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alexandria and her schools(亚历山大和她的学校)-第26章

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of the sexes。     However; on this matter they did not see their way。 Perhaps; 

in   so   debased     an  age;   so   profligate   a   world;   as   that  out   of  which 

Christianity had risen; it was impossible to see the true beauty and sanctity 

of those primary bonds of humanity。             And while the relation of the sexes 

was looked on in a wrong light; all other social relations were necessarily 

also misconceived。         〃The very ideas of family and national life;〃 as it has 

been said; 〃those two divine roots of the Church; severed from which she 

is certain to wither away into that most cruel and most godless of spectres; 

a religious world; had perished in the East; from the evil influence of the 

universal practice of slave… holding; as well as from the degradation of that 

Jewish nation which had been for ages the great witness for these ideas; 

and all classes; like their forefather Adamlike; indeed; the Old Adamthe 

selfish;    cowardly;    brute   nature    in  every   man    and   in  every    agewere 

shifting     the   blame     of  sin   from     their  own     consciences      to   human 

relationships and duties; and therein; to the God who had appointed them; 



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and saying; as of old; 'The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me; she 

gave me of the tree; and I did eat。'〃 

     Much as Christianity did; even in Egypt; for woman; by asserting her 

moral   and   spiritual   equality   with   the   man;   there   seems   to   have   been   no 

suspicion   that   she   was   the   true   complement   of   the   man;   not   merely   by 

softening   him;   but   by   strengthening   him;   that   true   manhood   can   be   no 

more      developed       without      the   influence      of   the   woman;       than    true 

womanhood without the influence of the man。                     There is no trace among 

the    Egyptian     celibates     of  that   chivalrous     woman…worship          which     our 

Gothic      forefathers     brought     with    them    into   the   West;    which     shed    a 

softening      and   ennobling      light   round    the   mediaeval      convent     life;  and 

warded   off   for   centuries   the   worst   effects   of   monasticism。        Among   the 

religious   of   Egypt;   the   monk   regarded   the   nun;   the   nun   the   monk;   with 

dread   and   aversion;   while  both   looked   on   the   married   population   of   the 

opposite sex with a coarse contempt and disgust which is hardly credible; 

did   not   the   foul   records   of   it   stand   written   to   this   day;   in   Rosweyde's 

extraordinary        〃Vitae     Patrum      Eremiticorum;〃         no    barren     school     of 

metaphysic; truly; for those who are philosophic enough to believe that all 

phenomena whatsoever of the human mind are worthy matter for scientific 

induction。 

     And thus grew up in Egypt a monastic world; of such vastness that it 

was     said  to   equal   in  number      the  laity。   This    produced;      no   doubt;   an 

enormous increase  in the  actual   amount of   moral evil。                 But   it   produced 

three     other    effects;   which     were     the   ruin   of   Alexandria。        First;    a 

continually growing enervation and numerical decrease of the population; 

next; a carelessness of; and contempt for social and political life; and lastly; 

a most brutalising effect on the lay population; who; told that they were; 

and believing themselves to be; beings of a lower order; and living by a 

lower   standard;   sank   down   more   and   more   generation   after   generation。 

They   were   of   the   world;   and   the   ways   of   the   world   they   must   follow。 

Political   life   had   no   inherent   sanctity   or   nobleness;   why   act   holily   and 

nobly in it?       Family life had no inherent sanctity or nobleness; why act 

holily   and   nobly   in   it   either;   if   there   were   no   holy;   noble;   and   divine 

principle or ground for it?           And thus grew up; both in Egypt; Syria; and 



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Byzantium; a chaos of profligacy and chicanery; in rulers and people; in 

the home and the market; in the theatre and the senate; such as the world 

has rarely seen before or since; a chaos which reached its culmination in 

the seventh   century;  the   age of Justinian   and Theodora; perhaps the   two 

most     hideous    sovereigns;     worshipped      by   the   most   hideous     empire    of 

parasites and hypocrites; cowards and wantons; that ever insulted the long… 

suffering of a righteous God。 

     But; for Alexandria at least; the cup was now full。              In the year 640 the 

Alexandrians were tearing each other in pieces   about some Jacobite   and 

Melchite      controversy;      to  me    incomprehensible;        to   you    unimportant; 

because the fighters on both sides seem to have lost (as all parties do in 

their old age) the knowledge of what they were fighting for; and to have so 

bewildered the question with personal intrigues; spites; and quarrels; as to 

make it nearly as enigmatic as that famous contemporary war between the 

blue and green factions at Constantinople; which began by backing in the 

theatre; the charioteers who drove in blue dresses; against those wild drove 

in   green;    then   went    on   to  identify   themselves      each   with    one   of  the 

prevailing      theological    factions;    gradually     developed;     the   one   into   an 

aristocratic;  the   other   into   a  democratic;   religious   party;   and   ended   by  a 

civil   war    in  the   streets  of   Constantinople;      accompanied       by   the   most 

horrible excesses; which had nearly; at one time; given up the city to the 

flames; and driven Justinian from his throne。 

     In   the   midst   of   these   Jacobite   and   Melchite   controversies   and   riots; 

appeared   before   the   city   the   armies   of   certain   wild   and   unlettered Arab 

tribes。    A short and fruitless struggle followed; and; strange to say; a few 

months   swept   away  from  the   face   of   the   earth;   not   only  the   wealth;   the 

commerce;        the   castles;   and   the   liberty;   but   the   philosophy      and   the 

Christianity of Alexandria; crushed to powder by one fearful blow; all that 

had   been   built   up   by Alexander   and   the   Ptolemies;   by   Clement   and   the 

philosophers;   and   made   void;   to   all   appearance;   nine   hundred   years   of 

human toil。       The people; having no real hold on their hereditary Creed; 

accepted;     by   tens   of  thousands;     that  of   the  Mussulman       invaders。    The 

Christian remnant became tributaries; and Alexandria dwindled; from that 

time forth; into a petty seaport town。 



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     And     nowcan      we    pass   over    this  new     metaphysical      school    of 

Alexandria? Can we help inquiring in what the strength of Islamism lay? 

I; at least; cannot。      I cannot help feeling that I am bound to examine in 

what   relation   the   creed   of   Omar   and   Amrou   stands   to   the   Alexandrian 

speculations of five hundred years; and how it had power to sweep those 

speculations utterly from the Eastern mind。               It is a difficult problem; to 

me;    as  a  Christian    priest;   a  very   awful   problem。      What     more    awful 

historic problem; than to see the lower creed destroying the higher? to see 

God; as it   were; undoing his   own work;  and repenting Him  that He  had 

made man?        Awful indeed:       but I can honestly say; that it is one from the 

investigation of which I have learntI cannot yet tell how much: and of 

this I am sure; that without that old Alexandrian philosophy; I should not 

have been able to do justice to Islam; without Islam I should not have been 

able to find in that Alexandrian philosophy; an ever… living and practical 

element。 

     I   must;   however;   first   entreat   you   to   dismiss   from   your   minds   the 

vulgar notion that Mohammed was in anywise a bad man; or a conscious 

deceiver; pretending to work miracles; or to do things which he did not do。 

He   sinned   in   one   instance:   but;   as   far   as   I   can   see; only  in   that   oneI 

mean   against   what   he   must   have   known   to       be   right。  I   allude   to  his 

relaxing in his own case those wise restrictions on polygamy which he had 

proclaimed。       And yet; even in this case; the desire for a child may have 

been the true cause of h
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