FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235  
236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   >>  
of mine than the ones I'm going to read you, but you may come across something here that I forgot to say when we were talking over these matters. He began, reading from the manuscript portion of his book: --We find it hard to get and to keep any private property in thought. Other people are all the time saying the same things we are hoarding to say when we get ready. [He looked up from his book just here and said, "Don't be afraid, I am not going to quote Pereant."] One of our old boarders--the one that called himself "The Professor" I think it was--said some pretty audacious things about what he called "pathological piety," as I remember, in one of his papers. And here comes along Mr. Galton, and shows in detail from religious biographies that "there is a frequent correlation between an unusually devout disposition and a weak constitution." Neither of them appeared to know that John Bunyan had got at the same fact long before them. He tells us, "The more healthy the lusty man is, the more prone he is unto evil." If the converse is true, no wonder that good people, according to Bunyan, are always in trouble and terror, for he says, "A Christian man is never long at ease; When one fright is gone, another doth him seize." If invalidism and the nervous timidity which is apt to go with it are elements of spiritual superiority, it follows that pathology and toxicology should form a most important part of a theological education, so that a divine might know how to keep a parish in a state of chronic bad health in order that it might be virtuous. It is a great mistake to think that a man's religion is going to rid him of his natural qualities. "Bishop Hall" (as you may remember to have seen quoted elsewhere) "prefers Nature before Grace in the Election of a wife, because, saith he, it will be a hard Task, where the Nature is peevish and froward, for Grace to make an entire conquest while Life lasteth." "Nature" and "Grace" have been contrasted with each other in a way not very respectful to the Divine omnipotence. Kings and queens reign "by the Grace of God," but a sweet, docile, pious disposition, such as is born in some children and grows up with them,--that congenital gift which good Bishop Hall would look for in a wife,--is attributed to "Nature." In fact "Nature" and "Grace," as handled by the scholastics, are nothing more nor less than two hostile Divinities in the Pantheon of post-classical polythe
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235  
236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   >>  



Top keywords:

Nature

 
things
 

remember

 

disposition

 

Bishop

 

Bunyan

 

called

 

people

 
mistake
 
superiority

religion

 

timidity

 
qualities
 

elements

 

natural

 
spiritual
 

education

 

theological

 

health

 
chronic

parish

 

divine

 
toxicology
 

pathology

 

virtuous

 

important

 

conquest

 

children

 
congenital
 
docile

attributed

 

Pantheon

 

Divinities

 

classical

 

polythe

 

hostile

 

scholastics

 

handled

 

queens

 

peevish


froward

 

quoted

 

prefers

 
Election
 

entire

 

nervous

 
respectful
 
Divine
 

omnipotence

 

lasteth