Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 120

96

§ 42.

THE SPIRITUAL SCIENCES

[Div. II

your eye there were no actual analogy io that which your ego does when you see something through your eye. And thougli this analogy may weaken when apof light in

plied to the other parts of the cosmos, in proportion as their to man becomes more limited, we cannot escape from the impression that this analogy is everywhere present. With the aid of this symbolical tendency mythology seeks to represent the spiritual powers as expressions of mysterious And though with us the life of the imagination is persons.

affinity

subjected too greatly to the verification of our thinking, for us to appreciate such a representation, we constantly feel the

need of finding in personification useful terms for our utterances and for the interpretation of our feelings. In fact, our entire language for the psychic world is founded upon this Although in later days, without remembrance symbolism. of this symbolism, many words have purposely been formed for psychical phenomena, the onomatopepoiemena excepted, all

words used to express psychical perception or phenomena are originally derived by the way of symbolism from the visible world. And where poetry, music, or whatever art comes in to cause us to see or hear, not merely the beautiful in the form, but also the interpretation of the i^sychic, it is again on the ground of a similar analogy between the visible and invisible, that they cause us to hear something in verse or in musical rhythm, or to see something by means of the chisel or the pencil which affects our psychical life or teaches it to underIndeed, in the affinity between the visible stand itself. and invisible part of the cosmos, and in the analogy founded on it, there lies an invaluable means of affecting the psychibut however richly cal life and of bringing it to utterance and beautifully the world of sounds may be able to interpret and inspire our inner life, it offers no building material for scientific knowledge. Moreover, with all these expressions of art you must always reckon with the individuality of the artist who enchants your eye or ear, which sometimes expresses itself very strongly, so that with all the products of art, independent of sin and falsehood, which have invaded this realm also, the above-mentioned objection of individuality returns. ;

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