698. How Christian asceticism ended. By the beginning of the sixteenth century the ascetic views and tastes were all gone, overwhelmed by the ideas and tastes of a period of commerce, wealth, productive power, materialism, and enjoyment. In the new age the pagan joy in living was revived. Objects of desire were wealth, luxury, beauty, pleasure,—all of which the ascetics scorned and cursed. The reaction was favorable to a development of sensuality and materialism; also of art. Modern times have been made what they are by industry on rational lines of effort, with faith in the direct relation of effort to result. The aleatory element still remains, and it is still irrational, but the attitude of men towards it is changed. All the ground for asceticism is taken away. We work for what we want with courage, hope, and faith, and we enjoy the product as a right. If the luck goes against us, we try again. We are very much disinclined to any increase of pain or of fruitless labor. There is a great change in the mores of the entire modern society about the aleatory element. That change accounts for a great deal of the modern change of feeling about religion.
[2150] Spix and Martius, Brasil, 1318.
[2151] Hearn, Japan, 165.
[2152] Marius the Epicurean, 357.
[2153] Galton, Hered. Genius, 239.
[2154] Lea, Inquisition, II, 330.
[2155] Psyche, II, 101.
[2156] Rohde, Psyche, II, 121-130.
[2157] Ibid., 104.
[2158] Ueberweg, Hist. Philos., I, 45.