This booklet, The Canon of Reason and Virtue, is an extract from the author's larger work, Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King, and has been published for the purpose of making our reading public more familiar with that grand and imposing figure Li Er, who was honored with the posthumous title Poh-Yang, i. e., Prince Positive (representing the male or strong principle); but whom his countrymen simply call Lao-tze, the Old Philosopher. Sze-Ma Ch‘ien, the Herodotus of China, who lived about 136-85 B. C., has left a short sketch of Lao-tze's life in hisShi Ki (Historical Records) which is here prefixed as the most ancient and only well-attested account to be had of the Old Philosopher.
Born in 604 B. C., Lao-tze was by about half a century the senior of Confucius. He must have attained great fame during his life, for Confucius is reported to have sought an interview with him. But the two greatest sages of China did not understand each other, and they parted mutually disappointed.
Confucius's visit to Lao-tze has been doubted. If it is not historical it certainly is ben trovato, for the contrast between these two leaders of Chinese thought remains to the present day. The disciples of Confucius, the so-called "literati," are tinged with their master's agnosticism and insist on the rules of propriety as the best methods of education, while the Tao Sze, the believers in the Tao, or divine Reason, are given to philosophical speculation and religious mysticism. The two schools are still divided, and have never effected a conciliation of their differences that might be attained on a common higher ground.
Chwang-tze, one of Lao-tze's disciples, who lived about 330 B. C., has preserved another, an older and more elaborate, report of the meeting between Confucius and the Old Philosopher. Sze-Ma Ch‘ien (163-85 B. C.) is sometimes supposed to have derived his account from Chwang-tze, but Chwang-tze's story bears traces of legendary elements which can not but be regarded as fiction, and it is difficult to believe that the historian should have taken his sober sketch from the fantastic tale of a poet-philosopher.
The names of Lao-tze's birthplace, state, province and the locality of his life's work might be considered as invented purposely because of their strange significance if they were not geographically existent. In the first edition ofLao-tze's Tao Teh Kingwe translated Cheu as "the State of Plenty," and will only add that the word is made up of the characters "mouth" and "to use," its original meaning being "to supply everywhere; to make a circuit all around or everywhere; and plenty." The Cheu dynasty was so called because the emperor's power reached all over the civilized world, according to Chinese notions. In the present edition we have preferred to translate the word Cheu by "the State of Everywhere."
It would be easy to say that the Old Philosopher was a citizen of Everywhere, and was born in Good Man's Bend to describe his innate character; that his home was situated in Thistle District of Bramble Province to indicate the poverty and difficulties with which his life was surrounded.
We have seen in a former article ("The Bride of Christ," published in The Open Court for August) that the tradition of the bride of Christ has its ultimate foundation in the myths of pre-Christian saviours; but we noted at the same time that according to the rigidly ascetic traditions of the early Church this marriage was to be a purely spiritual and symbolic one; and that the legend finally crystallized around the name of Catharine the pure one, in spite of the incongruity of the age in which the best known saint of this name was supposed to have lived. In the domain of myth as well as legend we move in an atmosphere that is above time and space, and so there is no inconsistency in the fact that St. Catharine of Alexandria lived at the end of the third century, more than two hundred years after the death of Jesus. This discrepancy only helped to denote the entire absence of carnal love which fact is further emphasized by representing the mystic marriage usually (though not always) as taking place between the Christ child and an adult virgin.
As to the historical facts of St. Catharine's life a critical investigation of ancient records yields no result. From a purely scientific standpoint St. Catharine of Alexandria is an unhistorical figment, but for all that the legend is quite circumstantial in details.
Catharine is reported as being of royal parentage and as having received an unusually good education. She is revered by the Church as the patron of philosophy, science and learning, and some philosophical schools, as for instance the University of Paris, have selected her as their tutelary saint.
The legend further asserts that Emperor Maxentius, anxious to establish the truth of idolatry, arranged a public debate between her and the most prominent pagan sages, but she defeated them in every way so as to humiliate their authority. lncensed at her success the Emperor first tried to influence her by threats and flattery, but when he saw that nothing could move her, he ordered her to be tortured on a spiked wheel, and then to be beheaded. The date of her martyrdom has been fixed on November 25, 307.
The oldest reference to St. Catharine is made in the Menologium Basilianum, a collection of legends compiled for Emperor Basil II who died in 886. In this she is called Aikaterina, and the report runs as follows:
"The martyr Aikaterina was the daughter of a rich and noble prince of Alexandria. She was very beautiful, and being at the same time highly talented, she devoted herself to Greek literature as well as to the study of the languages of all nations, and so she became wise and learned. And it happened that the Greeks held a festival in honor of their idols; and seeing the slaughter of animals, she was so greatly moved that she went to the King Maximinus and expostulated with him in these words: 'Why hast thou left the living God to worship lifeless idols?' But the Emperor caused her to be thrown into prison, and to be punished severely. He then ordered fifty orators to be brought, and bade them to reason with Aikaterina, and confute her, threatening to burn them all if they should fail to overpower her. The orators, however, when they saw themselves vanquished, received baptism, and were burnt forthwith, while she was beheaded."
