brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person"
from
this material
ed world, can we escape pantheism in
Though God
ous forms.*
is
and
in
it,
as
the source of
Him
all life is in
im-
is
close connection with
as every action
life,
vari-
not separated from the
material world, though he to a certain degree
manent
creat-
all its
Him
conneeted with
is
the supreme cause, yet this world in
all
its
beauty, etc. cannot reveal the fulness of the riches of
the divine Being.
God
nature of our world.
is
also eminent, high above the
This world
is
only one of the
manifestations of God's Being, not the Being of
Besides the manifestation of
itself.
nature of this world

is
is
God through
not yet finished,
i.e.
God
the
this world
yet in a state of imperfection, partly even of cor-
ruption.
Science takes nature as
only so, but more as
nature which
Franz
is
ought to be.
it is,
religion not
Religion wants a
in fact the revelation of Spirit, in
and
may be said to be the characteristic feature of

Brader's philosophy in distinction from Schelling's.
This view
v.
it

through which mind can manifest
all its
most perfect manner without ever
31
powers
in the
suffering from the
pernicious influences of this nature.

It is not alone the Christian religion that speaks
of another world where no more death and corruption reign, where the nature
Spirit
and God.
completely subject to
is
Other religions also affirm that the
abode of the gods
is
a region where other laws of
existence reign, and that death cannot reach the gods,
or
if it
does for a time, death
has not yet reached
its
is
to be overcome in the
Our human existence even
future by one of the gods.
highest form of perfection, the
natural development has been checked by
breaks
and a new beginning
it off,
Chinese are not at
all
rials in
this respect.
sin,
death
to be made.
The
ignorant of this feature of
furnishes us with mate-
I shall
however not enter into
details at present, but point to another fact.
of mind over nature.
by help of a
special
know
of a peculiar
freed from the bonds of the body,

told,
Perhaps
power
Not only may the mind (soul),
preparation, become temporarily
without exception
all religions
reli-
who
It is again Licius
gion.
is
and facts are related
but we are also
in proof, that the
mind can
gradually gain a miraculous power over the body so

far that the
body seems no more'subject
laws but must follow unconditionally the

its
master.
this respect,
many such
to physical
will
of mind,
Taoism is the most developed system in

Buddhism and even Confucianism contain
elements.
We
have only to remember the
miracles wrought by their Saints.
Though
of Confu-
cius himself no miracles are recorded, yet the power of
the Saint
is
described as equal to
Heaven and Earth.
32
third instance
consists
of nature are considered as
many phenomena
under the influence of
some persons who exert a magical
Not only are there rainmakers

the
common
of ancient
belief
power of the
in the
mind even over external nature
power over
in all countries,
it.
but
and modern Confu-
cianism maintains also that any irregularity in the

administration of social and political
life will
produce
We
a corresponding disorder in the course of nature.

see the idea clearly enough
nature
the body of mind (Spirit), as the
human mind.
That
man
one of which
under the
is
in-
this
has a clear and immediate concep-
own mind as the mind

many superstitions.
misled to take his
is
This
nature.
is
of
the source of
Other heathen, however, are

there
of the
is
must be the universal

forgotten, and as the human mind is the only
is
tion he
considered to be
human body
The whole nature
fluence of mind.
mind
is
fully
aware,
that
another mind in nature than in us, that there
is
are even different minds in different parts of nature.
Man
then attempts to influence those minds by his
Thus man
mind.
directly,
them
not himself influence nature
will
but by influencing the gods he
to do in nature
will
induce
what he wants to be accom-
different
The mean% used

among different
religious
means, conformity of the heart to the
plished.
of the gods
what
is
to arrive
people.
at this end are
Some
allow only
will
others use moral means, perfection in
good, or holiness
others
contrivances, elixirs, etc.; but there
employ physical
is
besides used a
good deal of mere formalism, as enchantments, peculiar
rites,
symbols, etc.
The power of mind over

nature
evidently overrated in such religious pro-
is
even where a knowledge of the universal
ceedings,
mind
is
are not
33
The mistake
retained.
is,
that such people
more conscious of the important
fact,
that
Mind acts in accordance with the eternal

laws of His own nature (and will), but never with any
whimsical notion of a human being.
the universal
on the other hand, denies too much.
Science,
There are not only mechanical laws acting
mind
is
also acting
hind nature and
is
in
it
a personal
manifesting
and through nature.

not the least doubt that
myself entertain, therefore,
God answers
prayer.
will
wishes.
Mr.
J.
A. Froude*
even
unanswered
always be in accordance
human
with divine will and not exactly in accord with
says,
be-
is
Himself in nature
believe that no sincere prayer will remain
but the divine answer
in nature,
God
objects.
"is to expect a miracle.
"
To
pray," he
When we
pray for
the recovery of a siok friend, for the gift of any blessing, or the removal of
any calamity, we expect that
God will do something by an act of His personal

which otherwise would not have been done, that
suspend
will
and
effect,
will
He
the ordinary relations of natural cause
and
thing we pray
this is the very idea of

for
may have taken
may be
place.
It
a miracle.
The
given us, and no miracle
may be
given to us by
natural causes, and would have occurred whether we

had prayed or not. But prayer itself in its very
essence implies a belief in the possible intervention

of a power which is above nature." This is a clear
Short Studies on Great Subjects, 3
#
vols,, vol, I. p.
228,
;
;
THE SCIENCE
34
CHINESE RELIGION.
'F
statement of the
common
contains, however,
more thoughtlessness than thought,
more nonsense than

that to
call
disbelief of our
We
sense.
Every sickness
pect a
and to
interfere with it is
is
an attempt to suspend the
may
get well without medicine
sician implies
his
ble
The
effect.
to call a phy-
belief in the possible intervention of
power as being above nature.
how
ex-
to
is
a natural occurrence
ordinary relations of natural cause and

friend
It
could as well argue
a physician for a sick friend
miracle.
age.
It
scarcely credi-
is
made by their favourite

common sense perfectly under-
blind people are
People of
theories.
stand that a physician acts by natural agencies as well

as the disease
is
brought on and developed by such
the physician's work consists in an intelligent direction
There
of one natural agency against another.
effect,
and
but by the superiority of mind above nature
some natural agencies
may be brought
upon the desired point which

natural
way the wished-for
phenomena
man
visible to
will
in direct action
produce in the most
" There are nd
effect.
of which
it is
true to say
That
that they are governed by any invariable Force.
which does govern them
is
always some variable com-
bination of invariable forces.

difference in reasoning
But
makes
this
Observed.
There
is
the
all
on the relation of Will to
Law
this is the one essential distinction to be admitted
is
no
is
suspension of ordinary relations of natural cause
and
no observed order of facts which
not due to a combination of Forces
and there
is
no
combination of Forces whieh is invariable, none which

are not capable of change in infinite degrees.
senses,
and these are the common senses
in
In these
which
Law
is
35
used to express the phenomena of Nature, Law
is
not
rigid, it is
it is,
not immutable,
on the contrary,
it is
not invariable, but
pliable,- subtle
and various.
In
the only, sense in which- laws are immutable this immutability is the very characteristic
which makes them
subject to guidance through endless* cycles of design.
We
know
tainty
our own case.
this in
It
is-
the very cer-
and invariableness of the laws of Nature which
alone enables us to use them, and to yoke them, to our

service."
" Now, the laws of Nature are employed'.
in>
the
system of Nature in a manner precisely analogous to
we ourselves employ them. The diffiand obstructions which, are presented by one
that in which
culties
law in the way of accomplishing a given, purpose,

are met- and overcome exactly on the same principle
on which they are met and overcome by Man,

knowledge of other laws, and by resource
them,, that
is
by ingenuity
It cannot be too
much
id
viz*,,
by
in applying
mechanical contrivance.
a con-
insisted- on, that this is
clusion of pure science."*
knowledge and power of God were not
If the
far
superior to our very limited knowledge of the laws of
nature, etc., I should,, of course, think prayer useless.
But as
it
is,
nature, for
governor
on praying in spite of
I g<?
God
is
and
what He
laws of
not the slave of nature, but
its
the laws of nature are not dead machines,
but the working of His intentions

is will
all
is love,
God
is intelligence,
and has many ways to accomplish
purposes.
God who
could
not
hear
9
The Reign of Law, by the Duke
of Argyll, p. 100.
36
prayers would be less than man, for man has a great

For the present we may be
field left to free action.
God
glad that the real Christian
minded nor so weak
is
neither so narrow-
God
as the theoretical
of
some
Scientific writers.
one of the most important tenets of religion,

Though we have to guard
that nature is living.
against all superstitions connected with this point, yet
It
is
religion contains the truth, as it
Science
life
is
were,
instinctively^
however of high value, not only
but also to
religion, if it
keeps in
its
for practical
proper sphere
and does not venture beyond experience and proper

explanation of experience (sense-perception). The conflict
of religion and science
is
never a conflict of
reli-
gion and nature, but commonly a conflict of theories
on
religion (theology)
nature,
misnamed
and of hypothetical theories on
science, being in fact metaphysical
speculations.*
We
that
must, besides, become conscious of the fact
all science,
even the most
realistic
or objective,
depends on the mind and on the conditions of our

sense-perceptions.-f-
Where we
system, draw conclusions,
and the
results
etc.,
construe facts to a
there
mind
is
at work
are not nature but thought.
Fairbairn says well
(p.
103),
universe cannot escape from
Mr.
"Mind
in interpreting the
itself,
must begin with
* The Duke of Argyll, in The Reign of Law, might have

arrived at the game conclusion if he had gone on one step
farther.
For full harmony men are not yet ripe, there are differences of opinion in all departments of human knowledge, the
so-called exact sciences, even mathematics, not excepted.
f Comp. the excellent work, hy Dr. Herman Ulrici, Gott find
die Natur. Leipzig, T. 0. Weigel.

and what
thought,
The
thought
interpretation of nature
37
and
supplies
is
implies.
the interpretation of
thought by thought, the translation of ideas out of
a mystic, unspoken unwritten speech into the speech

of men. The reason science exhibits, but reflects the
reason nature embodies. The intelligible implies intelligence; what can be construed pre-supposes mind.'"
I
am
sure that no serious objection can be
assertion
tained in
Mr. Fairbairn explains
it.
pages more
method
is
made
the truth of German-Scotch Idealism
He
explicitly.
to this
is
con-
his idea on other
says (p. 92
ff),
"Process or
one thing, cause another (generally con-
founded by our modern
scientists).
process starts
at the lowest point and culminates in the highest;
begins with the least,
ends with the most perfect.
But the lowest does not explain the

sufficient
reason of
its
existence.
highest, is not the
The
cause must be
adequate, not only to the immediate, but to the
timate
effect,
must continue
active
ul-
and operative to
The genesis of a form is not explained when

it is shown how it came to be, but only when what
caused it to be is made evident. Evolution has done
the end.
the one, but not the other, has simplified our notion of
the creational method, but not of the creational cause.
For
evolution can allow no element to steal into the
effect that
cannot be traced to the cause.
evolved in the one was involved in the other.
What is
On this
principle,
mind, as the latest and highest result of the
creative
process,
creative cause."
cannot have been absent from the
In other words, of mind, reason,
self-
conscious voluntary and intelligent Spirit, or whatever
we acknowledge
of such kind, there
must be presup-
38
posed a cause
sufficient to
produce such an
the
effect,
highest intelligence must be latent, as a disposition, in
the
it
Then the question
element.
first
be latent at
and why did

years sooner
without
all
arises,
how
could
being caused to be
so,
development not begin millions of
its
What
its
the cause of the
is
com-
first
mencement of any evolution

All mechanical theories must confess their
ciency to explain
life
ineffi-
and the origin of things, or they
make nature a perpetwum
mobile, which implies that
everything has been going on eternally as at present.
There have always been the same elements and the

same powers, there must have been the same results.
This, of course,
ried
is
nonsense, or better consequence car-
ad absurdwm.
Evolution
nonsense too, because
is
presupposes
it
a beginning and an end, gives a description of a
and end, but
portion, lying between beginning
able to give a satisfactory
everywhere reason
and end of
mind,
explanation.
nature built on such ' premises
though
it
may be wrong
time
how
is,
not
how
God
as the source
explanation of
is
right in principle^
Mr. Fairbairn
in details.
"the grand
right in saying,
unfind
Any
Spirit,
this natural world.
is
We
theistic
is
problem of our
to prove the existence of God, but
to conceive His relation to the world."

I
think
one of the tasks of the science of
it
religion to state clearly
how
the different religions con-
ceive of God's relation to the world.
If there
one God believed
spirits etc., yet
there will in
invisible
all
in,
but many gods, or
is
not
cases be seen a relation between the
world and the
visible.
It
is
certainly of

greatest interest to get a
understanding of such
we may
Science,
knowledge and some
full
beliefs.
say, is as
much
very scientific, yet they
tinue in
most
the
in
it
another.
is
It
is
love and con-
Why?
way.
one and the sphere of
just the
is
religion, its sphere is not the
not a relation
fall in
unscientific
Because the sphere of love

science
contradictory to
Ladies and gentlemen
true religion as to true love.
may be
39
same case with
same with that of
between the mind and some
science,
objects, but
an engagement of my person as a person to other persons, or to something like personality.
Lately a work has appeared as volume XIII. of

the International Scientific Series (Henry S. King
Co., London),
whose
title is
&
very promising, " History
of the conflict between Religion and Science, by John
William Draper, M.D., LL.D."
The contents of the
book, however, do not meet any reasonable expectation

in
regard to
Preface
xiii.,
Dr.
Draper
its
title
page.
"I
first
direct attention to the origin
tells
us,
of modern science as distinguished from ancient, by
depending on observation, experiment, and mathematical discussion, instead of
show that
it
mere speculation, and
shall
was a consequence of the Macedonian
campaigns, which brought Asia and Europe in contact."

in the
Dr. Draper shows, however, that science, even
modern
sense,
had already existed long before
that time in Babylon and Nineveh, and the campaigns
making Europeans
acquainted with Asiatic civilization and stimulated
referred to
some minds
did
nothing
except
for further research.
" Then with brevity
40
and show
I recall the well-known origin of Christianity
advance to the attainment of imperial power, the
its
transformation
it
underwent by
its
incorporation with
Roman Empire.
paganism, the existing religion of the
clear conception of its incompatibility with science
xaused
was constrained to this by the
It
dria.
sities
to suppress forcibly the schools of Alexan-
it
of
Religion
its position.'"
is
political neces-
here at once the
Christian religion, and Christian religion

fact the policy of the
Roman Empire
hope Dr. Draper
made
is
in
paganised
or
grant that there,
Christianity.
was very
indeed of the Religion of Christ visible
little
in the policy of the
Roman Empire and
in the policy of the Papacy.
gion
will
not very much
That the Christian
reli-
not incompatible with science, even in the strict
is
modern
sense, is proved
by persons
like Copernicus,
many
Kepler, Newton, Pascal, Cuvier, Baer and
who were
others
pious Christians and eminent scientific men.
Dr. Draper ought then to have spoken not of religion

in general nor of the Christian
Roman church, and perhaps

the Roman hierarchy.
Dr. Draper himself says
religion,
but of the
even more correctly of
(p.
52),
"The
reign of
Constantino marks the epoch of the transformation

of Christianity from a religion into a political system,"
and
a
is
p. 329,
"
The Roman
Catholic Church
political
than a religious combination.
that
power
all
is
there is only the

striking detailed
lectual
in the clergy,
is far
more
Its principle
and that
for
privilege
of obedience."
description
of the depth
laymen
very
of intel-
degradation this policy of paganisation even-
tually led to,
is
given
(p.
48
ff.).

" The parties to the
open struggle;
formation
(!)
The
medanism.
'
relate the story of their
the
is
first
Southern Re-
or
point in dispute had respect to
the nature of God.

1
it
thus placed," Dr.
conflict
Draper continues, "I next

first
41
It involved
But where
the rise of
Moham-
here a conflict between
is
Religion and Science, that depends on observation,
experiment, and mathematical discussion
?
Have the
Mohamedans an experimental God? Or one demonstrable by mathematics ?
The second of Dr. Draper's
conflicts
is
remarkable
the same sense as the
in
" Those (Arabian) conquerors, pressing forward
first.
rapidly in their intellectual development, rejected the
anthropomorphic ideas
of
maining in their popular
more philosophical
the
nature
belief,
was a second
conflict,
re-
had long
ones, akin to those that
The
previously been attained to in India.

this
God
of
and accepted other
result of
that respecting the nature
We have to remember Dr. Draper

"
History
of the Conflict between Relipromised us a
of the soul."
gion and Science," yet he gives us again some metaphysical
speculations,
"theories
Emanation and
of
Absorption," which Dr. Draper pleases to take for

science; and the
anathema of the
Vatican Council
appears as Dr. Draper's " Religion "; on
209,
p.
it
is,
however, better termed "tyrannical acts of ecclesiasticism." " Meantime, through the cultivation of astro-
nomy, geography, and other
had been gained as to the

earth,
and as
sciences,
position
and
correct views
relations of the
to the structure of the world
Religion, resting itself on
and
since
what was assumed to be the
proper interpretation of the scriptures, insisted that
42
the earth
is
the central and most important part of
Dr. Draper
the universe, a third conflict broke out."
seems not to know that the most decided and perhaps
most ardent opponent of the new

the most scientific
man
of his century,
Religion had only very
Tycho de Brahe.
Eoman Church had some
endangered which aroused their opposition.
The Eoman Church

for
theory was
to do with the question,
little
but the authorities of the

interests
scientific
however, not more to blame
is,
her conservatism than other parties
in
theirs.
Every new discovery and invention has to overcome

more or less opposition from some quarters.
Dr.
M.D., knows doubtlessly a Httle of the
Draper, as
sentiments of allopathic physicians
Yet both
pathic practitioners.
scientific
courses
towards
homoeo-
parties claim
to be
medical scholars, having passed their regular

of study
and obtained the
"Jf.D." after their names.
right
Dr. Draper
to place
is also
quite right in saying, "its issue (the conflicts)
not
was the
overthrow of the Church on the question in dispute."

It was not the Church that would have been overthrown, not even a dogma of the Church, for there
never has been such a
" the earth
is
dogma
verse ;" what has been
in Christian creeds that
....
the central
overthrown
mere opinion of the ruling
part of the uniis
nothing but a
class of the
probably of a great majority
of the
Church, and
educated and
uneducated people of that time.
"In the
sixth century the prestige of Eoman

Christianity was greatly diminished by the intellectual
reverses it had experienced, and also by its
political
and moral condition,
It
was
clearly seen
by many

pious
men
43
that Religion was not accountable for the
false position in
which she was found, but that the
misfortune was directly traceable to the alliance she
had of
Roman
old contracted with
paganism.
The
obvious remedy, therefore, was a return to primitive
Thus arose the fourth
purity.
conflict,
known
to us
as the Reformation, the second or Northern Reforma-
The
tion.
form
special
assumed was a contest
it
respecting the standard or criterion of truth, whether

it
Church
to be found in the
is
The determination
or in the Bible.
a settlement of
of this involved
the rights of reason, or intellectual freedom.
who
the conspicuous
is
effect
his intention
man
Luther,
of the epoch, carried into
with no inconsiderable success
and at the close of the struggle it was found that

Northern Europe was lost to Roman Christianity.
1'
One
is
justly
surprised to
these sentences as
find
the description of a fourth conflict between Religion
and Science.
supposition.
Dr. Draper's very words confute his
Roman
"paganized Reli-
Christianity, a
gion," were in conflict with true
Christian
religion,
Church and Bible; external authority and conscientious conviction were found in opposition, but Luther
certainly
was more
and perhaps
religious
than many of his opponents; ho

adherents, though lost to
Roman
not lost to Christian religion.
less scientific
and his genuine

Christianity,
We
were
have to regard
Dr. Draper's book a failure both in regard to Religion
and
to Science.
The book
says nothing of the rela-
tion between genuine Religion
and true Science, but
speaks only of the bearing of a certain Church policy
towards some newly-starting
sciences,
and perhaps
44
towards some tendencies of more developed sciences.
We know very well that
the
Roman Church wants
to
be the only authority in the world, and that therefore

all
other authorities have to
Not only
presumption.
wage war againsb her
state governments, but even
reason and conscience are the perpetual antagonists

of
Thus not Religion or science
Rome.
is
the question
between Protestants and the Ultramontanes, but whether Christ
is
our Master or a sinner
whom
they
All pages in Dr.
please to call the 'infallible pope.''
Draper's book speaking of paganised Christianity are
and some
well worth reading,
might become useful to
all
careful meditation on
it
readers.
V.
RELIGION AND MORALS.

All religions inculcate precepts of morality, yet
the difference of the religions
is
perhaps more ap-
parent in morality than in other things.
It is of the
greatest interest to find out the true relation of each

religion to morality,
i.e.
the peculiar morals connected
We
with a given religion.

tinguish between
morals of
the
its religion.
have, however, to
dis-
morals of a nation and the
The morals
of the English peo-
ple are not equal to the morals of Christianity; those
of Buddhists not those of Buddhism.

influenced by religion or
Man
is
not
by the moral sense alone;
there are other motives in play, which
may
prove even
more powerful than those mentioned.

fore,
45
We
are, there-
not justified in drawing conclusions from the state
of morality of nations or individuals

of the religion they confess.
on the nature
may be
It
that religion
exerts no great influence on their hearts.
America
of the Spaniards in
Christian religion
is cruel,
The
cruelty
no proof that the
is
nor the iconolatry (worship
of pictures) of the Byzantines that the Christian
gion
is
reli-
but another form of polytheism, nor the sale
Romish Church, that the
of indulgences in the
Chris-
tian religion allows forgiveness of sins for money, etc.
Though any
action
man
of
always a fruit of his
is
must be judged by the
belief
and though the
fruits,
yet the belief of a time or of individuals
different
may be
from the religious belief to which an external
relation exists.
we
belief
From
the morality which
we observe
are justified in judging the character of the people;
of a religion only
if it
can be proved that the people
are, generally speaking, sincere adherents to their reli-
gion and
if
no other form of this religion
Nei-
exists.
ther the Eomish Church, nor the Greek, nor any of
the
Protestant churches represent the
Christianity, but each of
approximation towards
them
it.
We
full
idea of
a nearer or remoter
is
must know the
Spirit
of Christ, the most ethical holy Spirit, to enable us to
judge which form of Christianity
The same
is
the most Christian.
rule applies to other religions.
Morals have besides
different sources; all morality
does not bear a religious character.

all
We
find
among
nations some morals that are thought independent
of religion, perhaps in contradiction to local religion.
Such morals may have found
their formulation
and
46
foundation in the systems of philosophers, though their"

real source is always the public life of
men
we may
say the morals are the normal expression of our social
and
The aim
political relations, especially the former.
of such morality
human
society
is
and
make the
to
man
best of
for
the various requirements of
for
a State.
This kind of morality
no room
for
Some
religion.
may have
or
little
speaking
philosophers,
of morality as the highest development and end of

religion,
this worldly point of
them only subservient to a
to
is
have only
view
tolerable
religion
human
life
on earth, and as morals seem to answer this purpose

better than anything
far
above
religion.
We
else,
has quite another sphere.

not to
close
moral
immediate purpose
is
him
in
earth, but to bring
from above and prepare
for eternal happi-
All religious precepts must have this aim.

life
religion requires is not so
commanded by
"
religion, not
Thou
much
The
for worldly
shalt not steal "
is
because by stealing injury
done to a fellow-man and consequently the human
relation is disturbed or
it
extolled
is
communication with the Divine world, ensure the
as for religious purposes.
is
Its
make man happy on
blessings
ness.
morality
have to repeat again that religion
made
impossible, but because
shows covetousness after perishable things, breaks
the faith on Divine help, vanquishes the hope for a

treasure in heaven.
the reverse
is
Chastity
injurious
to
is
required, not because
one's
own body and
another person, but because our body
is
to
to be a temple
of the Divine Spirit and must as such not be defiled.

