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The Soul of the Far East-Part16_Percival Lowell(1855-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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to dignity, the material approaches are still manifold and imposing.



Court within court, building after building, isolate the shrine

itself from the profanefamiliarity of the passers-by. But though



the material encasings vary in number and in exclusiveness,

according to the temperament of the particular race concerned, the



mental envelopes exist, and must exist, in both hemispheres alike,

so long as society resembles the crust of the earth on which it



dwells,--a crust composed of strata that grow denser as one

descends. What is clear to those on top seems obscure to those



below; what are weighty arguments to the second have no force at all

upon the first. There must necessarily be grades of elevation in



individual beliefs, suited to the needs and cravings of each

individual soul. A creed that fills the shallow with satisfaction



leaves but an aching void in the deep. It is not of the slightest

consequence how the belief starts; differentiated it is bound to



become. The higher minds alone can rest content with abstract

imaginings; the lower must have concrete realities on which to pin



their faith. With them, inevitably, ideals degenerate into idols.

In all religions this unavoidable debasement has taken place.



The Roman Catholic who prays to a wooden image of Christ is not one

whit less idolatrous than the Buddhist who worships a bronze statue



of Amida Butzu. All that the common people are capable of seeing is

the soul-envelope, for the soul itself they are unable to



appreciate. Spiritually they are undiscerning, because

imaginatively they are blind.



Now the grosser soul-envelopes of the two great European and Asiatic

faiths, though differing in detail, are in general parallel in



structure. Each boasts its full complement of saints, whose

congruent catalogues are equally wearisome in length. Each tells



its circle of beads to help it keep count of similarly endless

prayers. For in both, in the popular estimation, quantity is more



effective to salvation than quality. In both the believer

practically pictures his heaven for himself, while in each his hell,



with a vividness that does like credit to its religious imagination,

is painted for him by those of the cult who are themselves confident



of escaping it. Into the lap of each mother church the pious

believer drops his little votive offering with the same affectionate



zeal, and in Asia, as in Europe, the mites of the many make the

might of the mass.



But behind all this is the religion of the few,--of those to whom

sensuous forms cannot suffice to represent super-sensuous cravings;



whose god is something more than an anthropomorphic creation; to

whom worship means not the cramping of the body, but the expansion



of the soul.

The rays of the truth, like the rays of the sun, which universally



seems to have been man's first adoration, have two properties

equallyinherent in their essence, warmth and light. And as for the



life of all things on this globe both attributes of sunshine are

necessary, so to the development of that something which constitutes



the ego both qualities of the truth are vital. We sometimes speak

of character as if it were a thing wholly apart from mind; but, in



fact, the two things are so interwoven that to perceive the right

course is the strongest possible of incentives to pursue it. In the



end the two are one. Now, while clearness of head is all-important,

kindness of heart is none the less so. The first, perhaps, is more



needed in our communings with ourselves, the second in our commerce

with others. For, dark and dense bodies that we are, we can radiate



affection much more effectively than we can reflect views.




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