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Hartmann F. - Light for Italy: Difference between revisions
Apply agreed Lucifer edition formatting, author categories, and journal text allocation.
(Prepare Lucifer volume III electronic edition: original journal text, pagination, illustrations and contents) |
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| original title = Light for Italy | | original title = Light for Italy | ||
| has text = yes | | has text = yes | ||
| publications = [[Lucifer/Vol3|''Lucifer'', vol. 3]], no. 13, September 1888, pp. 18-20 | | publications = [[Lucifer/Vol3|''Lucifer'', vol. 3]], no. 13, September 1888, pp. 18-20 | ||
| read links = [[Lucifer/Vol3/Text|Electronic journal edition in Teopedia]] | | read links = [[Lucifer/Vol3/Text|Electronic journal edition in Teopedia]] | ||
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| origin = English: Franz Hartmann, ''Light for Italy'' | | origin = English: Franz Hartmann, ''Light for Italy'' | ||
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AMONG all the countries of Europe there is perhaps none upon which the curse of priestcraft and superstition is resting heavier than upon Italy, the land of beauty and art. It is true that the political changes, which have taken place in that country within the past ten years, have done a great deal to remove from the minds of the populace that awe and terror with which they regarded those who, backed up by the authority of the state, claimed to have a right to rule over the consciences of men, pretending to be in possession of divine powers and to stand in that place which rightfully belongs only to God – ''i.e.,'' the divine spirit in Man. National heroes, such as Mazzini, Garibaldi, etc., have done much to weaken the power which theology had acquired over the state; but in all matters that belong to religion and the salvation of souls, priestcraft still claims its monopoly, and while the citizen despises the person of the priest, in whom he recognises an ignorant and arrogant mountebank, he still obeys his orders in spiritual affairs, for fear of losing some of the imaginary benefits arising from the imaginary authority of the church. | AMONG all the countries of Europe there is perhaps none upon which the curse of priestcraft and superstition is resting heavier than upon Italy, the land of beauty and art. It is true that the political changes, which have taken place in that country within the past ten years, have done a great deal to remove from the minds of the populace that awe and terror with which they regarded those who, backed up by the authority of the state, claimed to have a right to rule over the consciences of men, pretending to be in possession of divine powers and to stand in that place which rightfully belongs only to God – ''i.e.,'' the divine spirit in Man. National heroes, such as Mazzini, Garibaldi, etc., have done much to weaken the power which theology had acquired over the state; but in all matters that belong to religion and the salvation of souls, priestcraft still claims its monopoly, and while the citizen despises the person of the priest, in whom he recognises an ignorant and arrogant mountebank, he still obeys his orders in spiritual affairs, for fear of losing some of the imaginary benefits arising from the imaginary authority of the church. | ||
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The reason why the average Italian, with all his desire for freedom, has not become more enlightened and is still in bondage to clerical vampires, is because all attempts to drive away darkness will be useless unless the darkness is displaced by light. Those who are most ready to denounce all Medicine as humbug and quackery are usually the first to run after doctors and druggists as soon as they feel a pain, and those who denounce the ignorance of the priests are often only too ready to ask for their aid and advice when the time comes to take leave of this life. Thus the foundation of the church, composed of ignorance of the laws of nature and love of the personal self, will remain solid and the demon | The reason why the average Italian, with all his desire for freedom, has not become more enlightened and is still in bondage to clerical vampires, is because all attempts to drive away darkness will be useless unless the darkness is displaced by light. Those who are most ready to denounce all Medicine as humbug and quackery are usually the first to run after doctors and druggists as soon as they feel a pain, and those who denounce the ignorance of the priests are often only too ready to ask for their aid and advice when the time comes to take leave of this life. Thus the foundation of the church, composed of ignorance of the laws of nature and love of the personal self, will remain solid and the demon | ||
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of priestcraft will rule until ignorance is dispelled by knowledge, and the love of self driven away by the love of the divinity in all mankind. | of priestcraft will rule until ignorance is dispelled by knowledge, and the love of self driven away by the love of the divinity in all mankind. | ||
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This institution must not be confounded with those sectarian orders, in | This institution must not be confounded with those sectarian orders, in | ||
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which men and women enter to have a life of ease, or to conquer their passions, or to obtain a reserved seat in heaven. The inhabitants of this “convent” are supposed to employ all their energies for the purpose of spreading the light of intelligence and to induce mankind to think; they are supposed to have already conquered their passions and to be able to resist the external attraction of sex; they are believed to occupy already that seat in “heaven,” from which they can survey calmly the phantasmagoria of human illusions with their imaginary joys and ills, and to be able to regulate themselves the slides in the magic lantern, by which the images may be changed; so that spiritual thought will take the place of sensuality. | which men and women enter to have a life of ease, or to conquer their passions, or to obtain a reserved seat in heaven. The inhabitants of this “convent” are supposed to employ all their energies for the purpose of spreading the light of intelligence and to induce mankind to think; they are supposed to have already conquered their passions and to be able to resist the external attraction of sex; they are believed to occupy already that seat in “heaven,” from which they can survey calmly the phantasmagoria of human illusions with their imaginary joys and ills, and to be able to regulate themselves the slides in the magic lantern, by which the images may be changed; so that spiritual thought will take the place of sensuality. | ||