THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
EVOLUTION AND CREATION.
GORILLAS (Troglodytes).
EVOLUTION AND CREATION:
BY
HERBERT JUNIUS HARDWICKE, M.D.,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, AND MKMHKR OF
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF EDINBURGH; FELLOW OF THE
LONDON MEDICAL SOCIETY; HONORARY FELLOW OF THE A !7 THROPOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF LIVERPOOL, THE SOCIETY OF MEDICINE OF ATHENS. AND THE SOCIETIES
. OF DOSIM. MEDICINE OF PARIS AND MADRID ; VICE-PRESIDEJTT OF THE MEDICAL
BRANCH OF THE MALTHUSIAN LEAGUE : LATE EDITOR OF "THE SPECIALIST."
HON. PHYSICIAN TO SHEFFIELD PUBLIC HOSPITAL FOR SKIN DISEASES,
AND TO SHEFFIELD AND SOUTH YORKSHIRE EAR AND THROAT HOSPITAL.
HON. CONSULTING PHYSICIAN TO LEEDS PUBLIC HOSPITAL FOR SKIN DISEASES.
AUTHOR OF ''THE POPULAR FAITH UNVEILED,'' ETC.
" ' Learn what is true in order to do what is right ' is the summing up of the
whole duty of man for all who are unable to satisfy their mental hunger with the
east wind of authority." Huxley.
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
1887.
IB L 343
Ha-?
PREFACE.
Many imperfections, as I anticipated, have been discovered in my
" Popular Faith Unveiled," some of importance and others of little
consequence ; and many suggestions have been offered in all kindness
by those who have done me the honour of reading 1 my work, for con-
sideration in case I should issue another edition. The strongest of all
the arguments urged in favour of the real necessity for a second and
revised edition is that that part of the subject treated upon which re-
lated more particularly to the true origin of man was not dealt with in
a sufficiently exhaustive manner in the last work. This, of course, is
a true charge : but it should be borne in mind that the main object of
the book was to expose the real nature of the popular superstition, and
not to trace out the pedigree of man ; and, moreover, to have entered
fully into such subjects as the evolution of mind and matter would
have considerably augmented the bulk of the work, and consequently
have necessitated such an increase in the price as to have made it pro-
hibitory to a large number of thinkers, who have not too much spare
cash to throw away. I therefore determined not to re-issue the work
in an amplified form, but to supplement it with a number of published
lectures (delivered here and in various other large towns) and articles,
which should be ultimately brought out as an illustrated volume.
These lectures, etc., some of which are re-prints from journals and
some of which I have myself printed in my leisure moments, I now
offer to the public in book form, together with a number of figures,
maps, etc., illustrative of the subjects treated upon. ' Man Whence
and Whither" and " Evolution of the God-idea" are re-printed from
The Agnostic ; " Man's Antiquity," " Evolution of Mind," <; Zodiacal
Mythology," " Intellectual Progress in Europe " and " The Annals of
Tacitus " from the Secular Review ; and "The Special Senses" and
" The Bible " from The Agnostic Annual : the remainder of the text,
as before stated, has been printed by myself.
1 must acknowledge with gratitude my indebtedness to Mr. John
Bennett, of Prince's Buildings, Dronfield, who has been kind enough
to assist me by drawing the zodiacal signs, the Bacchanalian insiguia,
the oriental and Egyptian zodiacs, Amen-Ra, Mafuca, Aidanill and the
negro head, the two hands, the Fuegans, the Australian (2), African and
Eur3pean skulls, and Bootes, Virgo, Cetus, Aquarius and Sagittarius ;
and also to Mr. Wm. Gill Hall, of 66 Cecil Road, Sheffield, who has
kindly drawn for me the single chimpanzee, the oraiig, the lemur, the
face 'of the proboscis monkey, the moor monkey, the hairy couple from
Burmah, the genealogy of man, the earth's section, and the ascent of
mind. The remainder of the illustrations, with the exception of the
two zincogTaphs of the gorillas and chimpanzees (the frontispiece),
have been drawn by myself ; and I must trust to the generosity of my
readers to overlook the amateur style of my productions, which, it is
hoped, will be found sufficiently well done to serve the purpose for
which they are intended. However amateur the illustrations may be
in appearance, this I can truthfully say, that every sketch in the book
is a iaithiUl reproduction of the original. Some of the illustrations,
however, have been derived from such gross originals that it has not
been considered advisable, for many reasons, to reproduce the figures
in their entirety; but wherever part of a figure has been modified by
the substitution of a symbolical or othjr device the fact has been noti-
fied to the reader at the foot of the illustration.
In the course of the following lectures the opportunity has been
seized to rectify some of the mistakes inadvertently committed in my
" Popular Faith Unveiled;" but there are two errors in printing that
have not yet been set right, and to which, therefore, I should now like
to call attention. The first occurs on page 102, lines 9 & 10 from the
bottom, where >r& A.L.E.L should have been written rrb A.L. Y
(or.L)E. (El Yah), or ^HA.L.OU.E. (EM), etc. The next occurs
on page 109, line 6 from bottom, where millions should read thousands.
I have only no*w to frankly admit that during the last few years my
views as regards the theories of ultimate causation and the future state
have undergone some modification ; that consequently I now regard
the line of argument adopted in support of the theory of a future state
of consciousness on pages 5 & 6 of my above named work as a false
one and the conclusions arrived at as consequently false also ; and that
respecting the existence of a ruling power in the universe, I neither
affirm nor deny such a condition, being contented with the knowledge
that I neither know ncr apparently can ever know anything at all about
the matter, and recognizing, with Moleschott, the incontrovertible truth
that " theie is nothing in our intellect which has not entered by the
gate of the senses."
H. J. H.
Purton Lodge, Sheffield.
January 1887.
CONTENTS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
EXPLANATORY NOTES.
ERRATA.
MAN WHENCE AND WHITHER ? Nebular Hypothesis For-
mation of Earth's crust Fossil remains in stratified rocks Pedigree
of Man Palaeolithic and Neolithic Ages Spontaneous evolution of
life Theories of existence and ultimate causation Man's future state.
MAN'S ANTIQUITY. Cave explorations British and continental
discoveries Glacial periods Tertiary upheaval and submergance in
Europe Tertiary fauna and flora Pleistocene ice age Palxdirhic
age Tropical origin of Man Neolithic age Shell-mounds and re-
mains of lake-dwellings Bronze and Iron ages Aryan invasion of
Europe Historic era.
EVOLUTION OF MIND. Universal life or motion Protoplasmic
life Cell life Origin of organs of sense Embryonic development
Dawn of infantine intellect Intellectual and emotional evolution in the
individual Corresponding development in the race Animals reflective
and emotional Language iu man and animals.
THE SPECIAL SENSES. Evolution of.
EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA Dawn of intellect Earliest
conception of Deity Sun worship First human tribes Aryan myth-
ology Vedic system Brahmanism Hindu virgin and child-saviour
Boodhism Western Aryan mythology Zeus, Apollo, Prometheus,
Hercules, Dionysos, & Yao Central Aryan mythology Mazdeism
Mithra Egyptian mythology Osiris, Isis & Horus Amen-Ra, Mises
Chinese mythology Semitic mythology Akkadian and Chaldean
myths Adonis, El, Yahouh Jewish origin Bible gods Confucian-
ism Mohammedanism Chrtetianism.
ZODIACAL MYTHOLOGY. Ancient and modern zodiacs Pre-
cession of equinoxes Deification of zodiacal signs and other celestial
bodies Savior-sun-god dramas Sacred numbers & symbols Ancient
and modern phallic worship Dioiiysia, Adonia & Agapse.
INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS IN EUROPE. Egypto-Greek or
classic era Alexander the Great The Alexandrian Ptolemies Esse-
nian revivalism Destruction of the Serapion Murder of Hypatia
Christian annihilation of science Birth of Mohammed The Koran
Saracen learning Tenth century scare Crusades Averroism Anni-
hilation of Saracen power Establishment of Inquisition Discovery
of America Martin Luther The Reformation Copernicus Revival
of Arianism Murder of Serve tus Index Expurgatorius First news-
paper Murder of Bruno Kepler's laws Galileo Newton's theory
of gravitation Discovery of Oxygen First locomotive engine and
screw steamer Telegraphy Christian Church opposed to progress.
THE BIBLE Origin of Authorised Version List of Bible books
Description of MSS Ancient Hebrew language Invention of vowel-
points Dates of earliest Hebrew and Greek MSS.
ANNALS OF TACITUS. Abelard Arnold of Brescia Wicliffe's
heresy and trials Papal schism Jerome of Prague John Huss
Triple Popedom Council of Constance Search for old MSS Boggio
Bracciolini, Niccolo Niccoli & Lamberteschi The forgery Extracts
from letters Discovery of " The Annals."
CREATION AND FALL. Faith and reason Mosaic narratives-
Creation opposed to science Genesis absurd and immoral Author-
ship of Pentateuch Christianity a failure The real trinity Religious
hypocrites Morality not Christianity.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Frontispiece Chimpanzees and gorillas.
Lemur and face of Proboscis Monkey (after Mivart).
Moor Monkey (after Mivart).
Chimpanzee (after Mi rart).
Adult male Orang (after Mivart).
Mafuca and Aidanill (after Mivart), and Swaheli Negro (afterJTylor).
Hands of Gorilla and Hammegh man (after Ilartmann).
Natives of Tierra del Fuego.
The hairy family of Burmah.
Man Whence and Whither ?
Genealogy of Man.
Section of Earth's crust.
Tertiary period in Europe.
Eocene seas.
Pleiocene seas.
Pleistocene submergence during temperate inter-glacial epoch.
Pleistocene Europe during post-glacial continental condition.
Skeleton of man.
Skeletons of gorilla and chimpanzee.
Outlines of the skulls of a chimpanzee, the Neanderthal man and a
modern European.
Outlines of the skulls of the Neanderthal man, a modern Australian
and the Engis man.
Australian, African and European skulls (alter Tylor and Hartmann)
Mans Antiquity.
Evolution of mind in man.
Amceba and Gasteropoda.
Evolution of Mind.
The Spe'cial Senses.
Androgynous Biahm.
Isis, Horus and fish.
Indranee and Indra ; and Lakshmi and Vishnu.
Devaki and Kristna : and Parvati and Siva.
Araen-Ra (after Drummond).
Crucifixion'of Kristna ; Crux Ansata ; Assyrian virgin Ishtar ; Cyprian
virgin and child ; Isis and Ilorus.
Evolution of the God Idea.
Zodiacal Signs, showing the precession of the equinoxes.
Bacchanalian insignia.
Oriental Zodiac (after Sir Wm. Jones).
Egyptian Zodiac (after Sir Wm. Drummond).
Northern signs and extra-zodiacal constellations.
Southern signs and extra-zodiacal constellations.
Zodiacal line, or Ecliptic, showing the precession of the equinoxes.
Bootes, Adam, Joseph Virgo, Eve, Mary Cetus, Blasphemy.
Aquarius, John Baptist, Peter Sagittarius, Joseph, Philip.
God incarnate with man.
Phallic amulet and phallic lamp
Votive offerings to god Priapus
Phallic crux ansata and amulet.
Zodiacal Mythology.
Vedic and Hindu Earths
Greek Earth, and Pomponius Mela's cosmography.
Eighth and tenth century maps
Fourteenth century maps.
Egyptian and Ptolemaic planetary system.
Planetary systems of Tycho Brahe and Copernicus.
The Iron Virgin inside view.
Ditto outside view.
Intellectual Progress in Europe.
Sixth century MS. of Luke xx. 9, 10.
Fragmentary MS. from John's gospel.
The Bibl:.
EXPLANATORY NOTES.
The illustration of Brahm, the androgynous creator of the Hindus,
" is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindu pundit for
Wm. Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its
mythology. It represents Brahm supreme, who in the act of creation
made himself double, /. e., male and female. In the original the cen-
tral part of the figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too
grossly shown for reproduction here. They are replaced by the Crux
Ansata [a cross and circle representing the male and female elements
in nature]. The reader will notice the triad and the serpent in the
male hand, whilst in the female is to be seen a germinating seed, in-
dicative of the relative duties of father and mother. The whole stands
upon a lotus, the symbol of androgyneity. The technical word for this
incarnation is Arddha Nari" (Inman's " Ancient Faiths,")
The illustration of the god Siva, nursed by his virgin- wife -mother,
Parvati, requires some explanation. The right hand of the virgin
makes the symbol of the yoni (female principle) with the forefinger
and thumb, the rest of the fingers typifying the triad. In the palm
and on the navel is a lozenge, emblematic of woman. In the infant's
hand is one of the many emblems of the linga (male principle), whilst
under his feet a lotus supports his body. The monkey is emblematic
of the carnal desire. The relationship existing between the mother
and child was of a twofold nature. The deities of the ancients were
usually androgynous, and thus each of the members of the Hindu triad
possessed two parts, a male half and a female half, which he inherited
from his androgynous parent Brahm, whose female principle brought
forth the three essences, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Thus each god
became the husband as well as the son of the divine female principle,
just as Virgo of the zodiac was both mother and wife of the sun-god
of the annual revolution, mother at his birth at the winter solstice and
wife at his ascension at the summer solstice. The female part or wife-
mother of Siva was the virgin goddess Parvati ; of Vishnu, Lakshmi ;
of Krishna, Devaki ; of Indra, Indranee ; of Horus, Isis ; etc.
The illustration of the amulet of the double dux Ansata, represents
the female principle at the top in the shape of a ring (which has the
same meaning- as the winged disc, cup, and shell, or Concha Veneris} ;
the male principle in full vigour on the right side in the shape of a
cross (male organ of generation in the original) ; the ucprolific male
principle of infancy on the underneath side, also in the shape of a cross
(infantine male organ in the original) ; and the act of generation on
the left side, in the shape of a clenched hand, with the thumb bent
across the back of the first finger.
The illustration of god incarnate with man represents the saviour of
the world 2OTHP KO2MOY as a cross, or phallic symbol (an erect
male organ in the original), which forms the beak on the head of a
cock, the symbol of the rising sun, the whole resting on the shoulders
of a man, symbolical of the incarnation of god and man.
The illustration of the amulet in Mr. Townley's museum represents
the female principle at the top, in the form of a circle, under which is
the victorious sun-god of the vernal equinox, in the shape of a bull's
head with a cross or phallic symbol (erect male organ in the original)
on either side of the mouth, the whole being emblematic of the sexual
union of the powers of heaven and earth, and the consequent regene-
ration of nature at the spring equinox.
Mafuca, whose portrait is given in the following pages, was a female
ape from the Loango coast, placed in the Dresden Zoological Gardens.
