Part 6 (1/2)
In connection with this phase of the emotions, we invite the student to consider the following excellent words of Professor Davidson in his ”History of Greek Education”: ”It is not enough for a man to understand the conditions of rational life in his own time. He must likewise _love_ these conditions and _hate_ whatever leads to life of an opposite kind.
This is only another way of saying that he must love the good and hate the evil; for the good is simply what conduces to rational or moral life, and the evil simply what leads away from it. It is perfectly obvious, as soon as it is pointed out, that all immoral life is due to a false distribution of affection, which again is often, though by no means always, due to a want of intellectual cultivation. He that attributes to anything a value greater or less than it really possesses, in the order of things, has already placed himself in a false relation to it, and will certainly, when he comes to act with reference to it, act immorally.”
CHAPTER XV.
The Religious Emotions.
By ”the religious emotions” is meant that cla.s.s of emotional feeling arising from the faith and belief in, or consciousness of the presence of, supernatural beings, powers, ent.i.ties, or forces. This form of emotion is regarded as distinct from the ethical and moral emotions, although frequently found in connection therewith. Likewise, it is independent of any special form of intellectual belief, for it is far more fundamental and often exists without creed, philosophy, or stated belief, the only manifestation in such cases being a ”feeling” of the existence of supernatural beings, forces, and powers to which man has a relation and to which he owes obedience. To those who may think that this is too narrow a conception of religious emotion we refer the following definition of ”religion” from the dictionaries: ”The acts or feelings which result from the belief of a G.o.d, or G.o.ds, having superior control over matter, life, or destiny. Religion is subjective, designating the feelings and acts of men which relate to G.o.d; theology is objective, denoting the science which investigates the existence, laws, and attributes of G.o.d;” or (objectively) ”the outer form and embodiment which the inward spirit of a true or a false devotion a.s.sumes,” (subjectively) ”the feeling of veneration with which the wors.h.i.+per regards the Being he adores.”
Darwin, in his ”Descent of Man,” says that the feeling of religious devotion is a highly complex one, consisting of love, complete submission to an exalted and mysterious superior, a strong sense of dependence, fear, reverence, grat.i.tude, hope for the future, and perhaps other elements. He is of the opinion that no man can experience so complex an emotion until advanced in his intellectual and moral faculties to at least a moderately high level. The authorities generally agree with Darwin, although the more recent study of the history of religion has shown that religious feeling has a far more primitive origin than that indicated by Darwin.
It is true that the lower animals are not deemed capable of anything approaching religious feeling, unless there is a feeling approaching it in the att.i.tude of the dog and horse and other domestic animals toward their masters. But man, as soon as he is able to attribute natural phenomena to a supernatural cause and power, manifests a crude religious feeling and emotion. He begins by believing in, fearing, and wors.h.i.+ping natural forces and objects, such as the sun, the moon, the wind, thunder and lightning, the ocean, rivers, mountains, etc. It is claimed that there is no natural object that has not been deified and wors.h.i.+ped by some people at some time in the history of the race. Later, man acquired the anthropomorphic conception of deities and created many G.o.ds in his own image, endowing them with his own attributes, qualities, and characteristics. The mental characteristics and morals of a people can always be ascertained by a knowledge of the average conception of deity held by them. Polytheism, or the belief in many G.o.ds, was succeeded by monotheism, or belief in one G.o.d.
Monotheism ranges from the crudest conception of a manlike G.o.d to the highest conception of a spiritual Being transcending all human qualities, attributes, or characteristics. Man began by believing in many G.o.d _things_, then in many G.o.d _persons_, then in a one G.o.d-person, then in one G.o.d who is a spirit, then in One Universal Spirit which is G.o.d. It is a far cry from the savage, manlike G.o.d of old to the conception of the Universal Spirit of the ”G.o.d-drunken philosopher,”
Spinoza. The extreme of religious belief is that which holds that ”there is nothing but G.o.d--all else is illusion,” of pantheistic idealism.
Buddhism (at least in its original form) discarded the idea of a Supreme Being, and held that Ultimate Reality is but Universal _Law_; hence the accusation that Buddhism is an ”atheistic religion,” although it is one of the world's greatest religions, having over 400,000,000 followers.
But the _beliefs_ of the religious person may be considered as resulting from intellectual processes; his religious _feelings and emotions_ arise from another part of his mental being. It is the testimony of the authorities of all religions that religious conviction is an inner experience rather than an intellectual conception. The emotional element is always active in religious manifestations everywhere. The purely intellectual religion is naught but a philosophy. Religion without feeling and emotion is an anomaly. In all true religion there exists a feeling of inner a.s.surance and faith, love, awe, dependence, submission, reverence, grat.i.tude, hope, and perhaps fear. The emotional element must always be present, not necessarily in the form of emotional excess, as in the case of revival hysteria or the dance of the whirling dervishes, but at least in the form of the calm, fervent feeling of ”that peace which pa.s.seth understanding.” When religion departs from the emotional phase it becomes merely a ”school of philosophy,” or an ”ethical culture society.”
The student must not lose sight of the uplifting influence of true religious emotion by reason of his knowledge of its lowly origin. Like the lotus, which has its roots in the slimy, filthy mud of the river, and its stem in the muddy, stagnant, and foul waters thereof, but its beautiful flower unfolded in the clear air and facing the sun, so is religious feeling responsible for some of the most beautiful and uplifting ideals and actions of the race. If its origin and history contain much that is not consistent with the highest ideals of the race to-day, it is not the fault of religion but of the race itself.
Religion, like all else in the universal manifestation, is under the laws of evolution, growth, and development. What the religion of the future may be, we know not. But the prophets of the race are dreaming visions of a religion as much higher than that of to-day as the latter is higher than the crude fetichism of the savage.