Religious morality
will
is
thus the realization of the Diving
and purpose in human
life.
As
far as
man
ac-
EELIGION AND MORALS.

complishes
self; his
his true
this,
mind and
he
destiny,
47
him-
sanctifies
hia sentiment, gradually his
whole
nature, are impregnated with the Divine Spirit

ethical union hetween
This process
is
man and God
i.e.
We
for
The
it.
by almost every
excellent in itself;
look at
man
idea of an
an elevation and transformation of
into a god, entertained
and
the
effectuated.
preliminary to a participation in the
Divine glory and qualifies

apotheosis,
is
its different
man
religion, is true
we must, however,
carefully
appearances in different religions.
see here again the close connexion between the
human
Only
Soul and the Divine world.
morality there
is,
for religious
consequently, a reward hoped for in
another world, and any immoral behaviour must of

necessity bring in punishment after death.
The common
secular morality cannot admit the
retribution in after
this
it is
life,
or, if
lity.
but confines
to leave
I regret very
We might
much
different expressions for these
"morals"
all
expectations to
a name
certainly in this world only.
clear enough.
two
life,
a man hopes
after death,
hope the idea

that
two kinds of mora-
try the expedient of confining the
to the worldly sphere,
is
we have not
term
and perhaps "ethics,"
or any other term, to the religious kind of conduct.
There can be no doubt that the term Morals
is
in its
usage more external and for this reason not liked in
Germany: many students
find,' however, " Christliche

Ethik (Sittenlehre) " and " Heidnische Moral " appro-
priate
expressions."
We
may thus
venture to dis-
tinguish between the two terms in the sense already

stated.
As one
of their characteristic features
that religious ethics regard
men
we see
especially as indi-
48
viduala
and give the greatest impulse to the utmost

Philoso-
development of a perfect ethical personality.

phic morals regard
men more
as members of society,
where individuality must be made subordinate and

personality
society
only of value as far
is
Such
and State.
Some
not be pressed too much.

individual
it
fits
itself
to
generalities must, however,

religions
go beyond
Christianity finds a higher perfection
life;
community of Saints, the close intercourse of

members among themselves. The Christian ethos
in the
its
is
more a
child of such intercommunication
private or individual
As
life.
than of
these communities are
not based on natural bonds of relationship, nor on
but only on the same
worldly motives,
belief
and
aim, they are educational as regards the individual
members and are

religious
life.
of great importance to a genuine
It is not the place here to enter far-
ther into this subject.
I must, however, not forget
to mention that Christianity sees

in the
Kingdom
of Heaven.
highest perfection
its
Each
individual
member
has there a place according to his individuality or personal character, and
all individualities
are in concord
with each other and penetrated by the Divine

so that all together
make a Heavenly
most perfect harmony and beauty.

perfect realisation of the
Spirit,
concert of the
There we see the
divine idea of
human
life.
Christian happiness consists in perfection, perfection of

one's
to
own human nature and
which we are related
in
of the nature around us,
some way.
Religious ethics, however, not only regulate hu-
man
actions,
but human sufferings and enjoyments
are not less under its control.
There are the common

enjoyments of
them
life;
how
does the special religion regard
which are allowed and how?
den and
hovrt
49
What
Which
are forbid-
peculiar enjoyments does the
Each
religion itself bring to the followers?
religion
has days of rejoicing, there are
celebrates festivals,
repasts connected with
some
sacrifices, there are pro-
cessions, theatres, etc.
It
of
is
very remarkable that the joys and pleasures
cherished by any religion, are scarcely toeated
life,
under the ethical point of view.
Yet
there
Of not
religion without such cheering features.
importance
human
in
is
no
is
less
the relation of religion to the sufferings
life.
What
gion for the different
comforts has the special
reli-
and how are they ethified?
trials,
There are also peculiar sufferings in connection with

religion
recommended, perhaps commanded, by
it,
as
abstinence, self-afflicted pain, castigations, penitence,

mutilations,
tains
abnegations of some or
death or martyrdom,
tions,
some
peculiarities
the actions of
what
is
man
it is
in
etc.
this
all
secular rela-
Every
religion con-
Regarding
respect.
not only of interest to
know
considered a duty, what a virtue, what a
vice,
but also how far man has a free determination, and

where fate or divine destiny put limits on him. How
man perform what is good by his own strength,

and where does he need Divine help, and in what way
far can
and
is
to
what extent
external
is this
granted to him
How
nature influenced by the moral
moral behaviour of man
far
or im-
Is there a perfect state of
Nature corresponding to the perfection of the moral

constitution of man, to holy life, and how is it described?
What
are the hindrances to the attainment
SO
of perfect holiness?
their remedies?
What
Are there
are their causes and what
privileged classes in society,
and why and how are they regarded as different?

What is considered as a normal standard for females
in distinction
from that of males
that of parents
To
all
for
for children from
subjects from that of rulers
these questions of ethics the different religions
give different answers.

ascribes to
itself
man
We
might say every
a somewhat differing relation to
of religion
religion
a different moral constitution and has

;
the influence
is
consequently
it
on man's moral constitution
very different, and partly from this cause result the

multifarious characters seen in individuals and nations
of different religions.
LAW
RELIGION AND
(AND POLITICS).
51
VI.
AND LAW (AND
RjELIGION
POLITICS).
All laws which are given for the conduct of
presuppose society,*
with other men.
course.
There
is
i.e.
Law
a constant intercourse of
men
man
intends to regulate this inter-
no law for Robinson Crusoe as long
as he lives alone on his island, but law begins as soon

as he finds another man.
law to the
inferior.
regulation in
nature
will
opposition.
will,
human
Law
The
will of the superior
itself has,
nature.
Any
is
its
law or
laws against
human
however,
arouse the powers of this nature to fearful
Human
nature consists not only in our
or reason, or feelings, but in our
whole mental
* The historical school (of jurisprudence, Savigny, etc.),

maintains that only the unconscious acting National-Spirit that
penetrates every Individual oan be regarded as the origin of
But this is only the subjective
language, custom and right.
There is, on the other side, a neoessity felt to establish
origin.
definite'rules for living together in a more or less orderly manDr. H. Ahrens, Juristisohe Encyclopaedic, Wien, 1855.
ner.
A. Trendelenburg in his " Naturrecht auf dem Grunde der Ethik"
7-83 developes the ethical, the physical (compulsory) and the
logical qualities of right.
52
and bodily
constitution.
primitive ages
we
find
This
moral and religious laws.
civil,
is
the reason that in
no distinction made between
Only gradually, when
became more complicated, a separation of the

H. Maine says,*
different kinds of law was effected.
society
"
We
can see that Brahminical India has not passed
beyond a stage which occurs
in the history of all the
families of mankind, the stage at which a rule of law
members
of such a society consider that the transgres-
sion of a religious ordinance should be
punished
and that the violation of a
penalties,
civil
this point has
The
(?).
In China
been passed, but progress seems to have
been there arrested, because the

tensive with
by
duty
civil
exposes the delinquent to divine correction.
ble
is
The
not yet discriminated from a rule of religion.
civil
laws are co-ex-
the ideas of which the race
all
difference
gressive societies
is,
is
capa-
between the stationary and pro-
however, one of the great secrets
which inquiry has yet to penetrate."
The cause
Stagnation
is,
Change and
of this difference
is
of course
meant.
however, only relative, never absolute.
also
some progress
laws of successive ages of
all
is
appearing in the
nations, even of the
Chinese.
It
is
of interest for our next purpose to find oul
which consideration, the

gious,
civil, political,
was predominating in the
first
moral or
reli-
appearance 0/
law among each of the different nations and tribes.t
* Ancient Law, p. 22.

t Prof. Dr. Bastian's works contain valuable materials, especially his " Die Rechtsverhaltnisse bei versohiedenen Volkern der
Erde<"
LAW
RELIGION AND
(AND POLITICS).
53
" Among the Hindoos,* the religious element in

law has acquired a complete predominance. Family
sacrifices
have become the keystone of
all
the
Law
of
Persons and much of the Law of Things. They have

even received a monstrous extension, for it is a plausible opinion that the self-immolation of the
widow at
herjhusband's funeral was an addition grafted on the

primitive sacra under the influence of the impression,
which always accompanies the idea of
human blood is the most precious

With the Romans, on the contrary,
sacrifice,
of
all
that
oblations.
the legal obliga-
tion
and the
The
necessity of solemnising the sacra forms no part
religious duty have ceased to be blended.
of the theory of
law,
civil
but they are under the
separate jurisdiction of the College of Pontiffs."
China
political
In
law and government have absorbed the
religious.
The
peculiarity of the laws will give to us valuable
indications of the
manner
in
society in those early days.
ration
which religion influenced
The way
in
which a sepa-
and moral laws from religion was

interesting to illustrate modern mental
of the civil
accomplished
is
development.
I have already given a few remarks on
law in general (Chap.

religious
and moral
I.),
and on the
law (Chap. V.).
difference
between
Civil, or I
may be
permitted to say, legal law I take as the expression of

the will of society, given by
its representatives, i.e.
by
those in authority, to the individual members of a

special society.
As
all
three kinds of law are expres-
sive of will or intention,
and are given to
H. Maine, Ancient Law,
p. 187.
direct the
54
men, their close relationship and long-continued

promiscuousness is not surprising. " So long* as ethi-
will of
science
cal
conduct,
to do with the practical regimen
was more or
less
saturated with
Like all the great subjects of
law.
it
it
had
was
originally
and as
it is still
was at
it
The
designated by the
first called,
Roman
was undoubtedly construed, to the
divines,
Eoman
modern thought,
incorporated with theology.
science of Moral Theology, as
of
Catholic
full
know-
ledge of its authors, by taking principles of conduct
from the system of the Church, and by using the

-
'
language and methods of jurisprudence for their ex-
While
pression and expansion.

it
was
inevitable
this process
went
on,
that jurisprudence, though merely
intended to be the vehicle of thought, should com-
municate
its
colour to the thought
itself.
Moral Theo-
logy, degraded into casuistry, lost all interest for the
leaders of European speculation

of
and the new science
Moral Philosophy, which was entirely
in the
path which the moral theologians had followed.

effect
hands
Protestants, swerved greatly aside from the
of the
The
was vastly to increase the influence of Roman

"
law on ethical inquiry."
Few
thingst in the history
of speculation are more impressive than the fact that
no Greek-speaking people has ever
felt itself seriously
perplexed by the great question of Free-will and Neces-
Legal Science
sity.:}:
is
Roman
creation,
and the
problem of Free-will arises when we contemplate a
H. Maine, Ancient Law, p. 337.
p. 342.
The Chinese have. See my translation
1
t
X
of Lioius, VI,
LAW
RELIGION AND
(AND POLITICS).
55
This
metaphysical conception under a legal ^aspect."
means order and

.
Where
there
is
definiteness of right
law among
a mere aggregation of
somewhat organised
men
more
must be a
individuals, but there
society.
This fact
overlooked in theories on law.

writer
and obligation.
there can be no
too often
is
As H. Maine
is
of clear conception on this point, I take the
liberty to give his view in full: he says, (p. 121) "
are
first
Men
seen distributed in perfectly insulated groups,
Law
held together by obedience to the parent.

parent's word, but
is
it
is
the
not yet in the condition of
those themistes which were analysed in the

ter in
first
chap-
which these early legal conceptions show them-
selves as formed;
we
find that they
still
partake of the
mystery and spontaneity which must have seemed to

characterise a despotic
at the
same
father's
commands, but that
time, inasmuch as they proceed from
sovereign, they presuppose a union of family groups in
some wider organisation.

is
The next question
is,
what
the nature of this union, and the degree of intimacy
which
it
involves?
It
is
just here that archaic law
renders us one of the greatest of
its services and fills

up a gap which otherwise could only have been bridged
by conjecture. It is full, in all its provinces, of the
clearest indications that society in primitive times
not what
it is
individuals.
assumed to be at present, a
In
fact,
and
was
collection of
in the view of the
men who
was an aggregation of families. The

contrast may be most forcibly expressed by saying
composed
it, it
that the wiit of an ancient society was the family, of
a modern society the
individual.
pared to find in ancient law
all
We
must be pre-
the consequences of
56
framed as to be adjusted to a
It is so
this difference.
It is there-
system of small independent corporations.
supplemented by the despotic
fore scanty, because it is
commands
of the heads of households.
which
ous, because the transactions to
ceremoni-
It
is
it
pays regard
much more than the

between individuals. Above
resemble international concerns

quick play of intercourse
all
has a peculiarity of which the
it
full
importance
It takes a view of life
cannot be shown at present.
wholly unlike any which appears in developed jurispru-
Corporations never
dence.
tive
the patriarchal or family

inextinguishable
liar
This view
die,
and accordingly primi-
entities with
law considers the
which
deals,
i.e.
and
as perpetual
groups,
is
it
closely allied to the pecu -
aspect under which, in very ancient times, moral
The moral
attributes present themselves.
elevation
and moral debasement of the individual appear

confounded with, or postponed
offences of the group to
If the
sum
community
to,
which the individual belongs.
sins, its guilt is
much more than
of the offences committed by its
crime
is
to be
the merits and
a corporate act,
members
and extends
in its conse-
quences to many more persons than have shared in

actual perpetration.
vidual
is
If,
on the other hand, the
conspicuously guilty,
it
is his
and sometimes
for him.
its
indi-
children,
his
who
suf-
kinsfolk, his tribesmen, or his fellow-citizens,

fer with him,
the
the
It thus happens
that the ideas of moral responsibility and retribution

often seem to be
more
clearly realised at very ancient
than at more advanced periods,

group
is
immortal, and
definite, the primitive
its liability
mind
is
for,
as
the
family
to punishment in-
not perplexed
by the
RELIGION AND
LAW
(AND POLITICS).
57
questions which become troublesome as soon as the

individual
conceived as altogether separate from the
is
One
group.
step in the transition from the ancient
and simple view of the matter to the theological or

metaphysical explanation of later days
is
marked by
the early Greek notion of an inherited curse.
The
bequest received by his posterity from the original

criminal was not a liability to punishment, but a liability
to the
commission of fresh offences which drew
with them a condign retribution
and thus the respon-
family was reconciled with the newer
of the
sibility
phase of thought which limited the consequences of

crime to the person of the actual delinquent.*
It
would be a very simple explanation of the origin
of society
if
we could base a general conclusion on the
hint furnished us by the Scriptural, example already
adverted to (the Patriarchs), and could suppose that
communities began to exist wherever a family held

together instead of separating at the death of
archal chieftain.
Home
its patrir
In most of the Greek States and in
there long remained the vestiges of an ascending
series of
groups out of which the State was at
constituted.
The Family, House, and Tribe
Romans may be taken
as the type of them,
are so described to us that

ceiving
we can
and they
scarcely help con-
them as a system of concentric
circles
have gradually expanded from the same point.

elementary group
mon
*
is
These facts
may
The
The
be welcomed as the key to a satisfactory

in connection with the Christian
the difficulties
doctrine of hereditary sin.
of
which
the Family, connected by com-
subjection to the highest male ascendant.
solution
first
of the
58
aggregation of Families forms the Gens or House.

of
The aggregation
The
Houses makes the Tribe.
aggregation of Tribes constitutes the commonwealth.*
Are we at liberty to follow these indications, and to

lay down that the commonwealth is a collection of per-
common
sons united by
of an
original family?
descent from the progenitor
Of
this
we may
at least be
certain, that all ancient societies regarded themselves
as having proceeded from one original stock, and even
laboured under an incapacity for comprehending any

reason except this for their holding together in polk
The
tical union.
fact,
history of political ideas begins, in
with the assumption that kinship in blood
sole possible
tions."
ground of community in
Such a view, based on
solid facts,
be multiplied from ancient Chinese
is
the
political func-
which can
history,
is
the
more important and enjoyable as almost all writers

on natural \a,w,jus naturalis, have made the mistake
of considering
man
in abstracto and the relations be-
tween men in the same
light.
The
result could be
nothing but an abstract notion of what

(state of nature)
and of what
is right,
is
natural
and hence laws
so abstract that they could lead fanatic adherents to

revolution
and abrogation of
positive laws, but could
never qualify them to establish those laws in society
with any positive results.
"The
philosophers of France, in their eagerness
to escape from what they deemed a superstition of
* This was exactly the case in ancient "China.

Even from
the beginning of the Chow dynasty down to the present day we
see in Chinese history principally a contest of different Gens or
Houses.
RELIGION AND
LAW
(AND POLITICS).
59
the priests, flung themselves headlong into a super-
Those are few
stition of the lawyers
who
deny that
will
it
most
helped
powerfully
to
bring about the grosser disappointments of which the

first
French revolution was
or intense
all
stimulus,
but universal
to
at the
of mental
vices
time,
gave birth,
It
fertile.
the
disdain
habit
of positive
law, impatience of experience, and the preference of
& priori
to all other reasoning.
In proportion too as
this philosophy fixes its grasp
on minds which have
thought
less
than
anarchical."*
distinctly
and
others
with smaller observation,
It
aggregation of individuals, nor

tion of such individuals.
is
No
it
carefulness is
State
It
is
State
is
a mere
even an organisais
organised society, an organisation of
the unit of an
many
organisa-
not a number of families which combine
to form a State,
if
become
important to be on
needed when the original form of States
brought under consideration.
tions.
to
is
Some more
our guard in this respect.

especially
is
is
themselves
fortified
tendency
its
of the same
surnames
munities
may be
such united families form a clan,

descent, a
community
if
of different
but the union of several clans or comthe beginning of a State as soon
as the different organisations are organised again so

to
make up each other's

way members of a
in this
and
become
greater body.-f-
" Even
deficiencies
* H. Maine, Ancient Law,

p. 87.
t "It is almost a necessary habit of thought to regard the
State as a moral being, possessed of a will, a conscience, and
moral responsibility." The Science of Law (p. 404) by Sheldon
Amos. " The idea of the State is the realization of the universal
man in the individual form of a people." A. Trendelenburg,
Naturrecht, 151.
60
ancient
Law knows
It
is
concerned not with Individuals, but with Faminot
lies,
next to nothing of Individuals.
with
Even
it
but
beings
groups.
when the law of the State has succeeded in
permeating the small

it
human
single
had
originally
into which
of kindred
circles
no means of penetrating, the view
takes of Individuals
curiously
is
that taken by jurisprudence in
different
from
maturest stage.
its
The life of each citizen is not regarded as limited

by birth and death, it is but a continuation of the
'
existence of his forefathers, and
it will
born in the world

either as
in
not born as an abstract man, but
is
male or as female, and has thus already
designed to him a special sphere of
grow on
be prolonged
Every man when
the existence of his descendants.'"
trees,
Men
life.
do not
nor are they produced from the ground,
but they are born as babies and have to be nursed and

educated by their parents.
We cannot choose our own
parents, but have simply to submit to their care and

authority.
Mr. Maine says
(p.
309) "I feel sure that
power over children was the root of the old conception

of power.'"*
We see at- once

members of a family
children
old
the great difference between the
male
and female
ones and young ones.
parents and
Any
law that pays no regard to such natural

is
mere nonsense.
Between
in
theory of
differences
health,
etc.
different families
beauty,
we see other
skill, intelligence,
moral
differences
qualities,
Such are the natural causes which establish

* Ancient
Law,
p.
250.
vari-
LAW
RELIGION AND
(AND POLITICS).
ous ranks of superiors and inferiors.
61
Every one
in
authority in the world has obtained his power by some
had above
superiority which he
became acknowledged by some
The propagation
men.
State, as
its
who keeps
we only wish
and which
of authority has, however, too
often been different from

ters little to us
others,
at least of his fellow-
But
foundation.
it
mat-
the highest authority of a
to find out the relation religion
takes in the organisation of each State.
I say of
each
State, for there has never been a State without religion.
We
have,
however, to distinguish
and
private
public religion, or, better, the religious functions in

private
and those
life
in public
The worship
life.
of
individuals bears a very different character from that

offered
by the functionaries of a
Everybody
State.
knows
this to
be the case in China even to the present
day.
What
kind of religious worship
is
commanded
by the State under consideration, and how

formed?
Were and
are the subjects
is
it
per-
at liberty
to
worship what they please and how they please, or are

they forced to follow the State-religion
Who
not
officials,
Has
religion
what
is
their relation to the
How
dent of the State, and where
law
We
What
know
far
is it
is
government
religion indepen-
subject to
common
religious offences are punished as crimes
that our modern legislation
this respect
are
any kind of organization acknowledged or
not by the government
are the
If they
principal functionaries of the religion?
from the ancient.
" It
is
is different in
also true that
the non- Christian bodies of archaic law entail penal

consequences on certain classes of acts and on cer-
62
tain classes of omissions, as being violations of divine
jurisprudence and commands.
The law administered
at Athens by the Senate of Areopagus was probably a

special religious code,
and at Rome, apparently from a
very early period, the Pontifical jurisprudence punished

adultery, sacrilege,
and perhaps murder.
therefore in the Athenian and in the
The conception of
torts.
States
There were also laws punishing
laws punishing sins.
duced the
There* were
Roman
against
offence
Qiott
pro-
of ordinances, the conception of
first class
offence against one's neighbour
produced the second,
but the idea of offence against the State- or aggregate
community did not at
first
produce a true criminal
jurisprudence."*
What
functions of religion are considered legal
and thence binding by the State government?