Hartmaim, in his " Anthropoid Apes," describes her as being " 120 cm.
in height, reminding us in many respects of the gorilla. The face was
prognathous ; the ears were comparatively small, placed high on the
skull, and projecting outwards ; the supra-orbital arch was strongly
developed ; the end of the nose was broad ; and there were rolls of
fat on the cheeks." K. Th. von Siebold also classed her as a gorilla ;
but Bolau and A. B. Meyer opposed this view; while Bischoff, judging
by the structure of the brain, thought she was a chimpanzee. Now it
is pretty generally believed that she was either a cross between the
gorilla and the chimpanzee, or else a member of a distinct species of
anthropoids intermediate between the gorilla and the chimpanzee. In
Hartmann's account of Mafuca we read that she was " a remarkable
creature, not only in her external habits, but in her disposition She
hardly obeyed anyone except Schopf, the director of the gardens, and
when in a good humour she would sit on his knee and put her muscular
arms round his neck with a caressing- gesture Mafuea was ab!e to use
a spoon, although somewhat awkwardly; and she could pour from
larger vessels into smaller ones without spilling the liquor. She took
tea and cocoa in the morning and evening, and a mixed diet between
whiles, such as fruit, sweetmeats, red wine and water, and sugar If
she was left alone for any time she tried to open the lock of her cage
without having the key, and she once succeeded in doing so. On that
occasion she stole the key, which was hanging on the wall, hid it in
her axilla [arm- pit], and crept quietly back to her cage. With the key
she easily opened the lock ; and she also knew how to use a gimlet.
She would draw off the keeper's boots, scramble up to some place out
of reach with them, and throw them at his head when asked for them.
She could wring out wet cloths, and blow her nose with a handkerchief
When her illness began, she became apathetic, and looked about with
a vacant, unobservant stare. Just before her death, from consumption,
she put her arms round Schopf s neck when he came to visit her, looked
at him placidly, kissed him three times, stretched out her hand to him,
and. died." It may be added to this that Mafuea exhibited the greatest
decorum and modesty in the performance of all her daily and other
natural functions.
Aidanill, the hairless Australian, is a good specimen of a low type of
human being ; having a superciliary prominence greater than is usually
found amongst races of men, with a remarkably small cranial capacity
and almost entire absence of frontal development. The skull, in fact,
differs but little from that of Mafuea, given beneath it ; and its owner
belonged to those races describad on p. 14 of " Evolution of Mind."
The Swaheli Negro is a good specimen of the dolichocephalic prog-
nathous type of head, considerably higher in intellectual capacity than
that of Aidanill.
The hands are intended to illustrate the close resemblance between
the hand of a gorilla and that of a man belonging to the Hanimeghs of
the Nubian Soudan. It will be observed that while the fingers of the
gorilla are webbed, the second and third fingers of the man are slightly
webbed and his thumb and first finger very considerably webbed.
ERRATA.
MAN WHENCE AND WHITHER ? Page 12, line 11 from top,
for Palaeolithic" read " Pleistocene ;" and line 12 from top, for " on
the earth " read " in Europe, for the human remains found in France
clearly testify to the fact ; and even in America his antiquity must te
very great indeed," etc.
EVOLUTION OF MIND Page 1, line 6 from top, for " Protamnia "
read " Protista."
EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA Page 25, line 17 from top, for
]ev read Zevs. i
INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS IN EUROPE Page 17, line 9 from
top and line 7 from bottom for " Purgatorious " read ; ' Expurgatorious."
ANNALS OF TACITUS Page 15, line 13 from top, for " that re-
ligion" read "that the religion."
CREATION AND FALL Page G, last line, and page 7, last line
but one, for " mammals " read " placental mammals.''
UM U R
MCE OF PROBOSCIS MOM j< f V
THE MOOR
L
ADULT MALE. ORANQ
'(<$ft
SWAHEU
AUJAN/LL.
AUSTRALIAN.
M A F UCA
of a very e ^- tna.1
of it
THAT*, /rom Hosere^ J?u. A/r'le.
\
NATIVES Of TERRA DEL FWCCO.
i
MAN: WHENCE AND WHITHER?
THE fables of the creation of nature and man by various fantastic and
ridiculous means, which have, for thousands of years, found favour with
the unthinking multitudes inhabiting the earth, and which even now are,
one or other, firmly believed by the large majority of both the Eastern
and Western populations, must, ere long, gradually give way to the
truer and grander theory of Evolution, resulting from the study of the
natural sciences. Priests, monks, and other interested people, backed
up by the enormous wealth which has accumulated to the various
religious creeds during the past centuries of darkness, ignorance, and
gross credulity, will, no doubt, oppose all their tremendous forces
against the new philosophy, thus, for a while, delaying the inevitable
result. But this condition of things cannot last long. Education is
doing, and will continue to do, its work, until, at length, falsehood and
slavery will give place to truth and liberty.
In order to discover the origin of man, it is necessary to carry the
mind back to a very remote period, and observe the mode of develop-
ment of our planetary system ; for, according to the theory of Evolution,
there were no starting points for particular forms in nature, the whole
universe consisting of one continuous unfolding of phenomena.
The modern theory of the mode of development of our earth, as
also of all other planets and suns, is the one known as the " Nebular
Hypothesis," which is the prelude to the great theory of Evolution, and
which teaches us that the earth, the sun, the moon, the planets, and
all the heavenly host are the effects or results of the condensation of a
nebulous vapour, which took place many millions of years ago, after
having been diffused for an incalculable period of time throughout the
illimitable expanse of space. The cause of this nebulous vapour, or
attenuated matter, is unknown to us, and will probably ever remain
enshrouded in the profound mystery which at present envelopes it.
Beyond this limit all is mere speculation or hypothesis ; and the
Agnostic philosopher and the man of science, humbly acknowledging
their complete inability to solve this mighty problem of ultimate causa-
tion, are content to leave further speculation in this direction to meta-
physicians and poets.
During many long ages this process of condensation of the
nebulous vapour steadily continued, being controlled by the laws of
gravitation and transformation, until, at length, a number of rotating:
spherical nebular masses were formed, in a state of high heat from the
shock of their recently-united atoms, which spheres gradually cooled by
radiation, consequently contracting and becoming possessed of a more
rapid rotary motion, giving off from their equatorial regions large rings
of vapour, which, in their turn, condensed and, under the influence of
the same two laws, formed separate spheres for themselves. This is-
the mode by which our planetary system was formed, as taught by
Laplace and accepted by the scientists of to-day.
The earth, then, in common with other planets, may be said to have
passed from the condition of a gaseous to a highly-heated fluid mass,
and to have gradually become plastic, and moulded by revolution on its
own axis to its present shape i.e., an oblate spheroid, or globe, flatter
at the poles than at the equator, with a polar diameter about twenty-
six miles shorter than the equatorial diameter. This is the shape that
all plastic bodies which rotate on their axes must assume, as we are
clearly taught by mathematics.
Assuming, then, that the earth was in a state of incandescence when
it began to take a definite form, we shall at once see that the denser
materials composing it would gravitate towards the centre, forming a.
semi-plastic mass surrounded by an envelope of gases and watery
vapour. The gases would be quickly disposed of in various chemical'
combinations, and the watery vapour would be condensed and deposited
in depressions on the surface of the central mass as soon as it had
become cooled sufficiently. The outer crust of this central, semi-solid
mass was soon converted, under the intense heat, into a hard, granite-
like rock, which was continually subject to sudden upheavals, result-
ing partly from the violent escape of gases, and partly from water
passing through fissures on the surface to the heated interior and
giving rise to steam of great expansive power. In this manner great
inequalities of the surface were, no doubt, produced, whose rugged
edges, after the lapse of a vast period of time, were gradually softened
[3]
down by the subsequent action upon them of air and water. This
first rock formation is termed by geologists the Plutonic (from Pluto,
monarch of hell), on account of its being the result of intense heat, and
not, as is the case with all other rock formations, laid down in layers by
water. Whether the Plutonic rock forms a solid centre to our earth is
matter of uncertainty ; but all are agreed that the internal heat of our
planet, whether caused by the friction of the particles of a solid sub-
stance or by a molten fluid, is still, even in these later times, intense,
In boring through the earth's crust, the average increase in temperature
for every fifty feet of descent, after the first hundred feet from the
surface, is one degree Fahr., which would give us, at a depth of 125
miles, sufficient heat to melt most of the rocks. This intense internal
heat has generated, in times long gone by, enormous forces, by which
rocks of all ages have been raised and depressed, twisted and distorted,
broken and forced out of position, and forcibly compressed, so as to
eventually cause most important changes of surface level.