The report of the Menologium has been elaborated in other versions of which we have two in Greek, one by Simeon Metaphrastes (10th century), another by Athanasius. Upon the latter the Latin legend of St. Catharine is founded, from which again all later versions in Italian, French, and Old English have been derived. We must make special mention of the version made by Jean Mielot at the request of Philip the Good of Burgundy, because in addition to the incidents mentioned above it contains the story of the mystic marriage of St. Catharine to the Saviour which, however, is believed to have been derived from an older source.
Marius Sepet tells us of the marriage of King Costus with Queen Sabinella and the birth of their daughter, Catharine, who from a tender age was most carefully eduated in all the arts and sciences. She distinguished herself in all virtues, especially in wisdom and moral purity. King Costus died, and Queen Sabinella retired to Mount Ararat where she was converted to Christianity by Ananias, a godly hermit. When she tried to induce her daughter to adopt the new faith she defended paganism with all the arguments of profane science, and her mother was unable to convince her.
Catharine had scarcely reached her eighteenth year when the grandees of the empire sought her hand in marriage and her mother was anxious to have her choose a good husband who would be a worthy leader and could protect the kingdom against all its enemies.
But Catharine refused all suitors and said: "Bring me a bridegroom who is as learned, as beautiful, as noble, as rich,—in short, is of equal rank with me, and I am ready to accept him for my husband." The story continues in the modernized version of M. Sepet as follows:
"One evening when mother and daughter lay sleeping together, the Queen of Heaven, the glorious Virgin Mary, appeared to them surrounded by a great host of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and many other saints, all of whom shone in radiant beauty. The Virgin Mary approached St. Catharine and said to her:
"'Look, my daughter! all these are kings, and indeed the greatest in the kingdom of my Son, the Emperor of Glory. I know that thou art still unwedded. If thou wouldst have any one of these for a bridegroom choose the one which best pleases thee and I will bring it about that thy desire shall be fulfilled!'
"But St. Catharine answered that she did not wish to marry any one of them. Thereupon Jesus Christ himself, the Emperor of Glory, appeared unto her in the presence of his gentle mother and a countless host of angels. Mary, the Blessed Virgin, said to Catharine, 'Wouldst thou choose this one for thy Bridegroom?'
"And when Catharine beheld his beauty, power, and wisdom, she fervently replied, 'Yea! Him do I desire whosoever he may be,—him and none other.' But Sabinella, her mother, looked at her with astonishment and said, 'How darest thou select for thy bridegroom one whom so many kings obey? Be content to choose one of the other nobles for thy husband, for all are great and mighty princes.'
"But the daughter sighed and answered, 'Dear mother mine! blame me not that I should wish this one for my husband, for I see none here who far surpass myself in all things excepting him alone. Oh, go at once and seek out the Empress, his mother, that she may soften his heart and that he may accept me as his bride, for if I may not be his handmaiden, I will never marry another.'
"The mother went at once to that lady and offered her daughter to her as bride for her son, the Emperor. The Queen of Heaven and of the angels then spoke to her well-beloved Son, 'Dearest Son, desirest thou this maiden for thy bride?' But he answered, 'No, my Mother, I desire her not. Rather remove her from thee, for she is not a Christian. I am the King of Christians, and must never have a pagan bride. But if she will be baptized, I give her my word that I shall betroth her soon afterwards by giving her a ring as to my spouse.'
"After this miraculous vision had vanished, Queen Sabinella and her daughter awoke and told each other what they had seen as an actual occurrence. But from this time on Catharine wept constantly and said that she would nevermore find rest until she had received the Emperor of Glory as her husband. Impatient to bebaptized she urgently besought her mother to take her at once without delay to the godly hermit, and her request was complied with.
THIS WORLD OF OURS is a world of opposites. There is light and shade, there is heat and cold, there is good and evil, there is God and the Devil.
The dualistic conception of nature has been a necessary phase in the evolution of human thought. We find the same views of good and evil spirits prevailing among all the peoples of the earth at the very beginning of that stage of their development which, in the phraseology of Tylor, is commonly called Animism. But the principle of unity dominates the development of thought. Man tries to unify his conceptions in a consistent and harmonious Monism. Accordingly, while the belief in good spirits tended towards the formation of the doctrine of Monotheism, the belief in evil spirits led naturally to the acceptance of a single supreme evil deity, conceived as embodying all that is bad, destructive, and immoral.