The following quotation from John Fiske's ”Through Nature to G.o.d” is appropriate in this place. Fiske says: ”My aim is to show that 'that other influence,' that inward conviction, the craving for a final cause, the theistic a.s.sumption, is itself one of the master facts of the universe, and as much ent.i.tled to respect as any fact in physical nature can possibly be. The argument flashed upon me about ten years ago while reading Herbert Spencer's controversy with Frederic Harrison concerning the nature and reality of religion. Because Spencer derived historically the greater part of modern belief in an Unseen World from the savage's primeval world of dreams and ghosts, some of his critics maintained that logical consistency required him to dismiss the modern belief as utterly false; otherwise he would be guilty of seeking to evolve truth from falsehood. 'By no means,' replied Spencer. 'Contrariwise, the ultimate form of the religious consciousness is the final development of a consciousness which at the outset contained a germ of truth obscured by mult.i.tudinous errors.'” Fiske, in this connection, quotes the Tennysonian question:--
”'Who forged that other influence, That heat of inward evidence, By which he doubts against the sense?'”
The religious emotions may be developed by allowing the mind to dwell upon the Power underlying the universe of fleeting, changing forms; by reading prose and poetry in which an appeal is made to the religious instinct; by listening to music which awakens the emotion of reverence and awe; and, finally, by meditating upon the inner spirit immanent in every living being. As an old Hindu sage once said: ”There are many paths by which men arrive at a knowledge of the presence of G.o.d, but there is but one goal and destination.”
CHAPTER XVI.
The Aesthetic Emotions.
By ”the aesthetic emotions” is meant those emotional feelings which are concerned with the perception of beauty or taste, and by reason of which we ”like” or ”dislike” certain perceptions of sensory impressions. In order to get a clearer idea, let us consider what is meant by ”beauty”
and ”taste.”
”Beauty” is defined as ”that quality or a.s.semblage of qualities in an object which gives the eye or the ear intense pleasure; or that characteristic in an object which gratifies the intellect or moral feeling.” ”Taste” (in this sense of the term) is defined as ”nice perception, or the power of perceiving and relis.h.i.+ng excellence in human performances; the power of appreciating the finer qualities of art; the faculty of discerning beauty, order, congruity, proportion, symmetry, or whatever const.i.tutes excellence, particularly in the fine arts or literature; the faculty of the mind by which we both perceive and enjoy whatever is beautiful or sublime in the works of nature and art. The possession of taste insures grace and beauty in the works of an artist, and the avoidance of all that is low or mean. It is as often the result of an innate sense of beauty or propriety as of art education, and no genius can compensate for the want of it. * * * Tastes differ so much among individuals, nations, or in different ages and conditions of civilization that it is utterly impossible to set up a standard of taste applicable to all men and to all stages in the evolution of society.”
The aesthetic sense, feeling, and emotion are products of the later stages of the evolution of the mind of man. Their roots, however, may be seen in the crude attempts at decoration and adornment in the savage, and still further back in the tendency of certain birds to adorn their nests or ”bowers.” Moreover, some sense of beauty must exist in the lower animals, which are influenced thereby in the selection of their mates, the bright plumage of the birds, and the coloring of the insects and higher animals evidencing the existence of at least a primitive aesthetic sense. Herbert Spencer says that one characteristic of the aesthetic feelings is that they are separated from the functions vitally requisite and necessary to sustain life, and it is not until the latter are reasonably well satisfied that the former begin to manifest in force.
The authorities hold that the basic element concerned in the manifestation of the aesthetic emotional feeling is the _sensory_ element, which consists of the pleasure arising from the perception of objects of vision or hearing which are deemed beautiful. There is a certain nervous satisfaction which arises from the perception of the sensation of the sight of a beautiful thing, or of the hearing of beautiful sound. Just _why_ certain sights prove agreeable and others disagreeable, or certain sounds pleasant and others unpleasant, is very difficult to determine. a.s.sociation and habit may have something to do with the beauty of sight object, and there may be natural harmony of vibration in colors as there is in sound. In the case of sounds there is undoubtedly a natural harmony between the vibrations of certain notes of the scale and inharmony between others. Some have held that the secret of the enjoyment of music is found in the natural appreciation of rhythm, as rhythm is a cosmic manifestation evident in everything from great to small. But these theories do not account for the differences existing in the tastes regarding color and music manifested by different individuals, races, and cla.s.ses of people.
Grant Allen says: ”The vulgar are pleased with great ma.s.ses of color, especially red, orange, and purple, which give their coa.r.s.e, nervous organization the requisite stimulus. The refined, with nerves of less caliber, but greater discriminativeness, require delicate combinations of complementaries and prefer neutral tints to the glare of the primary hues. Children and savages love to dress in all the colors of the rainbow.” In the same way persons of certain types of taste are pleased with ”rag time” and cheap, rollicking songs or dances, while others shudder at these and find delight in the cla.s.sic productions of the great composers.
There is also the _intellectual_ element to be reckoned with in the aesthetic emotions. The intellect must discover the beauty in certain objects before the emotion is aroused by the perception. Halleck says: ”Every time the mind discerns unity amid variety, order, rhythm, proportion, or symmetry, an aesthetic emotion arises. * * * The traveler with a trained intellect will see far more beauty than an ignorant one.
In looking at a cathedral, a large part of the aesthetic enjoyment comes from tracing out the symmetry, from comparing part with part. Not until this process is complete will the full beauty of the structure as a whole be perceived. If the traveler knows something of mediaeval architecture before starting on his European trip, he will see far more beauty. The opposite of the aesthetic, which we call the ugly, is the unsymmetrical, the disorderly--that in which we can discover no rhythm, plan, or beauty.”