Part 2 (1/2)
I have endeavored to explain the meaning of one difficult pa.s.sage (vii.
75, and the note).
[A] As to the word [Greek: ousia], the reader may see the Index. I add here a few examples of the use of the word; Antoninus has (v. 24), [Greek: he sumpasa ousia], ”the universal substance.” He says (xii. 30 and iv. 40), ”there is one common substance” ([Greek: ousia]), distributed among countless bodies. In Stobaeus (tom. 1, lib. 1, t.i.t. 14) there is this definition, [Greek: ousian de phasin ton onton hapanton ten proten hylen]. In viii. II, Antoninus speaks of [Greek: to ousiodes kai hyulikon], ”the substantial and the material;” and (vii. 10) he says that ”everything material” ([Greek: enulon]) disappears in the substance of the whole ([Greek: te ton holon ousia]). The [Greek: ousia] is the generic name of that existence which we a.s.sume as the highest or ultimate, because we conceive no existence which can be coordinated with it and none above it. It is the philosopher's ”substance:” it is the ultimate expression for that which we conceive or suppose to be the basis, the being of a thing. ”From the Divine, which is substance in itself, or the only and sole substance, all and everything that is created exists” (Swedenborg, Angelic Wisdom, 198).
[B] I remark, in order to antic.i.p.ate any misapprehension, that all these general terms involve a contradiction. The ”one and all,” and the like, and ”the whole,” imply limitation. ”One” is limited; ”all” is limited; the ”whole” is limited. We cannot help it. We cannot find words to express that which we cannot fully conceive. The addition of ”absolute” or any other such word does not mend the matter. Even the word G.o.d is used by most people, often unconsciously, in such a way that limitation is implied, and yet at the same time words are added which are intended to deny limitation. A Christian martyr, when he was asked what G.o.d was, is said to have answered that G.o.d has no name like a man; and Justin says the same (Apol. ii. 6), ”the names Father, G.o.d, Creator, Lord, and Master are not names, but appellations derived from benefactions and acts.” (Compare Seneca, De Benef. iv. 8.) We can conceive the existence of a thing, or rather we may have the idea of an existence, without an adequate notion of it, ”adequate” meaning coextensive and coequal with the thing. We have a notion of limited s.p.a.ce derived from the dimensions of what we call a material thing, though of s.p.a.ce absolute, if I may use the term, we have no notion at all; and of infinite s.p.a.ce the notion is the same--no notion at all; and yet we conceive it in a sense, though I know not how, and we believe that s.p.a.ce is infinite, and we cannot conceive it to be finite.
[C] The notions of matter and of s.p.a.ce are inseparable. We derive the notion of s.p.a.ce from matter and form. But we have no adequate conception either of matter or s.p.a.ce. Matter in its ultimate resolution is as unintelligible as what men call mind, spirit, or by whatever other name they may express the power which makes itself known by acts. Anaxagoras laid down the distinction between intelligence [Greek: nous] and matter, and he said that intelligence impressed motion on matter, and so separated the elements of matter and gave them order; but he probably only a.s.sumed a beginning, as Simplicius says, as a foundation of his philosophical teaching. Empedocles said, ”The universe always existed.” He had no idea of what is called creation. Ocellus Luca.n.u.s (i, -- 2) maintained that the Universe ([Greek: to pan]) was imperishable and uncreated. Consequently it is eternal. He admitted the existence of G.o.d; but his theology would require some discussion. On the contrary, the Brachmans, according to Strabo (p. 713, ed. Cas.), taught that the universe was created and perishable; and the creator and administrator of it pervades the whole. The author of the book of Solomon's Wisdom says (xi. 17): ”Thy Almighty hand made the world of matter without form,” which may mean that matter existed already.
The common Greek word which we translate ”matter” is [Greek: hyle]. It is the stuff that things are made of.
Matter consists of elemental parts ([Greek: stoicheia]) of which all material objects are made. But nothing is permanent in form. The nature of the universe, according to Antoninus' expression (iv. 36), ”loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a womb: but this is a very vulgar notion.” All things then are in a constant flux and change; some things are dissolved into the elements, others come in their places; and so the ”whole universe continues ever young and perfect” (xii. 23).
