HELL.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 647, 9 July 1892, Page 5

HEL L.

AN IXTISHVIEW WITH IT. ERNEST RKNAN. (By It. H. Shkk.vrh i.v Titu "Pail Mau Gasmti:.") Iritwaieuet in this lamentably modern Paris, <li unit with actuality, with its Haussmaun houses, its Cherot "posters, ita foolish ealvs, iind tho ugly mob of rich aud poor that here aud there one may titid lurking in unexpected corners, wraiths of that elegant and desirable past on which many of vs — aa it were, wives oi Lot —^wiil, despite risk of danger, still amorously and regretfully look ba.ik, how could life, with all its silly modern buffooneries, its grotesijue accoutrements, ita low ideals of to-day, bo tolerated or borae I Amongst such unexpected corners, the Hotel de Sees, that turreted house in the Tine Hautefeuilte, the tortuous Hue Ser-pc-ute, seen in a winding curve from the hideous boulevard of Saint-Michel ; the street of Ci-git-le-Comr, with the romantic solace of its name; and in the same quarter the old Sorbonno, and abutting on it the. College of France. What memories are all around ! AVhat pleasant ptovo- • cations for regretful lookings baok ! I was at the College of France to-day, aud my reason was to call on Krnest Renan for tslking's sake, nnd the prospect of conference with such a man was all the more delightful by reason of this mshnlive- hankering of mine -after a younger but more elegant epoch, the France of the Lewises, tho days of culture and rennement, of stately bows and general courtliness, of - rare and I beautiful homes. How elegantly the world i revolved in the days of rapier and peruke ! With his white and beautiful hands, his comfortable, eupeptic form, his supreme elegance of speech, and his old-world courtesies, ltenan ' embodies to me the abbo of the seventeenth century. It might be Mazarin in the Palais Royal. And in what a sympathetic mise-en-seiine moves this embodiment of the oulture and the graces of the past ! I used to envy Charles Reado in his rooms at Magdalen ; I fancy that I. envy Ernest Kenan more. Throughout, the illusion of abetter past is maintained, but to its elegancies are added whatever the present has of graces. Thus, flowers iv the antechamber, where as I wait I 669 pictures, and oh, bo many books ! An to the pictures, the one moat in evidence is an engraving of the Jews in Penitence, their faces turned against the wall ; and, among long lines of books, Guizot here, a Bible, a History of the Jews, Greek Customs, the "Thoughts for the Times" by Haweis, j Mahaffy's "Rambles in Greece," and many more. The bright-faced Breton girl who was ray ambassadress now returns. "Would my sir give himself the pain to advance ?" and points to where at the far end of a suite of rooms a faint line breaks the darkness. Acrossadrawingroom with old-fashioned furnitureandportraita of last century folk, tapestries and books — more books ; a diningroom with tke-table spread with Breton crockery, notable being the quaint old salt-cellar* -which female Sgurines hold up with oatstretched arms ; another room where all is books; and the study and M. Ernest Kenan at last. It was all of so long ago that as I approached it it seemed to me I must have come to ask the master of this house about topics of a century since. The question of the diamond necklace, perhaps, or as 10 whether tho Dnbsrry was so very naughty, after all. It was not so, however. "Let me bo frank. I had come to talk of Hell. I fonnd the master willed in with books, sitting at a writing-table on which an oillamp shed its subdued light on the proofs of & history of the fourteenth century, from the mantelpiece on his left a terra-cotta bust, lifelike in resemblance, of Victor Le Clere beamed encouragingly on his clerk of clerks. Here and there in, interstices of the ,bpols>' deroured walls the primates of painting, gloomy in time tarnished frames. At, L "tne iack a library ladSer, the verjr steps of whioh' books and pamphlet). hare But one ohait whioh such invasion has spared. He, turning on hia seat, his hair in admired confusion, shows a monastic pallor. It is a ■white presence in a room of shadows. But not monastic asceticism, for there is a plump j and comfortable presence, the courtier abbe -who dines well and lies in warm beddings. I like Kenan's voice. It is low, and ha< that i pnrring caress which is an equipment of the servant of the church gained by long practice of whiscered confidences in boudoir and con- j fessional. "■Macter," I S aid, " 1 have oomo to talk to yon about hell." Then added about the outjry which had been raised by his last book, where he denied Ench punikhment; told him of odium t.),cologicuin, nowhere so bitter as in oar fair land oi England, whioh had been poured forth anent his views, and asked for iurthcr exposition . He smiles and raises his shoulder 3, and smiles again, deprecatingly extending the plump, beautiful white hands, and Bays :— " We must blame nobody for absurdity in religious beliefs There are things in religion ■which are infantine in their absurdity. But tradition, atavism, education, aye, und patriotism, will mike even the nio<t enlightened of men swallow — -where religious belief is concerned— whit in everyday life