Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 119

Chap.

§42.

I]

THE SPIRITUAL SCIENCES

understanding of what one

tells

95

you requires generally

such a knowledge of his past, character, and manner of life as is only obtained from a very few persons. It is most natural, therefore, that in recent times the

young

child has

been taken as the object of observation, for the reason that with the child these difficulties are materially lessened but this is balanced again by the fact that, because of its im;

maturity, the child expresses so

Thus we

sciences does not object.

terious.

little.

find that the difficulty in the lie

way

of the spiritual

in the mystery of the essence of their

With

the exact sciences the essence is equally mjsNeither does the difficulty of these sciences lie

simply in the amorphic character of their object, please, in the lack of tangible elements.

or, if you But the knowledge

of the relations of the object of these sciences is so difficult to be obtained, because these relations are so uncertain in

and are therefore almost always bound to It is noteworthy how slow the progress of these sciences is, especially when compared with the rapid progress of the exact sciences and the more so since the effort has been made to apply to them the method of the natural sciences. their manifestation

the self-communication of the object.

;

Symbolism, mythology, personification, and also poetry, music and almost all the fine arts render us invaluable ser-

what is enacted within the spiritual realm, but by themselves they offer us no scientific knowledge. Symbolism is founded upon the analogy and the vice as interpretations of

inner affinity, which exist between the visible and invisible creation. Hence, it is not only an imperfect help, of which

we may

avail ourselves since our forms of

rowed from the

visible,

but

it

thought are bor-

represents a reality which

is

confirmed in our own human personality by the inner and close union of our somatic-psychic existence. Without

analogy and that inner affinity there would be no unity of perception possible, nor unity of expression for our two-sided being as man. Your eye does not see your that

;

through your eye and this use of your eye could not effect the act of your seeing, if in the reflection

ego sees, but

;

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