Antoninus has some obscure expressions about what he calls ”seminal principles” ([Greek: spermatikoi logoi]). He opposes them to the Epicurean atoms (vi. 24), and consequently his ”seminal principles” are not material atoms which wander about at hazard, and combine n.o.body knows how. In one pa.s.sage (iv. 21) he speaks of living principles, souls ([Greek: psychahi]) after the dissolution of their bodies being received into the ”seminal principle of the universe.” Schultz thinks that by ”seminal principles Antoninus means the relations of the various elemental principles, which relations are determined by the Deity and by which alone the production of organized beings is possible.” This may be the meaning; but if it is, nothing of any value can be derived from it.[A] Antoninus often uses the word ”Nature” ([Greek: physis]), and we must attempt to fix its meaning, The simple etymological sense of [Greek: physis] is ”production,” the birth of what we call Things. The Romans used Natura, which also means ”birth” originally. But neither the Greeks nor the Romans stuck to this simple meaning, nor do we. Antoninus says (x. 6): ”Whether the universe is [a concourse of] atoms or Nature [is a system], let this first be established, that I am a part of the whole which is governed by nature.” Here it might seem as if nature were personified and viewed as an active, efficient power; as something which, it not independent of the Deity, acts by a power which is given to it by the Deity. Such, if I understand the expression right, is the way in which the word Nature is often used now, though it is plain that many writers use the word without fixing any exact meaning to it. It is the same with the expression Laws of Nature, which some writers may use in an intelligible sense, but others as clearly use in no definite sense at all. There is no meaning in this word Nature, except that which Bishop Butler a.s.signs to it, when he says, ”The only distinct meaning of that word Natural is Stated, Fixed, or Settled; since what is natural as much requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render it so, _i.e._, to effect it continually or at stated times, as what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it at once.” This is Plato's meaning (De Leg., iv. 715) when he says that G.o.d holds the beginning and end and middle of all that exists, and proceeds straight on his course, making his circuit according to nature (that is by a fixed order); and he is continually accompanied by justice, who punishes those who deviate from the divine law, that is, from the order or course which G.o.d observes.
[A] Justin (Apol. ii. 8) has the words [Greek: kata spermatikou logou meros], where he is speaking of the Stoics; but he uses this expression in a peculiar sense (note II). The early Christian writers were familiar with the Stoic terms, and their writings show that the contest was begun between the Christian expositors and the Greek philosophy. Even in the second Epistle of St. Peter (ii. I, v. 4) we find a Stoic expression, [Greek: Ina dia touton genesthe theias koinonoi physeos.]
When we look at the motions of the planets, the action of what we call gravitation, the elemental combination of unorganized bodies and their resolution, the production of plants and of living bodies, their generation, growth, and their dissolution, which we call their death, we observe a regular sequence of phenomena, which within the limits of experience present and past, so far as we know the past, is fixed and invariable. But if this is not so, if the order and sequence of phenomena, as known to us, are subject to change in the course of an infinite progression,--and such change is conceivable,--we have not discovered, nor shall we ever discover, the whole of the order and sequence of phenomena, in which sequence there may be involved according to its very nature, that is, according to its fixed order, some variation of what we now call the Order or Nature of Things. It is also conceivable that such changes have taken place,--changes in the order of things, as we are compelled by the imperfection of language to call them, but which are no changes; and further it is certain that our knowledge of the true sequence of all actual phenomena, as for instance the phenomena of generation, growth, and dissolution, is and ever must be imperfect.
We do not fare much better when we speak of Causes and Effects than when we speak of Nature. For the practical purposes of life we may use the terms cause and effect conveniently, and we may fix a distinct meaning to them, distinct enough at least to prevent all misunderstanding. But the case is different when we speak of causes and effects as of Things.
All that we know is phenomena, as the Greeks called them, or appearances which follow one another in a regular order, as we conceive it, so that if some one phenomenon should fail in the series, we conceive that there must either be an interruption of the series, or that something else will appear after the phenomenon which has failed to appear, and will occupy the vacant place; and so the series in its progression may be modified or totally changed. Cause and effect then mean nothing in the sequence of natural phenomena beyond what I have said; and the real cause, or the transcendent cause, as some would call it, of each successive phenomenon is in that which is the cause of all things which are, which have been, and which will be forever. Thus the word Creation may have a real sense if we consider it as the first, if we can conceive a first, in the present order of natural phenomena; but in the vulgar sense a creation of all things at a certain time, followed by a quiescence of the first cause and an abandonment of all sequences of Phenomena to the laws of Nature, or to the other words that people may Use, is absolutely absurd.[A]
[A] Time and s.p.a.ce are the conditions of our thought; but time infinite and s.p.a.ce infinite cannot be objects of thought, except in a very imperfect way. Time and s.p.a.ce must not in any way be thought of when we think of the Deity. Swedenborg says, ”The natural man may believe that he would have no thought, if the ideas of time, of s.p.a.ce, and of things material were taken away; for upon those is founded all the thought that man has.