mention for example marriage, oath, etc. As it
I
is
not yet generally known that an oath, or any other

religious
for
ceremony, very often was the proper form
a contract,
Maine
(p.
quote
303),
again a passage from H.
"Ancient law
is
still
more
sug-
gestive of the distance which separates the crude form
of contract from
its
maturity.
At
first,
nothing
is
seen like the interposition of law to compel the per-
formance of a promise.
its
sanctions
is
That which the law arms with
not a promise, but a promise, accom-
panied with a solemn ceremonial.
Not only are the
formalities of equal importance with the promise
but they
are, if anything, of greater importance.
pledge
enforced
is
if
itself,
No
a single form be omitted or mis-
H. Maine,
p. 359.
RELIGION AND
LAW
(AND POLITICS).
placed, but, on the other hand,
if
63
the forms can be
shown to have been accurately proceeded
with,
it is
of
no avail to plead that the promise was made under

duress or deception."
Other questions which must be treated, are

religion
Have
been the cause of
political difficulties,
Has
there been persecutions of religion by the State,
and why?
Is a religion confined to one
spread over several countries?

pal means of propagation?
same
and how?
What
State or
are the princi-
Are the members of the

some connection
religion in different countries in
with each other, and how?

in the
same State?
Are there
And what
several religions
are the laws respecting
them?
" Religion*
is still
a powerful and perhaps, on the
whole, the most powerful influence, both in the con-
duct of the
of individual
life
persons
and
in
the
construction of corporate societies which are highly
organised in themselves, and possess
all
the solidity
and strength derivable from intense intellectual conBut

victions and highly-wrought emotional fervour.
these associated bodies of persons are in
numerous ; and
in
groups
States
no modern State are they capable of
being reduced to one or two.

of this
many
like
sort,
Thus, admitting that
the other groups already
alluded to, are natural elements in the composition of
the State,
it is still
difficult
problem to decide the
exact measure of support and control they should

severally
meet with at the hands of law.t
* The Science of Law, by Sheldon Amos, M.A., p. 134 ff.

t Prof. Bluntschli, Allgemeines Statsrecht, 3rd Ed. Vol. II.
He
p. 259, ff., distinguishes clearly between religion and church.
64
"In some important respects these religious bodies

from the other groups, family,
differ
county, and borough
village, parochial,
which have been previously ad-
verted to as affording subject matter for law.
Reli-
gious bodies almost invariably co-exist only by forced

efforts of
mutual toleration, while
co-exist apart
antipathy.
from
The
the other bodies
necessary thought of rivalry or
all
existence of any single family, village,
or country presupposes,
existence of a
all
number
almost as of necessity, the
Everything
of others.
is
pre-
pared for mutual help and co-operation, and these only

lack the stimulating presence of law to discover for
each
its
true relations to
all
the rest, and to the State.
" Religious bodies, on the contrary, for the most

part, subsist, in theory,
other.
an-
Their mutual condemnation of each other's
opinions and practices

tical
by the exclusion of one
life,
may be smoothed
over in prac-
through the personal virtues of members
But
or pre-eminent leaders of the several societies.

toleration,
at the best, can only be looked for as a
precious growth requiring the most anxious culture,
and by no means as an
essential
and natural condi-
tion.
"If these
religious societies
have to be brought
into that relation with the State into which
peculiar function of law to bring
all
it
is
the
the groups into
which the members of the community spontaneously

organise themselves, there are only a limited number
regards religion essentially independent of the State, but treats
1. How is the legal relation of the
in detail two questions
State to the religious life of individuals ? 2. How is its relation
to the existence and life of religious communities, churches and
:
sects ?
RELIGION AND
LAW
(AND POLITICS).
65
of courses to be adopted, between which a selection
must be made.
Thus, law
may
select for its peculiar
patronage a certain number of these societies according to their respective claims as grounded on the
num-
ber and wealth of their adherents, on the antiquity

of their pretensions, or on the apparent usefulness and
of
truthfulness
their tenets.
This patronage
may be
exhibited in conceding exemptions from general
civil
burdens to the ministers of the religious body favour-
ed
in
supplementing the salaries of the ministers from
public funds
or in according a peculiar
amount of pro-
tection to the property vested in the body.
"Or again, law may select for its peculiar patronage

one body out of
all
on the ground of
the rest, such body being chosen

its
past history in relation to the
general history of the country,
the selection of
being presumptively justified by
its
influence.
The patronage
it
present size and
in this last case is likely to
assume a more decided form than
in the former cases,
and those phenomena are produced which are exhibited in England.

sarily
The Queen
or
King must neces-
be a member of this Church.
ministers of this Church are
the legislature.
All the
chief
of one branch of
All the formularies of public worship
Act of Parliament.
are fixed by
ecclesiastical
members
All breaches of
duty are cognizable in special courts of
justice constituted
by the State
for this purpose.
All
the chief ministers of the Church, and a vast number

of the subordinate ministers are appointed
executive government of the day.
This
is
meant by saying that the Church of England

blished.
It
is
by the
what
is
is
esta-
obvious that " establishment " will have
66
meaning
different
same country at
"
for
different
A third method
every country, and for the
epochs in
that law
its history.
may adopt
complete neutrality with respect to
them
is
to
all religious
show
hodies,
same way as other corporate

bodies which are organized for any purely secular puronly treating
In this way, their rights of ownership would
pose.
be
in the
and the mutual
fully protected
ministers
liabilities
of their
and congregations defined by the general law

Certain supplementary laws, again,
of contract.
provide for the special registration of bodies
may
fulfilling
certain conditions, the result of which will be the concession
of privileges to
their
ministers for the per-
formance 6f certain important public ceremonials, as

marriages, and for the assurance of quiet and order in
the performance of public worship.
"
Which
of these methods* a State will adopt, for
the strengthening and regulation of the religious bodies
which
assist
much upon
in
its
own composition,
will
depend as
the actual condition of the country as de-
termined by
its
previous history, as upon conceptions
of ideal perfection or even of immediate expediency."
There
is
another point yet to be mentioned
connection with State-life

lation to religion.
that
is,
progress and
quote again H. Maine,
in
its re-
(p.
71),
" The tendency to look not to the past but to the

future for
types of perfection was brought into the
world by Christianity.
Ancient literature gives few or
* Dr. Hermann TJlrici, in his " Grandzaege der praktischen

Philosophic, Naturrecht, Ethik und Aesthetik," says (Vol. I. p.
486), "The State has to connect itself with religion and religiousness, but to separate itself from churches and denominations."
RELIGION AND
no hints of a
LAW
(AND POLITICS).
belief that the progress of society is
necessarily from worse to better."
ism
I just
happen to see a
Moslem* can
gamy,
up
lift
slavery,
67
On Mahomedan-
different
remark.
"No
his voice in condemnation, of poly-
murder, religious war, and religious
persecution, without condemning the Prophet himself,
and being cut
off
from the body of the Faithful.
The Moslem may concede
the prejudices of the
to
Giaour, and institute so-called reforms, or even set up
a seemingly liberal constitution but at heart he must,

and does, remain the same as ever.'' Similar things
;
may be
said of the Prophets of other religions, but not
of Christ.
I give here as
is
an appendix what in our own time
understood by religious liberty .t

1.
own
The jus
confessionis, the right to set
confession of faith, provided that
it
up one's
contains no-
thing against the reverence to God, the obedience to
the laws, the loyalty to the State and the peace with
the fellow-citizens.
2.
The
jus sacrorum, the regulation of public
worship, liturgies, etc.

3.
The
jus
sacerdotii,
examination, ordination
and appointment of ministers.

4.
The jus regiminis, the organisation of the
constitution and corresponding administration.
5.
The jus
instructionis religiosce, to give reli-
* See Saturday Review, 1878, p. 150.

f See Herzog's Real-Encyklopdie, Vol. XII.
concise compendium of Ecclesiastical Law in force in
Germany is given by Julius Bender in his Repetitorium des
geaammten gemeinen Rechts, 1875, p. 365-398.
68
The
gious instruction.
father has the right to deter-
mine the religious education of his children.

6.
The
discipline,
7.
jus
the
disciplines,
provided no
civil
right
of religious
penalties are inflicted.
The jus jurisdictions
religiosce,
the right of
jurisdiction in inner religious matters.

8.
The jus patrirnonis, the right of property, hut
subject to the
civil
laws regarding acquisition of pro-
perty, etc.
We
laws and
open
see here a great field

politics, as well as for
for students of
students of the Science
of religion.
VII.
RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION.
Many
explanations are given of the meaning of
civilization.
do not wish here to enter into any
learned expositions, but shall take civilization as simply
relating
to
manners.
manners are more or

rude and repulsive.
man
less refined
Nations are called
and war show, as
their
manners
sible,
a benevolent not a malevolent
is
some order
in peace
in
is
what they do.
taken for granted that there
is
civil
if
and obliging
spirit,
It is
his
not
civilized
if
far as pos-
and
now
if
there
generally
no nation in the world
without some kind of religion, but there are many

nations and
We
see,
tribes
said
to be
69
without
civilization.
however, at once that we cannot speak of
any human beings as absolutely without

without any good manners.
i.
e.
is
above a mere vegetating
from brutes, he
more
life,
civilization,
In so far as
and as he
is
man
different
The human mind exerts

over human passions. Civiliza-
is civilized.*
or less influence
tion differs according to the degrees of this influence.
The motives by which the mind
is
moved
to restrain
the passions and bring other agents into play,
again
differ
storm on the shore of a foreign country,
by the natives but treated kindly,
it
may
cast by a
If a stranger,
very widely.
is
not killed
may be from
fear
of the gods, from fear of revenge by men, or from fear

of the laws of the country, yet
it
may be from
of sympathy or from something else,

sign of civilization.
Some
also called half- civilized.
it is
a feeling
certainly
nations, as the Chinese, are
They are
called so because
acts of brutality are nearly as frequent as those of
benevolence, the manners are
civil
to a great extent
towards their own people, especially of the influential

but towards foreigners and unprotected per-
classes,
sons they show rude and barbarous manners.

also true
when we compare
their
manners
in
war
It is
etc.
with the manners under the same circumstances in

* Oscar Peschel, Volkerkunde, says, " Even a fraction of
mankind is yet to be discovered without a more or less rich Vocabulary and Grammar, without artificially sharpened weapons
and various implements (vessels) and without the knowledge of
making fire." Sir John Lubbock's statement is then refuted.
See p. 139
ff., third Edition.

Prof. T. G. Miiller, Geschichte der Americanischen Urreligionen, distinguishes between " Kulturvolker und Wilde," and
thinks (p. Id) the difference in food and labour between them
essential
and determinative.
70
Those countries which are comChristian countries.

monly called uncivilized exhibit again a great variety
in their manners.
We
no nation, nor any
tribe,
find, generally speaking, that
nor even any individual,
al-
together conform in their manners to another nation

or tribe or individual.
Human manners show
We
variation as the leaves of trees.
as
much
may, however,
discover some general forms or types in the peculiarities of
manners as
in the
shape of leaves, and thus form
larger groups.
The
manners may be from
origin of any kind of
various sources, and points, in
many instances, to the

Some of these man-
remotest antiquity of a people.

ners
all
may be the
results of the morality of the people;
manners, however, show the peculiarity of the senti-
ments of the human heart.
As
and
religion especially
primarily acts on the sentiments of
man we
see at once
the close relation of the religion of a people to their
manners, that
is,
to their civilization.
The
subject
has, however, not yet been properly investigated, and

writers, therefore,
all
who have not yet
fluence of religion in their heart
upon
their
own manners show a
for
the
in-
disposition either to
deny such an influence or to misrepresent
up
felt
and from thence
it.
an example a very able and erudite
I take
writer of
our time, Mr. Henry Thomas Buckle.*
Mr. Buckle seems to exclude altogether the
reli-
gious factor from civilization ;t he says, "This double

* History of Civilization in
p. 159,
England, third Edit., Tol.
I.,
ff.
f " The character of religion in national and moral respects

the greatest influence on the whole mental and partly on the
economical state of things" is the opinion of a statesman of
is of

movement, moral and
71
essential to the
intellectual, is
very idea of civilization and includes the entire theory
To be
of mental progress.
duty
is
willing to
know how
the moral part; to
is
perform our
to perform
it
the intellectual part; while the closer these two
parts are knit together, the greater the harmony with
which they work
and the more accurately the means
are adopted to the end, the more completely will the
scheme of our
be accomplished, and the more
life
we lay the foundation for the further

advancement of mankind
" Whatever the moral and intellectual progress
securely shall
of
men may
be, it resolves itself not into
a progress
of natural capacity but into a progress, if I

say,
of opportunity
that
is,
may
so
an improvement in the
circumstances under which that capacity after birth
comes into play.
Here, then,
The progress
whole matter.
lies
is
the gist of the
one, not of internal
power, but of external advantage
"On
this
account
it is
evident, that if
we look
at mankind in the aggregate, their moral and
intel-
regulated by the moral and
intel-
lectual
conduct
is
own time. There

many persons who will rise above those
and many others who will sink below them.
lectual notions prevalent in their
are of course,
notions,
But such
cases are exceptional, and form a very small
proportion of the total amount of those
who
are nowise
deepest learning and much experience.

See Robert von Mohl
" The
Encyklopsedie der Staatswissenschaften, 1859, p. 24.
personal foundation of Morality goes back into religion." Ad.
Trendelenburg, Naturrecht, 171.
Compare also the article " The Social Influence of Christianity" in Saturday Review, 1878, p. 240, ff.
72
remarkable either for good or for

majority of
neither very foolish
An immense
evil.
men must always remain
a middle
in
state,
nor very able, neither very virtuous
nor very vicious, but slumbering on in a peaceful and
much
decent mediocrity, adopting without
difficulty
the current opinions of the day, making no inquiry,

exciting no scandal, causing no wonder, just holding
themselves on a level with their generation, and noise-
conforming to the standard of morals and of
lessly
knowledge common to the age and country in which

they
live.
"Now,
it
requires but a superficial acquaintance
with history to be aware that this standard

stantly
changing, and that
same even
in the
successive
generations
is
most similar countries, or
in
the same country.
in
con-
never precisely the
it is
two
The
opinions which are popular in any nation, vary in
many
respects almost from year to year; and what
in one period is attacked as a

is
in
paradox or a heresy,
another period welcomed as a
which, however, in
its
sequent novelty.
This extreme
ordinary standard of
turn
human
is
sober
mutability
actions,
they
may
and
intellectual
in
the
shows that the
conditions on which the standard depends

selves be very mutable,
truth;
replaced by some sub-
must them-
and those conditions, whatever
be, are evidently the originators of the moral
conduct of the great average of man-
kind
" Applying this test to moral motives, or to the

dictates of
what
is called
moral
once see how extremely small
instinct,
is
we
shall at
the influence those
motives have exercised over the progress of
civili-
RELiaiON AND CIVILIZATION.

For there
zation.
is,
73
unquestionably, nothing to be
found in the world which has
undergone so
little
change as those great dogmas of which moral systems
To do good to
own wishes ;
are composed.
their benefit your
others
to sacrifice for
to love your neighbour
as yourself; to forgive your enemies; to restrain your

passions;
who
to
honour your parents; to respect those
are set over you
these,
and a few
sole essentials of morals; but they

for
others, are the
have been known
thousands of years, and not one jot or
been added to them by
all
tittle
has
and
the sermons, homilies,
text-books which moralists and theologians have been

able to produce.
"But
moral
if
we contrast
truths
this
stationary aspect of
with the progressive aspect of intel-
lectual truths, the difference
is
indeed startling.
the great moral systems which have exercised
have been fundamentally the same;
All
much
all
the
great intellectual systems have been fundamentally
dif-
influence,
In reference to our moral conduct, there
ferent.
not a single principle
now known
to the
most
is
culti-
vated Europeans, which was not likewise known to the

ancients.
In reference to the conduct of our
the moderns have not only
intellect,
made the most important
additions to every department of knowledge that the

ancients ever attempted to study,
but besides
this,
they have upset and revolutionized the old methods of

inquiry
all
they have consolidated into one great scheme
those resources of induction which Aristotle alone
and they have created
dimly perceived
faintest idea of
which never entered the mind of the
boldest thinker antiquity produced.
sciences, the
74
" These, are, to every educated man, recognised
and notorious
from them
is
is
and the inference to be drawn
facts;
Since civilization
immediately obvious.
the product of moral and intellectual agencies, and
since that product
constantly changing,
is
when surrounding
circumstances
evidently
it
cannot be regulated by the stationary agent
because,
unchanged, a
are
stationary agent can only produce a stationary
The only other agent

this
is
ways
is
the real mover

first,
the intellectual one
may
effect.
and that
be proved in two distinct
because being, as we have already seen,
either moral or intellectual,

seen, not moral,
must be
it
and being, as we have

intellectual
and
also
secondly,
because the intellectual principle has an activity and
a capacity
show,
is
for adaptation, which, as I
undertake to
quite sufficient to account for the extraordi-
nary progress that, during several centuries, Europe
has continued to make.'"*
Mr. Buckle shows us here

take.
his fundamental mis-
The great moral systems of
different
nations
and times have been as much the same and as much

different
as the
intellectual
systems.
Or, will Mr.
Buckle prove that the nature and the laws of our

tellect
have been changed? Certainly not.
in-
Mr. Buckle
even must know from his comprehensive learning that
* "But this is to reduce history to a sum in arithmetic.

History is a living process.
Its factors are dynamic, and are
not to be pulled apart like dead hones or a heap of sticks. These
ethical forces are " unchanging," only in the sense of being constant and unfailing ; and the mental growth, which clears their
vision and develops their practical capacities, in fact enables
them to exert an ever-increasing influence, a completer fulfilment
of their
own
ideal."
gions, Vol. I. p. 17.
S.
Johnson against Buckle in Oriental Reli-
75
our knowledge,
no new ideas have been added to
exactly in the same sense as none have come to our
most refined philosophy of
All ideas of the
morality.
our modern time can be traced in the sentences of the

j
The main
philosophers of the most primitive ages.*
between the
difference
and present state
past
nevertheless quite obvious
what formerly was only a
glimpse of truth has now become a principle of
what was sporadic has become
general,
ideas which
rectly, that
come
life,
what was mo-
Though we speak of
even more incor-
mentary has become permanent.
new
is
forth, or say,
they are created at such and such a time,
such ideas have then,
above others.
In
all
in fact, only
cases
it
got the ascendancy
can be shown by careful
investigation that all such so-called
new
ideas
have
been under the surface of public opinion long before.
Our knowledge
of details of inner
and outer
has, however, in the course of time
markable additions, and by

use of
it,
it,
experience
had the most
re-
or rather by the proper
our dominion over the powers of nature has
become more extended and more
effective.
We
see
here the difference between theoretical and practical
knowledge, and we have the same between moral ideas
and practical moral

of people.
life,
moral laws and the manners
ask Mr. Buckle, are not the manners of
H. Lewes in the conclusion to his Biographical History

"There are two characteristics of Modern
Philosophy which may here be briefly touched on. The first is
Or.
of Philosophy says,
'
the progressive development of positive science, which in ancient

speculations occupied the subordinate rank, and which now occuThe Becond is the reproduction of all the quespies the highest.
tions which agitated the Greeks, and that too in a similar course
Not only are the questions similar, hut their
of development.
evolutions are so."
76
nations changed
different
centuries
Of course they
now compared with former

are,
but Mr. Buckle main-
tains that these changes have been effectuated not by-
moral agencies hut by

not know
history of nations have been
morals?
Did Mr. Buckle
intellectual.
that the most intellectual periods in the
the most
corrupt in
Athens, Rome, France give ample proofs.
Begarding the moral accomplishments of our time
by persuasion of
ask, has slavery been abolished
in-
tellectual
knowledge or by the promptings of moral
feelings?
Is
war conducted now
in
a more humane way
than before because we have made the new discoveries

in science or because our moral feelings are higher in
Are prisoners now treated better from
that respect?
intellectual or
from moral motives 1
All those various
benevolent institutions of our age, has our intellectual

progress established them, or our advanced benevolent
sympathy with the
sufferings of our fellow-men
tainly the latter.
so
much
Cer-
historian ought besides to have
experience of real
human
life
onesided intellectual culture makes
as to
man
know
that
heartless and
Mr. Th. Dick* is drawing a lively picture of

the manners of our modern society ; we are sorry that
selfish.
men
of great intellectual culture form no exception to
it.
"It would be inconsistent," Mr. Dick says, "with
the limited plan of this work, to attempt to trace the

principle of malignity through all the scenes of social,
commercial, and domestic
life.
Were
I to enter into
impiety, ingratitude, and rebellion
of
faithless friendships, of the alienations of affection,
and
details of
filial
Philosophy of Religion, p. 151.
77
of the unnatural contentions between brothers and

sisters
of the abominable
selfishness
which appears in
the general conduct and transactions of mankind
of
the bitterness, the fraud, and the perjury, with which
law
suits are
malice,
commenced and prosecuted
and resentment, manifested
supposed
of the frauds daily
of the hatred,
for injuries real or
committed in every de-
partment of the commercial world
of the
and base deceptions which are practised

bankruptcy
of the
slanders, the
shufflings
in cases of
and the
caballing,
falsehood, which attend electioneering contests
of the
envy, malice, and resentment displayed between com-
insolence
and
state
displayed
of the
bodies,
and the
terests
of those
their rewards
digality,
fightings,
little
and
in
church
injustice of corporate
regard they show for the in-
who are
so-
haughtiness and
by petty tyrants both
selfishness
of the
which
of the
and power
petitors for office
oppressed, and deprived of
gluttony, drunkenness,
generally prevail
of the
and contentions, which are
to the view in taverns, ale-houses,
and pro-
brawlings,
daily presented
and dram-shops, and
the low slang and vulgar abuse with which such scenes
are intermingled
of the seductions accomplished by

and outrageous perjury of the multi-
in-
sidious artfulness
plied falsehoods of all descriptions which are uttered

in courts, in camps,
unblushing
lies
juries of office
and
in private dwellings
of public
of the
newspapers, and the per-
of the systematic frauds
and robberies
by which a large portion of the community are cheated

out of their property and their rights
haughtiness, and oppression of the
malice, envy,
of
rich,
the pride,
and of the
and discontentment of the poor,
such
78
pictures of malignity might be presented to the view,
would
as
ment and
fill
the mind of the reader with astonish-
horror,
and which would require a
volumes to record the revolting details."

