taken to express evil; that of the rose to denote good; certain odors would represent food, others drink. The scent of the poppy might symbolize sleep; that of vinegar ill-humor, and so on. Each of these instruments would provoke an idea. If a man has eyes, another series of methods is attainable for arousing thought-pictures and words. If the man be deaf, phonetic-writing is clumsy and irrational, while picture-writing is simple and easily intelligible. To the man with only the sense of smell, sulphuretted hydrogen is the symbol of evil; to the man who can hear and see, the word Evil or a pictured fiend produces the corresponding idea. In Mexico and in Peru, in Egypt and in India, multitudes of diminutive images of deities are daily discovered. These were the symbols of gods carried about by private individuals as constant reminders of the unseen and of his attributes, and to them were the equivalents of the inscriptions on the phylacteries of the Jews, and the duodecimo Bibles of Protestants. Among the red-skins picture-writing is universal. They represent a man who is bewitched by two lines drawn from his head to his heart; a scholar by two lines uniting his ears with his heart. The impatience of love is symbolized by a winged man; a dreamer, by a figure asleep, with lines drawn toward the ear. A doctor's emblem is a plant with human legs; that of a rain-enchanter is a vessel of water with the limbs of a man. In Freycinet and Arago's "Voyage to the Eastern Ocean," we are told that a native of the Carolina Islands, who wished to exchange some shells with a trader at Botta for some axes and other articles, sent him a letter expressing his desire, which was couched in symbolic characters. The figure of a man at the top of the paper represented the captain who was to convey the letter. The arms of this figure were outstretched, to show that he was the messenger be tween two parties; horns on his head denoted his dignity as captain. In the left column were drawn the shells in the number sent, and in the right column the things derived in exchange. An idea may also be conveyed by gesture. Thus Marie Antoinette was informed of the execution of Robespierre by a woman in the street below the prison putting stones in her apron, and then, with her hand falling on them, scattering them on the ground. To put the forefinger against the closed lips is significant of silence; a shrug of the shoulders expresses contempt. Jean Valjean, when thrown into prison for having stolen a loaf of bread to feed a family of children, sitting in the yard, is described by Victor Hugo as passing his hand in the air by a series of drops to the level of his knee. The act symbolized the number of little heads, and their relative heights, for which the deed was done. The mode of expression of a religious idea is by imageworship. The image is the symbol of the object worshipped, and the ceremonial act is the symbol of the subjective relation to that object. Thus, to bow the knee and incline the head is a symbolic act, expressing the feeling of reverence in the heart of the devotee. To extend the hand to a friend is a symbolic act of amity; to remove the hat to an acquaintance expresses regard; to wink conveys an idea of secrecy. As symbolic acts are of common and almost necessary employment in society, in religion they naturally assume prominence. Ceremonial is the expression of the religious sentiment by bodily and manual acts, and prayer is the utterance of the same sentiment by vocal act, and one is just as reasonable as the other. The mind forms an idea, and exhibits it by setting in operation either the muscles of the throat, or, say, the muscles of the knee. Idols, then, are symbols of ideas. The Assyrian im agined his god to be wise, ubiquitous, and powerful. He therefore represented him with human head, with wings, and with the body of a bull or lion. The sacred animals of the Egyptians were living symbols; the scarabæus, which was supposed to be monogamic, was the emblem of the sun as generator, the cat of the moon, and the ibis of the winds. The duck was the sign of Sev, time, because the name was the same for both. The Hindoo represents Brahm, the Great Absolute, absorbed in self-contemplation, as a man wrapped in a mantle, with his foot in his mouth, to symbolize his eternity and his self-satisfaction; or as a globose figure, with a crown of cloud and flame, his eyes water-lilies (types of the sun), winds proceeding from his mouth, one hand holding the chalice of rains, another the pearl chain of the concatenation of creation, another an inscribed palm-leaf representing the Vedas, and the fourth Vishnu's fiery wheel and cross, an emblem of life. In his heart lies the universe as the worldegg, surrounded by a serpent with its tail in its mouth, significant of eternity.1 When we speak of the eye of God, we use symbolic language. The Egyptian drew the symbol. The Hebrew Scriptures teem with symbolic passages, but the Jew was forbidden to make a graven image of God. The second commandment, therefore, forbids the abuse of idolatry, not the principle. For such expressions as "He came riding upon the wings of the wind," "The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous," "His right hand hath the preëminence," "The Ancient of days," "He sitteth upon His holy seat," "Turn Thy face from my sins," call up images before the mind thoroughly human, and the objection to their rep 1 Müller: Glauben und Wissen d. Hindus, plate i., figs. 1, 2; Mainz, resentation in sculpture or painting was lest the Jew should halt at the physical expression of God's being, and not advance to the idea of His moral and metaphysical being. Of the immense debt of gratitude we owe to symbolatry it is impossible to speak too highly. To it we owe the arts of painting and sculpture, and of writing, and indeed of speech. For speech is the expression of ideas in a conventional form. Writing is the same, and writing is derived from picture-painting. It is worth considering how powerful a lever symbolism has been for lifting man. A beast cannot symbolize a thought. but man can, by the formation of a word or of a figure. Modern writing is the fusion of the two modes of expression; it is the symbolizing of the sound which symbolizes the thought. To this distinguishing instinct we therefore owe language, literature, and art; and whenever it has invaded religion it has acquired a dynamic force irresistibly impelling man to civilization; consequently, the image-making peoples of antiquity stand out preeminent for their intelligence. The Jew is an exception, apparently, but not really, for his temple at Jerusalem was a splendid symbol on a large scale, and the ritual of its courts was intensely and intrinsically symbolic. The Arabian monotheist cannot be excepted, for all his artistic advance was due to friction against symbolatrous peoples; in his desert, where he is not brought into contact with image-makers, his natural genius lies blank and barren like the sandy flats he haunts. That symbolism should be open to abuse, and be productive of evil, is not surprising; for nothing that is in itself good escapes being prejudicial if it be not coördinated with other good instincts. When the significance of a symbol is forgotten and the worship remains, the idol becomes a mere fetish, and then its symbolic character is perverted to gross ends. For instance, the sacred animals of Egypt were, no doubt, in the fetish age, those which were reverenced, and by kindness were domesticated; afterward they were regarded as emblems only; but in the decline of Egyptian learning, when the doctrines of their religion became obscured, they became again objects of religious worship. "The sanctuaries of the temples," says Clement of Alexandria, "are covered with veils of gold tissue; but if you advance toward the end of the temple and search for the statue, a minister of the temple advances, with a grave air, chanting a hymn in Egyptian, and raises the veil a little, as though to show you the god. Then what do you see? A cat, a crocodile, an indigenous serpent, or some other dangerous animal! The god of the Egyptians appears; . . . it is a wild beast wallowing on a purple carpet. "Illic cæruleos, hic piscem fluminis, illic 99 1 Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam. In like manner the phallus, which was used in all simplicity as an emblem of the generative force of Nature, became an object of revolting and indecent worship. And even when the significance of an emblem is not misconstrued or forgotten, the vulgar are liable to forget that after all it only represents one side of the religious idea, and that the metaphysical and moral side cannot be adequately represented by the brush or chisel. 3. IDEOLATRY. It is impossible to worship a god whom the mind cannot idealize. To idealize him, more or less positive attributes must be conceded to him: these may be material, moral, or 1 Clem. Alexand.: Stromata. 2 Juvenal: Sat. xv., 7-11. |