Autobiographical Sketches | Page 4

something
his rider cannot see; or as the flame within a Davy lamp feeds upon the
poisonous gas up to the meshes that surround it, but there suddenly is
arrested by barriers that no Aladdin will ever dislodge. It is because a
man cannot see and measure these mystical forces which palsy him,
that he cannot deal with them effectually. If he were able really to
pierce the haze which so often envelops, even to himself, his own
secret springs of action and reserve, there cannot be a life moving at all
under intellectual impulses that would not, through that single force of
absolute frankness, fall within the reach of a deep, solemn, and
sometimes even of a thrilling interest. Without pretending to an interest
of this quality, I have done what was possible on my part towards the
readiest access to such an interest by perfect sincerity--saying every
where nothing but the truth; and in any case forbearing to say the whole
truth only through consideration for others.
Into the second class I throw those papers which address themselves
purely to the understanding as an insulated faculty; or do so primarily.

Let me call them by the general name of ESSAYS. These, as in other
cases of the same kind, must have their value measured by two separate
questions. A. What is the problem, and of what rank in dignity or in use,
which the essay undertakes? And next, that point being settled, B. What
is the success obtained? and (as a separate question) what is the
executive ability displayed in the solution of the problem? This latter
question is naturally no question for myself, as the answer would
involve a verdict upon my own merit. But, generally, there will be quite
enough in the answer to question A for establishing the value of any
essay on its soundest basis. _Prudens interrogatio est dimidium
scientiae._ Skilfully to frame your question, is half way towards
insuring the true answer. Two or three of the problems treated in these
essays I will here rehearse.
1. ESSENISM--The essay on this, where mentioned at all in print, has
been mentioned as dealing with a question of pure speculative curiosity:
so little suspicion is abroad of that real question which lies below.
Essenism means simply this--Christianity before Christ, and
consequently without Christ. If, therefore, Essenism could make good
its pretensions, there at one blow would be an end of Christianity,
which in that case is not only superseded as an idle repetition of a
religious system already published, but also as a criminal plagiarism.
Nor can the wit of man evade that conclusion. But even that is not the
worst. When we contemplate the total orb of Christianity, we see it
divide into two hemispheres: first, an ethical system, differing centrally
from any previously made known to man; secondly, a mysterious and
divine machinery for reconciling man to God; a teaching to be taught,
but also a work to be worked. Now, the first we find again in the ethics
of the counterfeit Essenes--which ought not to surprise us at all; since it
is surely an easy thing for him who pillages my thoughts ad libitum to
reproduce a perfect resemblance in his own: [3] but what has become
of the second, viz., not the teaching, but the operative working of
Christianity? The ethical system is replaced by a stolen system; but
what replaces the mysterious agencies of the Christian faith? In
Essenism we find again a saintly scheme of ethics; but where is the
scheme of mediation?
In the Roman church, there have been some theologians who have also
seen reason to suspect the romance of "Essenismus." And I am not sure

that the knowledge of this fact may not have operated to blunt the
suspicions of the Protestant churches. I do not mean that such a fact
would have absolutely deafened Protestant ears to the grounds of
suspicion when loudly proclaimed; but it is very likely to have
indisposed them towards listening. Meantime, so far as I am acquainted
with these Roman Catholic demurs, the difference between them and
my own is broad. They, without suspecting any subtle, fraudulent
purpose, simply recoil from the romantic air of such a statement--which
builds up, as with an enchanter's wand, an important sect, such as could
not possibly have escaped the notice of Christ and his apostles. I, on the
other hand, insist not only upon the revolting incompatibility of such a
sect with the absence of all attention to it in the New Testament, but
(which is far more important) the incompatibility of such a sect (as a
sect elder than Christ) with the originality and heavenly revelation of
Christianity. Here is my first point of difference from the Romish
objectors. The second is this: not