reverse
of
Mr. Buckle's
is
the
Mr. Buckle brings
shield-*
even a serious charge against moral excellence
he says, " Indeed,
series of
Such
(p.
166);
we examine the effects of the

most active philanthropy, and of the largest and most
disinterested kindness, we shall find that those effects
if
are comparatively speaking, short lived
only a small number of individuals they'

tact with
and
that there
come
in con-
that they rarely survive the
benefit;
commencement and
when they take the more durable form of found-
generation which witnessed their

that,
is
ing great public charities, such institutions invariably

fall, first
into abuse, then into decay,
and
after a time
are either destroyed, or perverted from their original

intentions,
mocking the
effort
by which
it is
vainly at-
tempted to perpetuate the memory even of the purest

and most energetic benevolence.
" These conclusions are no doubt very unpalatable;
and what m'akes them peculiarly
it
impossible to refute
is
them
offensive
is,
that
For the deeper
(I).
* F. C. Bluntschli, in
Geschichte des Allgemeinen Statsreclita
undderPolitik,"p. 653, says, "Mr. Buckle's remarkable book shows
the uncertainty and deception of the conclusions to which a onesided imitation of the naturalistic-scientific method leads in the
sphere of history. As Hegel formerly treated history as a logical'
'
dialectic process, so Mr. Buckle considers history as an effect

of natural necessity, and he gives his proofs like examples of
arithmetic from statistical tables.
But it seems a mockery of the
fundamental scientific idea if Hegel, starting from self-conscious

thought and volition finally comes to mere preservation of the
existing state of things, and Mr. Buckle, starting from ponderable and countable material, shows himself a zealous representative of social progress and mental liberty."
'
KELIGION AND CIVILIZATION.
we penetrate
shall we see
tions
into
this
more
the
clearly
the superiority of intellectual acquisi-
over moral feeling.
record of an ignorant
tions,
question,
79
There
man
is
no instance on
who, having good inten-
and supreme power to enforce them, has not
done far more
evil
than good.
And whenever
the
intentions have been very eager, and the power very

extensive, the
167, "It
evil
has been enormous.
And
'
page
an undoubted fact that an overwhelming
is
majority of religious persecutors have been
men
of the
purest intentions, of the most admirable and unsullied

morals.
wise.
It is
impossible that this should be other-
For they are not bad intentioned men, who
seek to enforce opinions
good.
less
Still
gardless
which they believe to be
are they bad men,
who
are so re-
of temporal considerations as to employ
the resources of their power, not for their
own
all
benefit,
but for the purpose of propagating a religion which

they think necessary to the future hapiness of mankind.
Such men as these are not bad, they are only
ignorant, ignorant of the nature of truth, ignorant of
the consequences of their
own
acts.
But
in
a moral
point of view, their motives are unimpeachable.

deed,
it is
In-
the very ardour of their sincerity which
warms them
into persecution.
which they are
fired,
It
is
the holy zeal by
that quickens their fanaticism
into a deadly activity.*
If
you can impress any man
* Greediness, without religion, has, however, ever been the

worst of all evil causes. The Portuguese gave infected clothes to
the Brazilians, Americans poisoned wells with Strychnin, wives
of settlers in Australia mixed Arsenic among flour for hungry

natives, settlers in Tasmania shot natives to feed their dogs.
See
Oscar Peschel Volkerkunde, p. 154, where the proofs will be found.
80
with an absorbing
conviction
of
supreme im-
the
portance of some moral or religious doctrine
can make him believe that those

doctrine are
give that
blind
he
him
doomed
man
who
to eternal perdition
you
if
reject
that
you then
if
power, and by means of his ignorance
own
to the ulterior consequences of his
persecute those
will infallibly
who deny
acts,
his doctrine,
his persecution will be regulated by
and the extent of
the extent of his sincerity."

Is it not strange that
becoming aware of the
in his very charge without
Is
some moral or
or religion?
If
intellect.
Mr. Buckle refutes himself
doctrine
is
always a product of the
Mr. Buckle would investigate
find,
per-
all
secutions without prejudice from metaphysical
he could
fact ?
religious doctrine equal to morality
dogmas
that most of them have been instigated
certainly not from moral, nor from religious, but from

political
morals
That the severest permost admirable and unsullied
and other motives.
secutors were
is
men
of the
no objection to
us,
but shows that those
persecutors were able to carry out

that
all
their
their intellect
feelings
were
their
principles,
under the control of
and because they saw some reason
down any
means in
for
putting
discord or schism in state or church
by
their
all
power.
Never were
heretics
burnt to save their souls, but to save the church from

pollution
and the state from contenting
Boman Emperors
parties.
moral motives to make them better men, but from

tical considerations
shippers.
and to keep men as
their
poli-
own wor-
We must not forget that religion very
only gives the
The
never persecuted the Christians from
often
welcome name to certain actions, but
81
;
that those in power commonly have quite other aims
and motives.
One
of the most dangerous factors in
human
his-
tory, however, is the influence of theories (intellect)

It is not necessary that the
upon human actions.
theories are wrong in themselves, but their application
may be
theory
and the generalization of a partly true

If Mr. Buckle had
always mischievous.
so,
is
spared a few hours to read
Roman
history over again
he would have found that not the most ignorant emperors have been the severest persecutors, but the
wisest philosophers, as
Marcus Aurelius and
Did Mr. Buckle not know that Rousseau,

modern
intellectual civilization, interdicts
of death every other except his
gion in his (utopian) state?*
own
Julian.
this hero of
by penalty
national reli-
In a prize essay for
the academy at Dijont Rousseau asserts the necessity
and science, and if this

should be impossible, to come as near as possible to
to annihilate civilization, arts
Rousseau says,
Reflection,
it.
nature; a
man who
meditates
" un animal depraveV'

such language?
Has
is
is
something against
a depraved animal,
ever a religious
man used
Voltaire's "ecrassez Tinfame" is well
known.
Many
may
complaints, and as I think very just ones,
constantly be heard on the cruelty of religious
persecutions.
to
all
It is
pity,
however, that nobody seems
remember the far more cruel legal prosecutions of

times and countries. These are certainly not the
fault of religion, nor of morals, but of the feelings of

* See the last chapter of Rousseau's " Contrat Social."
t Quoted in Naturgenuss, von II. Lorm, Berlin, 1876.
82
the higher classes of society
who thought such
pro-
ceedings necessary.
" The following
is
a brief summary of the princi-
pal punishments that have been adopted by men, in

different countries, for
tormenting and destroying each
Capital punishments: beheading, strangling,
other.
drowning, burning, roasting, hanging by
crucifixion,
the neck, the arm, or the leg; starving, sawing, exposing to wild beasts, rending asunder
by
horses
drawing opposite ways, shooting, burying
alive,
blow-
ing from the
mouth of a cannon, compulsory
tion of sleep,
tjutting to
rolling
pieces,
depriva-
on a barrel stuck with
hanging by
nails,
the ribs, poisoning,
death by a weight laid on the
pressing slowly to
breast; casting headlong from
a rock, tearing out
the bowels, pulling to pieces with red hot pincers,

stretching on the rack, breaking on
the wheel, im-
paling, flaying alive, cutting out the heart, etc., etc.
Punishments short of death have been such as the

Fine, pillory,
following:
imprisonment, compulsory
labour at the mines, galleys, highways, or correction-
house
whipping, bastinadoing, mutilation by cutting
away the
ears, the nose, the tongue, the breasts of
women, the
the hand
foot,
squeezing the marrow
from the bones with screws or wedges; castration,

putting out the eyes
tlet,
banishment, running the gaun-
drumming, shaving
hand or forehead
off the hair,
burning on the
and many others of similar nature.
Could the ingenuity of the inhabitants of Tophet have

invented punishments more cruel and revolting
Has
any one of these modes of punishment a tendency

reform the criminal, and promote his happiness
to
On

the contrary, have they not
irritate, to
all
83
a direct tendency to
harden, and to excite feelings of revenge ?
Nothing shows the malevolent dispositions of a great

portion of the
human
race, in so striking a light,
the punishments they have inflicted on one another;

for these are characteristic not of insulated individuals
only, but of nations, in their collective capacity."*
Another Buckle could write an entertaining and

book
useful
if
he would investigate the relation of the
punishments to the real crimes.
inflicted
It
would
probably appear above doubt that few courts of the

world, if any, are clean from innocent blood.
eauses of
it
may, however,
differ
much
very
The
in different
cases, but they will seldom be found to be merely intellectual in the sense of not
purpose,
i.e.
will,
may be
knowing
better, but some-
at the bottom of such tran-
which the person in question may or may
sactions,
not regard as good.
Such another Buckle would
move the
doubtlessly see, that the intellect has to

desires or the will of man,
i.e. it
must enter the Moral
sphere in order to become active in the outer world.
The
intellect,
however, with
all its
power,
is
too often
only the obedient servant of a person's emotions or

will.
Nearly
all
great statesmen are proofs of this
doctrine.
It
would be a very interesting task to write a
history of the evils
and crimes evolved from
and other
To what
theories.
atrocities
political
and barbarous
dealings have certain financial theories induced
of our most enlightened governments
Immoral mea-
"Essay on Crimes and Punishments," p.

by Thomas Dick in " The Philosophy of Religion."
* See Beccaria's
56, quoted
some
52,
84
sures have also been the result of the highly-praised
politico-econominal theories
AH
on over-population.
such theories were regarded as highest wisdom at one
As
a certain class of men.

commonly supported by some
time, or at least by
ries they are
other
facts
contradiction
in
therewith
ignored or cannot yet be known.

society, is never
are
but
either
Life, especially in
uniform but ever variegated
theories only help for a time
theo-
facts,
the best
and to a certain extent,
then they become obsolete, and the most fortunate

thing that can happen to them
is
to
be buried
oblivion or in the volumes of large libraries.
in
If one
looks olosely into the most prevalent superstitions of
any country
in
many
the world, one finds that
are
nothing but survivals of obsolete theories, and that

almost all religious, political and not less the scientific
persecutions are based on wrong theories of the
present or of the past times.
Mr. Buckle
is
quite
right in saying that enlightenment of the intellect
is
for such things the
not at
all
most appropriate remedy. 1 do

underrate the power of intellect and its
great influence upon
human
Mr. Buckle much overrates

it
Yet
this influence
into history but not from
first principles
welfare.
sure
Mr. Buckle got
it, i.e.
not inductively from historical
he construed the
am
and has read
facts,
his
but
facts in accordance with his meta-
physical rules.
" It
p. 232,
is
evident,"
"that
if
Mr. Buckle says
a people were
their religion, their literature,
and
would be, not the causes of their

effects of
it.'"
This sentence
in another place,
left entirely
is
to themselves
their
government
civilization,
not
clear.
but the
Mr. Buckle

certainly
knows that
zation.
religion is not
85
produced by
civili-
think the true meaning of the passage must
be, civilization changes or modifies the appearance or
among a nation. "It is of course

Mr. Buckle continues, " that a good religion is
state of religion
true,"
favourable to civilization, and a bad one unfavourable

to
Unless,
it.
however, there
from without, no people
reason
religion is bad, until their

if
their
reason
inactive,
is
and
tionary, the discovery will never
course not
is
slumbering faculties of men

to the feelings sooner
reasoning.
Schiller
may
their
them
so,
but
knowledge
sta-
tells
be made
mere animals have no
some interference
will ever discover that their
religious
life,
."
Of
but the
be aroused by a shock
and better than by
intellectual
thinks "hunger and love" more
powerful than philosophy for keeping the world in order.
"The
truth
is,
that the religious opinions (opinions
are of course caused by the intellect) which prevail in
any period, are among the symptoms by which that

period
is
marked.
rooted, they
do,
When
the opinions are deeply
no doubt, influence the conduct of
men, but before they can be deeply rooted, some

intellectual
change must
first
have taken place
After a careful study of the history
.... *
and condition of
barbarous nations, I do most confidently assert, that

there
is
no well-attested case of any people being
permanently converted to Christianity, except in those

* Not consistent with this passage is another, p. 226, " While
there is no country which possesses a more original, inquisitive,
and innovating literature than Scotland does, so also is there no
country, equally civilized, in which so much of the spirit of the
Middle Ages still lingers, in which so many absurdities are still
believed, and in which it would be so easy to rouse into activity
the old feelings of religious intolerance."
86
very few instances where missionaries, being
knowledge, as well as
men
men
of
of piety, have familiarized
by
and,
thus
the savage with habits
of thought,
stimulating his intellect,
have prepared him for the
reception of those religious principles, which, without
such stimulus, he could never have understood."

I perfectly agree with Mr. Buckle, if he allows
me
to change his beloved word "intellect"* for the far

better term " mind." The mind must be changed, then
people are converted.

ever,
would
No
feel satisfied to
thought of any people.
devoted missionary, how-
change only the habits of
We
think
it
of
little
use
if
any person can reproduce a compendium of Christian

theology.
As
to orthodox thinkers, the middle age, as
well as the 17th
of them,
and 18th centuries, have had plenty
Mr. Buckle as a historian ought to have
known something
of these facts, also, that there have
The word " intellect " is used by Mr. Buckle in a very

To convince the reader of this I give here the
sense.
" Intellect
definition of it by A. Bain, "Mind and Body," p. 82:
*
vague
has long been divided into a variety of functions, or modes of

operating, called faculties, under such names as Memory, Reason,
Judgment, Imagination, Conception, and others; which, however,
are not fundamentally distinct processes, but merely different apWe have
plications of the collective forces of the Intelligence.
no power of Memory in radical separation from the powr of Reason or the power of Imagination. The classification is tainted
with the fault called, in Logic, cross-division. The really fundamental separation of the powers of the Intellect is into three
facts, called (1) Discrimination, the Sense, Feeling, or Consciousness of Difference ; (2) Similarity, the Sense, Feeling, or
Consciousness of Agreement ; and (3) Meientiveness, or the power
These three functions, however much
of Memory or Acquisition.
they are mingled, and inseparably mingled, in our mental operations, are yet totally distinct properties, and each the groundwork of a. different superstructure. As an ultimate analysis of
the mental powers, their number cannot be increased or diminished; fewer would not explain the facts, more are unnecessary.
They are the Intellect, the whole Intellect, and nothing but the
Intellect."

been perhaps among
all
nations and in different times

in opposition to
'mystics" and "pietists'"
so-called
8T
those most correct thinkers (intellectual machines, if
you allow the expression).
Mystics give a prominenee
to feeling, pietists to practical
ritualists to forms,
life,
only the orthodox to pure doctrines,
But
i.e. intellect.
there remains yet the most important thing to be mentioned, the notion
it
peal
and power of conscience, altogether,
unknown
seems,
more
to Mr. Buckle.
All religions ap-
to conscience than to other faculties of the
human nature. Through conscience religion acts on

mind and body, on the inner and outer life.* We
want to see new manners in every department of
human life. Christian conversion makes man sober,
pure, not only in his actions, but also in language
imagination
Old inveterate habits
to foes, etc.
annihilated in
overlooked.
may break
one moment.
are,
however, not
This fact
is
too often
Passions which have been fostered before

out again, yet, where the conversion
genuine, the tendency of the whole
the mind, the aim of the

feelings,
and
benevolent, not only to friends but even
will,
life,
is
the bent of
the motives of the
have another direction than before, and
keep the ascendency above the lower desires.
will
If
we
read good biographies of converted men, or observe

the
life
men
of real piety live,
and compare
what they have been and have done before

version,
it
then the influence of the Christian religion
upon the manners of individuals
will
become manifest
beyond doubt.
*
with
their con-
Compare A. Trendelenburg, Naturrecht, 38 and
39.
88
"The Romans were,' Mr. Buckle says, p.
For such a peoThe confes-
rare exceptions, dissolute, and cruel.
Polytheism was the natural
ple,
sions of Augustin
Whether
it is,
creed.'"
show us the power of the Christian

manners of a most dissolute Ro-
religion to reform the
man.
237, "with"
society
changed and to what extent
is
depends, of course, on the relation of such
single
cases to the conduct of other individuals which com-
pose society, and
it
may depend upon
stances, as laws, institutions, etc.
us
is
called culture,
among
the
other circum-
" All that among
Romance
peoples
civili-
zation, arises out of the reciprocal action of the Indi-
Community on
vidual on the Community, and of the
the Individual.
living for the
Culture
community
is
the result of the individual's
which he
in
condition of this reciprocal influence
who
recognizes no restraining limits.
root of
the
voluntary self-limitation
all
which we
voluntary
is
the barbarian, the uncivilized man,
limitation;
call
piety;
the
The
self-
is
he
real living
the principle
is
practical recognition that
the Beautiful and the
True,
The
placed.
is
Good ought
not to
subserve us, and our selfish ends, but that they stand
above
us,
demanding sacred reverence
their Ideal, that

festation, that
is,
is,
in
11
implanted them. *
reverence in
I leave the subject here, however*
as I hope I have set forth

clearness to
God reverence in their manievery human soul wherein He has
in
my
idea with sufficient
show the importance of investigating the
different religions in this respect.
" God in HiBtory," by C. C.
J.
Baron Bunsen,
vol. I. p. 29.

RELIGION AND THE ARTS.
89
VIIL
Mr. Ruskin*
says,
" The great arts have had and
can have, but three principal directions of purpose :

first,
of doing
them material
service.
state
'
doubtful, though I quite agree with
ought to be
is
men
that of enforcing the religion of
that of perfecting their ethical
so,
and
secondly,
thirdly, that
The second seems

Mr. Ruskin that
it
also that the highest degree of art
impossible without ethical strength in the artist ; he
must have fought the great

the victory, perhaps after
battle in his heart
many
be known to him and reign
in
and won
defeats, yet there
him the
must
classic calmness,
peace of his mind, harmony of the emotions of hia

heart.
Religion
is
to Mr. Ruskin only a subjective " feel-
ing of love, reverence or dread with which the

* Lectures on Art,
37.
Though disagreeing with Mr.
warmly recommend his voluminous
suggestive and entertaining.
Ruskin in some points

writings as instructive,
human
p.
I
90
is affected by its conceptions of spiritual

But are those cenceptions not religious too ?
mind
being."
Morality he defines as " the law of rightness in
human
For, he continues, " there are
many
Are
there
conduct."
religions,
but there
only one morality."
is
not perhaps more different moral conceptions in the
world than
Of actual morality each inown conception as of reli-
religious?
dividual has as* well his
The
gion.
objective
however,
morality,
of
ideal
one and the same with the ideal of

"
The relation of Art to Religion," Mr.
religion.
Ruskin tells us (p. 44), " is distinctly threefold first,
must
be
we have
may have been literally

powers secondly, how far, if not
how
to ask
directed by spiritual
far art
;
inspired,
it
may have been
how
in
any of
far,
cause of the creeds
it
exalted by them;
agencies,
its
has been used to recommend."
These questions can be answered
by comparative
satisfactorily only
Mr. Ruskin's attempts are
religion.
too commonplace,
lastly,
has advanced the
it
may be
of service in a schoolroom,
but scarcely to an enquiring mind. He says (p. 45)>

" Every thing which men rightly accomplish is indeed
done by Divine
is
help,
but under a consistent law which
Who
never departed from."
law ?
What
is
denied
and not personal

religious
is
well-directed labour,"
bolical saying.
that the law
or dynamic;
and moral law.
Put
is,
all
ever denied such a
we
is
mechanical
prefer to say
it is
" All things are possible to

to say the
least,
writers of our
a hyper-
present time
together and well direct their labour, you will not
produce one Sheakspeare, nor from

Raphael, nor from
the sculptors a
all
painters one
Michael Angelo.

