4. But they who are more especially known as ascetics, from whose penitential exercises the name is derived, are those who, under the stigma of sensual, carnal, and worldly delights, have condemned the pleasures of the table, of the sexual sentiment, of music, of poetry, of the contemplation of the beautiful, of the perception of the ludicrous, of the exercise of reason, of the pursuit of knowledge, of wealth, of power, of glory, indeed, almost all the pleasures of which men are capable, as the sinful desires of a depraved nature; who have even gone the length of recommending the voluntary infliction of pains and degradations, fastings, hair shirts, scourgings, the most exquisite bodily torments, constant self-denial and perpetual humiliation, even death itself. This school of ascetics, of which Christian, Mahomedan, Boodhist, Hindu, and Pagan branches are to be found, proceeds, theoretically, upon mystic views. 5. In the preceding part of this treatise, we have shown how that school of theologians commonly distinguished as Theosophists, arrived at the conclusion, that the reason why the love of God is not, as according to their theory it ought to be, the leading motive of human conduct, is, the selfishness and practical atheism of mankind, men's thoughts being constantly drawn off from God by sensible objects and wordly pleasures. This opinion is closely connected with, and serves to strengthen and support, another dogma of this school, the dogma, namely, that human nature consists of two parts, totally distinct and dissimilar, to wit, a material mortal body, and a spiritual, immortal, godlike soul. A somewhat arbitrary division of the faculties of human nature is made between these two alleged component parts of it; and, while intelligence or the power of perceiving is ascribed to the soul, sensibility or the power of feeling — at least so far as respects the greater number of pleasures and pains -is supposed to be a function of the body.* Putting these two doctrines together, one great branch of the Theosophists held, that man's great object ought to be, and duty is, to free the soul as much as possible from the dominion of the body. Thus freed, the soul will be necessarily attracted towards God, the proper object of its admiring love; and we shall then perpetually pay to the Deity that tribute of constant adoration, the only possible duty of a finite towards an infinite being; external acts of worship being of importance only as serving to fix the thoughts on God; therefore, the height of virtue is, to rise above all ordinary perceptions, feelings, and pursuits; and to keep the soul steadfast in unceasing admiration of God's infinite perfections. That complete insensibility to the material world and to all the ordinary pleasures and pains of life which this state implies, naturally led the Boodhist doctors to the idea of nieban, or annihilation, as the * We have already adverted to the confusion of ideas produced by this attempt to separate perception and sensibility, two things so intimately connected, that, as far as human experience goes, they cannot exist separately. But this is a topic of which the further consideration appertains to the Theory of Knowledge. height of excellence and happiness. Others, to express the same idea, have used the phrase, "absorption into God." But as the ordinary pleasures and pains of life, or what the ascetics denominate carnal pleasures and pains, tend constantly to draw us off from this state of holy contemplation; therefore, it is necessary to mortify the body, and all the carnal appetites along with it. Some partisans of this school, such as Origen, in pursuance of this idea, have proceeded to the length of mutilating themselves, Others have gone still further; and in more religions than one, this notion pushed to its ultimate extreme, has led to the doctrine and the practice of religious suicide. 6. It is these opinions, carried out to a greater or less extent, which have produced, not in Christendom alone, but in almost every part of the world, recluses, hermits, religious mendicants, self-tormenting saints, monks, nuns, and devotees; professions in which most commonly we may discover a strange mixture of self-deception and hypocrisy ; but which often repay those who adopt them for all the privations and voluntary sufferings to which they subject themselves, not only by beatific visions of fancy which become more lively as sensible objects are shut out, but, also, by the more obvious advantages of popular admiration and a reputation of sanctity, whereby many a holy saint has enabled himself to taste the worldly delights of fame and power. 7. Not only do mystic dogmas and the sentiment of self-comparison serve to buttress up these ascetic notions; they are partially sustained by other con siderations. He who asks no pleasures for himself, is thought likely to be most willing to bestow pleasures upon others, a false, but plausible conclusion. Hence, that strong tendency to an alliance between the self-sacrificing theory of morals and ascetic practices and ideas. These systems agree in requiring the subjection or rather the extinguishment, of the greater part of the sentiments natural to man. 8. Of all the pleasures stigmatized under the name of carnal and sensual, none have come in for so full a share of ascetic-mystic condemnation as the pleasures of the sexual sentiment; which, under the odious name of lust, has been pursued with endless denunciations. The reason is obvious. Not only is the gratification of this sentiment in its natural combination with others, the source of great pleasures; it is also the foundation of conjugal and parental relations. It leads men to impose upon themselves in addition to their own support, the greater care of providing for the support of their consorts and their children. Men thus become connected with the world by numerous ties; and they are proportionably drawn off from that state of abstracted meditation, from that total absorption in the contemplation of the Deity, in which, according to the ascetic mystics, godliness or piety consists.* * Piety, in the original Latin, is filial devotion, a sentiment into which, according to Roman ideas, there entered more of admiration, and even of fear, than of love; - for the Roman father had the power of life and death over his children. This word was used by the ascetic mystics, to designate that total submissiveness to the Divine will and that perpetual contemplation and adoration of the Divine attributes, in which, according to their theory, the only possible human goodness consists. Hence, the eulogies bestowed upon chastity, by which was meant not only entire abstinence from sexual indulgences but the total suppression of that sentiment. Hence, the high merit ascribed by the Christian fathers to virginity; hence, marriage itself was condemned, as sinful; absolutely prohibited to the clergy, and to those who made any high pretensions to piety; and if allowed to the common people, allowed simply as a means of propagating the species; any indulgence in the pleasures of the marriage bed, for the mere sake of those pleasures, being denounced as beastly, carnal, and corrupt.* Though marriage among the laity was determined to be lawful, the mystic ascetics still struggled hard against permitting second marriages; and it is chiefly owing to their doctrines and influence, that, throughout Christendom, marriage has been held so strictly indissoluble, however much both parties. might desire a separation. Men and women who would marry, and who could not agree, were thought entitled to no pity, but justly punished for yielding to their carnal desires by the miseries of an unsuitable and unhappy union. Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rights Whatever hypocrites austerely talk Of purity, and place, and innocence, Pare," &c. Paradise Lost, Book IV. 1. 741. This passage alludes to those mystic commentators who had taught, that, so long as Adam and Eve remained in Paradise, the idea of sexual intercourse never entered their heads. See Bayle's Dict. Art. Adam. |