The next class of rock-formation is totally different from the
Plutonic, or unstratified series, in that it is the result of the wear and
tear of the surface when acted upon by air and water, and is laid down,
in the first instance, by water, as sediment. Water, in the forms of
seas, rivers, rain, and ice, has been the chief agent in the arrangement
of all the stratified rocks, the determination of the earth's contour, the
direction of valleys, and, in fact, the regulation of the whole physical
geography of the visible portion of the earth. With the help of this
mighty agent, so soon as the earth had become sufficiently cool to
permit condensation to take place in its vapoury envelope, the ceaseless
wear and tear of the Plutonic and, subsequently, of all other rocks,
which has accumulated so vast a mass of material, commenced. Large
volumes of water were gradually deposited, without intermission, until
permanent seas and rivers had become established, and the new process
of stratification, which was henceforth destined to shape the crust of
the earth and to provide the conditions of life, commenced to operate.
This action is taking place daily in rivers and seas, as we may observe
at any time. On the tops of mountains the same action is in operation,
though under different conditions, snow and ice splitting fragments from
the rocks to be borne away as grit into the valleys by impetuous torrents
and deposited in other places. Within the Polar circles ice on a
grander scale is levelling down the land ; glaciers, covering thousands
of square miles, are slowly sliding down the valleys, grinding their
[4]
surfaces still deeper forming sands, clays, and gravels, and forcing
these down to the sea-shore ; and icebergs, many miles in circumference,
are carried by currents along coasts and against cliffs like huge ploughs,
completely altering the face of the rocks beneath. This wear and tear
results in the formation of immense quantities of detritus, which is
deposited in layers at the bottom of seas and rivers, and consolidated
by pressure, being frequently assisted by lime, iron, or silica as a
cement. The coarser-textured rock has been laid down in rapidly-
moving, shallow water ; and the finer-textured in still, deep water.
Thus, through many long ages probably millions of years the surface
of the earth underwent continual change from the constant deposition
of stratified rock, each layer of which completely buried beneath it the
various life forms of the previous period, which circumstance enables
us to ascribe to the various members of the animal and vegetable king-
doms particular geological periods ; for fossilised remains of animals
and vegetables have been unearthed in the different layers of the
stratified rocks, conclusively proving their existence on the earth at
those periods.
In the Plutonic or unstratified rock-formation period there was, of
course, no life upon the earth, the conditions necessary for such develop-
ment not being present ; but in the very earliest of the stratified forma-
tions we find evidence of the dawn of marine life, both vegetable and
animal. Geologists have divided the stratified rock into three chief
divisions, the Palaeozoic (ancient life), or Primary; the Mesozoic (middle
life), or Secondary ; and the Kainozoic (latest life), or Tertiary. Each
of these, again, has been subdivided into smaller sections, according to
the particular kind of deposit met with, the particular places where the
best examples are to be found, or the particular life-forms existing. The
Primary, the depth of which is unknown, is subdivided into seven
periods viz. :
Laurentian, consisting of highly metamorphosed (that is, changed
in appearance from the original stratified rock character, owing to its
proximity to the molten Plutonic rock) limestone, containing fossil
remains of the Foraminifera, some of the first living organisms.
Huronian, consisting of less highly metamorphosed sandstone, lime-
stone, etc., and containing fossil remains of lowly-organised molluscs
(soft-bodied organisms).
Cambrian, consisting of slates, sandstones, and conglomerates, and
[5]
containing fossil remains of sponges, sea-weeds, star-fishes, sea-lilies, lowly
shell-fish, marine worms, and the first land plants.
Silurian, consisting of slates, limestones, etc., and containing fossil
remains of corals, chambered spiral shell-fish, crabs, sea-worms, and
bony plates and scales of a low form of fish.
Devonian, consisting of old red sandstone, shales, and coralline
limestone, and containing fossil land plants, fishes, belonging to shark,
ray, and sturgeon families, and first fossil insect.
Carboniferous, consisting of mountain limestone, coal, sandstone,
ironstone, clays, etc., and containing fossil scorpions, beetles, and
amphibians.
Permian, consisting of new red sandstone, marls, magnesian lime-
stones, etc., and containing fossils of true reptiles.
The Secondary division is subdivided into three periods, viz. :
Triassic, consisting of sandstone, limestone, and clays, and contain-
ing fossils of gigantic reptiles and first mammals (small marsupials).
Jurassic, or Oolitic, consisting of limestones, coral rags, clays, and
marls, and containing fossils of bird-reptiles and several species of mar-
supials.
Cretaceous, consisting of clays, sands, soft limestone, and lignites,
and containing fossils of new bird-reptiles.
The Tertiary division is subdivided into four periods viz. :
Eocene (dawn of recent life), consisting of sandstone, limestone,
sands, clays, marls, coral rags, and lignites, and containing fossil equine
forms, birds, reptiles, bats, and marsupials.
Meiocene (less recent life), consisting of arctic coal, limestone, sands,
clays, and lignites, and containing fossil apes and marsupials.
Pleiocene (more recent life), the white and red crags of Britain,
containing fossil apes, bears, and hyenas.
Pleistocene (most recent life), consisting of glacial accumulations of
all kinds of earths, and containing fossil remains of apes and men, and
implements of stone, bone, and horn, and later still of remains of lake-
dwellings, shell-mounds, etc.
These different layers of stratified rocks have not always kept their
proper positions with regard to each other in the order they were origi-
nally laid down ; but, owing to volcanic eruption, have frequently
intruded upon each other, so that, at first sight, it would sometimes
appear as though the regular order of deposition had not been adhered
to ; but that this is not so has been made apparent by careful investiga-
[6]
tion over large areas. The depth of the Secondary and Tertiary is from
twenty to twenty-five miles. We see, therefore, that the first life-forms
made their appearance as marine organisms in the Laurentian, or first
stratified rock period ; but whether the animal or the vegetable form
first appeared, or whether both were developed from one primordial-
organism, it is impossible at present to say. In each successive layer of
rock we meet with fossil remains of animal and vegetable life, which
steadily develop into more highly organised forms, through the different
periods, until, at last, they assume the exquisite phases we now behold
around us. The vegetable kingdom was the first to exist upon the land,
the first land-plant being found in the fossil state in the Cambrian layer,
at the same time that marine animal life was assuming the forms of
worms, shell-fish, and star-fishes. In the Silurian period the first verte-
brate animals made their appearance in the form of lowly-organised fishes,
from which, in the Carboniferous age, developed amphibious creatures,
the first breathing animals, living both in and out of water, and the
progenitors of the large kingdom of land animals, including man.
Now, if we take the pedigree of man, as arranged by Darwin and
Haeckel, and compare it with this geological tree, we shall see how
perfectly the sister sciences of Paleontology and Biology corroborate each
other. The first form of life, says Haeckel, was the Moneron, a
structureless albuminous atom of bioplasm, not even possessing the
structure of a mere cell. We place this, which belongs to the primitive
order Protozoa, in the Laurentian period, where we are told by geologists
that fossil foraminifera have been found. This promordial organism
gradually developed into single nucleated cells, called Amoebae, and these
again into masses of nucleated cells, called Synamcebse. These simple
and multiple cell organisms we place in the next period, Huronian, in
the strata of which geologists tell us have been found fossil remains of
lowly organised molluscs, or soft-bodied animals. Ciliata are the next
forms of life, which consist of Synamcebse, covered with vibratile cilia.