Mr. Buskin says
" The operation of formative
(p. 48),
art on religious creed
is
91,
essentially twofold
the reali-
and the
zation of their imagined spiritual persons

limitatiou
of
imagined
their
presence
to
certain
Mr. Ruskin uses the expression "religious
places."
creed " not " religious
life ;"
our readers already
know
the vital difference of the two terms.
Mr. Ruskin continues (p. 49), " There are thus

two distinct operations upon our mind first, the art
:
makes us
believed
believe
what we would not otherwise have
and secondly,
makes us think of subjects
it
we should not otherwise have thought

is
Mr. Ruskin
of."
altogether mistaken in these two points.
Art never
creates religion or religious belief, but is the expression
of it and may help some individuals who have already

a tendency towards it by their definite formation,
or, we might say, formulation of a distinct belief or
thought.
Rather strange
is
what Mr. Ruskin says
(p. 51),
" If the Greeks, instead of multiplying representations

of what they imagined to be the figure of the god, had
given us accurate drawings of the heroes and battles

of Marathon and Salamis,*
they would have
served their religion more truly than by
all
the vase-
paintings and fine statues that ever were buried or
adored."
beg permission to disagree on
with the professor of
fine arts.
of individuals can never
this point
Statues or portraits
become universal; we may
* Compare also Ruskin's Lectures on Architecture and PaintIV., " Of all the wastes of time and sense which Modernism
has invented and they are many none are so ridiculous as this
endeavour to represent past history."
ing,
92
admire them as exhibiting mastery in technic
we want more.
class
indefinite,
same thing before our own
of Schiller
is
The
eyes.
We
statue
not only a true portrait of his person
but a representation of the
idealistic Poet.
I must, however, not enter too
of arts, as that
The
is
the very characteristics of the
must be apparent in the most perfect way.
see the
but
only one king, Zeus
is
Superior art must be generic without
the king, etc.
becoming
Alexander
art,
is
not
my
much
in the realm
province.
between arts and
close connection
especially in ancient times, is
Mr. Buskin but by almost
religion,
acknowledged not only by
Not much,
all authorities.
however, has been done yet to show the difference of
Of
the religions in that respect.

different
nations
we have
the sacred poetry of
already fine collections to
enable the student of comparative religion to investi-
gate his subject and
us what immediate purpose
tell
each poem had, whether
it
was
or of ancestors, or whether
We
want then to know how
in praise of
it
some gods
had any other
this is
aim.
accomplished,
are deeds related (epic) or are effusions given of the

feelings of the poet's heart (lyrics)
interest to observe
off
how
It
is
further of
the secular poetry branched
from the sacred stem, and what kind of relation
existed between the two kinds?
human
How much
of the
may be
learned
sphere was considered sacred
from the religious poetry of the period.

besides gather
many
We
may
indications if not revelations of
the intercourse between the divine and the human

world.
Sacred
lyrics
open the innermost heart of man,

RELIGION AND THE AET8.
and we are allowed to
recesses of the
its
human
the enjoyment of
with
We
it.
it
feel
into the most secret

and become witnesses of
see
soul,
Unseen world,
intercourse with the
and
its
sorrows at any interruption
adversaries, his scorn at
his
God must triumph

will
it
expressed
metaphors,
over
all
them and
his
hope that
enemies.
be of great interest to learn how the
religious sentiment
how
its delights in
with the poet his troubles caused
by
It
93
in
differs
itself in
and
different religions,
poetic language, in peculiar
etc.
Perhaps as old as poetry
We
is architecture.
find everywhere the noblest edifices dedicated to the
gods.
The
different
structure of such buildings
from
all
is,
other buildings, why?
however,
What was
the original meaning of such a peculiar form?
In
connection with the temples we observe peculiar or-
naments to which a symbolical meaning is attached;

those symbols and other ornaments are again different
in different periods
and among
must be shown always
different nations,
but
to correspond with the reli-
gious ideas.
In the temples and on the altars a certain variety

of vessels were used
all in
a more or
made
less
of different materials
artificial
cense burners, vases, cups, etc.
Man
seems every-
where to have striven to do his very best

gods, and other' objects of his worship.
Music
What
is
also
and
form, as lamps, in-
for
one of the earliest sacred
his
arts.
kind of instruments were used, which in solo
and which
in concert with others!
There
is
no pos-
sibility to compare the tunes of sacred music of ancient

94
religions, as the tones of
music were not yet written
down, though we find names for the different tones, yet
melody has not been so denoted
their succession in a
to enable us to reproduce
of the music of
or
many
We
rhythm.
it.
But we know the keys
nations and a
find
it
of the time
little
however, that no-
strange,
thing has been done yet to collect the most characteristic pieces of sacred
music of the different religions
Many
and nations of the present day.

inferences could' be
drawn from such a
interesting
collection.
Music has been accompanied by song, but not always nor everywhere. Mimics and dances were also
Then the drama
performed in connection with music.
We see again
followed in later periods.
branch
off
and become developed
in
secular music
connection or
As we
oftener in opposition to sacred music.
have
at present Choral and Oratorio as sacred, People-song
and Opera as secular music, so even the Chinese had

something of the kind (mutata mutandis) long before
the time of Confucius.
What was
the original idea of
using music for sacred purposes and
how
did the vari-
ous religions differ in their respective usages

Sculpture
is
another branch of the fine arts which
became developed by
religion.
Designs were made of
the gods, of their symbols, representations of their

deeds, etc.
How
their ideas of
God
did
men
of different religions express
in these sculptures
We see at one
superficial glance that there is a great difference be-
tween the sculptures of Egypt, of Assyria, Greece,

India, China,
and other countries.
sculptures the most ideal

pressive of one side of the
We
find in
Greek
human figures but always exhuman nature, as majesty in
95
Jupiter, sensuality in the Fauns, loveliness in Venus, self
possession in Minerva, etc.
of the
Greek
sculp-
belief in such gods
If we knew nothing
we would take Greek
ture for nothing but fine idealised statues of excellent
human
The gods were thought
beings.*
(anthropomorphism) and
man
like
It is different with Assyrian sculptures,
sis).
everything pertaining to the gods
human world
cate their, the
Worse even
man
gods (apotheo-
like the
is colossal
where
to indi-
far surpassing, greatness.
with the Indian plastic arts, as the
it is
divine attributes are expressed on the figure in a symbolic form.

details.
But
We
it is
not the place here to enter into
see sculpture
not only the product of
is
mythology, there are other peculiarities of religious
and of national
of art.
abilities
We have,
made apparent
in those
works
however, to remember that no artist
could create a god or even another form of a god, such

would never have become recognised by any worship-
The artist had

common belief of
his time
form according to his
abilities.
per.
the
to take the religious idea from
and give
it
an
artistic
Painting, though later developed than the other"

arts,
is
known
in remotest
antiquity.
The
colours
were distinguished and a symbolic meaning attached

to them.
It is again of interest to learn
were preferred by a special

tions of colours.
religion,
When we
meet with pictures
know what ideas

them, and how this is done.
interest
to
which colours
and what combinait is
of
there are expressed by
* Aristotle already said, "the gods that have

are nothing but eternal men."
human form
96
Mr. Ruskin* gives us again some very valuable

may serve as a pattern how to treat the
hints which
different
branches of the fine arts for the purpose of
Mr. Buskin says

" You have then these two great
the science of religion.
human mind:
divisions
of
one, content with the colours of things,
whether they are dark or light; the other seeking

light pure, as such,
One,
and dreading darkness as
content with the
also,
visionary shapes of things;
form and substance.

knowledge, seeking
coloured
such.
aspects
and
the other seeking their
And, as
I said, the school of
and has to accept
light, perceives,
and deal with obscurity; and seeking form,
it
has to
accept and deal with formlessness or death.

" Farther, the school of colour in Europe, using the
word Gothic in
Christian ; and
school of light
its
full
broadest sense,
is
essentially Gothic
of comfort and peace.
is essentially
I cannot tell you which
Greek, and
is right,
full
Again, the
of sorrow.
or least wrong.
tell you only what I knowthis vital distinction between them: the Gothic or colour school is always
cheerful, the Greek always oppressed by the shadow of
death; and the stronger
masters are, the closer
its
that body of death grips them.
" But remember,

final
power,
its first
.....
development, and
all its
depends on Greek sorrow, and Greek
religion.
"The
school of light
is
founded in the Doric wor-
and the Ionic worship of Athena, as

of life in the light, and of life in the air,
ship of Apollo
the spirits
* Lectures
on Art,
p. 147,
ff.
97
opposed each to their own contrary deity of death

Apollo to the Python, Athena to the Gorgon
as
to the
life in light,
darkness, Athena as
both of the great
men
from the
divinities taking their glory
they have conquered
taking to
opposite
by motion, to the Gorgon
life
death by pause, freezing, or turning to stone;
spirit of
evil
Apollo
earth spirit of corruption in
both of them, when angry,
the form of the evil which
their
is
Apollo slaying by poisoned arrow, by pesti-
lence; Athena by cold, the black aegis on her breast.
These are
definite
and
direct expressions of the
thoughts respecting death and
both these, and

beautiful,
darkness
there
of
or avenging
far
is
the'
more mysterious,
Greek
But underlying
life.
dreadful,
and yet
the Greek conception of spiritual
anger of
fate,
whether foredoomed
the root and theme of
all
Greek tragedy
the anger of the Erinnyes, and Demeter Erinnys, com-
pared to which the anger either of Apollo or Athena

is
temporary and partial;
and
also, while
Apollo or
Athena only slay, the power of Demeter and the

Eumenides is over the whole life ; so that in the stories
of Bellerophon, of Hippolytus, of Orestes, of Oedipus,
you have an incomparably deeper shadow than any

that was possible to the thought of later ages, when
the hope of the Resurrection had become definite."

I cannot enter here into a philosophy of aesthetics.
Those who take
interest in the subject can easily get
library of well-written books in reference to
object here
is
it.
My
only to point out, as briefly as possible,
the relation between the fine arts and religion.
We
have again to be on our guard not to mix up religioa

with fine arts or aesthetic feelings.
The
arts have
98
their origin in our sense of beauty
Art may separate
(phantasia).
has done
Men
so.
and
itself
in imagination
from
religion,
of high artistic genius
and
and culture
have been most unreligious persons. John Euskin

says (p. 11) " I need scarcely refer, except for the sake
my
of completeness in
mand
art
for
which
statement, to one form of de-
wholly unenlightened, and
is
powerful only for evil;
namely, the demand of the
classes occupied solely in the pursuit of pleasure, for
objects
and modes of art that can amuse indolence
satisfy
sensibility.
There
is
no need
for
any
or
discus-
sion of these requirements or of their form of influence,
though they are very deadly at present

tion on sculpture,
and on
in their opera-
jewellers' work.
They cannot
be checked by blame, nor guided by instruction ; they

are merely the necessary results of whatever defects
exist in the
ety; and
it
temper and principles of a luxurious

is
only by moral changes,
soci-
not by art-
Criticism that their action can be modified."
Art
in its highest perfection
idealized, glorified.
in
Nature as
is
nature, but nature
it is,
shows not beauty
an unmixed form, but contains everywhere
features
of ugliness, of disfiguring death and corruption; the

finest
forms and views are, besides, transitory, momen-
tary and therefore, illusory.
permanent.
nature in
Art makes those moments
In religious service (Oultus) the
worship of God.
arts, as
made subservient to the

In such use we find, if nowhere else,
its ideal
form, are
a clear distinction of sacred arts from the profane.

Not every kind of architecture is thought fit for places
of worship,
not every kind of sculpture, music and
.painting
allowed to enter
is
the sacred halls.
It
may be
why
out
difficult to find
this
99
kind of art was
considered sacred and the other profane, yet the fact
may
remains, and careful investigation

in discovering
some of the
genuine religious
what
is
Buskin's fine sayings
" In Reverence
is.
for all that
gracious
is
(p.
62)
to the point,
also
is
life
pure and bright in your own
is
true
is
sublime.
the chief joy and power of
Reverence, for what

youth, for what
By
commonly is understood
Another of Mr.
art, I think,
properly called
perhaps succeed
characteristics of them.
and
tried in the age of others
among
the living, great
among
the dead, and marvellous in the Power that cannot
Any
die."
Reverence
art that creates such
gious or sacred
art
is
though, to guard against mis-
understanding, sacred, in this sense
is
far
from being
sacred or holy in the specific Christian sense.
of symbols, etc. has been
of,
is,
lost,
There
as opus operation.
danger
is
and things are performed
is
one of the great dangers
brought by the
fine arts.
that the real object of worship
and the performances of arts absorb
tion,
spirit.
of feelings
reverie
lost sight
all
the atten-
mistaken for devotional
"The
tive energy,, of
art, or general
any country,
You
life.
will also exert a

Mr. Ruskin says very
on morality.
debasing influence
ethical
is
Another
is
such periods the arts
In
well, p. 26:
We
meaning of many forms of worship,
find again that the
to which religion
reli-
is
productive and forma-
an exact exponent of
its
can have noble art only from noble
persons, associated under laws fitted to their time and
circumstances
Men's best arts and brightest
happiness are consistent, and consistent only, with

their virtue
"
100
When
the mind
ment of beauty
is
not carried up by the enjoy-
in the fine arts to the eternal regions
of beauty in the ideal and Divine world,
down deeper
sensual enjoyments.
in
it will
The
fine
sink
arts
form the golden link between the Spiritual and the
We can find sensualistie arts,
sensual beauty.
without a religious fig-leaf put on,
As
nations.
with or
among almost
all
soon as religion becomes conscious of

turns with disgust from such arts to
itself again, it
rigoristic morals.
Mr. Ruskin says emphatically and
truly, p. 60:
it not then be only because we love our own

work better than His, that we respect the lucent
glass, but not the lucent clouds, that we weave embroidered robes with ingenious fingers, and make
"Must
bright the gilded vaults
while
work of His
which
we have
beautifully ordained
yet we have not considered the heavens the
He
fingers,
nor the stars of the strange vault
has ordained.
And
do we dream that by
carving fonts and lifting pillars in His honour,
way
cuts the
of the rivers
whose reproof the
we
shall obtain
hills
pardon for the dishonour done to the
as
be able to give the
Lord God
of
Thy
the rocks, and at
pillars of the earth are astonished,
and streams by which
ing place
among
who
if
lie
He
has appointed our dwell-
we laboured only that we might
to the song " Holy, Holy, Holy,
of all creatures,
Heaven and Earth are
full
glory?"
We
may
grant so
much and go one
step farther
rejecting all fine arts as detrimental to true religious

life,
free
yet even the severest Puritanism cannot altogether

itself
from some arts in the worship of God.

There
is
singing done which implies poetry and
There
sic.
is
bols used,
if
There are sym-
not in sculptures and paintings yet in
actions, as baptism
sive use is
made
and the Lord's supper ; and exten-
of allegories and figures in speech.
see Comparative Religion has a wide field of in-
vestigation in the regions of the beautiful.
mann, the renowned

" Beauty
all
is
it
Winkel-
explainer of Greek art,
says,
one of the great mysteries of nature, we
see and perceive
notion of
its effects,
but a general and clear
belongs to those tenets of truth which
have not yet been found out."

is in
mu-
some mimic at praying by kneeling and
folding or stretching out the hands.
We
101
As
" Highest beauty "
God, and in every pure and perfect work of God,
the missing notion
is
certainly not far from religion.
102
IX.
RELIGION AND NATURE.
As
there
Science
it will
on nature
is
is
already a chapter on Religion and
be understood at once that no theory
meant
here, but simply the world around
man, even including human
in its everyday ap-
life
pearance.
"There are more ways than one of studying naThere
tural history.*
consists of
tion;
Dr. Dryasdust's way, which
is
mere accuracy of
statistics
bones in the
as harsh,
definition
museum where
the field-observer's way
and
differentia-
and dry as the skins and

it is
studied.
There
accumulation and record of facts bearing on the

history of the creatures
as the forest or
statistics as fresh
meadow where they
the dewy morning.
And
is
the careful and conscientious
there
is
life-
and bright
are gathered in
the poet's
way
who
looks at nature through a glass peculiarly his own; the

*
The Romance of Natural History, by Philip Henry Gosse.
Preface.

103
aesthetic aspect, which deals, not with statistics, but
with the emotions of the
human mind,
surprise,
der, terror, revulsion, admiration, love, desire,
forth
which are made energetic by the
won-
and so
contemplation
of the creatures around him.
" In
my many
years' wanderings through the wide
field of natural history, I
have always
felt
towards
it
something of a poet's heart, though destitute of a
As Wordsworth
poet's genius.
'
so beautifully says,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often He too deep for
One method
however,
left
"
of studying nature Mr. Gosse has,
unmentioned, that
is
the religious method
Though somewhat resembling the

it will
tears.'
poetical treatment
become soon apparent that the
even greater than the resemblances.
differences are
Though
as in
poetical sentiments the feelings depend on association
and contrast, yet the

ance of natural
Every
life
religious view brings the appear-
in contact with
religion shows, however,
some eternal truth.
some
peculiarity in this
respect.
As
individual
nature and natural
men
are differently disposed towards
life,
one enjoying everything in kind
and generous sympathy, another taking scarcely any

notice of these
same things
where, another only decay
one seeing beauty everyone feeling the pulsations
of life, another the approachings of death,
etc.
so the
different religions.
But not only the general view
of natural
different religions take, is of interest to us,
more
so the
many
details
life
which
but perhaps
connected with religious
104
teachings and religious
may
leave
Some devoted
and live among wild
life.
human society
men to die from hunger and
others allow
Confucius liked to stand
mals.
still
persons
beasts,
nurse ani-
at a river and
its water with exalta" The wise ones love the water, the
look into the constant flowing of

tion of his mind.
humane ones
Every
love mountains," is
religion
and every nation has some
Pliny mentions that in Greece the
to some divinities.
was
peculiarity
Certain trees were thought sacred
in that respect.
oak-tree
an old Chinese saying,
sacred
to
the
Jupiter,
olive-tree
to
Minerva, the myrtle to Venus, the laurel to Apollo,

In India the Banian tree
the poplar to Hercules.

or Indian
fig is
regarded as sacred.
In China the
Cypress, Pine and other trees as well, the lotus flower

in India
and from there by the Buddhists of other
countries.
The
altars
on the
fields
have commonly a
sacred tree to overshadow them, near temples and
monasteries trees are cultivated, on or near the graves

trees
is
Each
and flowers are planted.
haps each country
differs in its
Some
even with animals.
others as unclean.
Many
as symbols or emblems.
religion
and
predilection.
per-
So
it
are regarded as sacred,
natural objects are used
Others of rare occurrence are
regarded as ominous, as in China the phoenix (pheasant?), the appearance of a comet, etc.
every individual
is
and death, but his success

marriage and descendants.
Many
The
life
of
written in the stars, not only birth

in trade or literature, in
beautiful sentences can be gathered from
the illustrations taken from nature given in the teachings of different religions.
I shall here only point to
.RELIGIOtf AITC)
NATURE.
The Old Testament is

Lord Jesus speaks commonly in
the Bible.
nature, as
God,
full
it
105
it.
Even our
parables,
and takes
full
of
appears to every man, as the language of
of meaning
and
He
eternal truth.
refers to
lightning in various senses, to the colour of heaven, the
gathering clouds, to wind, rain and floods, to the sand

or rock as foundation for buildings, to the depth of
the sea, to
life,
fire
and
salt
mint and other
Jordan, the
on the
lilies
he refers to plants and their
on the banks of
spices, the reed
growing in the desert, to the grapes
and
vine, the fig-tree, the grain
ment ; to
its
develop-
and large
different animals as to little gnats
camels, sparrows and eagles,, fish and birds, snakes and

doves, wolves
and sheep, foxes having
dens, a
hen
gathering her chickens under her wings, etc.
The everyday
life
of
human
society
even more frequently: the leaven which

her lost piece of
silver,
husbandmen sowing
their seed, old
asking their parents for food,
and
woman
and new
took,
his rich harvest,
vessels for
bread for children
and feeding dogs, children playing
ff.),
a.
referred to
fishermen casting their nets,
wine, cloth for repairing clothes,
16,
is
the market,
in
a miser
(Luke 12,
an unjust judge, a wedd-
ing feast and going to meet the bride, the relation of
mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
He
speaks too of
the pleasures of the rich and the misery of the poor, of

hiring
workmen and paying
servants,
Christ's
their wages, of nobles
How
palaces and prisons, etc.
fondness of
little
and
striking is
children, his placing
one
a pattern before his disciples, his pure friendship even with females (Martha and Mary), his tender
child as
love to his mother even on the cross
how
superior
is
106
his usage of
common
events, as the
woman's drawing
water, the widow at the treasury, Siloah's tower, Pilate's
murder of the
preaching, etc.
well
known
man, the
John's
Galileans,
and
living
Christ also points to historical facts
to all his hearers, as the creation, the
bloodshed of Abel,
first
Noah and
first
the flood,
Abraham, Sodom, Israel in the desert, at mount Sinai,

King David, Elijah, Jonas, etc. We could go on and
many more
gather
references
to
nature from the
But completeness is not my

So much is elear that the religion
of our Bible has the most intimate and noble relation
to nature and history. But a mind without peace
cannot enjoy nature, and a mind without hope cannot
writings of the apostles.
purpose at present.
understand history.
This
is
the reason that
many
so-
called Christians failed in recognizing the above indi-
cated Gospel-truths and went astray in monkish and

eremitical negation of nature,
though even
this seldom
has gone so far as to be dead against the beauty of

fine landscape,
but only against nature relating to men.
It is greatly
to be regretted that the religious
preaching, teaching and writing of our age
monly
is
com-
either dogmatical, abstract moral or fictitious.

is now a great danger to
and to the health of social and individual
Especially the latter kind

religion
morality.
quotation from an author*
to be not forgotten
may
give
affirm, that it is necessary for the
human mind
who
deserves
a few suggestions.
"
To
entertainment of the
to have recourse to fictitious scenes and
* Thomas Dick, LL.D.

Hartford, 1846.
The Philosophy of Religion, r

p.
155,
'
ff.
107
and to the wild vagaries of an unbridled

imagination, is, in effect, to throw a reflection upon
narratives,
the plans and the conduct of the Creator.
It
im-
plies, that, in the scenes of nature which surround us,
both in the heavens and on the earth, and in the administrations of his moral government among men,
God
has not produced a sufficient variety of interesting
objects for the contemplation, the instruction and the
entertainment of the
human
race
and that the system
of the moral and physical world must be distorted and
deranged, and
its
economy misrepresented and blended
with the creations of

fit
tastes of
mankind.
is
human
folly,
before its scenery be
to gratify the depraved
rendered
And
is it
and
fastidious
indeed true, that there
not a sufficient variety to gratify a rational mind in
the existing scenes of creation and providence ?
if
terraneous recesses of the
we
if we explore the
we penetrate into the subglobe if we direct our view
survey the Alpine scenes of nature
wonders of the ocean
If
to the numerous objects of sublimity and of beauty

to be found in every country;
structure
if
we
investigate the
and economy of the animal and the vegetable
we raise our eyes to the rolling orbs of

we look back to the generations of old, and
trace the history of ancient nations if we contemplate
tribes;
heaven ;
if
if
the present state of civilized and of savage tribes,
and the moral scenery which is everywhere displayed

around us shall we not find a sufficient variety of
everything which
is
calculated to interest, to instruct,
and to entertain a rational mind 1 I am bold to affirm

that were a proper selection made of the facts connected with the system of nature, and with the history and
108
the present state of
human
society,
and were th
sketches of such facts executed by the hand of a
master, and interspersed with "rational and moral reflections
no
volumes
might be presented to the
less entertaining
than
and
more
certainly far
the novels and romances which the
all
imagination has ever produced
and
public,-
instructive,
human
that, too, without
distorting a single fact in the system of nature or of
human
"
society.
If
man were
only the oreature of a day, whose
whole existence was confined within the limits of
this
sublunary scene, he might amuse himself either with

facts or with fictions, or with any toys or gewgaws that
happened to
stream
he glided down the
strike his fancy while
But
of time to the gulf of oblivion.
if
he
is
being destined for eternity, the train of his thoughts

ought to be directed to objects corresponding to his
high destination, and
all his
amusements blended with
those moral instructions which have an ultimate reference to the scene of his immortal existence.
I read one of our
modern
hours, a transitory
amusement
scenes of fancy
it
displays,
and
contemplating the
in
in following the hero
through his numerous adventures
and
When
novels, I enjoy for a few
admire the force
brilliancy of the imagination of the writer (for I
am by
no means disposed to underrate the
talent which has produced

I allude), but
reflect,
that
when
all
intellectual
some of the works to which
I have finished the perusal,
and
the scenes which passed before
my
mental eye, were only so many unsubstantial images,
the fictions of a lively imagination

in rational or religious reflections
cannot indulge
on the
subject, nor
109
more than
derive a single moral instruction, any
survey the scenes of creation

of ancient nations
when
when
the records of revelation
can
I
read the history
I peruse the authentic nar-
when
of the voyager and traveller;
ratives
When
do from a dream or a vision of the night.
and when
present state of society around me.
I search
contemplate the
I learn something
of the character, the attributes, and the providence of
God, and of the moral and physical state of mankind.
From
almost every scene, and every incident, I can
deduce instructions calculated to promote the exercise

of humility, meekness, gratitude, and resignation
lead the mind to
God
as the source of
the righteous governor of the world
felicity,
and
to
and as
to impress
the heart with a sense of the folly and depravity of
But
man.
it
is
obvious,
that no distinct moral in-
structions can be fairly deduced from scenes, circumstances,

place.'
and events 'which never did nor can take
Such however
is,
at present, the tide of public
opinion on this subject, that
we might
as soon attempt
to stem a mountain torrent by a breath of wind, or to

interrnpt the
dashings of a mighty cataract by the
waving of our hand, as to expect to counteract, by any

considerations that can be adduced, the current of po-
pular feeling in favour of novels, and tales of knights
and of tournaments, of warlike chieftains and military

