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猜火车 更新:2021-02-19 20:29 字数:9316
Lecture VIII
THE DIVIDED SELF; AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIFICATION
The last lecture was a painful one; dealing as it did with evil
as a pervasive element of the world we live in。 At the close of
it we were brought into full view of the contrast between the two
ways of looking at life which are characteristic respectively of
what we called the healthy…minded; who need to be born only once;
and of the sick souls; who must be twice…born in order to be
happy。 The result is two different conceptions of the universe
of our experience。 In the religion of the once…born the world is
a sort of rectilinear or one…storied affair; whose accounts are
kept in one denomination; whose parts have just the values which
naturally they appear to have; and of which a simple algebraic
sum of pluses and minuses will give the total worth。 Happiness
and religious peace consist in living on the plus side of the
account。 In the religion of the twice…born; on the other hand;
the world is a double…storied mystery。 Peace cannot be reached
by the simple addition of pluses and elimination of minuses from
life。 Natural good is not simply insufficient in amount and
transient; there lurks a falsity in its very being。 Cancelled as
it all is by death if not by earlier enemies; it gives no final
balance; and can never be the thing intended for our lasting
worship。 It keeps us from our real good; rather; and renunciation
and despair of it are our first step in the direction of the
truth。 There are two lives; the natural and the spiritual; and
we must lose the one before we can participate in the other。
In their extreme forms; of pure naturalism and pure salvationism;
the two types are violently contrasted; though here as in most
other current classifications; the radical extremes are somewhat
ideal abstractions; and the concrete human beings whom we
oftenest meet are intermediate varieties and mixtures。
Practically; however; you all recognize the difference: you
understand; for example; the disdain of the methodist convert for
the mere sky…blue healthy…minded moralist; and you likewise enter
into the aversion of the latter to what seems to him the diseased
subjectivism of the Methodist; dying to live; as he calls it; and
making of paradox and the inversion of natural appearances the
essence of God's truth。'86'
'86' E。g。; 〃Our young people are diseased with the theological
problems of original sin; origin of evil; predestination; and the
like。 These never presented a practical difficulty to any
mannever darkened across any man's road; who did not go out of
his way to seek them。 These are the soul's mumps; and measles;
and whooping…coughs; etc。 Emerson: Spiritual Laws。
The psychological basis of the twice…born character seems to be a
certain discordancy or heterogeneity in the native temperament of
the subject; an incompletely unified moral and intellectual
constitution。
〃Homo duplex; homo duplex!〃 writes Alphonse Daudet。 〃The first
time that I perceived that I was two was at the death of my
brother Henri; when my father cried out so dramatically; 'He is
dead; he is dead!' While my first self wept; my second self
thought; 'How truly given was that cry; how fine it would be at
the theatre。' I was then fourteen years old。
〃This horrible duality has often given me matter for reflection。
Oh; this terrible second me; always seated whilst the other is on
foot; acting; living; suffering; bestirring itself。 This second
me that I have never been able to intoxicate; to make shed tears;
or put to sleep。 And how it sees into things; and how it
mocks!〃'87'
'87' Notes sur la Vie; p。 1。
Recent works on the psychology of character have had much to say
upon this point。'88' Some persons are born with an inner
constitution which is harmonious and well balanced from the
outset。 Their impulses are consistent with one another; their
will follows without trouble the guidance of their intellect;
their passions are not excessive; and their lives are little
haunted by regrets。 Others are oppositely constituted; and are
so in degrees which may vary from something so slight as to
result in a merely odd or whimsical inconsistency; to a
discordancy of which the consequences may be inconvenient in the
extreme。 Of the more innocent kinds of heterogeneity I find a
good example in Mrs。 Annie Besant's autobiography。
'88' See; for example; F。 Paulhan; in his book Les Caracteres;
1894; who contrasts les Equilibres; les Unifies; with les
Inquiets; les Contrariants; les Incoherents; les Emiettes; as so
many diverse psychic types。
〃I have ever been the queerest mixture of weakness and strength;
and have paid heavily for the weakness。 As a child I used to
suffer tortures of shyness; and if my shoe…lace was untied would
feel shamefacedly that every eye was fixed on the unlucky string;
as a girl I would shrink away from strangers and think myself
unwanted and unliked; so that I was full of eager gratitude to
any one who noticed me kindly; as the young mistress of a house I
was afraid of my servants; and would let careless work pass
rather than bear the pain of reproving the ill…doer; when I have
been lecturing and debating with no lack of spirit on the
platform; I have preferred to go without what I wanted at the
hotel rather than to ring and make the waiter fetch it。
Combative on the platform in defense of any cause I cared for; I
shrink from quarrel or disapproval in the house; and am a coward
at heart in private while a good fighter in public。 How often
have I passed unhappy quarters of an hour screwing up my courage
to find fault with some subordinate whom my duty compelled me to
reprove; and how often have I jeered myself for a fraud as the
doughty platform combatant; when shrinking from blaming some lad
or lass for doing their work badly。 An unkind look or word has
availed to make me shrink into myself as a snail into its shell;
while; on the platform; opposition makes me speak my best。〃'89'
'89' Annie Besant: an Autobiography; p。 82。
This amount of inconsistency will only count as amiable weakness;
but a stronger degree of heterogeneity may make havoc of the
subject's life。 There are persons whose existence is little more
than a series of zig…zags; as now one tendency and now another
gets the upper hand。 Their spirit wars with their flesh; they
wish for incompatibles; wayward impulses interrupt their most
deliberate plans; and their lives are one long drama of
repentance and of effort to repair misdemeanors and mistakes。
Heterogeneous personality has been explained as the result of
inheritancethe traits of character of incompatible and
antagonistic ancestors are supposed to be preserved alongside of
each other。'90' This explanation may pass for what it is
worthit certainly needs corroboration。 But whatever the cause
of heterogeneous personality may be; we find the extreme examples
of it in the psychopathic temperament; of which I spoke in my
first lecture。 All writers about that temperament make the inner
heterogeneity prominent in their descriptions。 Frequently;
indeed; it is only this trait that leads us to ascribe that
temperament to a man at all。 A 〃degenere superieur〃 is simply a
man of sensibility in many directions; who finds more difficulty
than is common in keeping his spiritual house in order and
running his furrow straight; because his feelings and impulses
are too keen and too discrepant mutually。 In the haunting and
insistent ideas; in the irrational impulses; the morbid scruples;
dreads; and inhibitions which beset the psychopathic temperament
when it is thoroughly pronounced; we have exquisite examples of
heterogeneous personality。 Bunyan had an obsession of the words;
〃Sell Christ for this; sell him for that; sell him; sell him!〃
which would run through his mind a hundred times together; until
one day out of breath with retorting; 〃I will not; I will not;〃
he impulsively said; 〃Let him go if he will;〃 and this loss of
the battle kept him in despair for over a year。 The lives of the
saints are full of such blasphemous obsessions; ascribed
invariably to the direct agency of Satan。 The phenomenon
connects itself with the life of the subconscious self;