Optimism—The Lesson of the Ages
by Benjamin Paul Blood
Eirini Press has released a reprint of one of the first non-dual treatises written by an American: Benjamin Paul Blood. Published in 1860, on the eve of one of the darkest periods in American history, Optimism is a stirring practical guide to faith in, and acceptance toward, whatever life delivers. Impassioned by his own mystical experiences, Blood’s distinctly American voice had a profound effect on William James, whose last published essay was a tribute to his mystical mentor. As pessimism again darkens America, Optimism shines a dazzling guiding light on wholeness: “We easily conceive ourselves invested in bodies or spheres of palpitating, ethereal lightness, which may fly, at will, around the pendant world; yet the sense in which we were independent of God’s consciousness in our own world would be as mysterious as now. However we exist, doubtless we shall feed only upon his bounty, and shall never inspire ourselves.”
Table of Contents:
I. Some Question of the Author’s Ability
II. Democratic and Autocratic Theology
III. The Authority of Reason
IV. The Motives of All Theorists
V. The Burden of Theology
VI. Concerning “The Beginning”
VII. Proofs of God’s Existence Impossible, &c.
VIII. The Only Premise, One God
IX. Interpretation of Fables
X. Sundry Inferences—The Heaven of Progression
XI. “Metaphysics”
XII. Social Relations
XIII. Classification of Evils, and Some Deprecation Thereof
XIV. The Finite Cannot Be Perfectly Happy
XV. Each for All
XVI. Variety
XVII. Compensation
XVIII. Pride, Labor, Experience and Latent Pleasure
XIX. Cross Questions—Liberty and Heaven
XX. Immortality Inferred
XXI. The Policy of Life is Harmony with Nature
The Future
Excerpts:
He is the One—the original—the all in all. All creeds acknowledge him. His name needs no interpreter when they say “God created.” Boundless and incomprehensible, yet indisputable, the key of all mystery, without form, without centre or circumference, beginning or end, the life, space, and atmosphere wherein all being dwells, words were not made to present him; we cannot show him to another, nor another to us; yet in the human soul he has said immemorially, “I am! And there is none beside me!”
“We easily conceive ourselves invested in bodies or spheres of palpitating, ethereal lightness, which may fly, at will, around the pendant world; yet the sense in which we were independent of God’s consciousness in our own world would be as mysterious as now. However we exist, doubtless we shall feed only upon his bounty, and shall never inspire ourselves.”
Not God himself can be supposed to transcend his nature; nor can any being that he has created: only the forced positions of an erroneous system ever could have driven men to the invention of a free will—free of the world, free of its creator, and free of its own construction, without bounds or definition.
Tear away bravely the frightful background that fear has painted in life’s picture, and send your gaze out unobstructed through the blue of eternal time.
Could we have proof of God’s existence, there were no God worthy to be proved. Proof shifts its object into other essence, or other truth: but that which is infinite cannot be shifted to aught that is within our capacity. Incomprehensible as eternity, against what background shall our God stand relieved? Say space is filled, and time is filled, and we are a portion of that filling; how shall a part contain the whole?—how shall that which cannot be compassed be known, whether it be entirely proved or not? The poet cannot teach his poetry to a stone; nor can God condense his being to a picture in our souls; he were not God, nor we men. Yet God is in us, the assurance of his presence, whose majesty is the birth of reason. He is not afar, that we should see him. He is in the light of the eye, and in the object that it shines on. He is not a curiosity, a member of a species, or a thing to be represented by any device. He is the One—the original—the all in all. All creeds acknowledge him. His name needs no interpreter when they say “God created.” Boundless and incomprehensible, yet indisputable, the key of all mystery, without form, without centre or circumference, beginning or end, the life, space, and atmosphere wherein all being dwells, words were not made to present him; we cannot show him to another, nor another to us; yet in the human soul he has said immemorially, “I am! and there is none beside me!”