Such a state of feeling, I presume, never
encounters.
can exist in a world where moral
its
evil
has never shed
malign influence."
It
is
always a symptom of decay when the mind
turns away from nature and seeks gratification in mere

fiction.
It will be understood that I only
mean works
110
which, though productions of the imagination, are not

art,
but
or opposed to nature.
artificial
Such produc-
tions spoil the taste alike for nature and for genuine
Not only our modern time
art.
described by Mr. Dick,
The Eabbinical
periods.
of
Religion
it.
fiction,
at
is,
but may
a check to the growth of
The
to it sooner or later.
commonly
classical periods are
from the disease
writings, for example, are full
first,
way
give
suffers
nations have had such
all
free
from
In China
it.
the Confucian writers keep clear for a long period, but

fiction
has crept in during the
Taoist writers are
much
Han
The
dynasty.
sooner spoiled, as the work
of Licius already clearly shows, and the next writer,
Chancius (Chang Tsz) goes already a step
From
ment of the
and
further.
these few indications the importance of a treatdifferent religions with respect to nature
fiction is manifest
here unnecessary.
enough to make further remarks
A few lines in another direction must
however not be omitted.
Nature cannot give true peace to our soul; we

have to find this in
religion.
If our
mind
is gratified
with the enjoyment of eternal blessings we are prepared

to see and cherish
all
the glimpses of this same Divine
goodness and glory in the creation surrounding us. Such

joy
is
superior to any other joy dependent on
contrivance.
in
many
What
human
the vulgar voice calls pleasure
is
instances a painful sight to a religious mind.
True enjoyment of nature

mentality.
As
is far,
however, from senti-
food taken regularly and properly
not weaken but" strengthen the body, so
will
will the in-
nocent intercourse of the mind with nature and history

invigorate us to perform our duties with more
cheer-

and mental
fulness
" This
out,
creature must slowly spell
and long contemplate such part of

him
possible for
to reach
may be
as
it
then set forth what he ha8
those beneath him; extricating
learned of
it for
infinity as
one gathers a violet out of grass
one makes the flower visible
also,
make
it
own
display
And
soul.
more than
own
his
it in
sometimes he
and to
this,
but
it,
heart visible
the honour of the good thoughts
has raised up in him, and to write upon

of his
from
and then the human be-
power upon
its
and to give
it
one does
not improve either violet or grass in gathering
ing has to
well,
unfathomable, inconceivable,
human
every
Mr. Buskin* says
health.
infinite universe is
in its whole
Ill
it
it
the history
may be
able to do
set it in strange lights,
and
a thousand ways before unknown : ways
specially directed to necessary
and noble purposes,
for
which he had to choose instruments out of the wide
armoury of God.
is
All this he
may do
and
in this
he
only doing what every Christian has to do with the
written as well as the created word,
the word of truth.
word he has
and
old, to
Out
'
rightly dividing
of the infinity of the written
also to gather
and
set forth things
new
choose them for the season and the work
that are before him, to explain and manifest

others, with such illustration
them to
and enforcement as may
be in his power, aud to crown them with the history of

what, by them,
God
has done for his soul."
* The Stones of Tenioe,

John Buskin, p. 315.
see Selections
from the writings of
112
X.
RELIGION AND LANGUAGE.
Max
Mullet takes
found to be the
for granted that all words
it
common
property of different branches
of one language belong to the primitive language before
the separation of these branches
This
is
certainly
true of most of the words in question, yet gentle doubts
may be
We
allowed with regard to some words at
least.
have not sufficient knowledge of the intercourse of
the primitive tribes and nations to enable us to deny
a migration of roots or of words which were accommodated to the peculiarities of the different languages
by other pronunciation, writing and
then
changed
ending, perhaps even by a modified initial syllable etc.
Other words, though

period, have not yet
they belong to the primeval
had the peculiar meaning
times attached to them.
This
the ancient word for Heaven.
is
latter
the case even with
Max
Miiller says (p.
206) " Everywhere they begin with the meaning of sky,

they rise to the meaning of
God and they
sink
down

again to the meaning of gods and
such been the case everywhere,
Turanians but among

it
prove?
all
i.e.
nations
many
suppose in
some common psychological
113
Has not
among the
spirits."
not only
and
what does
if so,
instances nothing but
laws, but not yet
relation of different nations and tribes.
closer
It does
not yet follow that, because those tribes named
even
God
heaven or sky, they thought heaven or the sky to
be God, (see Fairbairn,

tious
p. 32).
Max
Miiller is cau-
enough not to conclude from the occurrence of
the most widely-spread form of natural religion that

those tribes in Africa, on the
all
Islands in different
Oceans, in Asia and in America, have got their notion
from their ancestors before they became separated, and

that what they have in
common now
of most primitive religion.
is
the very feature
Such has indeed been done
by Herbert Spencer, who considers as the rudimentary

form of
who
all religion
the propitiation of dead ancestors
are supposed to be
of working good or
still
ill
existing
and
to
be capable
to their descendants.*
Fairbairn (p. 23) says well " Resemblances that
Mr.
may be
classed as coincidences evolved in the course of sub-
sequent development,
must, of course be excluded.
Under this head many of the points comparative myThe same

thology seizes, may be comprehended.
faculties in men of the same race, working under
different conditions indeed, but with kindred materials,
could hardly
fail
to produce similar results."
* See Principles of Sociology (quot. by P. p. 9\

The same
is taken by W. H. F. Sleek, the distinguished investigator
See F. Goldzieher Mythology
of the South African languages.
among the Hebrew*, p. 3.
view
THE SCIENCE OF CHINESE KELIGUON.
114
To
return again to language I must confess finding
Max
He
a most striking mistake of

of language and
religion.
Mttller in his confusion
"A
says, p. 153,
few
words recognised as names of the deity, a few epithets

.
some more or
lastly
expressive of such ideas
and
virtue
sibly
body and
sin,
of
altar, prayer,
spirit
this
pos-
what
is
framework of the incipient
constitutes the outward

religions
less technical terms,
sacrifice,
antiquity.
we look at
If
we
manifestation of religion
see at once
simple
this
why
religion,
during those early ages of which we are here speaking,
may really and truly be called a

human speech ; how at all events
early language are
depending
more or
or the word for
them?
If,
it,
it,
Miiller
what was
and
however,
all
sacrifices, etc.
or as
little
or names for
those religious realities are
words used to designate them?
much
first, religion
religious life or adequate language
altars
how can they depend on
first,
religion
outward expression on the
adequate resources of the-language."
We may ask Max

to express
early religion and
most intimately connected,
entirely for its
less
sacred dialect of
language,
i.e.
Religious
on the
life
is
dependent on language as natural
as
life.
We do not eat and drink such kind of food because we

use such words, but
the things.
we
use such words because
we use
In primitive religion things were not wor-
shipped because they had, by mistake of one or the

other kind, received the
named gods because

the other reason
with
all
fit
name
of gods, but they were
people considered them for one or
objects for worship.
other designations in language.
used for races because some persons
It is the
same
A horse is not
call it so,
but
it is

so called because
it is
considered
does the word " elephant "
make
fit
for
115
races.
Nor
elephants or influence
these animals in the least, nor do we say, if it can be

proved where and when the word first occurs, that then
elephants
first
came
The term " law of
into existence.
gravitation " does not form this law, nor has
duced
it
into nature, for
and before man

pertaining to
it
Thus
existed.
human
it intro-
existed even before language
nature,
it is
even with things
and
accomplishments.
Man
did speak a language perhaps for centuries before he got a word " language" probably the word for
"tongue" served
for this purpose in
So for mind, etc. It

Old Testament there
this prove that the
least.
We
is
is
no word
know they
Max
is
Does
Not
had, but expressed

Miiller is
statements, and the cause thereof
with
languages.
for conscience.
Hebrews had none?
general term for "heart."
lities
many
a fact that in the Hebrew of the
is
it
in the
by the
wrong
in his
a confusion of rea-
human knowledge about them.
Language
nothing but the result and depository of man's know-
ledge.
Man names
he knows them.
what things he knows and how far

The more adequate our knowledge of
things becomes the more adequate our language will
grow.
On
the other hand, however, we must not over-
look the fact that language
is Ihe
currency* for our
* " Words axe wise men's counters ; they do but reckon by

them ; but they are the money of fools." Hobhes.
"In a sense, it is not the individual, but the community,

that makes and changes language. . . . The community's
share in the work is dependent on and conditioned by the simple
fact that language is not an individual possession, but a social.
It exists not only partly, but primarily, for the purpose of communication ; its other uses come after and in the train of this."
W. D. Whitney, The Life and Growth of Language, p. 149.
116
mental intercourse, by
the usage of words, etc.
it
is
conditioned, and not by etymology, which shows the

first
With
formation.
we
the language
learn all the
mental accomplishments of a people, get the results

of the mental activity of
tellect
not the case so
this is
our
dependent on language for
is
Our
ages before us.
all
in-
development;
its
much with our
feelings
and
though some kind of influence of one faculty
will,
upon the other
beyond doubt, as human na-
faculties is
ture forms an organic whole.
Max
two
tiller
goes even farther
(p.
268.)
" There are
distinct tendencies to be observed in the growth of
ancient language.
There
is
on the one
side,
the strug-
mind against the material character of language,
gle of
a constant attempt to
ing and
fit
strip
words of their coarse cover-
them, by main force, for the purposes of
abstract thought.
But there
is
on the other
side,
constant relapse from the spiritual into the material,

strange to say,
and,
a predilection for the material
sense instead of the spiritual " (explained by the use
of language as currency above referred
to).
"This
action and reaction has been going on in the language
of religion from the earliest times, and

It seems at first
even now.
that
it
fatal
it is
at work
element in religion
cannot escape from this flux and reflux of human.
thought
'
(oftener perhaps thoughtlessness!)
"which
is
repeated at least once in every generation, between

father
and
we watch
this
flux
son,
it
between mother and daughter; but
more
and
closely,
we
if
shall find, I think, that
reflux constitutes the very
life
of
reli-
gion."
Talk and mere words
the
very
life
of religion I
how
man
strange that a
tain such a view.
tion
of our
life
Max
like
Language only
117
Miiller can enter-
gives us the reflec-
a mirror, not the
in
gives the intellectualised
life,
although imagination
so asserts a great influence over language.*

see hereafter that what
conflict
itself, it
life
Max
Miiller really
We
al-
shall
means
is
of reflection and imagination and their in-
fluence on religion, but
error to
ascribe
it is
certainly
an unpardonable
such power to mere language; how
could words do such miracles?

doubtlessly, be interested
Many readers will,

my views on the
to find
bearing of language upon religion corroborated by no
an authority than H. Maine who, though not a
less
philologist, is one of the best judges of the peculiarities
"
of antiquity.
It is
conceded on
all sides,"
says,t "that the earliest language of the
Church was Greek, and, that the problems

first
addressed
sophy in
itself
its later
he
Christian
to which
it
were those for which Greek philo-
forms had prepared the way.
Greek
metaphysical literature contained the sole stock of
* " The same Divine Mind (Vernunft) that rules in nature

and in human thinking, giving them their laws, also reigns in
language, and it is the imagination which in language realizes
The Divine and the
the thoughts and idealizes the things.
human penetrate each other. Man has in his mind (faculty of
thinking) the logical law, and goes on reasonably though not
scientifical
reasonably in the development of language. His
The idea of language
spirit (soul) makes its nature to its deed.
is God's thought and it forms the foundation of every language
but the realization in peculiar languages is man's own deed. Our
thinking lays hold of the nature of things and pronounces it in
words, because
Spirit, are
all
things are originally thought in the Divine
founded in the Eternal
Word and
are thus created.
God is incarnate everywhere." M. CarDie Kunst im Zusammenhang der Culturentwickelung und
To him who
riere,
looks deeper
die ldeale der Menschheit, Yol. I., p. 16, 21.
f Ancient Law,
p. 344,
ff.
118
words and ideas out of which the human mind could

provide
itself
with the means of engaging in the pro-
found controversies as to the Divine Persons, the Divine Substance,
The Latin
and the Divine Natures.
language and the meagre Latin .philosophy were quite

unequal
the undertaking,
to
and accordingly
the
Western or Latin-speaking provinces of the Empire

adopted the conclusions of the East without disputing or reviewing them.
'
Latin Christianity,' says
Dean Milman, 'accepted the creed which
its
and barren vocabulary could hardly express
narrow
in ade-
Yet, throughout, the adhesion of
quate terms.
and the West was a passive acquiescence
Eome
in the dog-
matic sytem which had been wrought out by the profounder theology of the Eastern divines, rather than a
vigorous and original examination on her part of those
The Latin Church was the
mysteries.
as the loyal partizan of Athanasius.
separation of East and
scholar as well
But when the
West became
wider, and the
Latin-speaking Western Empire began to live with an

1
intellectual life of its

all
own,
its
defence to the East was
at once exchanged for the agitation of a
of questions entirely foreign to Eastern
number
speculation.
While Greek theology (Milman, Latin Christianity,

Preface, 5) went on defining with still more exquisite
'
subtlety
while
the
Godhead and
the
nature of Christ,
the interminable controversy
still
lengthened
out and cast forth sect after sect from the enfeebled
community
the
Western Church threw
passionate ardour into a
new order
itself
with
of disputes, the
same which from those days to this have never lost

their interest for any family of mankind at any time
The nature of Sin

the debt owed by
included in the Latin communion.
and
its
transmission by inheritance,
man and
its vicarious satisfaction,
sufficiency of the
119
the necessity and
Atonement, above
all
the apparent
antagonism between Free-will and the Divine Pro-
West began
vidence, these were points which the
to
debate as ardently as ever the East had discussed the

articles of its
more
Why is
special creed.
then that
it
on the two sides of the line which divides the Greekspeaking from the Latin-speaking provinces there
two
lie
classes of theological problems so strikingly dif-
ferent from
The
one another?
Church have come
historians
the
of
upon the solution when they

remark that the new problems were more practical,'
close
'
less absolutely speculative,
than those which had torn
Eastern Christianity asunder, but none of them, so far

as I
am
aware, ha3 quite reached
hesitation that the difference between the

cal systems is accounted for
without
I affirm
it.
two theologi-
by the fact that,
in pass-
ing from the West, theological speculation had passed
from a climate of Cheek metaphysics to a climate of
Boman
law.
For some
centuries before these contro-
versies rose into overwhelming importance,

tellectual activity of the
all
the in-
Western Romans had been

They had been
expended on jurisprudence exclusively.
occupied in applying a peculiar set of principles to
combinations in which the circumstances of
No
capable of being arranged.
life
all
are
foreign pursuit or
taste called off their attention from this engrossing
occupation, and for carrying
vocabulary as accurate as
method
it
it
on they possessed a
was
copious,
strict
of reasoning, a stock of general propositions
THE SCIENCE OF CHINESE KELIGION.
120
on conduct more or
less verified
rigid moral philosophy.
by experience, and a
was impossible that they
It
should not select from the questions indicated by the

Christian records those which
had some
affinity
with
the order of speculations to which they were accustomed,
and that
their
manner of dealing with them should
borrow something from their forensic habits.

everybody who has knowledge enough of
to appreciate the
Roman
penal system,
Almost
Roman law
tbe Roman
theory of the obligations established by Contract or

Delict, the
Roman
of incurring,
the
Roman
view of Debts and of the modes
and transmitting them,
extinguishing,
notion of the continuance of individual
existence by Universal Succession,
may be
trusted to
say whence arose the frame of mind to which the
problems of Western theology proved so congenial,
whence came the phraseology
which these problems
in
were stated, and whence the description of reasoning
employed
in their solution.
ed that the
It
must only be
Roman law which had worked
recollectitself into
Western thought was neither the archaic system of

the ancient city, nor the pruned and curtailed jurisprudence of the Byzantine Emperors; still less, of
course,
was
it
the mass of rules, nearly buried in a
parasitical overgrowth of
modern
speculative doctrine,
which passes by the name of Modern
Civil
Law.
only speak of that philosophy of jurisprudence, wrought
out by the great juridical thinkers of the Antonine age,
which may
still
be partially reproduced from the Pan-
dects of Justinian, a system to which few faults can
be attributed except perhaps that
it
aimed at a higher
degree of elegance, certainty, and precision than
human

affairs will
121
permit to the limits within which human laws
seek to confine them.' 1
We
see that which
of language,
H. Maine
Max
power
Miiller calls the
correctly ascribes to the mind.
Eastern thought and education and Western thought
and education, Metaphysics and jurisprudence had a

great influence on religious thought in the respective
countries.
We
find
a repetition of the same thing as
often as a religion spreads over another country.
The
language has to be conquered by the invading
reli-
gion,
and
i.e.
find
the mind must be
filled
with the new thoughts
adequate expression in a modified use of the
existing language of the people.*
Not the language of
Canaan makes children of God, but godly sentiments

create a godly language.
hope neither
Max
Muller
nor any other scholar can entertain any doubts in re-
gard to the soundness of the views given above.

* " There is always and everywhere an antecedency of the
conception to the expression. In common phrase, we first have
our idea, and then get a name for it. . . . The dootrine that
a conception is impossible without a word to express it is an indefensible paradox indefensible, that is to say, except by misapprehensions and false arguments." Whitney, The Life and
Growth of Language, p. 137, 139.
122
XI.
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
Max Muller says (p. 353)

it is
we
natural,
it is
" Mythology
is inevitable,
an inherent necessity of language,
if
recognise in language the outward form and mani-
festation of thought^
it
is
in fact the
dark shadow
which language throws on thought, and which can

never disappear
till
language becomes altogether com-
mensurate with thought, which

thology
ercised
(p.
it
never
355) in the highest sense,
by language on thought
is
My-
will.
the power ex-
in every possible sphere
of mental activity."
This
Max
is
MUller
again one of the hyperbolic effusions of

;
language cannot do such great things,
but imagination can and thoughtlessness can, for the
a greater power than thought, in some

I can see nothing in mythology but
instances at least.
latter is perhaps
the predominating influence of imagination

say, of
natural poetry over religion.
tendencies even in our time
or,
we may
We see the same
people prefer their
own
KELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.

fancies
and sentimental
truth.
Max
Miiller's
feelings to genuine religious
explanation of polytheism
sequently shallow and misleading.

says on the polyonomy of language
that this
in religion is decidedly
is
con-
Though, what he
is
true, his assertion
what we are accustomed
is
123
to call polytheism
We are accustomed to
wrong.
call polytheism idolatry, i.e. a worship of false gods

worship however is human action, not mere " inevitable
words" or " language." Mythology is thus inevitable
weeds are inevitable
in religion as
you allow them to grow, the
But the language
neglected.
and decay
is
God
such
lips,
is
forget the one
etc.
the breath, the
language of child-
hood, a parler enfantin of religion.

head, the face,
growth
We may speak
not the cause of idolatry.
etc. of
if
cleanliness
in its dialectic
of the head, the face, the mouth, the
word, the arms,
if
but
become
fruit-plants will
Epizoons are inevitable too,
suffocated.
is
in the fields,
But
to
make
the
other gods and then gradually
and true God; such
is
not the fault of
human imagination and religious

Fairbairn* says: "The Indo Eu-
language, but of
darkness.
Mr
ropean mythologies are simply the interpretation of
by the imagination, acting spontaneously.

They became unintelligible to a later age, because the
later lost the mind of the earlier.
The notion that
they must have been concealed science, or disguised
nature
philosophy or distorted traditions, or misunderstood

history,
was the
through
itself
thologies
result of a reflective trying to interpret
a spontaneous age and
faith.
The my-
had arisen without purpose or design, even,
* Studies in the Philosophy of Religion
and History,
p.
365.
it
124
might be
They were
without thought.
said,
creations
of the imagination clothed in forms supplied by the

senses and the
alive
To
memory.
it
heaven and earth were
the words that denoted natural denoted living
The dread thing so

and vivified. The
There was no death.
objects.
named was by its very name
realised
universe pulsed with multitudinous
man was
forest
in nature
what was
living voices,
of wierd influences,
stars,
in
The
in nature, therefore, in him.
was musical with
heaven alive with listening

full
life
the midnight
the pale faced moon
and the glorious sun
as
it
broke from the bosom of the dawn a glad presence

scattering the
And when
darkness that terrified.
thrown into
these fancies were
speech the speech
formed a mythology, a veracious reflection of mind
in
period of beautiful yet creative simplicity, a dark
enigma to mind perplexed with a thousand problems,

seeking in the ancient beliefs a wisdom higher than
own.
Mr. Fairbairn
is
quite correct in this excellent
passage as far as Mythology
spontaneous poetry."
and
its
11
But
is
" nascent
he himself,
literature,
Max
Miiller
other writers do not take Mythology only in
all
the sense of poetry but of religion, and even Mr.