Monotheism and Monodiabolism, both originating simultaneously in the monistic tendencies of man's mental evolution, together constitute a Dualism which to many is still the most acceptable world-conception. Nevertheless, it is not the final goal of human philosophy. As soon as the thinkers of mankind become aware of the Dualism implied in this interpretation of the world, the tendency is again manifested towards a higher conception, which is a purely monistic view.
Will Monism eliminate the idea of the Devil in order to make God the One and All? Or will it abolish both God and the Devil, to leave room only for a world of matter in motion? Will the future of mankind be, as M. Guyau prophesies, a period in which religion will disappear and give way to irreligion?
Those who do not appreciate the mission of Dualism in the evolution of human thought, and only know its doctrines to be untenable, naturally expect that the future of mankind will be irreligious, and there are freethinkers who declare that Atheism will supersede all the different conceptions of God. But this is not probable. The monistic tendencies of the age will not destroy, but purify and elevate religion. The Animism of the savage is a necessary stage of man's mental evolution: it appears as an error to the higher-developed man of a half-civilised period; but the error contains a truth which naturally develops into a more perfect conception of the surrounding world. Similarly, the religious ideas of the present time are symbols. Taken in their literal meaning, they are untenable, but understood in their symbolical nature they are seeds from which a purer conception of the truth will grow. The tendencies of philosophic thought prevailing to-day lead to a positive conception of the world, which replaces symbols by statements of fact and brings with it not a denial of religious allegories but a deeper and more correct conception.
A state of irreligion in which mankind would adopt and publicly teach a doctrine of Atheism is an impossibility. Atheism is a negation, and negations cannot stand, for they have sense only as confronted with the positive issues which they reject. Yet our present anthropomorphic view of God, briefly called Anthropotheism, which as a rule conceives him as an infinitely big individual being, will have to yield to a higher view in which we shall understand that the idea of a personal God is a mere simile. God is much more than a person. When we speak of God as a person, we ought to be conscious of the fact that we use an allegory which, if it were taken literally, can only belittle him. The God of the future will not be personal, but superpersonal.
But how shall we reach this knowledge of the superpersonal God? Our answer is, with the help of science. Let us pursue in religion the same path that science travels, and the narrowness of sectarianism will develop into a broad cosmical religion which shall be as wide and truly catholic as is science itself.
Symbols are not lies; symbols contain truth. Allegories and parables are not falsehoods; they convey information: moreover, they can be understood by those who are not as yet prepared to receive the plain truth. Thus, when in the progress of science religious symbols are recognised and known in their symbolical nature, this knowledge will not destroy religion but will purify it and will cleanse it from mythology.
We define God as "that authoritative presence in the All, which enforces a definite moral conduct." God is that something which constitutes the harmony of the laws of nature; God is the intrinsic necessity of mathematics and logic; God above all is what experience teaches us to be the inalienable features of righteousness, justice, morality. This presence is both immanent and transcendent: it is immanent as the constituent characteristic of the law that pervades the universe; it is transcendent, for it is the condition of any possible cosmic order; and in this sense it is supercosmic and supernatural. 1
We do not say that God is impersonal, for the word "impersonal" implies the absence of those features which constitute personality; it implies vagueness, indefiniteness, and lack of character. God, however, as he manifests himself in the order of the universe is very definite. He is not vague but possesses quite marked qualities. He is such as he is and not different. His being is universal, but not indeterminable. His nature does not consist of indifferent generalities, but exhibits a distinct suchness. Indeed; all suchness in the world, in physical nature as well as in the domain of spirit, depends upon God as here defined, and what is the personality of man but the incarnation of that cosmic logic which we call reason? God, although not an individual being, is the prototype of personality; although not a person, thinking thoughts as we do, deliberating, weighing arguments, and coming to a decision, he is yet that which conditions personality; he possesses all those qualities which, when reflected in animated creatures, adds unto their souls the nobility of God's image, called personality. Therefore we say, God is not impersonal, but superpersonal.
While the idea of God has received much attention from philosophers and progressive theologians, its counterpart, the dark figure of the Evil One, has been much neglected. And yet the Devil is, after all, a very interesting personality, grotesque, romantic, humorous, pathetic, nay, even grand and tragic. And if we have to declare that the idea of God is a symbol signifying an actual presence in the world of facts, should we not expect that the idea of the Devil also represents a reality?
It is almost impossible to exhaust the subject, for it would take volumes to write an approximately complete history of demonology. Accordingly, we must confine ourselves to merely outlining some of the most salient features of the development of the belief in the Devil and the nature of the idea of evil.
