The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

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The Varieties of Religious ExperienceThere is thus an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness,and their companionship in the saintly life need in no wayoccasion surprise. Along with the happiness, this increase of tendernessis often noted in narratives of conversion. “I began to work forothers”;—“I had more tender feeling for my family and friends”;—“I spoke at once to a person with whom I had been angry”;—“I feltfor every one, and loved my friends better”;—“I felt every one to bemy friend”;—these are so many expressions from the records collectedby Professor Starbuck.165“When,” says Mrs. Edwards, continuing the narrative from whichI made quotation a moment ago, “I arose on the morning of theSabbath, I felt a love to all mankind, wholly peculiar in its strengthand sweetness, far beyond all that I had ever felt before. The powerof that love seemed inexpressible. I thought, if I were surroundedby enemies, who were venting their malice and cruelty upon me, intormenting me, it would still be impossible that I should cherishany feelings towards them but those of love, and pity, and ardentdesires for their happiness. I never before felt so far from a dispositionto judge and censure others, as I did that morning. I realizedalso, in an unusual and very lively manner, how great a part of Christianitylies in the performance of our social and relative duties toone another. The same joyful sense continued throughout the day—a sweet love to God and all mankind.”Whatever be the explanation of the charity, it may efface all usualhuman barriers.166165 Op. cit., p. 127.166 The barrier between men and animals also. We read of Towianski, aneminent Polish patriot and mystic, that “one day one of his friends methim in the rain, caressing a big dog which was jumping upon him andcovering him horribly with mud. On being asked why he permitted theanimal thus to dirty his clothes, Towianski replied: ‘This dog, whom I amnow meeting for the first time, has shown a great fellow-feeling for me,and a great joy in my recognition and acceptance of his greetings. Were Ito drive him off, I should wound his feelings and do him a moral injury. Itwould be an offense not only to him, but to all the spirits of the otherworld who are on the same level with him. The damage which he does tomy coat is as nothing in comparison with the wrong which I should inflict254
William JamesHere, for instance, is an example of Christian non-resistance fromRichard Weaver’s autobiography. Weaver was a collier, a semi-professionalpugilist in his younger days, who became a much belovedevangelist. Fighting, after drinking, seems to have been the sin towhich he originally felt his flesh most perversely inclined. After hisfirst conversion he had a backsliding, which consisted in poundinga man who had insulted a girl. Feeling that, having once fallen, hemight as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, he got drunk andwent and broke the jaw of another man who had lately challengedhim to fight and taunted him with cowardice for refusing as a Christianman;—I mention these incidents to show how genuine a changeof heart is implied in the later conduct which he describes as follows:—“I went down the drift and found the boy crying because a fellowworkmanwas trying to take the wagon from him by force. I said tohim:—“‘Tom, you mustn’t take that wagon.’“He swore at me, and called me a Methodist devil. I told him thatGod did not tell me to let him rob me. He cursed again, and said hewould push the wagon over me.“‘Well,’ I said, ‘let us see whether the devil and thee are strongerthan the Lord and me.’“And the Lord and I proving stronger than the devil and he, hehad to get out of the way, or the wagon would have gone over him.So I gave the wagon to the boy. Then said Tom:—“‘I’ve a good mind to smack thee on the face.’“‘Well,’ I said, ‘if that will do thee any good, thou canst do it.’ Sohe struck me on the face.“I turned the other cheek to him, and said, ‘Strike again.’upon him, in case I were to remain indifferent to the manifestations of hisfriendship. We ought,’ he added, ‘both to lighten the condition of animals,whenever we can, and at the same time to facilitate in ourselves thatunion of the world of all spirits, which the sacrifice of Christ has madepossible.’” Andre Towianski, Traduction de l’Italien, Turin, 1897 (privatelyprinted). I owe my knowledge of this book and of Towianski to my friendProfessor W. Lutoslawski, author of “Plato’s Logic.”255
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The Varieties ofReligiousExperience
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ContentsPREFACE....................
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William JamesLECTURE II CIRCUMSCRIP
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William JamesLECTURES XI, XII, AND
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William Jameseses: 1. The subconsci
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William Jamesmy colleague Dickinson
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William Jamesits heroic obligations
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William Jamesas a guide to life and
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William Jamespower. Yet from the po
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William Jamesthors are actually abl
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William Jamesin favor of the sexual
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William Jamesof our states of mind,
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William Jamesstrictly to the medica
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William Jamesment from origin has s
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William Jamesthe bugaboo of morbid
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William Jamesreligious evolution. T
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William JamesLecture e IICIRCUMSCRI
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William Jamesnot prevent me from ta
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