The psychology of the saints.

  • Joly, Henri, 1839-1925.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The psychology of the saints. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the pains to verify these legends of the “saints” for him, he accepts everything, even such stories as those of mountains sinking into the earth and the moon being cut in half. Despite his fasts and his miracles, the saint of Islam is not unmindful of self, nor has his prophet been unmindful of him in dispensing the joys of his paradise. “This singular hagiography,” says a commentator,1 “reveals the object or determining cause of miracles to be, in the case of the Mussul- man, to a great degree tainted by the materialism inherent in Mahomedanism. The private interests of the saint are too frequently set before those of the divinity who has bestowed upon him a share in his power. In other words, the saint of Islam too often uses his gifts for his own purposes and for the gratification of his passions.” These first considerations shew us that, above rectitude and honesty, above wisdom and talent and intellectual greatness, mankind very early con- ceived the idea of a still more perfect mode of existence. All nations were not able to understand that this perfection could only be the fruit of inter- course with a god, some absolutely denied that it could be so, but the majority felt instinctively that such heights were unattainable to human nature without the assistance of an attraction and strength that could only come from a divine source. It was to this explanation of the “ mandate from heaven ” that all, even the Chinese, inclined, when they tried to find out what was really involved in the idea of sanctity. 1 Idibid,, lviii.