M75729 K/ \Nwlqqkw’ *5/32 THE NEW GOD AND OTHER ~ESSAYS BY RALPH §HIRLEY 7 LONDON WILLIAM RIDER Es’ SON, LIMITED 164 ALDERSGATE STREET, EC. 1911 8% Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R 1933 L THE MERCAT PRESS, EDINBURGH Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE . ix THE NEW GOD PROPHETS AND PROPHECIES 14 PROPHEcIEs AND ANTICIPATIONS 44 JULIAN THE APOSTATE 68 MYSTICAL CHRISTIANITY . 92 THE PERFECT WAY. 103 RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY To EARLY GNOSTIc FAITHS 114 EARLY CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES . I30 NEW TESTAMENT AUTHORITIES 153 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE I76 STRANGE CASE OF LURANCY VENNUM . 206 COUNT CAGLIOSTRO . 220 vii glxess Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google PREFACE IT may be predicted with some confidence that one of the most salient features of the new century will prove to be the enhanced value attaching to the evidence of established fact, and the decreased stress laid on tradi tion, both on the part of its scientific and of its theological representatives. Nietzsche, in the volumes which embody his philo sophical outlook, has called for a ‘transvalua tion of values’ in the realm of morality. Whatever the new century demands in this direction, I think it will be certain to ask for a revaluation of values as regards the criteria of the evidence on which its conclusions are based. This will inevitably lead to an attitude of mind on the part of its leading thinkers which, viewed from the present standpoint, will appear at once more sceptical, and more credulous than that of the present day—-more credulous where the conclusions implied in the acceptance of the facts contra ix Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google PREFACE ' dict the bases of orthodox science ; more sceptical where the blinding effect of ancient tradition still prevents our contemporaries from regarding facts, in the realm of religion and theology in especial, in a dry and dis passionate light. It is not the object of these essays to draw final conclusions in the matters dealt with, but rather to suggest new views and ways of thought. Evidence has accumulated, especi ally in the region of psychical research, which must inevitably lead to the acceptance of facts quite antagonistic to the present scientific standpoint. It may be admitted that the evidence in many cases is not conclusive. At the same time it is often very strong. It is well to look a little ahead, and to ask our selves: If these things are so, hOw will it affect our relation to the accepted dogmas of present-day science? What modifications shall we have to make in our opinions in order to admit these facts, if facts they can be proved to be, within our scientific temple P Generally speaking, our contemporaries have been more ready to accept or to half-accept the new evidence than to look ahead and see what this new evidence will involve in the way of change in our mental outlook. It X Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google PREFACE seems to me that it is high time that we Should be prepared to face not merely the acceptance of the evidence, but the deduc tions to which this evidence inevitably leads, however great the shock this may give to the religious or scientific tradition. The essays in the present volume are not a little diverse in character, and the connect ing link between them may not always appear obvious; but in every case they have relation nearer or more remote to problems of religion or psychic enquiry. I feel that in many cases the questions which have been dealt with have been dealt with inadequately and superfici ally, and there are several which, had time permitted, I Should have much preferred to have re-written. I am afraid, however, that this would have involved an indefinite post ponement of publication, and I prefer to rest whatever appeal they may possess on the supreme interest of the subject matter with which they, most of them at any rate, deal. The circumstances under which the essays were written have prevented me from giving in the text as complete references to authorities consulted, as I could have desired ; but I should like to take this opportunity of making my special acknowledgments to the x1 Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google PREFACE excellent translation of N ietzsche’s works published by Mr T. N. Foulis, of Edinburgh and London, of which I have freely availed myself, and also to Mr W. R. Trowbridge, the author of the new Life of Cag/z'ostro published by Messrs Chapman & Hall. xii Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google THE NEW GOD ‘They chose new gOdS.’—_IUDGES v. 8. THERE has been a bloodless revolution in the kingdom of heaven. Silently but no less surely the Puritan Divinity has evacuated the celestial throne and made way for a Deity of a more facile temperament. So it was in Sicily in the days of Robert, brother of Pope Urbane. Unmarked and unnoted the angel of the Lord took up the administration of the island realm. Disguised in the semblance of the king the keen eyes of the courtiers detected in him nothing unusual. Only in the effects of his beneficent rule was there any evidence that a change had taken place. Only in the abnormally bounteous harvests and in the perennial buoyancy of the Stock Exchange was there ground for suspicion that the reins of govern ment were in other than mortal hands. Neither did We note when the transfer of A I Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google THE NEW GOD power took place in the Eternal Realms. No newspaper boys proclaimed it in Strident tones through the public thoroughfares. There were no cries of Le Dz'eu est mart, vz've 1e Dz'eu to awaken our sleeping spirits to the altered outlook. Only by-and-bye we noted that the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven weighed upon our shoulders less heavily. Only we observed that the demands made upon us by its officials on earth were less exacting, that the dues were collected less rigorously. Only in the relaxation of the fetters with which the human intellect lay bound, did we realise that, unsuspected by us at the time, an event had occurred in Heaven fraught with the most momentous consequences for the children of men. There is nothing in common between the easy opportunism of the new reign and the stern orthodoxy of its predecessor. The ‘fiend with names divine’ that haunted the puritan’s nightmare has gone for ever. In his Stead reigns the new God, of whom his worshippers may reflect in the consoling words of the old Persian poet that He’s a good fellow, and ’twill all be well. There never was an age more tenacious 2 Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-18 21:31 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433107887170 Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-us-google THE NEW GOD of the name of Christian than our own or more indifferent to the main dogmas of Christianity. There never was an age with a greater passion for critical analysis or a sublimer faith in vague generalities. We reject piecemeal the very basis of our belief, only to reassert it comfortably enshrined in the ambiguous phrases of the philanthropist or metamorphosed by the allegorical interpretations of the Christian mystic. This change in our attitude towards religion, carefully veiled though it be by the retention of old names that have lost their meaning, is the measure of a revolution in the mode of thought of man which is in process of transforming all departments of our mental activity. In attempting to shut our eyes to its import we are only darkening counsel and giving rise to needless mis conceptions through fear of calling things by their real names.