that it is in fact the poet who speaks), expects enlightenment from the deliverances of the divine voice addressing Job out of the tempest. But it is generally admitted that the theophany contributes nothing to the solution of the problem. Professor Moulton's eloquent explanation (I nearly wrote apology) should, however, be studied. He surmises that "the Deity of the divine intervention is not the God of judgment, but the soul of external nature . . . Infinite sympathy . . and that his teaching is that the evil in the universe is not more mysterious than the good and great.' " 2 But "to justify the ways of God to men is perhaps the most monstrously absurd task ever undertaken by a mortal; implying, as it does, that the ways of God have been examined, classified, docketed, and registered. If Milton could have read that 1 The Book of Job, pp. xxxv and xxxviii. 2 Paradise Lost, Bk. 1, 26. Quoted by Pope in this form : "To vindicate the ways of God to man.' -Essay on Man, 16. magnificent Natural Supernaturalism of Carlyle, that Chapter VIII of Book III of Sartor Resartus, which stands out pre-eminent, glittering with the close-wrought gorgeousness of logical eloquence, he could never have written that line. Not only is man surrounded by mystery, he is himself a mystery; the child of mystery; the thrall of mystery; and the sacrificial victim of mystery. The mystery is one and indivisible. "We are,” says Carlyle, “we know not what; lightsparkles floating in the aether of Deity. and nature, with its thousandfold production and destruction, is but the reflex of our own inward Force, the phantasy of our Dream, or what the earth-spirit in Faust named it, the living visible garment of God— In Being's flood, in Action's storm I walk and work above, beneath, An infinite ocean; The fire of Living: 'Tis thus at the roaring Loom of Time I ply And weave for God the garment thou seest him by. Of twenty millions that have read and spouted this thunder-speech of the ErdGeist, are there yet twenty units of us that have learned the meaning thereof?"1 Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, But what is this but to say that God is mystery? and if he were not, if he were comprehended by his creature, would he not instantly cease to be God? Such is surely the meaning of the theophany in the Book of Job, without knowledge of which perhaps Carlyle's beautiful essay would never have been written. But man has got to live in the midst of this mystery, and eventually to die into it, and therefore, whatever name he chooses to give to that power "which is not himself," his problem is perforce to harmonise himself with it. 1 Sartor Resartus, Bk. 1, ch. viii. 2 Lord Tennyson. Poetical Works, p. 240. Which is not himself! but how if it be himself? How if Humanity itself be the greatest revelation of that Power at present known to Humanity? How if all religion be only the tentative attempts of man to explain the divinity within him? If this be so, Man ought never to put himself into the absurd position of declaring that he understands himself or the world; while, on the other hand, he will ever seek for a continuance of the process by which a certain amount of understanding has been gained. |