第 176 节
作者:
卖吻 更新:2021-08-28 17:09 字数:9321
The soul aiming only at that Principle would need a further lessoning; it must be taught that Intellectual…Principle is not the ultimate; that not all things look to that while all do look to the good。 Not all that is outside of Intellectual…Principle seeks to attain it; what has attained it does not halt there but looks still towards good。 Besides; Intellectual…Principle is sought upon motives of reasoning; the good before all reason。 And in any striving towards life and continuity of existence and activity; the object is aimed at not as Intellectual…Principle but as good; as rising from good and leading to it: life itself is desirable only in view of good。 21。 Now what in all these objects of desire is the fundamental making them good? We must be bold: Intellectual…Principle and that life are of the order of good and hold their desirability; even they; in virtue of belonging to that order; they have their goodness; I mean; because Life is an Activity in The Good;… Or rather; streaming from The Good… while Intellectual…Principle is an Activity already defined Therein; both are of radiant beauty and; because they come Thence and lead Thither; they are sought after by the soul…sought; that is; as things congenial though not veritably good while yet; as belonging to that order not to be rejected; the related; if not good; is shunned in spite of that relationship; and even remote and ignobler things may at times prove attractive。 The intense love called forth by Life and Intellectual…Principle is due not to what they are but to the consideration of their nature as something apart; received from above themselves。 Material forms; containing light incorporated in them; need still a light apart from them that their own light may be manifest; just so the Beings of that sphere; all lightsome; need another and a lordlier light or even they would not be visible to themselves and beyond。 22。 That light known; then indeed we are stirred towards those Beings in longing and rejoicing over the radiance about them; just as earthly love is not for the material form but for the Beauty manifested upon it。 Every one of those Beings exists for itself but becomes an object of desire by the colour cast upon it from The Good; source of those graces and of the love they evoke。 The soul taking that outflow from the divine is stirred; seized with a Bacchic passion; goaded by these goads; it becomes Love。 Before that; even Intellectual…Principle with all its loveliness did not stir the soul; for that beauty is dead until it take the light of The Good; and the soul lies supine; cold to all; unquickened even to Intellectual…Principle there before it。 But when there enters into it a glow from the divine; it gathers strength; awakens; spreads true wings; and however urged by its nearer environing; speeds its buoyant way elsewhere; to something greater to its memory: so long as there exists anything loftier than the near; its very nature bears it upwards; lifted by the giver of that love。 Beyond Intellectual…Principle it passes but beyond The Good it cannot; for nothing stands above That。 Let it remain in Intellectual…Principle and it sees the lovely and august; but it is not there possessed of all it sought; the face it sees is beautiful no doubt but not of power to hold its gaze because lacking in the radiant grace which is the bloom upon beauty。 Even here we have to recognise that beauty is that which irradiates symmetry rather than symmetry itself and is that which truly calls out our love。 Why else is there more of the glory of beauty upon the living and only some faint trace of it upon the dead; though the face yet retains all its fulness and symmetry? Why are the most living portraits the most beautiful; even though the others happen to be more symmetric? Why is the living ugly more attractive than the sculptured handsome? It is that the one is more nearly what we are looking for; and this because there is soul there; because there is more of the Idea of The Good; because there is some glow of the light of The Good and this illumination awakens and lifts the soul and all that goes with it so that the whole man is won over to goodness; and in the fullest measure stirred to life。 23。 That which soul must quest; that which sheds its light upon Intellectual…Principle; leaving its mark wherever it falls; surely we need not wonder that it be of power to draw to itself; calling back from every wandering to rest before it。 From it came all; and so there is nothing mightier; all is feeble before it。 Of all things the best; must it not be The Good? If by The Good we mean the principle most wholly self…sufficing; utterly without need of any other; what can it be but this? Before all the rest; it was what it was; when evil had yet no place in things。 If evil is a Later; there found where there is no trace of This… among the very ultimates; so that on the downward side evil has no beyond… then to This evil stands full contrary with no linking intermediate: This therefore is The Good: either good there is none; or if there must be; This and no other is it。 And to deny the good would be to deny evil also; there can then be no difference in objects coming up for choice: but that is untenable。 To This looks all else that passes for good; This; to nothing。 What then does it effect out of its greatness? It has produced Intellectual…Principle; it has produced Life; the souls which Intellectual…Principle sends forth and everything else that partakes of Reason; of Intellectual…Principle or of Life。 Source and spring of so much; how describe its goodness and greatness? But what does it effect now? Even now it is preserver of what it produced; by it the Intellectual Beings have their Intellection and the living their life; it breathes Intellect in breathes Life in and; where life is impossible; existence。 24。 But ourselves… how does it touch us? We may recall what we have said of the nature of the light shining from it into Intellectual…Principle and so by participation into the soul。 But for the moment let us leave that aside and put another question: Does The Good hold that nature and name because some outside thing finds it desirable? May we put it that a thing desirable to one is good to that one and that what is desirable to all is to be recognised as The Good? No doubt this universal questing would make the goodness evident but still there must be in the nature something to earn that name。 Further; is the questing determined by the hope of some acquisition or by sheer delight? If there is acquisition; what is it? If it is a matter of delight; why here rather than in something else? The question comes to this: Is goodness in the appropriate or in something apart; and is The Good good as regards itself also or good only as possessed? Any good is such; necessarily; not for itself but for something outside。 But to what nature is This good? There is a nature to which nothing is good。 And we must not overlook what some surly critic will surely bring up against us: What's all this: you scatter praises here; there and everywhere: Life is good; Intellectual…Principle is good: and yet The Good is above them; how then can Intellectual…Principle itself be good? Or what do we gain by seeing the Ideas themselves if we see only a particular Idea and nothing else 'nothing 〃substantial〃'? If we are happy here we may be deceived into thinking life a good when it is merely pleasant; but suppose our lot unhappy; why should we speak of good? Is mere personal existence good? What profit is there in it? What is the advantage in existence over utter non…existence… unless goodness is to be founded upon our love of self? It is the deception rooted in the nature of things and our dread of dissolution that lead to all the 〃goods〃 of your positing。 25。 It is in view; probably; of this difficulty that Plato; in the Philebus; makes pleasure an element in the Term; the good is not defined as a simplex or set in Intellectual…Principle alone; while he rightly refrains from identifying the good with the pleasant; yet he does not allow Intellectual…Principle; foreign to pleasure; to be The Good; since he sees no attractive power in it。 He may also have had in mind that the good; to answer to its name; must be a thing of delight and that an object of pursuit must at least hold some pleasure for those that acquire and possess it; so that where there is no joy the good too is absent; further that pleasure; implying pursuit; cannot pertain to the First and that therefore good cannot。 All this was very well; there the enquiry was not as to the Primal Good but as to ours; the good dealt with in that passage pertains to very different beings and therefore is a different good; it is a good falling short of that higher; it is a mingled thing; we are to understand that good does not hold place in the One and Alone whose being is too great and different for that。 The good must; no doubt; be a thing pursued; not; however; good because it is pursued but pursued because it is good。 The solution; it would seem; lies in priority: To the lowest of things the good is its immediate higher; each step represents