But let him know that the thoughts are limited and confined in proportion as they partake of time, of s.p.a.ce, and of what is material; and that they are not limited and are extended, in proportion as they do not partake of those things; since the mind is so far elevated above the things corporeal and worldly”
(Concerning Heaven and h.e.l.l, 169).
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TEMPLE OF PALLAS]
Now, though there is great difficulty in understanding all the pa.s.sages of Antoninus, in which he speaks of Nature, of the changes of things and of the economy of the universe, I am convinced that his sense of Nature and Natural is the same as that which I have stated; and as he was a man who knew how to use words in a clear way and with strict consistency, we ought to a.s.sume, even if his meaning in some pa.s.sages is doubtful, that his view of Nature was in harmony with his fixed belief in the all-pervading, ever present, and ever active energy of G.o.d. (ii.
4; iv. 40; x. 1; vi. 40; and other pa.s.sages. Compare Seneca, De Benef., iv. 7. Swedenborg, Angelic Wisdom, 349-357.)
There is much in Antoninus that is hard to understand, and it might be said that he did not fully comprehend all that he wrote; which would however be in no way remarkable, for it happens now that a man may write what neither he nor anybody can understand. Antoninus tells us (xii. 10) to look at things and see what they are, resolving them into the material [Greek: hyle], the casual [Greek: aition], and the relation [Greek: anaphora], or the purpose, by which he seems to mean something in the nature of what we call effect, or end. The word Caus ([Greek: aitia]) is the difficulty. There is the same word in the Sanscrit (hetu); and the subtle philosophers of India and of Greece, and the less subtle philosophers of modern times, have all used this word, or an equivalent word, in a vague way. Yet the confusion sometimes may be in the inevitable ambiguity of language rather than in the mind of the writer, for I cannot think that some of the wisest of men did not know what they intended to say. When Antoninus says (iv. 36), ”that everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be,”
he might be supposed to say what some of the Indian philosophers have said, and thus a profound truth might be converted into a gross absurdity. But he says, ”in a manner,” and in a manner he said true; and in another manner, if you mistake his meaning, he said false. When Plato said, ”Nothing ever is, but is always becoming” ([Greek: aei gignetai]), he delivered a text, out of which we may derive something; for he destroys by it not all practical, but all speculative notions of cause and effect. The whole series of things, as they appear to us, must be contemplated in time, that is in succession, and we conceive or suppose intervals between one state of things and another state of things, so that there is priority and sequence, and interval, and Being, and a ceasing to Be, and beginning and ending. But there is nothing of the kind in the Nature of Things. It is an everlasting continuity (iv.
45; vii. 75). When Antoninus speaks of generation (x. 26), he speaks of one cause ([Greek: aitia]) acting, and then another cause taking up the work, which the former left in a certain state, and so on; and we might perhaps conceive that he had some notion like what has been called ”the self-evolving power of nature;” a fine phrase indeed, the full import of which I believe that the writer of it did not see, and thus he laid himself open to the imputation of being a follower of one of the Hindu sects, which makes all things come by evolution out of nature or matter, or out of something which takes the place of Deity, but is not Deity. I would have all men think as they please, or as they can, and I only claim the same freedom which I give. When a man writes anything, we may fairly try to find out all that his words must mean, even if the result is that they mean what he did not mean; and if we find this contradiction, it is not our fault, but his misfortune. Now Antoninus is perhaps somewhat in this condition in what he says (x. 26), though he speaks at the end of the paragraph of the power which acts, unseen by the eyes, but still no less clearly. But whether in this pa.s.sage (x. 26) lie means that the power is conceived to be in the different successive causes ([Greek: aitiai]), or in something else, n.o.body can tell. From other pa.s.sages, however, I do collect that his notion of the phenomena of the universe is what I have stated. The Deity works unseen, if we may use such language, and perhaps I may, as Job did, or he who wrote the book of Job. ”In him we live and move and are,” said St. Paul to the Athenians; and to show his hearers that this was no new doctrine, he quoted the Greek poets. One of these poets was the Stoic Cleauthes, whose n.o.ble hymn to Zeus, or G.o.d, is an elevated expression of devotion and philosophy. It deprives Nature of her power, and puts her under the immediate government of the Deity.
