第 6 节
作者:随便看看      更新:2022-11-23 12:09      字数:8692
  final spiritual estimate of a religious phenomenon; why threaten
  us at all with so much existential study of its conditions?  Why
  not simply leave pathological questions out?
  To this I reply in two ways。  First; I say; irrepressible
  curiosity imperiously leads one on; and I say; secondly; that it
  always leads to a better understanding of a thing's significance
  to consider its exaggerations and perversions its equivalents and
  substitutes and nearest relatives elsewhere。  Not that we may
  thereby swamp the thing in the wholesale condemnation which we
  pass on its inferior congeners; but rather that we may by
  contrast ascertain the more precisely in what its merits consist;
  by learning at the same time to what particular dangers of
  corruption it may also be exposed。
  Insane conditions have this advantage; that they isolate special
  factors of the mental life; and enable us to inspect them
  unmasked by their more usual surroundings。  They play the part in
  mental anatomy which the scalpel and the microscope play in the
  anatomy of the body。  To understand a thing rightly we need to
  see it both out of its environment and in it; and to have
  acquaintance with the whole range of its variations。  The study
  of hallucinations has in this way been for psychologists the key
  to their comprehension of normal sensation; that of illusions has
  been the key to the right comprehension of perception。  Morbid
  impulses and imperative conceptions; 〃fixed ideas;〃 so called;
  have thrown a flood of light on the psychology of the normal
  will; and obsessions and delusions have performed the same
  service for that of the normal faculty of belief。
  Similarly; the nature of genius has been illuminated by the
  attempts; of which I already made mention; to class it with
  psychopathical phenomena。  Borderland insanity; crankiness;
  insane temperament; loss of mental balance; psychopathic
  degeneration (to use a few of the many synonyms by which it has
  been called); has certain peculiarities and liabilities which;
  when combined with a superior quality of intellect in an
  individual; make it more probable that he will make his mark and
  affect his age; than if his temperament were less neurotic。
  There is of course no special affinity between crankiness as such
  and superior intellect;'7' for most psychopaths have feeble
  intellects; and superior intellects more commonly have normal
  nervous systems。 But the psychopathic temperament; whatever be
  the intellect with which it finds itself paired; often brings
  with it ardor and excitability of character。  The cranky person
  has extraordinary emotional susceptibility。  He
  is liable to fixed ideas and obsessions。  His conceptions tend to
  pass immediately into belief and action; and when he gets a new
  idea; he has no rest till he proclaims it; or in some way 〃works
  it off。〃  〃What shall I think of it?〃 a common person says to
  himself about a vexed question; but in a 〃cranky〃 mind 〃What must
  I do about it?〃 is the form the question tends to take。  In the
  autobiography of that high…souled woman; Mrs。 Annie Besant; I
  read the following passage:  〃Plenty of people wish well to any
  good cause; but very few care to exert themselves to help it; and
  still fewer will risk anything in its support。  'Someone ought to
  do it; but why should I?' is the ever reechoed phrase of
  weak…kneed amiability。 'Someone ought to do it; so why not I?' is
  the cry of some earnest servant of man; eagerly forward springing
  to face some perilous duty。  Between these two sentences lie
  whole centuries of moral evolution。〃  True enough! and between
  these two sentences lie also the different destinies of the
  ordinary sluggard and the psychopathic man。  Thus; when a
  superior intellect and a psychopathic temperament coalesceas in
  the endless permutations and combinations of human faculty; they
  are bound to coalesce often enoughin the same individual; we
  have the best possible condition for the kind of effective genius
  that gets into the  biographical dictionaries。  Such men do
  not remain mere critics and understanders with their intellect。
  Their ideas possess them; they inflict them; for better or worse;
  upon their companions or their age。  It is they who get counted
  when Messrs。 Lombroso; Nisbet; and others invoke statistics to
  defend their paradox。
  '7'  Superior intellect; as Professor Bain has admirably shown;
  seems to consist in nothing so much as in a large development of
  the faculty of association by similarity。
  To pass now to religious phenomena; take the melancholy which; as
  we shall see; constitutes an essential moment in every complete
  religious evolution。  Take the happiness which achieved religious
  belief confers。  Take the trancelike states of insight into truth
  which all religious mystics report。'8'  These are each and all of
  them special cases of kinds of human experience of much wider
  scope。  Religious melancholy; whatever peculiarities it may have
  qua religious; is at any rate melancholy。  Religious happiness is
  happiness。 Religious trance is trance。  And the moment we
  renounce the absurd notion that a thing is exploded away as soon
  as it is classed with others; or its origin is shown; the moment
  we agree to stand by experimental results and inner quality; in
  judging of valueswho does not see that we are likely to
  ascertain the distinctive significance of religious melancholy
  and happiness; or of religious trances; far better by comparing
  them as conscientiously as we can with other varieties of
  melancholy; happiness; and trance; than by refusing to consider
  their place in any more general series; and treating them as if
  they were outside of nature's order altogether?
  I hope that the course of these lectures will confirm us in this
  supposition。  As regards the psychopathic origin of so many
  religious phenomena; that would not be in the least surprising or
  disconcerting; even were such phenomena certified from on high to
  be the most precious of human experiences。  No one organism can
  possibly yield to its owner the whole body of truth。  Few of us
  are not in some way infirm; or even diseased; and our very
  infirmities help us unexpectedly。  In the psychopathic
  temperament we have the emotionality which is the sine qua non of
  moral perception; we have the intensity and tendency to emphasis
  which are the essence of practical moral vigor; and we have the
  love of metaphysics and mysticism which carry one's interests
  beyond the surface of the sensible world。 What; then; is more
  natural than that this temperament should introduce one to
  regions of religious truth; to corners of the universe; which
  your robust Philistine type of nervous system; forever offering
  its biceps to be felt; thumping its breast; and thanking Heaven
  that it hasn't a single morbid fiber in its composition; would be
  sure to hide forever from its self…satisfied possessors?
  '8'  I may refer to a criticism of the insanity theory of genius
  in the Psychological Review; ii。 287 (1895)。
  If there were such a thing as inspiration from a higher realm; it
  might well be that the neurotic temperament would furnish the
  chief condition of the requisite receptivity。 And having said
  thus much; I think that I may let the matter of religion and
  neuroticism drop。
  The mass of collateral phenomena; morbid or healthy; with which
  the various religious phenomena must be compared in order to
  understand them better; forms what in the slang of pedagogics is
  termed 〃the apperceiving mass〃 by which we comprehend them。  The
  only novelty that I can imagine this course of lectures to
  possess lies in the breadth of the apperceiving mass。  I may
  succeed in discussing religious experiences in a wider context
  than has been usual in university courses。