Fairbairn's explanation
leading.
in
is
thus insufficient and mis-
We might call the
sky Jupiter and believe
a personality of every power of nature,
rivers,
etc.
The
in mountains,
Christian religion even believes in
innumerable hosts of Angels, of principalities and powers, speaks of a prince of this world and of
spirits as
adherents to him; we
and prose of
may speak
many
in poetry
saints, heroes, ancestors, etc., yet there
EEL1GI0N AND MYTHOLOGY.

is
As
no danger of polytheism therein.
soon,
when means are used
propitiate
to
favour, then worship begins, idolatry,
i.e.
commences.
some
It is true that there are
ideas expressed in
all
how-
between us and them
ever, as a personal relation
sought,
125
is
their
polytheism
religious
kinds of mythology, just as the
same physiological laws and ideas can be discovered

in a diseased body as in a healthy, sometimes perhaps
better
an advanced state of sickness.
in
conditions
everything else
allowed,
is
Certain
a matter of
course ; tumors and elephantiasis grow quite naturally,
but are they natural in themselves
Delirium appears
more natural than poetry, idiocy more than deep philosophy, death than life, and pain or pleasure are the same to
natural laws.
We find
a far better solution of the pro-
what Mr. Fairbairn says on the

religion of the Aryans, p. 38, " To Indo-European man
Heaven and God were one, not a thing, but a person,
whose Thou stood over against his I (man). His life
blem of mythology
(man's)
was one, the
Then, that
life
of every other
tion,
he
in
life
above him was one too.
was generative, productive, the source

life,
and so to express
called the living
pitar, HeavenFather,
his full concep-
Heaven, Diespiter, Dyaus(p.
42,)
Dyaus' oharacter,
though shadowy and fragmentary, reveals moral elements transcending the conception of a mere physical
deity.
In the next period of
religion,
behind the
Vedas and Avesta, we see the point where mind becomes conscious of a dualism
in its faith,
and by ex-
clusion of the moral element, the Naturalism of the

first (Vedas) is developed, by exclusion of the physical,
the Spiritualism of the second (Avesta).
But behind
126
this
common Indo-Eu-
point stands the ancient and
ropean
faith, in
whioh the two elements existed to-
gether as matter and form, spirit and

consciously apprehended dualism,
unity
(p. 44).
not in a
letter,
hut in a realised
But though the conceptions
of Varuna and Mitra
(creation
Dyaus)* graduate to Na-
after
they are not yet purely natural-creations
turalism,
indeed of the imagination hut of
directly on
it
as
still
But the conscience
by the moral faculty.
influenced
also acted in-
what we may term, after Schelling, the theoIn prompting to worship, it furnished
gonic process.
objects that could be personalized.

its
ply acts and ceremonies.
The
and occupied, the father was

ly office to another.
began to
earliest
wor-
tendency was to multi-
ship was indeed, simple, but
fathers of the family, but as life
The
first priests
were the
became more toilsome
fain to delegate his priest-
The sense
of faults and sins too
affect the worshipper, to force
him
to dis-
tinguish between secular and sacred, until he came to
think that the
man
acceptable to
divorced from secular
With a
things.
professional priesthood forms of worship in-
creased, the ritual form
What
God must be a man
and devoted to sacred
became the matter of
could reveal deity was deified.
religion.
What made
the
worshipper accepted, forgiven, was idealized into the

aecepter, the forgiver.
And
hence sacerdotal
were evolved alongside the natural."
deities
(Soma, juice of
the plant).
* Chr. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, 2nd Edit. Vol. L,
p. 891, ff., gives the principal features of the history of Indian
religion with more details but less philosophic clearness than Mr.
Fairbairn, thoiigh Mr. Lassen gives us an excellent digest of

materials at this disposal.
all
127
P. 47, " The theogonic process thus

operates afc
the beginning in two distinct spheres,
the natural and
the sacerdotal. Its action is influenced
in the one by
geographical conditions, in the other by social and
poli-
The mythical
tical.
faculty pursued in each
sphere
different course, descended in the one, ascended

in the
other.
But now, while this double theogonic
process
goes on, exhausting the natural and sacerdotal objects
it has to deify, the necessary evolution of
the human
mind leads to another theogonic process, also double

and starting from two opposite sides. This process, as
it affects
the gods,
man, apotheosis.
and
is
anthropomorphism, as
The
first
it
affects
by ascribing human forms
relations to the gods, prepares the
second, the deification of man.
The one
way
for
the
springs from
the worship, the other from the unconscious poetry of
After the death of the mythical faculty the
a people.
new gods ended, but then combination

The gods of different tribes and nations be-
creation of
begins.
come blended together."
We
see
Mr.
F.'s description of the mythological
or theogonic process materially differs from
Nothing
ler's.
is
Max Mul-
said of language, but imagination
and even moral sense and conscience are given as

factors, and as I think in truth.
We have already
reason and imagination pointed out as sources of error
in religion.
with
its
soul.
Conscience
not less dangerous, as
All ritualism and empty formalism has
a morbid conscience.
it is
is
it lays,
binding obligations, unbearable burdens on the
Here we
see again
its
root in
how important
to get the whole hitman nature rectified.
Mr. Fair-
bairn does not indicate, that the well-described theo-
128
gonio process
not one of the healthy, but of the
is
disordered organism of the human mind.

is
religion defiled
by unsanctified imagination and mor-
bid conscience, whereas reason makes
itself conspicu-
ous, in the creation of mythology, only by

is
Mythology
its
absence,
active however, in later periods, in combination
explanation,
and
reason continues in
finally, if
and
office,
utterly demolishing the mythological fancies.
it is
cannot enter here in a discussion on the merits of the
modern
writers
on mythology.
Suffice
it
to give a
quotation from an elaborate work:* " Both in Germany
and England this school has notable adversaries

some worthy partisans of the study of classical
litera-
ture refuse to receive the results of the science of
One of these is K. Lehrs;

German editor of Hesiod, who
Comparative Mythology.
another
the latest
is
modern science of Mythology, that it

and seizes
objects to the
ignores historical and philological criticism
upon every passage of an author that suits its theory,

without regard to its value and genuineness. Among
the English scholars
who
declares,
it, it
'
So
it is
no
far as I
less
am
a writer than Fergusson
capable of understanding
appears to me, that the ancient Solar Mythology
of Messrs
Max Mtiller and Cox is very like mere modern

And Mr. George Smith, the renowned
moonshine.'
pioneer of the ancient Assyrian literature, seems not

to have
much
confidence in the latest method of my-
thological investigation
'
The
early
poems and
for
he says in his latest book,
stories of almost every nation
are by some writers resolved into elaborate descriptions
F, Ctoldziher, Mythology
among
the
Hebrews
London, 1877.

of natural phenomena
true, the
and
in
some
myth would have taken
129
were
cases, if that
to create
it
a genius
as great as that of the philosophers
who explain it."

of course, some analogy between all that's
living under the sun with the apparent life of
the sun.
There
The
is,
science of religion has to do yet
much work
in ex-
plaining the mythologies of the different religions,
and
the scientific treatment of Chinese religion will become,

a valuable help towards the solution of various questions
in connexion therewith.
XII.
CLASSIFICATION OF EELIGIONS.
Max
Mtiller says
much on
classification of religion,
the principles of the
and we have
to agree with his
polemic against canonical and uncanonical, revealed
and natural, national and individual,

duaUstic and monotheistic,
religions.
But
polytheistic,
to take lan-
guage as the principle of classification does not improve

the matter. It may be of some help to classify the socalled primitive religions of which
we know
little
more
than what philologists read from a few words which

have happened to be preserved to the present day.
(p.
156)
Max
Miiller thus gets only three
groups of
religionsthe Turanian, Semitic and Aryan.
Turanians the Chinese

(p. 193), "
is
Of the
the earliest representative,
The popular worship
of ancient China was
130
worship of single
most
names
say, of
of powers, or,
spirits,
;
we might
al-
the names of the most prominent
powers of nature which are supposed to exercise an

influence for
tion to this,
good or
we
on the
evil
life
of man.
In addi-
meet with the worship of
likewise
ancestral spirits, the spirits of the departed,
who
supposed to retain some cognisance of human

etc.
This double worship of
spirits
and
it
human and
are
affairs,
of natural
constitutes the old popular religion of China,
has lived on to the present day, at least in the
lower ranks of society, though there towers above
more elevated range of
half-religious
and
it
half-philoso-
phical faith, a belief in two higher Powers, which in
the language of philosophy

ter,
may mean Form and MatGood and Evil, but
in the language of Ethics,
which in the original language of religion and mytho-
Heaven and Earth."
logy are represented as
As
the
Chinese religion shall be treated in detail hereafter, I

shall not
make any comment upon
gion of the Semitic race
(Max
it
now.
" The
reli-
Mtiller says) including the
polytheistic religions of the Babylonians, the Phoenicians
and Carthaginians, as well as the monotheistic creeds

Jews, Christians and
a worship of God
Mohammedans, was
in History, of
destinies of individuals
God
of
pre-eminently
as affecting the
and races and nations rather
than of God as wielding the powers of nature" (was that

not the case also
among
the ancient Chinese ?
give sufficient proofs that
ship of the
Aryan race he
Nature, of
God
it
was
calls
so).
The
I shall
ancient wor-
" a worship of God
in
as appearing behind the gorgeous veil
of Nature, rather than as hidden behind the veil of the
sanctuary of the
human
heart."
CLASSIFICATION OF RELIGIONS.
Mr. Fairbairn says
theism
(p.
theism
is
gods have each a history
in a definite system
simultaneous,
i.
is
tize.
I think
'
but the Vedic Poly-
is
supreme.
The
simul-
primitive than the successive
There has been time to
stage.
1
much more
has no developed system
e.
now one god, now another

taneous
" The Homeric Poly-
20),
is successive, i.e. its
and a place
131
create, not to systema-
no objection can be raised against both
statements, but where
the supposed distinction
lies
between the ancient Aryan and Turanian religions?
The languages
differ so
of the two branches on the other side
widely that the greatest linguists despair of
ever finding a connecting link.
guage were so
vitally
If religion
and
lan-
connected in those early times,
as
Max
to
be explained, how again could from one language
Miiller supposes,
how
is
the above stated fact
(Semitic) religions be born so thoroughly different as
those of the Phoenicians and the Jews, of the Phari-
And how
and of Christ?
sees
religions
it
is
possible that
can be transplanted as Buddhism and Christi-
anity have been, the
first
of
Aryan
ceptance and fuller development

other of Semitic birth
origin finding ac-
amqng Turanians, the
among the Aryans?
Max
Miiller will not be able to give a natural solution of
these
difficulties.
His serious
fault
is,
that he mis-
takes the early records of religion, records in the
language of an early period, for the religion
itself
of
that period.
Language has about the same

which
it
has to race.
relation to religion
" And here we have to
make
the unreserved confession that the two do not by any
means correspond and agree: wholly discordant
Ian-
132
guages are spoken by communities
whom
the ethno-
would not separate in race from one another;
logist
and related languages are spoken by men of apparently

different race
race and language
there
no necessary
is
man
every
tie
between
speaks the language he
has learned, being born into the possession of no one

rather than another
and, as any individual
may
learn
a language different from that of his parents or of his

remoter ancestors, so a community (which
is
only an
aggregate of individuals) may do the same thing, not

retaining the slightest trace of its
The
world, past
this, of
and
ancestral speech.
present, is full of examples of
...
every class and kind
as the combina-
now using
tion of heterogeneous elements,
only English
as their native tongue, found in the American

nity
the Celts of Gaul, the
Normans
commu-
of France, the
Celts of Ireland and Cornwall, the Etruscans of Italy,
and
all
the other communities whose idioms have been
Crowded out and replaced by the Latin, the English, the

Arabic.
There are conquering languages which are
ways encroaching upon the
al-
territory of their neighbours,
as there are others which are always losing ground.

r
'The testimony of language to race
is
thus not that
of a physical characteristic, nor of anything founded on
and representing such ; but only that of a transmitted

institution, which,
ble of being
under
sufficient
abandoned by
its
sumed by men of strange blood.

lies in
inducement,
is
capa-
proper inheritors, or as-
And
the inducement
external circumstances, not in the nature of the
language abandoned or assumed.

cial superiority, superiority
Political control, so-
of culturethese are the
leading causes which bring about change of speech.
CLASSIFICATION OF RELIGIONS.
133
" There
is one more point calling

for brief notice
in connection with our classification
of the dialects of
the world.
That
classification
ly genetical one, each family
which, by the
aimed at being a strictembracing those tongues
sum of all available evidences, were

to a common ancestor.
To the his-
deemed traceable
torical philologist, still
deep in the labor of determining
and tracing out the course of structural development, this is by far the most important
of all;
relations
Indeed, the value of any other at present is so small

as
to be hardly worthy of notice.
The wider distinction
of languages as isolating, agglutinative, and inflective,

which has a degree of currency and familiarity, offers
a convenient, but
far from exact or absolute, test by

which the character of linguistic structure may be
tried; the three degrees lie in a certain line of progress, but, as in all such cases, pass into one another.
To
lay any stress
upon
this as
a basis of
classification
making the character of the hair or the
is like
color of
the skin a basis of classification in physical ethnology,
number of stamens or the combination of leaves

it ignores and overrides other distinctions
or the
in
botany
of an equal or of greater importance.
had the actual certainty which the
common
tle for
If the naturalist
linguist has of the
descent of related species, he would care
any other
classification,
lit-
but would spend his
strength upon the elaboration and perfection of this
The
one.
and
linguist has
till it is all
enough of
of small account to him.

*
271,
ff.
this
still left
to do;
accomplished, at any rate, any other

1
is
'*
The Life and Growth of Language, by
W.
D. Whitney,
p.
THE SCIENCE OF CHINESE EELIGION.
134
It
tical
seems rather strange, at
classification of
first
view, that a gene-
languages must
from the
differ
There can be no
ethnological classification of races.
doubt that originally language and race must have
Languages only branched
coincided.
off
from their
had be-
primitive stem after the formerly united races
come separated.
quite complete,
If the separation
we should
languages as races.
But as
came
ferent languages
had always been
at present
find
many
as
and
races
different
dif-
contact with each other,
in
became mixed and partly absorbed one by another,

incalculable varieties have been produced.
We
with the genesis of religions.
may
take
questionable that originally each race had
form of religion as peculiar as
We
may
But the
language and races.
the
is
medium
tious formalists.
If in
The
of dif-
ferent Christian denominational dogmas, Jewish,
homedan and various polytheistic creeds, of

materialists and pantheists, of sceptics and
fessor
is
may have become
the proof in our present age.
find
English language, for example,
it
as un-
its peculiar
language.
its
separation of religion and language

effected even sooner than that of
So
it
Ma-
atheists,
supersti-
coming centuries a learned pro-
would make an attempt to write an outline of the
English Religion from a newly discovered copy of

Webster's dictionary, after
happened
to
be
lost
all
other religious records
and forgotten,
this professor
would
certainly produce a very learned and, perhaps, interest-
ing work, and that English Religion

at such a time, as
many
scientific
may
perhaps
admirers as
volumes on the Indo-European
religion,
religion, etc. find at present.
My
all
find,
the
on the Semitic
own unpretentious
TRUE RELIGION.
opinion
is,
135
that such undertakings are of
little
value, as
the result must be an abstract theory altogether

ferent from real religious
To
dif-
life.
classify religions according to
languages
as
is
appropriate as to classify languages according to the
length of tongues or shape of mouths, and plants
according to the animals that

classification
to
has to keep in
distinguish
Language
worship
is
is,
on them.
specific
characteristics.
and the objects of worship,
on comparative
As
All
sphere, has only
no characteristic feature of
but
religion,
etc.
are (see
do not intend to write a work
religion,
but only on that of the Chi-
Religion in Fact).
nese, I
and
general
live
own
its
have here nothing more to do with
classification.
XIII.
TRUE RELIGION.
Max
religion
Miiller says, (p. 261),
was a true
"In one
sense every
religion, being the only religion
which was possible at the time, which was compatible

with the language, the thoughts and sentiments of each
generation,
world.
which was appropriate to the age of the
know
full well,"
Max
objections that will be
made
ship of Moloch,
be
it will
Miiller continues,
to this.
said,
Was
the wor-
a true religion when
they burnt their sons and their daughters in the

their
gods?
Was
"the
the worship of Mylitta, or
fire
is
to
the
worship of Kali a true religion, when within the sane-
136
tuary of their temples they committed abominations
Was the teaching of Buddha

when men were asked to believe that
the highest reward of virtue and meditation consisted
that must be nameless %
a true
in
religion,
a complete annihilation of the soul i
"Such arguments," Max

in party warfare,
Miiller continues,
" may tell
though even there they have provoked
Can that be a
fearful retaliation.
true religion,
has
it
been answered, which consigned men of holy innocence

to the flames, because they held that the
Son was
like
unto the Father but not the same as the Father, or

because they would not worship the virgin and the
Saints?"
Where does the Christian
or sanctify such things?
human
Max
religion
command
Miiller mistakes here
passion, party-spirit, a peculiar theology which
inflamed the minds and hierarchic despotism for

gion.
If
Christ
and
his
apostles
reli-
had given such

.
Max Miiller would

Max Miiller shows a
examples or taught such doctrines
be
right,
but as things stand
great want of discernment really astonishing for a
student of his accomplishments.
How
from
different
Max
Miiller's
Mr. Thomas Dick says on the very same

"
What a
dreadful picture would
malignity of persons
Christ, were
we
who have
it
view
present of the
to collect into one point of view,
cruelties, which, in
all
the
and horrid
Europe, and Asia, and even in the
Indies and America, have been inflicted on con-
scientious
men
for their firm
adherence to what they
considered as the truths of religion

sider,
what
professed the religion of
persecutions, tortures, burnings, massacres,
West
is
topic.
When we
con-
on the one hand, the purity of morals, and
TRUE RELIGION.
137
the purity of faith which generally distinguished the

victims of persecution ; and, on the other, the proud
pampered
abandoned without shame to every

we can scarcely find words suf-
priests,
species of wickedness,
ficiently strong to express the indignation
which arise in the mind, when
it
and horror
views this striking
and contemplates such scenes of impiety and

Could a religion, which breathes peace and
good will from heaven towards men, be more basely
contrast
crime.
misrepresented? or can the annals of our race present
a more
striking display of the perversity and depravity
of mankind
To
represent religion as consisting in
the belief of certain incomprehensible dogmas, and to
attempt to convert men to Christianity, and to

spire
them with benevolence, by
fire,
in-
and racks, and
as absurd as
it is impious and profane;

and represents the Divine Being as delighting in the
torments and the death of sinners, rather than that
tortures,
is
they should return and

I think all
my
live.
'*
readers and, perhaps,
himself, if he should ever
agree with Mr. Dick
happen to see
s excellent
and
fair
About Buddhism Max Miiller s

science compels him to confess (p.
1
religion
are
We
Max
judgment.
Christian
242),
con" In no
so constantly reminded of our
as in Buddhism, and yet in no religion has
drawn away
Miiller
this, will fully
own
man been
so far from the truth as in the religion of
Buddha; Buddhism and
Christianity are indeed the two
opposite poles with regard to the most essential points
of religion, Buddhism ignoring
all feeling
of dependence
The Philosophy of Religion, Thomas Diek, LL.D.,
p. 172.
138
on a higher power, and therefore denying the very

existence of a supreme Deity
tirely
on a
Man
as the
belief in
God
Christianity resting en-
as the Father, in the Son of
Son of God, and making us all children of

God by faith in His Son.'" We have nothing to say
against this statement.
Max
(p. 262),
Muller, however, goes on in his unjust strain
"Can
that be a true religion which screened
the same nameless crimes behind the sacred walls of

monasteries V Max Miiller means " immorality :" does
the Christian religion approve such things ?
ler
doubtless knows
it
does not.
If,
Max
Miil-
however, corrupt
persons seek to gratify their low passions under the

shelter of a religious
gion
name
is
take the liberty to confront
other witness whose testimony
any
that the fault of
reli-
is
Max
Muller with an-
apparently free from
partiality in advocating Christianity.
also particular kinds both of virtue
and
" There are

of vice which
appear prominently before the world, while others of at

least equal influence almost escape the notice of history.
Thus, for example, the sectarian animosities, the horrible persecutions, the blind hatred of progress, the un-
generous support of every galling disqualification and

restraint, the intense class selfishness, the obstinately
protracted defence of every intellectual and political

superstition,
the childish
but whimsically ferocious
quarrels about minute dogmatic distinctions, or dresses,
or candlesticks, which constitute together the main features of ecclesiastical history, might naturally though
very unjustly lead
men
to place the ecclesiastical type
in almost the lowest rank,
both intellectually and mo-
TRUE RELIGION.
These
rally.
139
are, in fact, the displays of

ecclesiastical
influence
which stand
history.
The
civilising
in bold relief in the
pages of
and moralising influence of the
clergyman in his parish, the simple,

unostentatious, unselfish zeal with which he educates
the ignorant,
guides
the erring, comforts the sorrowing,
braves the horrors
of pestilence, and sheds a hallowing
influence over the
dying hour, the countless ways in whioh,
in his little
sphere,
he allays
and elevates and
and softens manners,
evil passions,
purifies those
around
himall
these
things,
though very evident to the detailed observer, do

not stand out in the same vivid prominence
in historical records, and are continually forgotten
by histori.
Such
ahs."*
Max
Miiller,
facts cannot be altogether unknown to

who betrays here perhaps mora ill-temper
than ill-judgment.
"
Can that be a
true religion,"
on, " which taught the eternity of
any hope of pardon or salvation
Max
penitent?"
the doctrine,
because there
for the sinner,
is
no more a
it.
The
punishment
possibility of penitence
and
rich man's complaint in hell
was surely no repentance but continued excuse.
who wish
however
Miiller is again in error; as he states
religion speaks of eternal
not in spite of
Miiller goes
belongs to theology and not to religion.
it
The Christian
Max
punishment without
Those
to save even " the poor devil," ought to read
Milton's Paradise Lost.
Milton himself was a strong
character, and thus he was able to depict in Satan a real
satanic character.
Our modern sentimental writers,
weak from book-dust and indigestion, do not any more
* History
second
of European Morals, by
ed., vol. I., p. 159,
if.
W.
E. H. Lecky, M.A.,
140
understand the real 'power of will. Max Mijller ought

to have seen that this " fearful retaliation " is altogether harmless except to bring ridicule on
and
its
inventor
Nothing of that kind has ever been a wor-
tools.
ship to the Heavenly Father, the
God
of Christians,
it
proves, therefore, nothing for a worship of Moloch, of
Mylitta, K&li, nor for the teachings of Buddha.
Bad
religions are also not
made
better by calling
what makes them bad the '* inevitable excrescences" of

We want to know whether the so-called
all religions.
excrescences are essential to a religion
a worshipor
whether they were accidentally introduced in spite of

religion,
from other quarters, worldly motives,
We partly agree
has to accommodate
of those
whom it is
Max
with
Accommodation
to influence.
is
Miiller, that religion
the intellectual capacities
itself to
intellectual capacities
to the
necessary, but accommodation
to perverse tendencies or passions
Where
etc.
such perversities of the
is
a religious crime,
human
soul are deified,
or where they are sanctified by religious acts, there we
True
have false religion.
religion
sanctify heart and body and
the most holy Being, God.

gratification of
dencies of the
bad
desires
human
teaches
make them
is
heart,
deifies the natural ten-
makes
True
idols.
make him
man
False
reli-
in his corruption and rather helps to
sink deeper
wards accomplishing his
Max
religion
man by which
the image of the most perfect being.
gion leaves
to
False religion allows the
and
reveals the ideals, the typical nature of
he
man
the abode of
MiiHer
true religiqn will bring

ideals.
man
now and then has a glimpse
truth, (p. 263), he says,
to-
" the intention of
of the
religion (of
TRUE RELIGION.
141
course true religion must be meant) wherever

it, is
always holy
it
always represents the highest ideal
of perfection which the

ing, can reach
(p.
355,
ff.,
we meet
human soul, for the time

Of Greek religion we
and grasp."
339,
ff.)
an account rather in contradiction
to the sense of the quoted passage.
Common
thinkers
thus must draw the conclusion that Greek religion

false religion.*
most
befind
We
must
also
is
keep in mind that of
religions of ancient nations
we
only have
some
records, perhaps their sacred books, but
we must take
for granted that the practical religious
life
reached
its
professed standard.
Of our
never has
Christian reli-
gion we see the practice imperfect and contradictory ,t
* " The Roman religion, even in its best days, though an

admirable system of moral discipline, was never an independent source of moral enthusiasm. It was the creature of the
The
State, and derived its inspiration from political feeling.
Roman gods were not, like those of the Greeks, the creations of;
an unbridled and irreverent fancy, nor, like those of the Egypthey were for the
tians, representations of the forces of nature
;
allegories, frigid personifications of different

virtues, or presiding spirits imagined for the protection of difThe religion established the
ferent departments of industry.
most part simple
sanctity of an oath, it gave a kind of official consecration to

certain virtues, and commemorated special instances in which they
had been displayed; its local character strengthened patriotic
feeling, its worship of the dead fostered a vague belief in the immortality of the soul, it sustained the supremaoy of the father in
the family, surrounded marriage with many imposing solemnities,

and Greated simple and reverent characters profoundly submissive
observant of sacred
to an overruling Providence and scrupulously
But with all this it was purely selfish. It was simply a
rites.
method of obtaining prosperity, averting calamity, and reading
but no saint.
the future. Ancient Rome produced many heroes,
Its religion waa
religious.
Its self-sacrifice was patriotic, not
of inspiration, alneither an independent teacher nor a source
though its rites mingled with and strengthened some of the best
Morals, by W. E. H,
habits of the people." History of European
Lecky, vol. I., p. 176, ff.

