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mind thoroughly human, and the objection to their representation in sculpture or painting was lest the Jew should halt at the physical expression of God's being, and not advance to the idea of His moral and metaphysical being.

Of the immense debt of gratitude we owe to symbolatry it is impossible to speak too highly. To it we owe the arts of painting and sculpture, and of writing, and indeed of speech. For speech is the expression of ideas in a conventional form. Writing is the same, and writing is derived from picture-painting.

It is worth considering how powerful a lever symbolism has been for lifting man. A beast cannot symbolize a thought, but man can, by the formation of a word or of a figure. Modern writing is the fusion of the two modes of expression; it is the symbolizing of the sound which symbolizes the thought. To this distinguishing instinct we therefore owe language, literature, and art; and whenever it has invaded religion it has acquired a dynamic force irresistibly impelling man to civilization; consequently the image-making peoples of antiquity stand out pre-eminent for their intelligence. The Jew is an exception, apparently, but not really, for his temple at Jerusalem was a splendid symbol on a large scale, and the ritual of its courts was intensely and intrinsically symbolic. The Arabian monotheist cannot be excepted, for all his artistic advance was due to friction against symbolatrous peoples; in his desert, where he is not brought into contact with image-makers, his natural genius lies blank and barren like the sandy flats he haunts.

That symbolism should be open to abuse, and be productive of evil, is not surprising; for nothing that is in it

self good escapes being prejudicial if it be not co-ordinated with other good instincts. When the significance of a symbol is forgotten and the worship remains, the idol becomes a mere fetish, and then its symbolic character is perverted to gross ends. For instance, the sacred animals of Egypt were, no doubt, in the fetish age, those which were reverenced, and by kindness were domesticated; afterwards they were regarded as emblems only; but in the decline of Egyptian learning, when the doctrines of their religion became obscured, they became again objects of religious worship. "The sanctuaries of the temples," says Clement of Alexandria, "are covered with veils of gold tissue; but if you advance towards the end of the temple and search for the statue, a minister of the temple advances, with a grave air, chanting a hymn in Egyptian, and raises the veil a little, as though to show you the god. Then what do you see? A cat, a crocodile, an indigenous serpent, or some other dangerous animal! The god of the Egyptians appears; it is a wild beast wallowing on a purple carpet.” 1

"Illic cæruleos, hic piscem fluminis, illic

Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.
Porrum et sæpe nefas violare et frangere morsu.

O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
Numina !" 2

In like manner the phallus, which was used in all simplicity as an emblem of the generative force of nature, became an object of revolting and indecent worship. And even when the significance of an emblem is not misconstrued or forgotten, the vulgar are liable to forget that after all it only represents one side of the religious idea, and that the metaphysical and moral side cannot be adequately represented by brush or chisel.

1 Clem. Alexand.: Stromata.

2 Juvenal: Sat. xv. 7-11.

3. IDEOLATRY.

It is impossible to worship a god whom the mind cannot idealize. To idealize him, more or less positive attributes must be conceded to him: these may be material, moral, or intellectual; but, of whatever nature they are, they must be such as those of which man has cognizance; and if moral and mental they must, if material they may, cause the idea to be human and personal.

The moral and intellectual idea is no less anthropomorphic than the sensible representation, but it is higher and better. As man's knowledge changes his idea of God changes: as he mounts the scale of existence his consciousness becomes clearer and more luminous; and his continuous idealization of his better self is an ever-improving reflex of the divine essence. The savage invests God with bodily attributes; in a more civilized state man withdraws the bodily attributes, but imposes the limitations of his own mental nature; and in his philosophic elevation he recognises in God intelligence only, though still with anthropomorphic conditions.

But as his mind thus ascends, his sentiment descends. His affections can only attach themselves to what is sensible. He can love what is individual, but not what is general. Abstractions interest his mind but deaden his heart. If he says, "I love virtue," he means, "I love the man who is virtuous." Thus, in proportion as the intelligence divests the Deity of one attribute after another, the ties binding the heart to the Divine Ideal are ruptured, and the affections steadily decline into indifference. The more thoroughly human is the God idealized, the more ardently is He loved and adored. If the idea be divested of every

attribute, and consist of mere negations, latria is at an end; for it ceases to be objective, and one of the indispensable conditions of worship is withdrawn.

As man is constituted he is intelligent and sentimental, and a religion which develops reason at the expense of affection, or which on the other hand is emotional and at the same time is irrational, cannot satisfy all his instincts.

CHAPTER X

THEOCRACIES

Three modes of life, the hunting, the pastoral, and the agricultural-Difficulty of passing from one mode to another-Requisites of the agricultural mode: 1. Community of land-Rise of castes-Territorial aristocracies and theocracies; 2. Government-democratic, then feudal, then monarchic-Theocratic government; 3. Ethics must be based on authority-Province of prophetism-of theocracies to codify lawsTheocratic codes very minute-Their object, the destruction of individuality-This not peculiar to theocracies-Benefits of theocracies.

M

ANKIND has passed through three modes of life, each characteristic of a phase of intellectual and religious

development.

These are the Venatic, the Pastoral, and the Agricultural modes.

These divisions are not however absolute, for, perhaps, there never was a time when people did not make some rude attempts at tillage and domestication of animals. Among the refuse of lacustrine villages, which belong to a remote period, the discovery of grain and bones gnawed by dogs proves that, as far back as man can be traced, there are indications of his having attempted both.1

So also, agricultural races have indulged occasionally in the pursuit of game, or have set apart a caste to hunt and fish and fight, whilst the bulk of the people tilled the soil; 1 Flottard: Etudes sur la Théocratie; Paris, 1861.

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