SATAN AN IMAGE OF THE HUMAN MIND. 187 "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. xxvi. 21). In this instance, a new form of dualism presents itself. Accordingly, man is made up of two beings, the spirit and the flesh; the former, the source of will; the latter, the possessor of control. The diction brings us to the side of that used to speak of the demoniacs in the Gospels. For spirit, say good spirit; for flesh, say unclean spirit; and you not only have the language of possession accounted for, but the fact explained. The unclean spirit is man's spirit of moral impurity, which, weak for good, is powerful for evil. And that impure spirit breeds moral disorder, and moral disorder occasions impotence; and when man has lost his moral power, he is held and scourged by his own wickedness. For wickedness, substitute "the wicked one" by an act of impersonation, and you have before you the birth, growth and prevalence of the New Testament possession, so far as man's constitution is concerned. Owing to the strong tendencies which sprang up under these circumstances, the notion and the recognition of a second self arose more or less in all nations, and emphatically in tribes and individuals with whom imagination was vivid and active. And this natural and inevitable dualism has a bad being for one of its constituents. I am, then, the natural offspring of humanity. I am an image of the human mind. But then what at the bottom am I? When all personification is removed, and figures of speech laid aside, I sink into man ; I am a human being, who, as such, has two-fold moral tendencies, the one which lift him up, and the other which drag him down. Yet in this description imagery intrudes itself. To avoid imagery is very difficult. I will, however, say that one direction within you injures you, and the other benefits you: but even here the inevitable dualism recurs, and makes you two somewhats-a "direction" and a "you," whereas in fact that direction is nothing but a form or state of the you, that is yourself. With these facts before them, how is it that men have ceased to use the language of possession, and to disbelieve in 186 SATAN BORN OF LINGUISTICAL USAGES. vices are his bitterest foes"? as if the foe were not the man himself. After the same manner you personify conscience: "Your conscience condemns you, flogs you, tortures you," as if you and your conscience were two beings. So also your conscience may be your accuser, and, in certain states of mind, your false accuser, your adversary- -in a word, your Satan, your devil. If this dualism arises in ordinary corporeal and mental conditions, how much more so in disorder of body or mind! Hence the phrases, "he is out of his mind;" "he has lost his wits;" "he is beside himself" (Mark iii. 21); and in the New Testament as the source of evil-speaking, "he hath an unclean spirit" (Mark iii. 30). The dualism to which I have now referred is not confined to one age or one nation. It has its ground in man's inmost nature. Man is at once subject and object. Hence the words self, myself, yourself, in contrast with I and you. Accordingly you say, "I contemplate myself;" "Look within ;" "Keep yourself pure." And for this second self, language has several synonyms: e.g. 66 Study your own character;" "Look on your heart;" " Keep your breast free from guile." At this point the word spirit offers itself as our second self. Numerous instances are found in the Scripture: e. g. "Pharaoh's spirit" (that is Pharaoh) "was troubled" (Gen. xli. 8). "Why is thy spirit so sad?" (1 Kings xxi. 5). "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Pul" (1 Chron. v. 26). In these instances, spirit is simply a dualistic pleonasm. Caleb, however, is said to have "had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully" (Numb. xiv. 24). This was a good spirit, in opposition to the evil spirit by which the rebellious Israelites were actuated (22). The contrast between good spirits and bad runs through the Bible: e.g. "a lying spirit" (1 Kings xxii. 22); "a spirit of divination" (Acts xvi. 16); "spirit of antichrist" (1 John iv. 3); "spirit of bondage" (Rom. viii. 15); also "thy good spirit" (Ps. cxliii. 10); "spirit of counsel" (Is. xi. 2); "spirit of truth" (John xiv. 17); "the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John iv. 6). It is hardly necessary to add, that Jesus in this particular shared in the phraseology of his day e.g. SATAN AN IMAGE OF THE HUMAN MIND. 187 "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. xxvi. 21). In this instance, a new form of dualism presents itself. Accordingly, man is made up of two beings, the spirit and the flesh; the former, the source of will; the latter, the possessor of control. The diction brings us to the side of that used to speak of the demoniacs in the Gospels. For spirit, say good spirit; for flesh, say unclean spirit; and you not only have the language of possession accounted for, but the fact explained. The