they would be the first to smile at. That oxplains the faith in certain matters of men justly reputed master-minds. It U uot hypocrisy on their parts- They are. i-incorc. Family traditions, atavism, and pitriotistn create their faiths." ' ' Since when have people held this fearful creed of future punishment — this belief in hell ?" " Since about 150 years before the birth of Christ. The Jews of the Old Testament had no belief in a future state, at least you will find no allusion whatever to either the future punishment of the evil or the future beatitude of the good in the Old Testament. The reason of this was, no doubt, that up to the period I mention the Jews were f iir!y happy. But in 175 a.c. Epiphanes Autioohus came and persecuted the Jews terribly. Then they Buffered horrors of jfibbet and sword, torture and fire, and there were amongst them many martyrdoms. It was then that the belief arose that those who had suffered martyrdom should in an after Jife be com. pensated for their terrible sufferings, whilst to the executioners and torturers, the valets of Epiphanes, future punishment should be dealt out.. The hankering after a quid pro !«» is a primary factor in the Jndaic psycholojry. liauti, they thought, must get his fair share of good »nd evil, Those that suffered on earth nhould have compensation in a future state, while those who were happy here and made others suffer should in their turn have to undergo pain hereafter. It may thus be said that it was batween the years 175 and 163— that is to say, some time during the reis;n ef Epiphanes Anttoohus. otherwise Antioohuß IV.— that the world saw the genesis of that terriblo idea of future punishment which has terrorised the world ever since." Here M. Renan, leauingbaok in his, chair, quoted for the space of several moments something that was Greek. .It was Greoktome, who, pourtani. not so very long ago . My poor Greek, in what lumber-room stored away? But be charitable, and allow that, pronounced in French, Greek, even to your aasiduoua Hellenist, ie not easy to understand. I could only smile blandly, and vainly searched that lumber-room, but before'anything -was found ho had osased his quotation. "Heaven, the idea of heaven, had its genesis simultaneously— that grand idea of future happiness which \mt made the world go confident, sj patient, ever since i" I asked. And lie: "Yes, simultaneously. Future suffering for the torturers— Antionhun and hisorew; and forthe tortured— the persecuted and martyred Jews — future happiuess. A. squarinor of accounts. " "Eternal beatitude for the?e; for those eternal pain f" " Never a wbit. The «7ewa could not ooneeive eternal lifo in any form for a finite being. JSiernicy, in their belief, was alone the prerosatiTf of AlramhtyGod, the Eternal Being. OpmiouH varied as to the duration of the beatitude whioh should be enjoyed by those who hacl suffered on earth. Some thought it would last 400 years ; others main-

tained it would be for a t!ioi!S-n:d years. None hoped for eternal beatituJe." " Then in this resne."- a!«) humanity, granted an inch, h:is taksn an infinity oi' ells?" '' As humanity will do under fll circuuistllnCG;?. Hilw far uro the hopea u£ tLc believer of to-day from thu hopes of tho Jew i of ISO years boforo Christ, who only looked ] for seven lifetimes of happiness.' 'Appetitul has coma to us in eating. None to-day would be content with a thousaud years of beatitude. All must be happy for ever and ever. In tho Month year all "would revolt, raise barricades in Paradise, iu--i.-t on a renewal ii p'-rpcltiilt of the awarded felicities." •' And tho promises and menaces of tho Lord Jesus f" Kenan bowed his head. Then ho »aid : — ■ " It was a continuation — a development of the ideas current among tho Maccabirann, I the genesis of which I have exposed to yon. I The formula' given in the Gospels lire an extension of similar formula to be found in such works as ' The Book of Enoch ' and ' The Assumption of Moses." His menaces were a considerable development." ''In so far as?" "In so far as tho original idea of punishment, wns less a state of suffering" as one of complete annihilation. | The wicked was to be crushed out, whiist the i goon was to enjoy from 100 to 1,000 years of felicity. At the same time, this idea of annihilation was not general. Many liked the idea of a ftiito of suffering for others, so that their own state of felicity might be, as it were increased by comparison. It was for the sake of a contrast." CKs££ "Was it hold that this state of suffering should foe eternal!" " I have said that the Jews, from whom the Christians have inherited their beliefs, could not conceive an eternity for men, believing 1 that state to be alone the prerogative of the Almighty." " And whence came the idea of fire in hell:-" BBM3B** U -V&*:*sZtZ'ie>* " It was thought that the pain of burning was the most atrocious pain that could be endured by the body, and so it was applied to the soul. I have said in matters of religion none should bo astonished at the utmost childishness of belief. But the srennidca of this form of punishment may be faund in the sacred T!ook of Isuiah, which is noj^contained in the Bible, written during 1 the tinie'of the