These gradually developed a mouth, becoming Gastrceada, and after-
wards Turbellaria, a low form of worm (Vermes), with a mouth and
alimentary canal ; and are placed in the Cambrian period, in which
stratum have been found remains of this kind of life. The ascent con-
tinues through the transition stage of Scolecida to Himatega, or sack-
worms, with their rudimentary spinal cords; from which gradually
evolved Acrania, or the first vertebrate animals, without skulls, brains,
central heart, jaws, or limbs; but with a true vertebral cord. This
[7]
peculiar little animal was a lancet-shaped marine worm, akin to the
lancelet or amphioxus of to-day. From these developed Monorrhini, or
vetebrate hybrid worms and fishes, with skull, brain, and central heart,
but no sympathetic system, jaws, or limbs, and with a single nasal cavity
(lampreys). These three forms are placed in the Silurian period, in
which stratum have been found fossilised bony plates and scales of fishes
and Annelides, or sea-worms.
The next forms of life to be developed, from the Monorrhini, were
the Selachii (Amphirrhini), or true fishes, of the shark family, with
two nasal cavities, swim-bladder, two pairs of fins, and jaws. From
these evolved the Ganoidei, and thence all osseous fishes ; and Dipnoi
(mud fish), or hybrid fishes and amphibians, with both gills and
lungs. These little animals live during winter in water, when they
breathe air dissolved in water through their gills ; and during the
summer in mud, when they breathe with their lungs. Both these
are placed in the Devonian period, in which have been found
fossil sharks, etc. The next forms are Sozobranchii, or amphibians with
persistent gills, from which evolved Urodela, or amphibians with transitory
gills, but persistent tails, and legs ; allied to the salamander. These are
placed in the Carboniferous period, in which have been found fossilised
amphibians. We next get Protamnia, or hybrid salamanders and lizards
(frogs and toads), with no gills or tails, but possessing an amnion and cloaca.
These represent the parent forms of the three great higher branches of
vertebrates Reptilia, Aves (which evolved from reptiles), and Mammalia,
and are placed in the Permian period, in which have been found fossilised
amphibians and true reptiles. Monotremata (Promammalia) are the next
forms developed in our pedigree, the parent forms of the class Mam-
malia ; with cloaca, amnion, and marsupial bones ; which are placed in
the Triassic period ; and from which evolved Marsupialia, mammals with
amnion and marsupial bones, but no cloaca ; allied to the kangaroo and
opossum of to-day. This species we place in the Jurassic and Cretaceous
periods. From Marsupialia developed the large kingdom of Placentalia,
which lose the marsupial bones and cloaca, and acquire a placenta, and
which we divide into three main branches, according to the particular
placental formation. The first division we call Villiplacentalia (tufty
placenta), from which evolved Edentata (sloth, ant-eaters, and tertiary
monsters), Cetacea (marine placental mammals, such as whale, dolphin,
porpoise, and sea-cow), and Ungulata (horse, cow, pig, rhinoceros, and
hippopotamus). The second division we term Zenoplacentalia (ring-like
[8]
placenta), the earliest forms of which were Carnaria, or flesh-eaters, from
which came Carnivora, or land beasts of prey (cats, dogs, bears, etc.),
and Pinnipedia, or marine beasts of prey (seal and walrus). The third
division we name Discoplacentalia (discoid placenta) ; and here we find,
as the first development, the Prosimiae, or tailed lemurs, quadrupeds
with claws, and having the appearance of hybrid cats and monkeys. All
these are placed in the Eocene period, in which stratum geologists have
found fossilised placentals.
From the discoplacental-mammal Prosimiae evolved the following
species viz., Prosimiae of Madagascar (lemurs of to-day), with four
feet and claws ; Cheiroptera (bats) ; Rodentia (squirrels, mice, porcupines,
hares) ; Insectivora (moles, shrew-mice, and hedgehogs) ; and Simiae, or
quadruped monkeys, with two feet, two hands, nails, and tails. We
divide Simiae into two classes, the Platyrrhini, or New World apes, with
thirty-six teeth, tails, no cheek-pouches or callosities, and nasal cavities
pointing outwards and divided by a thick septum (from which came the
American howlers, weepers, capuchins, and squirrel-monkeys) ; and the
Catarrhini (Menocerca), or Old World apes, with thirty-two teeth (like
man), tails, cheek-pouches, callosities, and nasal cavities pointing down-
wards and divided by a thin septum (like man). These are placed in
the Meiocene period, in which have been discovered the first fossil apes.
From the Catarrhini developed the tailed baboons and macaques, with
thirty-two teeth, cheek-pouches, and callosities ; and the Anthropoidae,
with thirty-two teeth, but no tails, cheek-pouches, or callosities. These
were evolved during the Pleiocene period. From the anthropoid (man-
like) apes we get three distinct divisions viz., the gibbon and orang
families, with no tails or cheek-pouches, walking partly on hind legs, and
wandering in companies in India ; the chimpanzee and gorilla families
of Africa, with no tails or cheek-pouches, no articulate speech, walking
on hind legs only, living in companies in caves, and carrying their babes
in their arms ; and Alali, or ape-like men, commonly called the "missing
links," who were probably developed, during the Pleiocene period, irt
Lemuria, a submerged continent which formerly occupied the position
of the Indian Ocean ; or in the districts of the Nile and Ganges.
These primitive ape-like men were the connecting links between men
and the apes, and are divided into two main branches viz., woolly-
haired Alali, who migrated from Lemuria, west and south ; and straight-
haired Alali, who migrated from Lemuria, north, east, and south. Both
these branches had skulls of the same character as those of the chim-
[9]
panzee and gorilla that is, they were dolichocephalic (long-headed)
prognathous (prominent jaws), and also, like their ape brethren, were
troglodytes, or cave-dwellers. From the woolly-haired Alali evolved the
Papuans of New Guinea and Tasmania, and the Hottentots of Africa,
whose descendants of to-day are but little removed in brain develop-
ment from the higher apes. They are dolichocephalic prognathous
savages, with black, hairy skins, long arms, and short, thin legs, with ill-
developed calves ; are semi-erect, walk on hind legs, and have no true
articulate speech. A higher development of the woolly-haired Alali is
the Negro, and higher still the Caffre, both of whom are dolichocephalic
prognathous savages, with black, semi-hairy skins, and imperfect articu-
lation. From the straight-haired Alali are derived the Australian natives
and the large family of Malays or Polynesians. The Australians
migrated south, and were dolichocephalic prognathous savages, with
smooth, dirty brown skins, and straight black hair. The lowest
tribes of the present day have no true articulate speech. The Poly-
nesians migrated north and east, and were dolichocephalic prognathous
troglodytes (as the gorilla and chimpanzee), with clear, smooth brown
skins, and true articulate speech. This branch split up into two
large families, the Mongolian or Turanian, and the Caucasian or
Iranian. The former covered Northern and Eastern Asia, Polynesia, and
America, and were originally brachycephalic (broad-headed) prognathous
men. They subdivided into two distinct species, the Mongols of China,
Japan, Lapland, Finland, and Hungary, who are brachycephalic, but not
prognathous, with smooth, brownish yellow skin, and straight black
hair; and the Mongols of America, who are mesocephalic (round-
headed), but not prognathous, with smooth red skins and straight black
hair. The Caucasian family covered Western Asia and most of
Europe, being mesocephalic prognathous troglodytes (afterwards agri-
culturalists) with smooth dark skins and long straight hair ; and sub-
divided into two branches, the Semitic, of Arabia and Syria, and the
Aryan or Indo-European ; both of whom are mesocephalic, but not
prognathous.