+ We ought, moreover, to he careful in distinguishing be.
tween
the Christian religion
and
Christians, as
many
so oalled,
142
and
too often the standard in the Holy Scriptures
We also
forgotten.
after one
man
should not judge a whole nation
or a few writers
isolated in their views or
among
phets
is
they
may have been
may have been
the people of Israel.
like the pro*-
Those who reach a
relative perfection are but few, not only in religions,
in arts, seienee, military
Most of
etc. as well.
skill,
the religions even point out the difference between the
few true believers and the world around them.
In
times when religious feeling and conviction
in-
is
most
tense there will be caused the separation of a religious

society from the secular, or at least of individuals from
Though some may pursue a
it*
secular profession, yet
they avoid any other intercourse with the world except
The Science
the professional.
of comparative Religion
ought to pay special attention to such phenomena of

religious
life.
True religion has been too often not
with the domineering and proud majority but among
a despised minority, hidden from the eyes of the luxurious
and profligated world.

True
sometimes misunderstood to mean
religion is
perfect religious
life.
We have to
distinguish between
men
A religion may be
should use argument illogically.
The
true even if all its followers are sinners against it.
Christian religion considers only one man as perfect,
these two notions.
that
is
Jesus Christ
to Christians.
Logic remains true even
if all
he, therefore, is the only
Master
Other religions must be treated
in
similar way.
" In tracing the religious instincts of humanity,'
Christians are not true adherents and' even true adherents are only
partly influenced by the genuine Christian spirit.
TRUE RELIGION.
says a recent writer,* "
of the law of
we are
143
tracing the working out
Wherever a religious inmust be noted, for it is the voice of
its well-being.
stinct appears
it
the spiritual nature clamouring for food necessary for

its life
and
that
it
When
religious instinct
not that the instinct
it is
is wrong, but
runs counter to or overrides correlative instincts^
man has pursued one instinct across and' athwart
other instincts, which
he
Wherever a
perfection.
leads awrong,
fails
it
tramples down
in its fanaticism,
through exaggeration.
" Religious
instincts resemble
Every form of government
is
political instincts^
based on a right prin-
but where other and equally right principles

have been overlooked, misery ensues. Political misciple,
takes have their origin in a lack of knowledge.
were ten famines
had bred
"
when
soldiers,
France
in
one century
;:
There
the country
not farmers.
When a religious instinct produces error that is,
religion
wrong
in
becomes
superstition, there is
in its organisation.
There
is
derance given to this truth, and there

of that truth.
Every phase of
something
an undue preponis
a forgetfulness
religion the world has>
down through exaggeration of one

truth at the expense of another. The history of reli-
yet seen has broken
gious experiments
shows
us,
humanity
first,
;
is
exceedingly instructive, for
what are the
and secondly,
religious
instincts
it-
of
failure,
through imperfect co-
review of the religions-
ordination of these instincts.
of the world will show us of what nature that religion
must be which alone
will satisfy
humanity
religion-
* The Origin and Development of Religious Belief, by

Baring Gould, M. A., Fart I., Heathenism and Mosaism, p. 53,
S.
if.
144
in
which those inherent tendencies of the mind and soul
which produced Fetishism, Anthropomorphism, PolyPositi-
Monotheism, Spiritualism, Idealism,
theism,
vism, will find their co-ordinate expression;- a religion

in
which
all
the sacred systems of humanity
may
as in a Field of the Cloth of Gold, to adorn
meet,
it
with
their piety, their mysticism, their mythology, their subtlety of thought, their splendour of ceremonial, their
adaptability to progress, their elasticity of organization
and, meeting, may exhaust their own resources

By
this to sicken their estates, that never
They
shall
statement seems to imply that
This
are false*
religions
because
which
abound as formerly {Henry Till., Act
onesided.
is,
or,
more
There
correct,
i. sc. 1.).''
all
actual
are imperfect
some truth
in
that,
however, often a cause of great error.
Mr.
is
Baring Gould does not say that he includes Christianity,
but other writers do, for example S. Johnson.*
I hope the pattern of the
Romish Church
to Mr. Baring Gould that Christianity
by
eclecticism from other sources.
ever,
were Christ in person,
saints
convincing
not improved
If the pope,
how-
the priests were angelic
and the statutes not human ordinances but divine
maxims,
I myself should
indeed join their church and
recommend the same step

stand
if
is
is
now
to everybody.
I look with disgust
on
this
and errors and have nothing but pity
As
things
motley of truth
for the slaves of
we speak of the Christian Religion

we must take a distinct view of it. Not this church or
such a system.
If
* Oriental Religions and their Relation to Universal Religion.

Boston, 1873.
THE DIVINE EDUCATION.
145
that one is the Christian religion, but the idea Christ himself gives of it,
Testament.
which
is
This idea
but has not yet found
New
contained in the canon of the

is
working among the Christians,

In
its full realization.
its
com-
pleted development the Christian religion will contain

in perfection
what any
of truth, divine or
religion of the world can boast
human
It is greatly
instincts, etc.
to be regretted that only very few writers on religion
have an idea of the idea of the Christian
We
religion.
may, however, find many writers who have a pretty

idea of Brahmanism,
fair
Buddhism and even Fetishism, and
thus involuntarily misrepresent the relation of Christianity to those religions.
XIV.
THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE
HUMAN
RACE.
Max Miiller complains (p. 223), and we with him,

" that there are people who believe that all the nations
of the earth, before the rise of Christianity, were mere
outcasts, forsaken
and forgotten of
their
Father ia
heavenj without a. knowledge of God., withoutof salvation."
It
is,
however, going as
other side of the mistake to continue as
"If
does,
a hope
much
to the
Max
Midler
a comparative study of the religions of
the world produced but this one result, that
it
drove
this godless heresy out of evefy Christian heart,
made
and
us see again in the history of the world the
146
eternal
wisdom and love
tures, it
Ged towards
of
all
His crea-
would have done a good work."
Yes, the eternal wisdom and love of
God we ought
to see in the history of the world, bat our eyes
not be shut to the dark shades, to human
sin,
must
cor-
ruption and wickedness, even enmity against God.
agree with
Max
Miiller
and other writers that neither
the art of ancient (and modern) nations, nor their

poetry, nor their philosophy would have been possible
without religion; that "there
is
no
religion
which does
not contain some grains of truth," only some grains,

alas
among heaps
of sand
and uncouth rubbish.
must confess of myself that the history of the
me
to see therein
the
Divine educa-
ancient religions has not enabled
" more
clearly than
anywhere
else
human race," nor do I know of any modern

author who has seen it and could show it to his readers.
tion of the
few high-sounding phrases one can meet here and
there,
but phrases cannot
be accepted as
proofs.
Such Divine education as indicated by Max

would have to be pronounced an utter failure.
Miiller
None
of those ancient religions has been developed to higher

perfection and purity, but all have degenerated in the
Though
course of time.
become modified
more
serious,
usually,
some
errors have
in later periods, jother errors,
have grown up.
purest religious ideas have in
all
perhaps
Yea, the noblest and

religions except the
Christian been neglected in the course of time, and

superstitions
a neglected
and nonsense have grown up
like
weeds in
Though I myself believe in a continuous Divine work among all men, yet I know besides,
from my own experience, thegxept power of oounfreracfield.
147
tion in the natural heart of man, with its selfish, sensual
and worldly propensities.
Mythology has many elements

But what is said under the head " Religion and Mythology " may suffice for our purpose here.
The Divine Education of the human race is one of
of this kind.
the most
A good
difficult
subjects for a scholar to deal with.
work of that kind would be a philosophy of
history from the theosophic point of view.
must be imbued with the
Spirit of
God
The
writer
to understand
the Divine plan, detect the Divine means employed and

see their working to the end in spite of
all
obstructions
and apparent frustrations by human obstinacy and perverseness.
Baron Bunsen
Max
Miiller, yet
work "God
tempt
is
an authority highly respected by
Max
Mttller never refers to his friend's
in History,"
in the direction
which
spoken
is,
perhaps, the best at-
Bunsen's own opinion
of.
about the writers on this subject before him may be

" Noble and enlighten?
seen in the following passage.*
ed minds have from early times sought to justify the
Moral Order of the world, according to which all evil
is self-destructive
and
is finally
not until after apparent victory
doomed
to perish, but
and lengthened domina-
tion; while the good prevails at last, but only after
an arduous
struggle,
and often
of misconception and oppression.
may
either
seek
its
ground
after a long period
This justification
in fact
or in
thought.
The conception of the Divine Providence, as consistent with human conscience and reason, is presented
among
the Semitic peoples, in the history telling how,
* God in History, or The Progress of Man's Faith in the

Moral Order of the World, by Baron Bunsen, Vol. I., p. 23, etc.
148
from Abraham to Moses, God delivered His people

with a strong hand, and again in the book of Job, as
Among
the lesson of submission to His mighty arm.
was
the Hellenes, the triumph of Divine Justice
The
brated in Epos and Drama.
cele-
exhibition of the
Divine Nemesis in the destruction of Troy
the im-
is
mortal type of the former kind, the epic Theodicy

vivid representation of an avenging
of iEschylus
and Sophocles
is
the
an equally immortal hymn
to the moral order of the world.

torical
Fate in the tragedies

Finally, in the his-
work of Herodotus, the same
circle of ideas is
exhibited in contrast with the actual destinies of na-
and their
tions
leaders.
" Leibnitz was the

Theodicy.
first to
attempt a philosophical
An attempt-to reach the same goalby other
paths was made by Lessing and Herder without a philosophical system, and
with one
(p.
23, 24),
by Kant, Sohelling and Hegel,
Leibnifezs
not only recognized, like
Bacon, what was wanted for historical science
he also
laid the foundations of this science in all three depart-
ments, philologioal, historical, and speculative.

however, set this problem
himself,
still
and endeavoured to
more
solve
it
Kant,
definitely before
by means of his
fundamental Theory of Ethics, starting from the political, cosmopolitan point of view, as Herder, in his
*
Ideas towards a Philosophy of the History of
kind,''
rian.
started from the anthropological
Lessing's scattered but pregnant hints
fruit in the writings of Fichte,
Man-
and humanita-
Sehelling,
first
bore
and Hegel.
Fichte, like a Titan, only touched history on her
moun-
tain summits, but Schelling's
in his
mighty utterance
Orations on Academic Study,' knit for ever the bond

between Idea and History.
It
149
however, generally
is,
acknowledged that Schelling occupied himself but

with the actual details of history, and not at
the method of
its
all
little
with
organic connection with pure specu-
Hegel, on the other hand, has indeed
lative thought.
contemplated such a method, but from the one-sided,

logical point of
view
he has linked the construction of
scientific history to universal formulas, at
which
b.& ar-
rived without paying due regard to the process of the
mind's evolution in history"
The
(p. 11).
lessons of the Divine Education of the
race have yet to be found out.
It
is,
human
without doubt, a
most instructive work if executed in a devoted spirit.

It would be at the same time a most heart-refreshing
'thing
ahd
give'
The
highest -satisfaction to"the mind.
great danger, however,
is
that most of the writers will
begin with their own metaphysics and a priori construction,
The
which
safest
way
is
worse than a mere relation of
facts.
certainly is to begin with an investiga-
tion into all traces of this kind found in the literature
of different nations.
a small share.
especially
We
The Chinese
will contribute
shall see that the Chinese
"the moral order"
not
have
in view as the Divine
The education of man consists in Heaven's

dealing with them in a way that they feel happy and
flourishing when agreeing with the moral order, but
calamity and destruction surely comes over them as
plan.
goon as the moral order is disturbed. For moral causes

are believed to produce physical effects.
Another idea connected with the Divine plan is
Heaven-conferred huthe most perfect development of
from our point of
comparing
in
We,
nature, etc.
man
150
view the Chinese, nation with other nations, would find

the good they have developed for the benefit of
other races
in their state-organism.
Politics
many
and laws
are founded on ethics, ethics again on the typical hu-
man
Whether China has
nature.
fulfilled
the Divine plan or not we cannot yet
tell
her task in
it
may, how-
ever, soon become apparent.
The Divine education is most conspicuous in the

Abraham, the great ancestor of
history of the Jews.
the nation, was singled out from his relationship and
had
to
become a stranger
in
Canaan.
taught to believe without seeing.

to
Egypt to
There he was
His seed had to go
school, got lessons of discipline, etc.
under
the summit of Sinai, then in possession of the promised

land, other important lessons began,
which the nation
Only a few out of
as such proved unable to master.
the great number of the Jewish people were sufficiently
prepared to appreciate the person of the Messiah and

accept his new covenant.
the
Kingdom
Yet
to this
God approaching
of
Messiah and to
in his person the
whole plan of divine education had
its
climax for the
Jewish race.
My
Max
meaning
will
be already clear enough against
Midler's sentiment.
Not the
peculiarity of Chi-
nese seclusion, nor of Jewish Bigotry and Pharisaism
show the Divine education of those
races, but
what has
been done by them towards perfecting human nature,
human
society
and
especially
human
relation to
God.
Another feature of the Divine education of the
God allows men to develope some

own to the extreme in order to
break down such artificial edifices. We know the
human
race
is
that
peculiarity of their
151
extreme monotheistic formalism and sacerdotalism of

the Jews in the time of Jesus.
down by
the old covenant went into the

nion.
It
force of heathen soldiers.
The Greeks were
that they regarded
all
new
had
to
be broken
Only the
Christian
so wise in their
Spirit
of
commu-
own opinion
other nations as barbarians, yet
simple fishermen from Galilee aud a tent-maker from
Asia Minor had to teach them true wisdom. The Romans had excellent laws, yet became a most lawless
people,
and the rude Teutonic
ble them.
The Teutonic
tribes
were used to hum-
tribes crushed the
more
civi-
Roman Empire, yet they themselves became the

propagators of Roman and Greek civilization. The
lised
degenerated Christian orientals had to be taught

lessons again by the
Mohamedans.
brought not only their
provement
strict
for worship or better
first
The Saracens
monotheism as an im-
named
perhaps, idola-
try of pictures, but also sciences and arts to Europe.
By
the
fall
of Constantinople the hidden Greek culture
Europe, ete. In our present

became
time we see how the Divine education brings all nation! and tribes of the whole Earth in contact with
each other. iEvery achievement, bad as well as good,
is made a common inheritance to the whole human
scattered over
race.
152
CONCLUSION.
The contents
of the fourteen chapers given above
show, I hope, incontestibly the great extent and power

of religion.
Though
on the subject as
I could
it is
not spend so
worth, the reader
much time
will
probably
get the impression that the treatment has been both

penetrating and comprehensive.
more colour
to the pages the effect
cared to give
If I
would be increased,
but I do not intend to present to the public a painting
but only a drawing, perhaps even nothing but a sketch.
Such sketches are
useful
in
have beforehand an idea of the
many
field
If
respects.
we
we intend to enter
we may save
ourselves from
If in-.
vestigation
well directed
great
results.
is
My
sketch
will
much rambling.
it may accomplish
be of service in this respect
not only to Missionaries in the
take a
field
scientific interest in religion.
but to
I hope,
all
themselves chiefly to the practical side of
will derive
some
profit
however,
that even those well enough educated persons'

vote'
who
who
de-
religion'
from any attention they pay ta
the questions touched in
my
Httle book.
CONCLUSION.
153
I have already gathered materials for writing

on
the Chinese religion.
I
If
hope to carry out
The undertaking
God
my
spares
and strength
life
plan as exactly as possible.
surrounded with many
is
difficulties,
as the greatest portion of the literature that must be

treated is not yet translated. It takes much time to
wade through old Chinese works.

thing
is
Yet the important
to use originals as far as they
But ewn
dary writers.
if
go and not secon-
I jshould feel unable to ac-
complish the work, the plan here given will enable

other students to go on with it.
treatment of comparative religion executed as
eomprehensively as sketched above

as too
much
hand.
If,
however, a nnmber of scholars would direct
their labours towards it
kind in
a few
immense.
religion
not yet possible,
is
preliminary work has to be done before-
we might
see something of the
The advantage gained
years.
be
will
I anticipate this not only for the science of
and
for other sciences connected with
especially for our practical religious convictions.
but
it,
do
not believe that any science can give a new basis to

religious belief, but
some sciences do
their best to dis-
turb the harmonious peace of religious
proper,
ix. congenial, scientific
life
at present.
treatment of com-
parative religion must of necessity put a stop to such

disturbances.
is
This
is
one great advantage.
the removal of some gross prejudices.
tific
men and
Another
Many
scien-
other persons boasting themselves of a
down upon
They may
accomplishments.
higher education are accustomed to look

religion
as
learn that a
below their
man
with the lowest form of religion
above one who has none at
all.
Not
is
the least ad-
THE SCIENCE OE CHINESE RELIGION.
154
vantage derived from an exhaustive treatment of the

Science of Eeligion
commandment
last
is
Christian Mission to
see in
it
towards
really
all
a deeper understanding of the

Lord Jesus regarding the
of our
all
We
nations and tribes.
shall
one of the manifestations of Divine love
May we more and more
men.
succeed to
be influenced only by this Divine, agency and not by

worldly motives or human passion, and
of
its
may we see more
realization in the spheres of our labour
Eeligion
is
the
transitory scenes
something in
it
life
of Eternity in midst
of this
world.
If our
of the true religious spirit
it will
so far outlive the perishableness of other things'
done for Eternity.
of the
work has
in
it is
REV. ERNST FABER'S WORKS.

A Systematical Digest, accord-
The Doctrines of Confucius.
ing to the Analects, Great Learning and Doctrine of

the Mean, with an Introduction On the Authorities
Translated from
upon Confucius and Confucianism.

the
German hy
P. G. von Moellendorff (with Chinese
Imp. 8vo. pp, 132,
text),
paper cover
viii.,
Introduction to the Science of Chinese Religion.

of
Max
.......:
Critique
Imp. vo. pp. 154,
Muller and other authors.
xii
........ $1.50
1.20
...
Hine Staatslehre auf ethischer Grundlaye oder Lehrbegriff

des
chinesischen
Urtexte
Philosbphen
Aus dem
llencius.
iibersetzt, in systematische
Ordnung gebracht
und mit Anmerkungen und Einleitungen versehen.

.
1.50
Imp. 8vo. pp. vii. 274
Die Grundgedanken des ulten chinesischen Socialismus oder
die
Lehre des Philosophen Micius
zum
vollstaendig aus den Quellen dargedegt.
104
Male
,..
......
Der Naiuralismus
ersten
Imp, 8vo. pp.
oei den alten Chinesen
0.75
sowohl nach der
Seite des Pantheisnius als des. Sensualismus oder die
saemmtliehen Werke des Philosophen Licius zum ersten
Male vollstaadig
iibersetzt
und
erklart.
Imp. 8vo. pp.
xxvii, 228
1.50
In Chinese Book Style (men-li).

Ex2>ositions on the Gospel of
and sold
for the British
Mark, in 5
and Foreign
vols, (printed
by
lieligious Tract
Society) per copy
0.60
On Western Schools and Examinations .....,,......,...,'

On Education
.
The
Human Heart
at the
0.10
0.02
Illustrated
Practical Lessons for Writing (in preparation)
To be had
0.10
....'.
German Mission House,
Canton.
Lane, Crawford
Hongkong.
&, Co.,
Presbyterian Mission Press, ...... Shanghai.
Kelly & Walsh,
Do.
.;
In Shanghai, the Prices are somewhat
different.
:'-;
iBlil
:;.-
Till!
dH
ii
HUT
tHR
fHI

The Science of Chinese Religion

Încărcat de

Informații document

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

The Science of Chinese Religion

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

CORNELL

" Universi, >' Librarv

3 1924 023 203 726

the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

the United States on the use of the

SCIENCE OF CHINESE RELIGION.

MtTLLER AND OTHER AUTHORS.

Bis laws our laws ;

LANE, CRAWFORD &

KELLY & WALSH.

PRESBYTERIAN MISSION PRESS.

PEINTED AT THE " CHINA MAIL *'

II. Religion in Fact,

IV. Religion and Science,

VII. Religion and

V. Religion and Morals,

VIII. Religion and the Arts,

IX. Religion and Nature (and

XI. Religion and Mythology XII. Classification of Religions,

I present to the public does not

German, have ventured

of the subject will be

to undertake such a thing is

they only had put

method and somewhat con-

fused notions in regard to religion.

religion in general, that betrays

a great want of clearness

able writers not

They, of course, could have

given a very superior production,

do some good service in this respect.

harm than good

a practical missionary and a

very important indeed.

treated inductively in a true

and not what any

how he may think

Religion must, besides, be treated in

Those who venture to write

without a cultivated artistic

author combines with

great learning, and his book

this reason read, it gives offence in proportion to

Buddhism, not to mention others,

taste in this respect.

not sufficient to have read a few theological works

or critical commentaries on the Bible; such give only

intellectual view of Christianity.

the inner sanctuary of Christian

to get a full under-

standing of what Christianity really

self in this respect.

I shall not boast of a well-trained

have done what

The few authors quoted are not

from among many others, but happened

hands, and other works, perhaps more

have, however, always been ready before I used another

The work shows that

most of the writers referred

have to disagree with

but this deviation of