It is pleasing to us to look back over the records of the earlier men of time, and to find that the wise of all ages have been truly brothers in this doctrine of the unity of God; and the more so because it is a doctrine which is attended with difficulties, when applied entirely to the destiny of man, which no record has come to us wholly explaining. We mean, chiefly, the difficulty of the origin of evil. Yet mark with what calm solemnity the first chapter of one of the oldest of books unfolds the doctrine of one God, in spite of evil:—“God is one: he has created all: it is a perfect sphere, without beginning or end. . .Thou shalt not seek to discover the nature and essence of the Eternal, nor by what laws he governs. Such an attempt would be vain, and criminal. . . . It is enough for thee to contemplate day and night his power, his wisdom, and his goodness, through his works.”—This from the Shastah. Again:—“The sea enters the vessel that floats upon it; but time breaks the vessel, and the sea receives its own. And man is as a vessel, and God is as the sea; and the soul, God’s power, returns to him who emitted it.”
About the Author
Benjamin Paul Blood (1832-1919) is perhaps best known as a formative mystical influence on William James. The son of a wealthy landowner, Blood lived in Amsterdam, NY. While not committed to any one profession, he had an early interest in inventing and held patents for a reaping machine and a reinforced side saddle. His writing became a constant through his adult life, the bulk of which was in the form of letters and columns for a variety of newspapers in an era when the discourse was much like today’s blogs. Through the newspapers, Blood was able to bring his philosophical ideas to a churchgoing public that he considered largely immoral.
Although initially receiving a lukewarm response, Blood’s most influential work, especially on William James, was the Anaesthetic Revolution and the Gist of Philosophy (1874), a 37-page pamphlet expounding on the mystical revelations prompted by the taking of ether.
Reviews
Benjamin Paul Blood writes with a sweep of vision rare in our time as in his. He examines philosophies, religions, psychologies-—creeds and “isms”—as aspects of what we might now call our psycho-social ecology—measuring them for fit to the nature we’re within, and the nature within us. His language is frequently theological in a way strange to us today, the theology of a serious Deist, taking cues from naturalistic observation, philosophic deduction and common sense as much as from scripture. Blood is true heir to Jefferson and the other Deistic American founders, proving the ongoing fertility of their shared perspective. He blends concerns of Christian and Roman ethics with Western science without a sense of contradiction or limitation—a single magisterium. While several particulars in Blood’s arguments have arguably been superseded, but the larger case he puts forward still holds. He has much to teach us about how to pursue happiness immersed in life with full intelligence, and how to bind vast realms of human inquiry to a common end.
—Whit Blauvelt
“I have always held the opinion that one of the first duties of a good reader is to summon other readers to the enjoy¬ment of any unknown author of rare quality . . . my own taste, literary as well as philosophic, has been exquisitely titillated by . . . Benjamin Paul Blood.” —William James
For the modern reader who is unacquainted with 19th century syntax, grammar and vocabulary, Blood’s Optimism (first published in 1860) will probably require fortitude and determination. It is beautifully, intelligently written, poetic in many turns of phrase and redolent of an age more learned of ancient wisdom than many books of our own 21st Century can claim. It will put you off, but if you then decide to put it down, you will forego an amazing journey……….for, even though what you do not experience you cannot truly miss, it is as true that, once experienced, life becomes richer and more meaningful. At least, this has been true for me, with this book.
What sets Blood’s Optimism apart from other writings on duality, metaphysics and Eastern spirituality is that, while alluding to these topics which are familiar to modern Western students of Eastern teachings, Optimism is firmly grounded in Christianity. This is not fundamentalist, bible-thumping brimstone, nor social justice, class equality foot-washing, yet it is Christian and it is not apologetic.
Blood grapples with the basic teachings of this major religious doctrine - original sin, ascension, omnipotence and omniscience of the One True God, perfection of man, the Garden of Eden, good and evil, the holy trinity, heaven itself, the journey of the soul…I could go on – but he approaches as a man who has experienced something far more profound outside the bricks and mortar, beyond the boundaries of the flesh, above and below the strict dogmas of the Church hierarchies and their lackeys: you know he has meditated deep within his fleshy encumbrance to experience the release of something small to something far grander than any language can name – be it 19th century prose or 21st century babble. And then, as his eyes were opened, he lights the path to opening ours, his readers of persistence.