captivity. And the fire aud the worm of tho later belief were doul)tle?fl inspired by recollections of the worship of Moloch, before whom children were sicrilioed in burning hra/iers. The valley of Gehenno, near Jerusalem, a sort of 3lontfaucon, wheiw corpses were left to rot — a ponrrisitmi- — and where iires burned to clear tho pestiferous air, did also suggest the idea of a t err i bio place of punishment, a place where — Vtrmig corom non nviritur ct ignis non extinjjuitur." "Why do people place hell below? The >eaion of fire to the ignorant is surely where the lightning is 'i " " It had to he placed somewhere. Above in the bright azure of the beautiful skies was naturally the place of beatitude. Nor was the presence of subterranean fire unknown, for the volcanoes were proof of its existence. Forcontrast aleo, heaven above, and hell, jtartaiit, below." "But did not the Eomanß entertain any idea of a place of punishment ? " " Not the cultured, not the intelligent. The ijrnorant possibly. To the cultured, the stories of Ixion, Tantalus, and tho others who suffered, appeared, as they do to us, creations of poetical minds. Among the cultured, at the most, existed an indifferent doubtfulness. What does Tacitus .«ay ? ' Si, ut sapientibus placet, ngn cum corporeextincuantur magnre animic.' • ' If, os it pleases tho wise to say.' Js not that an immense shrug' of the shoulders? Such w&b the general attitude of those amongst the Romans who thought. The vulgar very possibly believed in Styx and Tartarus and the tortures that tho poets 'spoke about." " Bat amongst other peoples f " "Yes, the Buddhists." "Ah, Nirvana." " No, those weve the cultured Buddhists. Bat the ignorant, the vulgar, the general, had an idea of a place of future punishment, of which we know many pictorial representations. These paintings,., frescoes- mostly, show us that the vulgar, uncultured Buddhists believed in a place of future punishI ment which very closely resemble^ the Inferno de-scribed by Dante :— Quivi fiVjiiri. piimtl Ciliilli auai Itisminvim per 1' ntr srnra ?t*lle, I'crih' in nl cominriar no lupriniai. Dfveiw: lingue, ornbili tnruih*, Viirole (ii dolore, acwmti d' ha, Voci .iV.<-, t-- tioelio. esuon '25 mnn con <?17e — taid M. Kenan, leaning buck in his chair, "Where did Dante get hia ideas of Inferno V "They wore (he current ideas of his time, the ineaß of hell which existed in tho thirteenth cent-.irj-, as is shown b/ jiumerous paintings which existed, conteniporaoeouslv with Dante, in the churches in Italy. And now let mo t-uy that almost as long as humanity has existed thore has been entertained the hope that the wicked— that is, the man who mado one suffer — would eventunlly be paid out. IMau has always considered hirni-elf a hi ast of burthen, on whose back the wicked rains down blows with a cudgel. He has always hoped that if he never should be ' able to servethe cudgel -bearer out, thatsomphow or somewhere the latter should suffer in his turu. ' tin jour viendra gui tout paiera ' is the expression of a hope which is almost coeval with mankind." "And w to Purgatory, which you so pleasantly defcribed in your latest work ?"' " Trace? of the idea of a middle place ran be found in the writing of early Christianity. But it was in the Middle Ages that the belief in Purgatory became general. An • espece de ruoyen terine ' was wanted. It wa* found useful to have a place for those who had sinned modera'ely, a place of expiation for pecnadiHoe.% a place for those who could not be damned outright. But it was ohiefly to the rapacity of the Church that the intervention of Purgatory may be abscribed. It was 8 speculation on the part of the priests. An excellent speculation, I may add, for no invention of human ingenuity has brought in more money than this. You see, a soul in purgatory could be released by masses »t. so ranch a mass. Gold poured into the coffer* of the church— legacies, indulgences, all the tricks." And hereupon we fell to talking of other ■ things, mainly about books and the ten-! deneies of the times. I "People are very angry with me,"' eaid Ernest Kenan, "and assail me with letters. Not for tho most part controversial, but, making statements. I cannot tell you how many letiers I have received of late in which was the simple assertion ' II y a un Paradis' heavily underlined." It was evening when I got back on to the boulevards again. The night- birds of Paris, with their pallid faces nnd wioked eyes, were fluttering to and fro. In the glasses on the cafe table the green absinthe writhed like a poisonous thing. Down side-streets some ra^geddrunkardy roared in blasphemy, Ablind bogsrar stay ed me a* I walked, while before mo in. the mud crawled a nameless cripple, squatting on a board with wheels. The sleet | drifted across the electric lamps, and spotted my papers — London papers, where, as I walked, I mbi! of recent caier of perversity and double- doings and grey-haired wailings for onawaHed mercy. And then I saw prison-Wdlls nnd servitudes, and further the prison her/i and what is preparing for one grey morning about to come. And thinking of the misery of it all, " 'Jl v a tin J'uradix', M. Kennn." "Yes. »nd a hell, t"o. That is not to be denied," I cried.