It is true that, so far, no fossil remains of Alali have been found, with
the exception of the Neanderthal skull ; but it is equally true that they
may soon be discovered. It is only comparatively recently that the other
species have been found fossilised ; and it must be recollected that only
a very small portion of the earth's crust has yet been explored, and
that not the most likely for finding. No attempts have been yet made
[10]
to unearth the life-remains in the neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean,
where it is believed man first evolved from his ape-like ancestors. It
does not, however, seem to me to be essentially necessary that the
" missing link " be found in order to substantiate the Evolution theory.
There is so little difference between the higher anthropoid apes and
man, compared with the enormous differences observed between the
earlier forms of life and the ape species, that the sequence and con-
tinuity appear now conclusively settled to any reasonable observer.
Comparative anatomists and embryologists both declare in favour of
the theory of development of Darwin and Haeckel. It is a fact beyond
dispute that every human being commences his individual existence as
a tiny piece of structureless bioplasm, from which condition he passes
through the Amoeba stage to the Synamoeba, and thence in regular order
through each successive stage of development marked in the genealogy
given above, becoming worm, fish, and mammal in turn, and finally
being born into the world as a member of the human family. Each of
these lower forms also passes through all the species preceding it in
precisely the same manner. This is one of the strongest arguments in
favour of Evolution. It is said that the power of speech possessed by
man opposes a strong barrier to the theory ; but it has been shown
clearly that other animals besides man can use articulate sounds, which
convey meanings to each other. Monkeys certainly understand each
other's chattering, and it is highly probable that birds also understand
each other's cries. It is true that the sounds made by animals are chiefly
monosyllabic ; but philologists now tell us that the languages spoken
by primitive races of men are compounded of quite simple elements,
perfectly within the grasp of an ape's voice. Travellers, whose veracity
and ability cannot be impugned, have described long conferences held by
monkeys, where one individual addressed the assembly at great length,
fixing the attention of all upon himself, and quelling every disturbance
by a loud and harsh cry, which was at once recognised and obeyed by
the multitude. Is it credible that this should be purposeless ? Is it
not actually the exercise of speech ?
Is it not possible nay, even extremely probable that, under the
irresistible pressure of civilised man, his immediate precursor may have
become extinct ? All the human races that now tend to bridge the
interval between the highest man and the highest ape are fast becoming
extinct under this very pressure. The gulf widens, and will widen.
The Caribs and Tasmanians have passed away, while the Australians,
New Zealanders, aboriginal Americans, Eskimo, and others, are fast
following' in their wake, and this all in a comparatively short space of
time. There is undoubtedly now a far greater physical and mental
interval between the Hottentot woman and such men as Gladstone and
Darwin than between the Hottentot and an ape. It is a fact beyond
-dispute that man was not in such a high state of development ages
gone by as at present. The earliest traces of man exhibit him to us in
the Palaeolithic, or old stone, age, as wild and living in caves, using
only the rudest stone implements with which to battle with the ferocious
monsters around him. His jaw was then prognathous, like the ape,
and his body large and powerful.
In the limestone caverns of France have been discovered the fossil
remains of men who inhabited caves and belonged to the Palaeolithic,
or early Pleistocene, period. Together with these troglodytes, or cave-
dwellers, were rough, unpolished stone implements and weapons,
denoting a low state of civilisation. Other caves, in later strata, give
us lighter stone weapons, of better finish, and occasionally horn dart-
points, such as would be used for catching smaller game. Numbers
of skin-scrapers also were found, suggesting the idea that the people
used the hides of animals for clothing, instead of going naked, as their
ancestors. The hairy character of the body would be probably giving
place to a finer, smoother, and more delicate outer skin, which would
necessitate clothing of some kind. Still later we find implements
altogether of flint, lancet-shaped, admirably-proportioned, and of three
sizes, adapted for arrow, javeline, and lance points respectively, and
designed to be fitted to wooden and bone shafts. After these appear
arrows and darts of deer's horn and bone, and stone and flint tools,
which were used for making these arrows. We also find such imple-
ments as bone awls and needles for piercing and sewing skins, arrow-
heads furnished with barbs on each side, and harpoons barbed on one
side only.
Now was man's intellect fairly on the swing ; but still he was, as
yet, only in the Palaeolithic period, for not one polished implement nor
fragment of pottery is found in their stations. They were surrounded
by ferocious carnivora, which sometimes fell victims to their weapons.
The mammoth still tenanted the valleys, and the reindeer was the
common article of food. They were hunters, possessed of the rudest
modes of existence, and with but little of what is now called civilisation.
In Britain the troglodyte man was contemporary with the mammoth,
.
[12]
rhinoceros, lion, and hyena, none of which existed in the later Pleisto-
cene era ; but there have been no perfect skeletons found here like
those in France. Human bones, however, have been discovered in
various deposits, together with the skeletons of long-extinct animals.
The best British human fossil is the portion of an upper jaw containing
four teeth, from Kent's Cavern. Hermetically sealed in stalagmite,
deposited on the floor of the cavern by water dropping from the roof,
this jaw lay below the remains of extinct mammals ; while beneath all
were bone and stone implements of human workmanship, equally
firmly fixed in a natural limestone cement. Geology fixes the date of
troglodyte at the early Palaeolithic period, and it is beyond doubt
that man existed at this remote period, or even earlier, on the earth, for
- a numan skull was found in the delta of the Mississippi beneath four
different layers of forest growth, which must have formed part of a living
human being 50,000 years since. The celebrated Neanderthal skull,
of which so much has been heard, certainly belongs to the mammoth
age, if not earlier; and, if it represent a race, and not merely an
individual, that race would lie in a position intermediate between the
lowest man and the highest ape. It may only represent a man of
peculiar formation, as we often see men in the present day deformed or
of eccentric build ; and, therefore, we cannot look upon it positively
as the " missing link." One other similar find, however, would for
ever settle the question, and proclaim to the world that the " missing
link " was, at last, found. In capacity, the cranium is human, while the
superciliary arches and the brow are distinctly ape-like. Professor
Huxley sums up his examination of this skull with the remark that
" the Neanderthal skull is, of human remains, that which presents the
most marked and definite characters of a lower type."
Following the Palaeolithic era, or rude stone age, is the Neolithic,
or new stone, age ; and now we find man using polished weapons,
making pottery, using fire to warm himself with, and developing
social manners. Instead of living in caves, he lived in lake dwellings,
with others of his species, and gradually developed agricultural tastes.
This metamorphosis, we know from the fossil remains found deposited
in various strata, occupied a long period of time, probably thousands
of years ; and even then we are left thousands of years before the
historical era, which followed the bronze and iron ages. Compare
these men with those who lived in the Grecian and Egyptian eras, and
again compare these latter with ourselves, and the record is one of
trial and failure through long ages, and of experiment crowned at last
by attainment. Has not the invention of the steam-engine alone been
a means of extending man's dominion in a marvellous manner ? Think
what has been achieved through electricity ! There has, undoubtedly,
been a continued struggle from barbarism to civilisation, and the little
we know of the early history of man tells us that he lived the life of a
wild beast, leaving no impression on the earth save one of the victims-
of his well-aimed stone or flint-pointed spear.
So much for the " missing link." There is one other point to be
settled before we have completed the sequence of evolution, which
commences with the condensation of the nebulous vapour and
terminates with the development of man ; and that is the question of
how life originated. We have found that the first dawn of life was in
the form of a simple speck of bioplasm, void of any structure ; and
that this primordial germ, which we call a Moneron, was developed in
the earliest period of deposition of stratified rock at the bottom of the
sea, and is now being constantly developed as of old. Now, if the
theory of evolution be not mere talk, this primordial germ must have
been spontaneously evolved from inanimate matter, for the theory allows
of no break, being a gradual unfolding of phenomena. We are told
that there is no experience in nature of such a development. Perhaps
so; but that is no argument against it. There is no experience in
nature of any special creation either; so why fly to this alternative,
which is the only one presented to us, instead of adopting the theory
which agrees so harmoniously with the whole evolutionary process ?'