The years I spent in Seminary, I studied Christian mysticism, spirituality and meditation as well as the liberation theologies of women, blacks and the third world. While the one was truly more navel-gazing and ego-oriented than any Eastern meditation I have experienced, the other was so firmly entrenched in the physical bowels of human existence, that there was a chasm stretched between the two so wide, I could not see the connections. Benjamin Paul Blood sat at his writing table, quills at hand, and scratched it out for me. One hundred and fifty years later, I can finally see a path from one to the other and perhaps now my true journey will begin. I have read through Optimism twice and will pick it up again. I recommend you do the same: buy the ticket, take the journey.
—Carole Barber
I began reading Optimism by Benjamin Paul Blood out of curiosity because I knew he had influenced William James. At first I was challenged by his sentence structure, but soon began to enjoy the pleasure of understanding him. I became intrigued by his mind and by his relationship with his times.
His basic purpose, to explain the existence of evil and pain if there exists a single good God, is certainly an inquiry with a long history, but Blood's efforts have a particularly American slant. His values seem to reflect contrary trends in American "optimism."
In some ways, Blood is unorthodox, perhaps most in his insistence that pain and evil are not the result of a punitive God.
In other ways he appears deeply conservative, as in his many arguments that what seems evil, such as the disproportionate suffering of the poor or unhealthy, is actually compensated or mitigated in ways proving God's compassionate love. In other words, his perspective can undergird any status quo, no matter how unjust.
The two situations he does not defend are 1) theologies that, given the creator God's perfection and the creature's inherent imperfection, do not understand the loving necessity of what we think of as evil and experience as painful; and 2) the lack of sufficient manliness in the men of his times. This last is particularly striking since other social conditions are examined "optimistically" and do not call forth such a critique. I can't help but wonder why this gender issue escapes his "optimism," if this contradiction bears witness to an intensity of gender conflicts during the mid-nineteenth century when he presumably was writing his book. Blood even celebrates the warrior hero as a superior specimen of human being. This value serves as a sobering frame for his religious optimism.
Blood's perspectives ring with American tones. He celebrates unending development, a celebration reminiscent of the taking of the continent. He lauds tolerance. In the tradition of Jonathan Edwards, he claims "all God's labor is for beauty and for love of beauty; there is little of man's hope in the world but to see and create beauty" (144). He ends his philosophical ruminations with a poem lauding American freedom.
Particularly because of the puzzles this unusual book presents and the questions it raises, I recommend it to readers interested in the history of religious, specifically American religious ideas, and to readers interested in American intellectual and moral history.
—Inez Martinez
I received Optimism--The Lesson of the Ages by Benjamin Paul Blood, through Early Reviewer, courtesy Eirini Press, Denise Meyer. Interesting that over 150 years ago, a man was attempting to see through all of the dogma of religion, and connect with 'essence' in human conscience. His thoughts are lofty, inspiring and open for his time and place in the world. Although his writing, is of the time, such as speaking in third person, using flowery terms, and archaic language, and was something to chew through, but definitely thought revelation for me. I glad to know this and happy to have received and read the book. Thank you! — Posted on Library Thing.com
God and everything about him is the basis of much spirituality. "Optimism: -- The Lesson of Ages" is a republication of a 1860 volume from Benjamin Paul Blood discussing man and his complex and diverse relationship with God. Highly philosophical, highly spiritual, any looking for a classic of sp...iritual writing needs to strongly consider "Optimism". — Midwest Book Review
About the Author
Although initially receiving a lukewarm response, Blood’s most influential work, especially on William James, was the Anaesthetic Revolution and the Gist of Philosophy (1874), a 37-page pamphlet expounding on the mystical revelations prompted by the taking of ether.
