The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Religion
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)
Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Catherine, of Genoa, Saint, 1447-1510
And if we transmit this emotion or conviction to another mind, or if we
seem to be able to trace such transmission when it has been actually
effected in ourselves or in others, we shall find that, in proportion
as one mind feeds, not forces, another, the particular bond and
organization of the mental and emotional picture which cost us so much,
moved us so much, has, in each case, been snapped and broken up; the
whole has been again resolved into its constituent elements, and only
some of these elements have been taken up into the already existing
organization of the other mind, or have joined together in that mind,
to form there a combination which is really new. Even a simple scent or
sound or sight comes charged to each of us with many but most differing
connotations, arousing or modifying or supplanting old or new ideas
and impressions in the most subtle, complex, and individual manner.
Insist upon another mind taking over the whole of this impression,
and you will have rightly and necessarily aroused an immediate or
remote hostility or revolt against the whole of what you bring. Hence
here too we are again perplexed by the initial enigma: the apparently
insurmountable individuality of all that affects us, and the equally
insurmountable non-affectingness of all that is clearly and certainly
transmissible from any one man to another.
4. _This mysterious law appears to obtain in precise proportion to the
depth and importance of the truths and realities in view._
And if we seem boxed up thus, each one away from our fellow, in all our
really moving and determining inclinations and impressions, judgments
and affections, with regard to matters on which we feel we can afford
to differ deeply and to be much alone; we appear to be more and not
less so, in exact proportion as the importance of the subject-matter
increases. In moral and spiritual, in religious and fundamental
matters, we thirst more, not less, for identity of conviction and of
feeling; and we are, or seem to be, more, not less, profoundly and
hopelessly at variance with each other than anywhere else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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