Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/150

 132 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. turies? How did that compare with the range of pagan emotion? What elements of pagan feeling, what pagan limitations of feeling, passed over into Christian emotion ? The idea of Clement of Alexandria, that only with a sonl purged of emotion can a man attain the logos- Christ, is connected with other phases of self-restraint and renunciation taught by later Greek philosophy; these, being part of the time's prevalent moods and ways of thinking, were introduced into Christianity. The philosophic pain arising from life's short uncer- tainties comes to Christian souls as a motive for keep- ing disengaged from life's affections and affairs. Says Gregory of Nyssa : " The moment a husband looks on the beloved face of his wife, fear of separation seizes him. One should keep disengaged from the ^Egyp- tian bondage' of this life's desires and cares. It is sad to care for what one cannot keep forever; and how can man on earth keep anything forever, though he love it never so passionately ? " ^ This might have been written by Marcus Aurelius or a Hindoo ; it rep- resents a Hellenistic mood of the time thrusting itself into Christianity, a mood of mortality disheartened with itself. Life's transitoriness has no pain for the Christian. With the gospel's assurance in his heart, he need not shut himself against human loves. Nev- ertheless, such thoughts as these expressed by Gregory so make part of mortality's short vision, and are so continually borne in on man by all his life on earth, that they entered Christianity to stay for many cen- turies, 1 On Virginity, Chaps. IH, IV.