Corinne, Volume 1 (of 2)

  Chapter v.

  "The difference of our religions, my dear Oswald," continued Corinne,"is the cause of that secret censure which you cannot conceal from me.Yours is serious and rigid--ours, cheerful and tender. It is generallybelieved that Catholicism is more rigorous than Protestantism; and thatmay be true in a country where a struggle has subsisted between the tworeligions; but we have no religious dissensions in Italy, and you haveexperienced much of them in England. The result of this difference is,that Catholicism in Italy has assumed a character of mildness andindulgence; and that to destroy it in England, the Reformation has armeditself with the greatest severity in principles and morals. Ourreligion, like that of the ancients, animates the arts, inspires thepoets, and becomes a part, if I may so express it, of all the joys ofour life; whilst yours, establishing itself in a country where reasonpredominates more than imagination, has assumed a character of moralausterity which will never leave it. Ours speaks in the name of love,and yours in the name of duty. Our principles are liberal, our dogmasare absolute; nevertheless, our despotic orthodoxy accommodates itselfto particular circumstances, and your religious liberty enforcesobedience to its laws without any exception. It is true that ourCatholicism imposes very hard penance upon those who have embraced amonastic life. This state, freely chosen, is a mysterious relationbetween man and the Deity; but the religion of laymen in Italy is anhabitual source of affecting emotions. Love, hope, and faith, are theprincipal virtues of this religion, and all these virtues announce andconfer happiness. Our priests therefore, far from forbidding at any timethe pure sentiment of joy, tell us that it expresses our gratitudetowards the Creator. What they exact of us, is an observance of thosepractices which prove our respect for our worship, and our desire toplease God, namely, charity for the unfortunate, and repentance for ourerrors. But they do not refuse absolution, when we zealously entreat it;and the attachments of the heart inspire a more indulgent pity amongstus than anywhere else. Has not Jesus Christ said of the Magdalen: _Muchshall be pardoned her, because she hath loved much_? These words wereuttered beneath a sky, beautiful as ours; this same sky implores for usthe Divine mercy."

  "Corinne!" answered Lord Nelville, "how can I combat words so sweet, andof which my heart stands so much in need? But I will do it,nevertheless, because it is not for a day that I love Corinne--I expectwith her a long futurity of happiness and virtue. The most pure religionis that which makes a continual homage to the Supreme Being, by thesacrifice of our passions and the fulfilment of our duties. A man'smorality is his worship of God; and it would be degrading the idea weform of the Creator, to suppose that He wills anything in relation withHis creature, that is not worthy of His intellectual perfection.Paternal authority, that noble image of a master sovereignly good,demands nothing of its children that does not tend to make them betteror happier. How then can we imagine that God would exact anything fromman, which has not man himself for its object? You see also whatconfusion in the understandings of your people results from thepractice of attaching more importance to religious ceremonies than tomoral duties. It is after Holy Week, you know, that the greatest numberof murders is committed at Rome. The people think, to use theexpression, that they have laid in a stock during Lent, and expend inassassination the treasures of their penitence. Criminals have beenseen, yet reeking with murder, who have scrupled to eat meat on aFriday; and gross minds, who have been persuaded that the greatest ofcrimes consists in disobeying the discipline of the church, exhausttheir consciences on this head, and conceive that the Deity, like humansovereigns, esteems submission to his power more than every othervirtue. This is to substitute the sycophancy of a courtier for therespect which the Creator inspires, as the source and reward of ascrupulous and delicate life. Catholicism in Italy, confining itself toexternal demonstrations, dispenses the soul from meditation andself-contemplation. When the spectacle is over, the emotion ceases, theduty is fulfilled, and one is not, as with us, a long time absorbed inthoughts and sentiments, which give birth to a rigid examination ofone's conduct and heart."

