第 172 节
作者:
卖吻 更新:2021-08-28 17:09 字数:9322
The power of the All…Soul; as Reason…Principle of the universe; may be considered as laying down a pattern before the effective separate powers go forth from it: this plan would be something like a tentative illumining of Matter; the elaborating soul would give minute articulation to these representations of itself; every separate effective soul would become that towards which it tended; assuming that particular form as the choral dancer adapts himself to the action set down for him。 But this is to anticipate: our enquiry was How there can be sense…perception in man without the implication that the Divine addresses itself to the realm of process。 We maintained; and proved; that the Divine does not look to this realm but that things here are dependent upon those and represent them and that man here; holding his powers from Thence; is directed Thither; so that; while sense makes the environment of what is of sense in him; the Intellectual in him is linked to the Intellectual。 What we have called the perceptibles of that realm enter into cognisance in a way of their own; since they are not material; while the sensible sense here… so distinguished as dealing with corporeal objects… is fainter than the perception belonging to that higher world; the man of this sphere has sense…perception because existing in a less true degree and taking only enfeebled images of things There… perceptions here are Intellections of the dimmer order; and the Intellections There are vivid perceptions。 8。 So much for the thing of sense; but it would appear that the prototype There of the living form; the universal horse; must look deliberately towards this sphere; and; that being so; the idea of horse must have been worked out in order there be a horse here? Yet what was that there to present the idea of the horse it was desired to produce? Obviously the idea of horse must exist before there was any planning to make a horse; it could not be thought of in order to be made; there must have been horse unproduced before that which was later to come into being。 If; then; the thing existed before it was produced… if it cannot have been thought of in order to its production… the Being that held the horse as There held it in presence without any looking to this sphere; it was not with intent to set horse and the rest in being here that they were contained There; it is that; the universal existing; the reproduction followed of necessity since the total of things was not to halt at the Intellectual。 Who was there to call a halt to a power capable at once of self…concentration and of outflow? But how come these animals of earth to be There? What have they to do within God? Reasoning beings; all very well; but this host of the unreasoning; what is there august in them? Surely the very contrary? The answer is that obviously the unity of our universe must be that of a manifold since it is subsequent to that unity…absolute; otherwise it would be not next to that but the very same thing。 As a next it could not hold the higher rank of being more perfectly a unity; it must fall short: since the best is a unity; inevitably there must be something more than unity; for deficiency involves plurality。 But why should it not be simply a dyad? Because neither of the constituents could ever be a pure unity; but at the very least a duality and so progressively 'in an endless dualization'。 Besides; in that first duality of the hypothesis there would be also movement and rest; Intellect and the life included in Intellect; all…embracing Intellect and life complete。 That means that it could not be one Intellect; it must be Intellect agglomerate including all the particular intellects; a thing therefore as multiple as all the Intellects and more so; and the life in it would nat be that of one soul but of all the souls with the further power of producing the single souls: it would be the entire living universe containing much besides man; for if it contained only man; man would be alone here。 9。 Admitted; then… it will be said… for the nobler forms of life; but how can the divine contain the mean; the unreasoning? The mean is the unreasoning; since value depends upon reason and the worth of the intellective implies worthlessness where intellection is lacking。 Yet how can there be question of the unreasoning or unintellective when all particulars exist in the divine and come forth from it? In taking up the refutation of these objections; we must insist upon the consideration that neither man nor animals here can be thought of as identical with the counterparts in the higher realm; those ideal forms must be taken in a larger way。 And again the reasoning thing is not of that realm: here the reasoning; There the pre…reasoning。 Why then does man alone reason here; the others remaining reasonless? Degrees of reasoning here correspond to degrees of Intellection in that other sphere; as between man and the other living beings There; and those others do in some measure act by understanding。 But why are they not at man's level of reason: why also the difference from man to man? We must reflect that; since the many forms of lives are movements… and so with the Intellections… they cannot be identical: there must be different lives; distinct intellections; degrees of lightsomeness and clarity: there must be firsts; seconds; thirds; determined by nearness to the Firsts。 This is how some of the Intellections are gods; others of a secondary order having what is here known as reason; while others again belong to the so…called unreasoning: but what we know here as unreasoning was There a Reason…Principle; the unintelligent was an Intellect; the Thinker of Horse was Intellect and the Thought; Horse; was an Intellect。 But 'it will be objected' if this were a matter of mere thinking we might well admit that the intellectual concept; remaining concept; should take in the unintellectual; but where concept is identical with thing how can the one be an Intellection and the other without intelligence? Would not this be Intellect making itself unintelligent? No: the thing is not unintelligent; it is Intelligence in a particular mode; corresponding to a particular aspect of Life; and just as life in whatever form it may appear remains always life; so Intellect is not annulled by appearing in a certain mode。 Intellectual…Principle adapted to some particular living being does not cease to be the Intellectual…Principle of all; including man: take it where you will; every manifestation is the whole; though in some special mode; the particular is produced but the possibility is of all。 In the particular we see the Intellectual…Principle in realization; the realized is its latest phase; in one case the last aspect is 〃horse〃; at 〃horse〃 ended the progressive outgoing towards the lesser forms of life; as in another case it will end at something lower still。 The unfolding of the powers of this Principle is always attended by some abandonment in regard to the highest; the outgoing is by loss; and by this loss the powers become one thing or another according to the deficiency of the life…form produced by the failing principle; it is then that they find the means of adding various requisites; the safeguards of the life becoming inadequate there appear nail; talon; fang; horn。 Thus the Intellectual…Principle by its very descent is directed towards the perfect sufficiency of the natural constitution; finding there within itself the remedy of the failure。 10。 But failure There? What can defensive horns serve to There? To sufficiency as living form; to completeness。 That principle must be complete as living form; complete as Intellect; complete as life; so that if it is not to be one thing it may be another。 Its characteristic difference is in this power of being now this; now that; so that; summing all; it may be the completest life…form; Intelligence complete; life in greatest fulness with each of the particulars complete in its degree while yet; over all that multiplicity; unity reigns。 If all were one identity; the total could not contain this variety of forms; there would be nothing but a self…sufficing unity。 Like every compound it must consist of things progressively differing in form and safeguarded in that form。 This is in the very nature of shape and Reason…Principle; a shape; that of man let us suppose; must include a certain number of differences of part but all dominated by a unity; there will be the noble and the inferior; eye and finger; but all within a unity; the part will be inferior in comparison with the total but best in its place。 The Reason…Principle; too; is at once the living form and something else; something distinct from the being of that form。 It is so with virtue also; it contains at once the universal and the particular; and the total is good because the universal is not differentiated。 11。 The very heavens; patently multiple; cannot be thought to disdain any form of life since this universe holds everything。 Now how do these things come to be here? Does the higher realm contain all of the lower? All that has been shaped by Reason…Principle and conforms to Idea。 But; having fire 'warmth' and water; it will certainly have veget