”Thee all this heaven, which whirls around the earth, Obeys, and willing follows where thou leadest.
Without thee, G.o.d, nothing is done on earth, Nor in the ethereal realms, nor in the sea, Save what the wicked through their folly do.”
Antoninus' conviction of the existence of a divine power and government was founded on his perception of the order of the universe. Like Socrates (Xen. Mem., iv. 3, 13, etc.) he says that though we cannot see the forms of divine powers, we know that they exist because we see their works.
”To those who ask, Where hast thou seen the G.o.ds, or how dost thou comprehend that they exist and so wors.h.i.+pest them? I answer, in the first place, that they may be seen even with the eyes; in the second place, neither have I seen my own soul, and yet I honor it. Thus then with respect to the G.o.ds, from what I constantly experience of their power, from this I comprehend that they exist, and I venerate them.”
(xii. 28, and the note. Comp. Aristotle de Mundo, c. 6; Xen. Mem. i. 4, 9; Cicero, Tuscul. i. 28, 29; St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, i. 19, 20; and Montaigne's Apology for Raimond de Sebonde, ii. c. 12.) This is a very old argument, which has always had great weight with most people, and has appeared sufficient. It does not acquire the least additional strength by being developed in a learned treatise. It is as intelligible in its simple enunciation as it can be made. If it is rejected, there is no arguing with him who rejects it: and if it is worked out into innumerable particulars, the value of the evidence runs the risk of being buried under a ma.s.s of words.
Man being conscious that he is a spiritual power, or that he has such a power, in whatever way he conceives that he has it--for I wish simply to state a fact--from this power which he has in himself, he is led, as Antoninus says, to believe that there is a greater power, which, as the old Stoics tell us, pervades the whole universe as the intellect[A]
([Greek: nous]) pervades man. (Compare Epictetus' Discourses, i. 14; and Voltaire a Mad^e. Necker, vol. lxvii., p. 278, ed. Lequien.)
[A] I have always translated the word [Greek: nous], ”intelligence” or ”intellect.” It appears to be the word used by the oldest Greek philosophers to express the notion of ”intelligence” as opposed to the notion of ”matter.” I have always translated the word [Greek: logos] by ”reason,” and [Greek: logikos] by the word ”rational,” or perhaps sometimes ”reasonable,” as I have translated [Greek: noeros] by the word ”intellectual.” Every man who has thought and has read any philosophical writings knows the difficulty of finding words to express certain notions, how imperfectly words express these notions, and how carelessly the words are often used. The various senses of the word [Greek: logos] are enough to perplex any man. Our translators of the New Testament (St. John, c. 1.) have simply translated [Greek: ho logos] by ”the word,” as the Germans translated it by ”das Wort;” but in their theological writings they sometimes retain the original term Logos. The Germans have a term Vernunft, which seems to come nearest to our word Reason, or the necessary and absolute truths which we cannot conceive as being other than what they are. Such are what some people have called the laws of thought, the conceptions of s.p.a.ce and of time, and axioms or first principles, which need no proof and cannot be proved or denied.
Accordingly the Germans can say, ”Gott ist die hochste Vernunft,” the Supreme Reason. The Germans have also a word Verstand, which seems to represent our word ”understanding,”
”intelligence,” ”intellect,” not as a thing absolute which exists by itself, but as a thing connected with an individual being, as a man. Accordingly it is the capacity of receiving impressions (Vorstellungen, [Greek: phantasiai],) and forming from them distinct ideas (Begriffe), and perceiving differences. I do not think that these remarks will help the reader to the understanding of Antoninus, or his use of the words [Greek: nous] and [Greek: logos]. The emperor's meaning must be got from his own words, and if it does not agree altogether with modern notions, it is not our business to force it into agreement, but simply to find out what his meaning is, if we can.