unclean spirit is man's spirit of moral impurity, which, weak for good, is powerful for evil. And that impure spirit breeds moral disorder, and moral disorder occasions impotence; and when man has lost his moral power, he is held and scourged by his own wickedness. For wickedness, substitute "the wicked one" by an act of impersonation, and you have before you the birth, growth and prevalence of the New Testament possession, so far as man's constitution is concerned. Owing to the strong tendencies which sprang up under these circumstances, the notion and the recognition of a second self arose more or less in all nations, and emphatically in tribes and individuals with whom imagination was vivid and active. And this natural and inevitable dualism has a bad being for one of its constituents. I am, then, the natural offspring of humanity. I am an image of the human mind. But then what at the bottom am I? When all personification is removed, and figures of speech laid aside, I sink into man ; I am a human being, who, as such, has two-fold moral tendencies, the one which lift him up, and the other which drag him down. Yet in this description imagery intrudes itself. To avoid imagery is very difficult. I will, however, say that one direction within you injures you, and the other benefits you: but even here the inevitable dualism recurs, and makes you two somewhats-a "direction" and a "you," whereas in fact that direction is nothing but a form or state of the you, that is yourself. With these facts before them, how is it that men have ceased to use the language of possession, and to disbelieve in 190 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE KNOW LITTLE OF SATAN. I AM attempting to interpret in the ear of the world the evil consciousness of the human race as felt in certain great categories. It would be too bold and painful a task to describe it as it exists in certain individuals; else what portraits might be drawn of great political villains and great ecclesiastical hypocrites! Yet such as these, being the personal embodiments of the lowest human elements, are the true devils which degrade and infest humanity. Shrinking from so ungrateful a task, I sketch my own history in the impressions given of me by writers of greater or less repute. Those impressions I reproduce, so far as I can, in their original form, in order that my Natural History may stand before the reader in a credible shape. The sketches, though made by others, may be said to contain my personal experiences. Certainly they in union present something like an historical portrait of myself. What the world has thought of me, and what the world has made me, these pages directly or indirectly reveal. The Shemitic monotheism of the Old Testament passed into the writings of the New Testament with little adulteration. Devilism and demonism appeared on the lips of its CLEMENS ROMANUS UNACQUAINTED WITH SATAN. 191 great representative Jesus only on rare occasions, and then only as the language of conventionalism. It is true that both superabounded in the vernacular of Judea, but the foreign element was for the most part kept at a distance from the fold of Christ by the force of his own pure monotheistic spiritualism. For a century after his death, it stole into the church but little, and that all but insensibly. In the earliest of the post-New-Testament literature it is least found. A series of writings bearing the general designation of "The Apostolical Fathers," and whose age extends from the end of the first century to the middle of the second, offers authentic sources of information touching the early opinions of the church as to its central ideas, and in particular as to myself. Let us, my young friend, spend a little time in collecting the testimonies they supply. The first of these is a letter addressed by Clemens Romanus, when holding office in the church of Rome, to the church in Corinth. The author stands in close proximity to the apostles. How rigid a monotheist he was may be learnt from this fine passage: "The heavens, moved by God's management, are obedient to him in peace. Day and night run the course appointed by him, nowise hindering each other. Sun and moon and the choruses of the stars roll on in harmony, according to his command, within their prescribed limits, without any deviation. The pregnant earth, according to his will, sends up at the proper seasons nourishment for men and beasts, and all the living things that are on it, neither hesitating nor altering any of the decrees issued by him. The inexplorable parts of abysses, and the inexplicable arrangements of the lower world, are bound together by the same ordinances. The vast immeasurable sea, gathered together into various basins, according to his fashioning, never goes beyond the barriers placed round it, but does as he has commanded. For he said: 'Thus far shalt thou come, and thy waves shall be broken within thee.' The oceans, impassable to men, and the worlds beyond |