The sun., 1909-02-21

Oh ti~ eAeTHdl 10 bupeTstltlOn, OF W al
excess OF the emotional, 10 fanatacism
Men. on the conAary, appear general,
to incline to an excess OF the intellectual
to rationalism and indifference. Pro
fessions too. both by the temperament'
which they presuppose and the habit
Of mind which they foster have various
afflnities, The fighting, administrative
legal and political sciences and services
readily incline to the external and insti'
tutional; the medical. mathematical, nat
ural science studies TO the internal intel
lectual; the poetic. artistic. humanita'
rian activities to the interngl-emotional
Whole races indeed have tended and viii
tend, upon the whole. to one or other ol
these three excesses: for example. the
Latin races to externalism and supersti'
ton: the Teutonic racee to the two inte'
riorisms. rationalism ar d fanaticism.
II.
Our author turns next ~ the cock
istence and succession Of the three ele-
ments in history generally. He main
tains that il we go back as far as any
analyzable records will carry us we
find that in proportion as religion
emerges from pure fetichism it has ever
combined with the apprehension Of a
power conceived. at last and at best
as that of a father in heaven the APP
prehension of another power. con-
ceived as a bond between individual
man and his brethren upon earth.
'Never has the sacrifice, the so to speak
vertical relation between the individual
man and God. between the worshipper
and the object of his worship. been
without the sacrihcial meal. the COM
munion. the so to speak lateral. hori-
zontal relations between man and his
fellow man, between the worshippers
one and all" Never has religion been
purely and entirely individual; always
has il been as truly and necessarily
social and institutional. traditional and
historical. This traditional element
not all the religious genius in the world
can ever escape or replace: IL wss there.
surrounding and moulding the very
prenatal existence Of each of US; it
will be there long after we have
left the scene.' We live and die its
wise servants and stewards, or its
blind slaves. or in futile impoverishing
revolt against it; we never, for good or
for evil. really get beyond its reach.
Baron H1gel points out. however, that
all this stream and environment of the
traditional and social could make no
impression on the individual man
unless it we're met by certain secret
sympathies. by certain imperious wants
and energies within himself. Such
subjective capacities and dispositions
are al necessary prerequisites to every
act of faith as sight is the absolute pre-
requisite for any discrimination between
black and white. Hence as far back
in history as we can penetrate the ira
ditional and social, the institutional side
Of religion was accompanied by intel
lectus and experimental Interpretation
and response.
Let us mark next the parts played
in the great religions by these three
elements respectively. Baron H1gel
shows that even the Greek religion, so
largely naturalistic up TO the very end.
appears in the centuries Of it's relative
INTERPOLATION as a triad composed OF
most ancient traditional cultus. a phi
losophy Of religion and an experimental
ethical life. the latter element being
exemplified by the dsmon of Socrates
and by the Eleusinian and orphic
mystery. Again, in India and Tibet
Brahmansm and Buddhism may be
said 20 have divided these three ele-
ments between them. the former rep
resenting as great an excess OF the
external as Buddhism does of abstruse
reasoning and pessimistic emotion.
With regard TO Mohammedanism our
author notes that while combining
in very imperfect proportions all
three elements within itself it lays
special stress upon the first or external
element; and though harboring more
or less everywhere for centuries the
third or mystical element it looks in
its strictly orthodox representatives
with suspicion upon this mysticism.
Baron Hugel points out that Judaism
was slow in developing the second or
intellectual element. while the third
or mystical IL all but wholly absent
till the Exilic period, and does not be-
come marked feature till still later on.
and under Hellenstic influence. 1T
is in the Book of Wisdom, still more
in Philo that we find all three sides
almost equally developed. From the
Hasmonean period onward TO the de-
struction Of Jerusalem by Titus we find
a severe and ardent external. tradi-
ditional, authoritative school in the
Pharisees; an accommodating and ra-
tionalizing school in the Sadducees;
and apart from both more a sect than
school. tho experimental ascetical
and mystical body Of the Essenes
Our author holds. however, that il is
in Christianity and throughout its vari-
GUS vicissitudes and schools that the
presence, chara cteristics and interacton
Of the three elements may be most dis
tinctly and fully observed. He thinks
that with little or no violence the New
Testament writings may be grouped,
according to the predominance Of one Of
the three elements or moods, under the
heads Of the traditional historic, exter-
nal or Petrine school; the reasoning,
speculstive-internal or Pauline, and the
experimental, mystical-internal, or Johan-
nine school, in the East up 10 Clement
Of Alexandra, in the West UP TO ST.
Augustine we find the prevalence Of the
first type. Next. in the East in Clement
and Origen. in St. Gregory Of Nhssa. in
the Alexandrian and the Antiochene
school generally. and in the West In st.
Augustine, we find predominantly a COM
bination Of the second and third types"
Our author adds that the areopagitic
writings Of the end Of the fifth century