Reviews
Benjamin Paul Blood writes with a sweep of vision rare in our time as in his. He examines philosophies, religions, psychologies-—creeds and “isms”—as aspects of what we might now call our psycho-social ecology—measuring them for fit to the nature we’re within, and the nature within us. His language is frequently theological in a way strange to us today, the theology of a serious Deist, taking cues from naturalistic observation, philosophic deduction and common sense as much as from scripture. Blood is true heir to Jefferson and the other Deistic American founders, proving the ongoing fertility of their shared perspective. He blends concerns of Christian and Roman ethics with Western science without a sense of contradiction or limitation—a single magisterium. While several particulars in Blood’s arguments have arguably been superseded, but the larger case he puts forward still holds. He has much to teach us about how to pursue happiness immersed in life with full intelligence, and how to bind vast realms of human inquiry to a common end. —Whit Blauvelt
What sets Blood’s Optimism apart from other writings on duality, metaphysics and Eastern spirituality is that, while alluding to these topics which are familiar to modern Western students of Eastern teachings, Optimism is firmly grounded in Christianity. This is not fundamentalist, bible-thumping brimstone, nor social justice, class equality foot-washing, yet it is Christian and it is not apologetic.
Blood grapples with the basic teachings of this major religious doctrine - original sin, ascension, omnipotence and omniscience of the One True God, perfection of man, the Garden of Eden, good and evil, the holy trinity, heaven itself, the journey of the soul…I could go on – but he approaches as a man who has experienced something far more profound outside the bricks and mortar, beyond the boundaries of the flesh, above and below the strict dogmas of the Church hierarchies and their lackeys: you know he has meditated deep within his fleshy encumbrance to experience the release of something small to something far grander than any language can name – be it 19th century prose or 21st century babble. And then, as his eyes were opened, he lights the path to opening ours, his readers of persistence.
The years I spent in Seminary, I studied Christian mysticism, spirituality and meditation as well as the liberation theologies of women, blacks and the third world. While the one was truly more navel-gazing and ego-oriented than any Eastern meditation I have experienced, the other was so firmly entrenched in the physical bowels of human existence, that there was a chasm stretched between the two so wide, I could not see the connections. Benjamin Paul Blood sat at his writing table, quills at hand, and scratched it out for me. One hundred and fifty years later, I can finally see a path from one to the other and perhaps now my true journey will begin. I have read through Optimism twice and will pick it up again. I recommend you do the same: buy the ticket, take the journey. —Carole Barber
In some ways, Blood is unorthodox, perhaps most in his insistence that pain and evil are not the result of a punitive God. In other ways he appears deeply conservative, as in his many arguments that what seems evil, such as the disproportionate suffering of the poor or unhealthy, is actually compensated or mitigated in ways proving God's compassionate love. In other words, his perspective can undergird any status quo, no matter how unjust. The two situations he does not defend are 1) theologies that, given the creator God's perfection and the creature's inherent imperfection, do not understand the loving necessity of what we think of as evil and experience as painful; and 2) the lack of sufficient manliness in the men of his times. This last is particularly striking since other social conditions are examined "optimistically" and do not call forth such a critique. I can't help but wonder why this gender issue escapes his "optimism," if this contradiction bears witness to an intensity of gender conflicts during the mid-nineteenth century when he presumably was writing his book. Blood even celebrates the warrior hero as a superior specimen of human being. This value serves as a sobering frame for his religious optimism.
Blood's perspectives ring with American tones. He celebrates unending development, a celebration reminiscent of the taking of the continent. He lauds tolerance. In the tradition of Jonathan Edwards, he claims "all God's labor is for beauty and for love of beauty; there is little of man's hope in the world but to see and create beauty" (144). He ends his philosophical ruminations with a poem lauding American freedom. Particularly because of the puzzles this unusual book presents and the questions it raises, I recommend it to readers interested in the history of religious, specifically American religious ideas, and to readers interested in American intellectual and moral history. —Inez Martinez