Why make this abrupt break in the chain of sequence ? Does it not
annihilate completely the whole theory of evolution ? It is not more
wonderful that life should be evolved from inanimate nature than that
man should be evolved from a structureless bioplasm. The continuity
of evolution once broken, why may it not be broken again and again ?
If we are to accept the theory of evolution, we are bound to admit
that animate was evolved from inanimate matter. And the difficulty
of this admission is not, after all, so great as appears at first sight ; for
who is to say whether such a condition really exists as inanimate matter?
It is a fact that every particle of matter in nature is in a state of active
motion ; every molecule and atom is constantly active. And why is
this not life as much as the animal or vegetable, though in a modified
degree of development? Evolution, if it mean anything, should admit
this ; and I will show you that it does not admit it only, but absolutely
[M]
-declares that it is so. In the first place, it must be recollected that
JBalfour Stewart, and all other physical and chemical scientists, declare
that every thing in nature is composed of molecules and atoms.
The molecules are the smallest quantities into which any individual
body or substance can be divided without losing its individuality. For
instance, table-salt, or chloride of sodium, can be divided and sub-
divided, until you get to the limit of subdivision, which is a molecule
composed of chlorine and sodium in chemical combination. Further
subdivision annihilates its individuality as salt, and leaves us with the two
elementary chemical atoms, chlorine and sodium, existing independently
of each other. These atoms are incapable of further subdivision. In
the same manner, the whole matter of the universe may be subdivided
into molecules, which consist of atoms of some two or more of about
sixty-seven chemical elements in various combinations. These atoms
.are the smallest separate particles of masses of matter, and are separated
from each other by what is termed hypothetical ether that is, the fluid
ether we believe to be pervading every portion of space. Each atom
possesses an inherent sum of force, or energy. The well-established
and universally-admitted theory of chemical affinity teaches us that
these atoms are capable of attracting and repelling each other, and,
therefore, also teaches us, by implication, that they are possessed with
definite inclinations, follow these sensations or impulses, and have also
the will and ability to move to and from one another. This we are
clearly taught by chemistry. Thus every atom in the universe possesses
sensation and will, pleasure and displeasure, desire and loathing, attrac-
tion and repulsion ; and its mass is, moreover, indestructible and un-
changeable, and its energy eternal, as we are again taught by the theory
of conservation of energy and matter. These sentient atoms of uni-
versal matter, whose aggregate energy is the great animating spirit of
the universe, have the power of uniting together in various chemical
combinations to form molecules, or chemical unities, developing fresh
properties in the process, and forming the lowest conceivable division
of compound material substances, some atoms uniting to build up
crystals and other inorganic masses, and others to develop the various
organic or life forms. The atoms of the ultimate molecules of both
organic and inorganic bodies are identically the same. It depends
entirely upon what particular combination of atoms takes place whether
.an organic or inorganic form is developed. The primordial life-form
we have found to be simple homogeneous plasm, consisting of mole-
cules, each of which is composed of atoms of five elements carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulphur, differing not one iota from
the molecules of inorganic bodies, except that it acquires the special
power of reproduction, by virtue of the peculiar combination of its
atoms, which power is wanting in the inorganic world, whose molecules
are composed of similar atoms, but in different combinations. This is
the only difference between the organic, or life, world, and the inorganic,
or lifeless, world life being, as compared with unlife, but the power of
reproduction. As examples of this, we may take crystals, the most
perfect development of inorganic nature, and the moneron, the least
perfect development of organic nature; and the difference between
them is almost //, certainly less than between the parents and offspring
in many life-forms. The crystal molecules are composed of elementary
chemical atoms, as are the moneron molecules ; but the former grow
by particles being deposited on particles externally, while the latter
grow by particles penetrating from without, or being absorbed into
the interior and becoming assimilated by the plasm, fresh molecules
being evolved in the process, this special power of reproduction being
generated by the peculiar combination of the atoms. This argument
appears to me to be logically and scientifically sound, and disposes
altogether of the notion of a break of continuity between the living
and the unliving worlds, which is such a formidable difficulty to many
minds. The plasm thus formed by the aggregation of life molecules
gradually differentiates into protoplasm and nucleus, which together
form a simple cell ; and this cell partakes, by heredity, of the nature
and properties of its parent form, and also, by adaptation to different
circumstances surrounding its existence, acquires fresh properties, which,
together with the inherited properties, it transmits to its progeny, thus
evolving a still more complex form, inheriting the acquired and
inherited properties of its parent, and again acquiring fresh properties ;
and so on, ad infinitum, through the various life-forms we know have
been developed in the pedigree of man and animals, through Amoebae,
Synamoebae, etc., as in the genealogy given above.
In the course of the development of different life-forms heredity
which, in plain English, is unconscious memory generated in the first
life-form and transmitted through all the different species is the sole
factor in the preservation of the parent properties ; while adaptation
to surrounding conditions and circumstances, natural selection in the
struggle for existence, and sexual selection in the struggle of the
males for females are the principal factors in the differentiation of
species.
Having traced man's pedigree according to the Evolution theory,,
from primitive nebulous matter to his present commanding position,
and found him possessed with reason and the power of controlling and
regulating the forces of nature, our next inquiry is naturally for what
purpose is he here and what will become of him eventually. Here we
come to the most difficult problem of all ages, which has baffled learned
men of all nationalities, and which will probably never be satisfactorily
solved. Intimately connected with it is the almost as difficult problem,
How was the universe caused at all? There are eminent scientific
men who think they can conclusively show that the universe existed
from eternity ; others as positively assert that it must have been caused
by a power outside and independent of itself; while others are equally
convinced that it was self-created. But when we examine their argu-
ments we find ourselves unable logically to accept any of their conclu-
sions.
The Atheist declares that the universe has existed from eternity, not
having been produced by any other agency, and, therefore, without any
beginning; which necessarily implies the conception of infinite past
time an effort of which the human mind is quite incapable. The
Pantheist declares that the universe evolved out of potential existence
into actual existence by virtue of some inherent necessity ; which is as
unthinkable as the previous one, for potential existence must be either
something, in which case it would be actual existence, or nothing, which
it could not possibly be. But admitting, for the sake of argument, the
possibility of potential existence as nothing, still we should have to-
account for its origin, which would involve us in an infinity of still more
remote potentialities. The Theistic theory of creation by external
agency implies either formation of matter out of nothing, which is
inconceivable, or out of pre-existing materials, which leaves us under
the necessity of showing the origin of the pre-existing elements, and,
like the preceding theory, would involve us in an infinity of remote
pre-existences. It also involves the existence of a potentiality outside
matter, which must either be caused, which involves a prior cause, or
uncaused, in which case it must be either finite or infinite. If it be
finite, it must be limited, and, consequently, there must exist something
outside its limits, which destroys the notion of its being a first cause.
Therefore, it must be infinite. Also, as first cause, it must be indepen-
[17]
dent ; for dependency would imply a more remote cause. The first
cause must, therefore, be both infinite and absolute, which is an absur-
dity ; for a cause can only exist in relation to its effect, and therefore
cannot be absolute ; and the fact of its being infinite deprives us of the
only means of escape from the difficulty, by showing the impossibility
of its being first of all absolute and afterwards cause ; for the infinite
cannot become what it once was not.