  "You are severe, my dear Oswald," replied Corinne; "it is not the firsttime I have remarked it. If religion consisted only in a strictobservance of moral duties, in what would it be superior to reason andphilosophy? And what sentiments of piety could we discover, if ourprincipal aim were to stifle the feelings of the heart? The stoics wereas enlightened as we, as to the duties and the austerity of humanconduct; but that which is peculiar to Christianity is the religiousenthusiasm which blends with every affection of the soul; it is thepower of love and pity; it is the worship of sentiment and ofindulgence, so favourable to the flights of the soul towards heaven.How are we to interpret the parable of the Prodigal Son, if not thatlove, sincere love, is preferred even to the most exact discharge ofevery duty? This son had quitted his paternal abode, and his brother hadremained there; he had plunged into all the dissipation and pleasure ofthe world, and his brother had never deviated for a single moment fromthe regularity of domestic life; but he returned, full of love for hisfather and of repentance for his past follies, and his parent celebratedthis return by a festival. Ah! can it be doubted that among themysteries of our nature, to love and to love again is what remains to usof our celestial inheritance? Even our virtues are often too complicatedwith life, for us to comprehend the gradations of good, and what is thesecret sentiment that governs and leads us astray: I ask of my God toteach me to adore him, and I feel the effect of my prayers in the tearsthat I shed. But to support this disposition of the soul, religiouspractices are more necessary than you think; they are a constantcommunication with the Deity; they are daily actions, unconnected withthe interests of life and solely directed towards the invisible world.External objects are also a great help to piety; the soul falls backupon itself, if the fine arts, great monuments, and harmonic strains, donot reanimate that poetical genius, which is synonymous with religiousinspiration.

  "The most vulgar man, when he prays, when he suffers, and places hope inheaven, has at that moment something in him which he would express likeMilton, Homer, or Tasso, if education had taught him to clothe histhoughts with words. There are only two distinct classes of men in theworld; those who feel enthusiasm, and those who despise it; every otherdifference is the work of society. The former cannot find words toexpress their sentiments, and the latter know what it is necessary tosay to conceal the emptiness of their heart. But the spring that burstsfrom the rock at the voice of heaven, that spring is the true talent,the true religion, the true love.

  "The pomp of our worship; those pictures in which the kneeling saintsexpress a continual prayer in their looks; those statues placed on thetombs as if they were one day to rise with their inhabitants; thosechurches and their immense domes, have an intimate connection withreligious ideas. I like this splendid homage paid by men to that whichpromises them neither fortune nor power--to that which neither punishesnor rewards them, but by a sentiment of the heart. I then feel moreproud of my being; I recognise something disinterested in man; and wereeven religious magnificence multiplied to an extreme, I should love thatprodigality of terrestrial riches for another life, of time foreternity: enough is provided for the morrow, enough care is taken forthe economy of human affairs. How I love the useless, useless ifexistence be only a painful toil for a miserable gain! But if on thisearth we are journeying towards heaven, what can we do better than totake every means of elevating our soul, that it may feel the infinite,the invisible, and the eternal, in the midst of all the limits thatsurround us?

  "Jesus Christ permitted a weak, and perhaps, repentant woman, to anointHis feet with the most precious perfumes, and repulsed those who advisedthat those perfumes should be reserved for a more profitable use. "_Lether alone_" said He, "_for I am only with you for a short time_." Alas!all that is good and sublime upon earth is only with us for a shorttime; age, infirmity, and death, would soon dry up that drop of dewwhich falls from heaven and only rests upon the flowers. Let us then,dear Oswald, confound everything,--love, religion,
genius, the sun, theperfumes, music, and poetry: atheism only consists in coldness, egotism,and baseness. Jesus Christ has said: _When two or three are gatheredtogether in my name, I will be in the midst of them._ And what is it OGod! to be assembled in Thy name, if it be not to enjoy Thy sublimegifts, and to offer Thee our homage, to thank Thee for that existencewhich Thou hast given us; above all, to thank Thee, when a heart, alsocreated by Thee is perfectly responsive to our own?"

