(2.) The word is sometimes improperly used to stig- matize such Christians as are " zealously affected in a good thing" (Gal. iv, 18). Its only legitimate applica- tion is to such as add to enthusiasm and zeal for the cause which they believe to be the cause of truth a hatred of those who are opposed to them, whether in politics, philosoph}', or religion. Is lac Taylor, speak- ing of religious fanaticism, remarks th-it, " after reject- ing froai account that opprobious sense of the word III.— H H
fanaticism which the virulent calumniator of religion and of the religious assigns to it, it will be found, as we believe, that the elementary idea attiiching to the term in its manifold application is that otjlctitious fer- vor in religion, rendered turbulent, morose, or rancor- ous by junction with some one or more of the unsocial emotions. Or, if a definition as brief as possible were demanded, we should say that fanaticism is enthusi- asm inflamed by hatred." He classifies the chief va- rieties of fanaticism "under four designations, of which the first will comprehend all instances wherein malignant religious sentiments turn inward upon the unhappy subject of them ; to the second class will be- long that more virulent sort of fanaticism which looks abroad for its victims; the third embraces the combi- nation of intemperate religious zeal with militaiy sen- timents, or with national pride and the love of pow- er ; to the fourth class must be reserved all instances of the more intellectual kind, and which stand con- nected with opinion and dogma. Our first sort, then, is austere, thj second cruel, the third ambitious, and the fourth factious. Or, for the purpose of fixing a characteristic mark upon each of our classes as above named, let it be permitted us to entitle them as fol- lows— namely, the_^/"s^, the fanaticism of the scourge, or of personal infliction : the second, the fanaticism of the brand, or of immolation and cruelty-; the third, the fanaticism of the banner, or of ambition and con- quest; and th& fourth, the fanaticism of the s3'mbol, or of creeds, dogmatism, and ecclesiastical virulence" {Fanaticism., New York, 1834, 12mo, p. G2).
The fanatic begins by rejecting the light of reason to abandon himself to the dictates of his fancy. He generally adopts some single and exclusive idea, which destroj's the proper balance of his mind. This absorb- ing idea may have a germ of truth in it, but the fanatic will not recognise it, if in another form, in others: he cannot admit that truth which has taken a certain shape for him may have taken another in the ej'e of his neighbor without ceasing to be the truth. He thus becomes exclusive, malevolent, and prone to persecu- tion. The hatred of blood relations is more intense and fierce than that between strangers, and so the fa- natic is all the more fierce and tyrannical against oth- ers in proportion as their views approach his own, without being identically the same. He will undergo anj' suffering ratlier than abate one jot of his claims, or retreat one step for the sake of charity and union. He prefers darkness to light, the letter to the spirit, ha- tred to love, the wildness of passion to the calmness of inquiry. Fanaticism may show itself in all the re- lations of life, but its special field is found in politics and religion ; and it becomes most dangerous when the two are combined. Being entirely one-sided, it is yet liable to go in the most opposite directions, and then goes all lengths. Thus we have in politics fanat- ics of peace, who want peace at any cost, and under all circumstances ; fanatics of unrest, who believe onlj' in the overthrow of existing institutions; fanatics of progress, who think anything good if it is onlj' new ; and fanatics of the past, or conservatives, who wish to hold fast whatever is, no matter how bad it is ; fonat- ics of liberty, who, however, require others to view liberty in the same light as the}- do, or else deny it to them ; and fanatics of despotism, who would wish all hearts to beat in unison, like so many well-regulated clocks. We find cosmopolitan fanatics, who glor}- in revi'ing their own country, and patriotic fanatics, who consider all other nations but their own as barbarians and heathens; fanatics of rationalism, who consider ev- er}' opponent a blockhead, and fanatics of orthodoxy, who think the pope requires only might to make him perfect, and who pray for the re-establishment of the Inquisition and the stake. Fanaticism has left espe- cially sad records of its excesses in the religious his- tory of the world, not only among the heathen in In- dia, the Moslems and the Jews, but also among Chris-
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tians. It caused the bloodj' encounters of the monks of Constantinople at the time of the controvers}^ be- tween the Eutychii.n? and the Ne.storians. It enven- omed the quarrels of the ]\Iontanists and the Dona- tists. It iiersecuted tlie Jews in the Middle Ages. It organized the Inquisition, developed the method of the cogite intrnre (_Luke xiv, 23), and invented a new sense for the words in Tit. iii, 10 (^h:\>reticum de vita !) ; it insti,:i:ated the crusade against the Albigenses, who, when they were indiscriminatel}' massacred, were comforted with the assurance that "the Lord would know his own ;" it aimed the dagger in the hands of Kavaillac against the breast of his king ; it inspired the Te Denin of Gregory XIII as a thanksgiving for [ the massacre of St. Bartholomew's. In the Protestant j world we lind fanaticism in the Anabaptists of Miin- gter, in the Crypto-calvinistic troubles, and in the wars of the Cavaliers and Roundheads of England (Beck, in WerzoQ, Real- EncyMop.'i-v, o'21 iiq.). "Fanaticism is the most incurable of all mental diseases, because in all its forms — religious, philosophical, or political — it is distinguished by a sort of mad contempt for experience, which alone can correct errors of practical jud,j;ments" (^Mackintosh, Worlcs, London, 1851, ii, 671). See also Stillingfleet, Worlcs, v, 19, 92, 130 ; Fletcher, Works (N. Y. cd.), iv, 233 sq.