Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/290

 till auspicious tokens were got. In the case of the oracles, two things went to constitute the verdict—the outward word and the explanation. With regard to the former, the mind took up a receptive attitude, but with regard to the latter, its attitude, as being the interpreter, was an active one, for the outward element in itself was supposed to be indeterminate. (Αἱ τῶν δαιμόνων φωναὶ ἄναρθροὶ εἰσιν) But even as representing the concrete expression of the decision of the god, the oracles have a double meaning. Man acts in accordance with them while taking the words in one of their aspects. The other meaning, however, appears in opposition to the first, and so man comes into collision with the oracle. The oracles just mean that man shows himself to be ignorant, and shows that the god has knowledge; as ignorant, man accepts the utterance of the god who has knowledge. He consequently does not represent the knowledge of something revealed, but the absence of the knowledge of this. He does not act with knowledge in accordance with the revelation of the god, which, as being general, has no inherent determinate meaning, and thus, where there is a possibility of two meanings, it must be ambiguous. The oracle says, “Depart, and the enemy will be conquered.” Here both enemies are “the enemy.” The revelation of the divine is general, and must be general; man interprets it as one who is ignorant, he acts in accordance with it. The action is his own, and thus he knows himself to be responsible. The flight of birds, the rustling of oaks, are general signs. To the definite question, the god, as representing the divine in general, gives a general answer, for it is only what is general, and not the individual as such, that is included in the end aimed at by the gods. The general is, however, indeterminate, ambiguous, capable of a double meaning, for it comprises both sides.

(c.) What came first in worship was religious sentiment; then, secondly, we had worship as service, the concrete relationship, where, however, negativity as such