  At this moment a celestial inspiration animated the countenance ofCorinne. Oswald could hardly refrain from falling on his knees beforeher in the midst of the temple, and was silent for a long time toindulge in the pleasure of recalling her words and retracing them stillin her looks. At last he set about replying; for he would not abandon acause that was dear to him. "Corinne," said he, then, "indulge yourlover with a few words more. His heart is not dry; no, Corinne, believeme it is not, and if I am an advocate for austerity in principle andaction, it is because it renders sentiment more deep and permanent. If Ilove reason in religion, that is to say, if I reject contradictorydogmas and human means of producing effect upon men, it is because Iperceive the Deity in reason as well as in enthusiasm; and if I cannotbear that man should be deprived of any one of his faculties, it isbecause I conceive them all barely sufficient to comprehend truths whichreflection reveals to him, as well as the instinct of the heart, namely,the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul. What can be addedto these sublime ideas, to their union with virtue? What can we addthereto that is not beneath them? The poetical enthusiasm which givesyou so many charms, is not, I venture to assert, the most salutarydevotion. Corinne, how could we by this disposition prepare for theinnumerable sacrifices which duty exacts of us! There was no revelation,except by the flights of the soul, when human destiny, present andfuture, only revealed itself to the mind through clouds; but for us, towhom Christianity has rendered it clear and positive, feeling may be ourrecompense, but ought not to be our only guide: you describe theexistence of the blessed, not that of mortals. Religious life is acombat, not a hymn. If we were not condemned in this world to repressthe evil inclinations of others and of ourselves, there would in truthbe no distinction to be made except between cold and enthusiastic souls.But man is a harsher and more formidable creature than your heart paintshim to you; and reason in piety, and authority in duty, are a necessarycurb to the wanderings of his pride.

  "In whatever manner you may consider the external pomp and multipliedceremonies of your religion, believe me, my love, the contemplation ofthe universe and its author, will be always the chief worship; thatwhich will fill the imagination, without any thing futile or absurdbeing found in it upon investigation. Those dogmas which wound my reasonalso cool my enthusiasm. Undoubtedly the world, such as it is, is amystery which we can neither deny nor comprehend; it would therefore befoolish to refuse credence to what we are unable to explain; but thatwhich is contradictory is always of human creation. The mysteries ofheavenly origin are above the lights of the mind; but not in oppositionto them. A German philosopher[31] has said: _I know but two beautifulthings in the universe: the starry sky above our heads, and thesentiment of duty in our hearts_. In truth all the wonders of thecreation are comprised in these words.

  "So far from a simple and severe religion searing our hearts, I shouldhave thought, before I had known you, Corinne, that it was the only onewhich could concentrate and perpetuate the affections. I have seen themost pure and austere conduct unfold in a man the most inexhaustibletenderness. I have seen him preserve even to old age, a virginity ofsoul, which the passions and their criminal effects would necessarilyhave withered. Undoubtedly repentance is a fine thing, and I have moreneed than any person to believe in its efficacy; but repeated repentancefatigues the soul--this sentiment can only regenerate once. It is theredemption which is accomplished at the bottom of our soul, and thisgreat sacrifice cannot be renewed. When human weakness is accustomed toit, the power to love is lost; for power is necessary in order to love,at least with constancy.

  "I shall offer some objections of the same kind to that splendid form ofworship, which according to you, acts so powerfully upon theimagination. I believe the imagination to be modest, and retired as theheart. The emotions which are imposed on it, are less powerful thanthose born of itself. I have seen in the Cevennes, a Protestant ministerwho preached towards the evening in the heart of the mountains. Heinvoked the tombs of the French, banished and proscribed by theirbrethren, whose ashes had been assembled together in this spot. Hepromised their friends that they should meet them again in a betterworld. He said that a virtuous life secured us this happiness; he said:_do good to mankind, that God may heal in your heart the wound ofgrief_. He testified his astonishment at the inflexibility andhard-heartedness of man, the creature of a day, to his fellow manequally with himself the creature of a day, and seized upon thatterrible idea of death, which the living have conceived, but which theywill never be able to exhaust. In short, he said nothing that was notaffecting and true: his words were perfectly in harmony with nature. Thetorrent which was heard in the distance, the scintillating light of thestars, seemed to express the same thought under another form. Themagnificence of nature was there, that magnificence, which can feast thesoul without offending misfortune; and all this imposing simplicity,touched the soul more deeply than dazzling ceremonies could have done."

  On the second day after this conversation, Easter Sunday, Corinne andLord Nelville went together to the square of St Peter, at the momentwhen the Pope appears upon the most elevated balcony of the church, andasks of heaven that benediction which he is about to bestow on the land;when he pronounces these words, _urbi et orbi_ (to the city and to theworld)--all the assembled people fell on their knees, and Corinne andLord Nelville felt, by the emotion which they experienced at thismoment, that all forms of worship resemble each other. The religioussentiment intimately unites men among themselves, when self-love andfanaticism do not make it an object of jealousy and hatred. To praytogether in the same language, whatever be the form of worship, is themost pathetic bond of fraternity, of hope, and of sympathy, which mencan contract upon earth.

  FOOTNOTE:

  [31] Kant.