Thus, then, we are driven to the conclusion that logic shows the
Theistic conception of the origin of nature, equally as much as the
Pantheistic and the Atheistic, to be utterly impossible ; but it must be
admitted that if, instead of matter, we substitute time and space in our
consideration of this most important matter, the Atheistic theory more
nearly approaches the conceivable than either of the other two ; for by
no mental effort can we conceive the formation of time and space either
by external agency or inherent necessity. It is absolutely impossible
for us to conceive the idea of the non-existence of either time or space.
Because the human mind cannot conceive the possibility of nature
being produced by external agency, it does not follow that we are bound
to admit the impossibility of the existence of an intelligence controlling
nature's laws ; for it is quite possible that such an existence may be,
though our finite minds cannot comprehend it. The Agnostic philo-
sopher, although he cannot logically demonstrate the existence of the
Divine Being, yet declares that, inasmuch as this universe consists of
existing phenomena, it is absolutely necessary that there should be some
cause adequate for the production of the effects manifested. By this
process of reasoning he arrives at the conclusion that there exists a
something controlling nature, which is utterly incomprehensible an
ultimate reality, of which force and matter are alike merely the pheno-
ai r vflinifc'ift?tf rmg This ultimate reality, moreover, is intelligent.
We cannot recall the wonders of the evolutionary development of
the universe without at once seeing that there is purpose at the bottom
of all,, and that chance is no factor in the process. We cannot believe
that man is but a fortuitous concourse of atoms. Reason tells us clearly
that we are here for a well-ordained purpose ; but what that purpose is
we cannot tell. The old notion that our destiny is to prepare ourselves
here, to live again in our bodily forms, play harps, and sing halleluyah
to all eternity, I regard as mere moonshine. Such a fate would be to
me far worse than annihilation. But that we have a future destiny of
some sort I have no doubt. We know we must die, and that when we
[18]
die our bodily functions, including brain functions, will cease to be
performed. Are we, then, annihilated? The answer of scientists is
decisively "Yes, so far as we are concerned as sentient individual
beings." | Science teaches us that the three things which make up con-
sciousness, or man's mental side, are thought, emotion, and velkion ;
that they are inseparably bound up with the brain and the nervous
system, whose functions they are ; and that when the brain dies these
functions cease. This is undeniable. Therefore, if there is any future
existence, it is not one of consciousness. The power of muscular
movement is arrested at death, and, therefore, we must admit that
the power of thought, emotion, and volition ceases at death. Why
should the appearance be deceptive in one case and not in the
other ? It is not the case of a separate entity in the body, but of a
distinct function an effect which ceases with its proper cause. It is
absolutely certain, from the teaching of science, that the consciousness
grows as the brain and body grow, varies according to the standard of
health in the brain, and declines as the general vigour of the brain
declines ; and, therefore, we can but admit that it dies with the brain,
We also learn from Embryology that consciousness evolved by slow
degrees from unconsciousness, and that once there was no thought in
any of us. \ Even if science were to admit that man's consciousness
continued after death, it would be equally rational to admit that animals
also had a future consciousness ; for it is quite clear we have slowly
evolved from the lowest germ of animal life. Man's very attributes are
found in a lower degree in animals, and yet it is the possession of his
lofty attributes which he says entitles him to conscious immortality. The
intellectual qualities in animals differ from those in man only in, degree,
while in the possession of some of the highest moral attributes
such as courage, fidelity, patience, self-sacrifice, and affection some of
the lower animals, as the dog, the horse, and the ant, far surpass him.
Even among human beings themselves these higher qualities, mental
and moral, exist in all degrees, from their almost total absence in the
savage up to the mental and moral splendour of a Buddha, a Socrates,
a Disraeli, or a Gladstone, f Are all these lower animals, savage men,
and intellectual and moral geniuses, to have individual conscious im-
mortality ? If, as some say, man only and not animals are immortal,
then the question naturally arises, When and how came man so ? If he
was always immortal, so were animals. If he became immortal later
on, he must either have slowly acquired the gift, or it must have been
suddenly conferred upon him. In either case there must have been a
particular moment when he became immortal. Can we conceive of
such a thing as the species being mortal one moment and immortal
the next?] The question of how he became immortal is still more
difficult, as the question why, or for what merit,' is wholly unanswerable.
Then, again, science teaches us that animal life, of whatever form, will
vanish from the earth long before the inevitable decay of the planet
itself. Geologists tell us that, in obedience to a general law, all species-
have their term of living. They appear, and after a time disappear.
How absurd, then, to raise a question as to the conscious individual
immortality of the countless myriads of a species that shall itself have
utterly vanished without leaving a trace !
Are we, then, annihilated at death ? Yes, as conscious individuals.
We are bound to admit the force of all the arguments brought
forward by science against the theory of a future conscious existence ;.
but these arguments in no way affect the great problem of the " ego,"
or "self," which exists in all of us, irrespective of consciousness,,
memory, or other brain function. A man may be unconscious, and
yet live ; therefore consciousness is not necessary to life. When we
ask ourselves whether we shall be annihilated at death, we should first
of all have a clear definition of the word " we " before we reply. What
are we ? What am I ? I am not consciousness, which is but a function
of one of my organs, the brain, and which merely enables me to know
myself. Then what am I ? I cannot conceive that I am anything but
the energy or life-power developed by the aggregation of my life-
particles, which causes the various organs of my body to perform their
functions, as cerebrating, etc. The primordial germ of my body was a
simple bioplasm, consisting of a combination of life-molecules, com-
posed of energetic atoms. From these molecules evolved fresh mole-
cules, which, under the laws of heredity and variation, acquired new
properties ; until, at last, a complex organism became developed, possess-
ing far higher powers than those belonging to the primordial germ.
As the development of species continued, higher forces became mani-
fested ; until, at last, the condition of man was reached, and a life-
power developed of a much higher order than any previously known.
This life-power, or human energy, is the "ego," the "self,". the cause
of the bodily functions, and is eternal. Kant declared there was a
world unknown, independent of our conscious phenomenal world ;
and this we must admit to be true, for we have already granted the
[20]
existence of an unknown cause, of which force and matter are merely
the phenomenal manifestations. It is this outer world of unknown
.and invisible energy that the scientist finds himself unable to deal with.
The death of the body is simply the cessation of cohesion, or dissolu-
tion of partnership, between the ultimate atoms of the plasm life-
molecules, by which dissolution the property called life ceases, and
the atoms of the body assume their original condition, again con-
taining their original sum of force. But what becomes of the huge
force developed during the lifetime of the bodily organism? Does
that vanish and become a thing of naught ? My opinion is that this
human force, which is the outcome of the complex union of the
ultimate atoms of the plasm life-molecules, and which is but a phe-
nomenal manifestation of the great incomprehensible cause of all
phenomena, will, at the death of the body, be re-absorbed into the
great animating spirit of the universe, and partake of the nature and
properties of the Unknown. This is but my opinion, from which many
may differ. I merely offer it as an opinion, and in no way shut my eyes
to the great fact that man's destiny is a riddle as yet unsolved. We
may safely leave the matter to be dealt with according to the wisdom of
that unknown cause of all things, resting quite assured that we shall
be far better disposed of than we could possibly dispose of ourselves,
even if we had the power. We must bow the head in a truly scientific
spirit, and reply to the great question, " I cannot tell."
"To be or not to be? that is the question," says the immortal
Shakespeare ; after which he sums up the whole argument in two short
lines :
" To die, to sleep. To sleep? perchance to dream
Aye, there's the rub."
PRINTED BY WATTS & CO., 17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, CONDON.
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MAN'S ANTIQUITY.
WHEN we reflect on the magnitude of the pre-Christian
Alexandrian libraries, as well as the magnificent appoint-
ments attaching to and lavish wealth expended upon the
ancient University of the capital of the Ptolemies, we
seem almost unable to realise the fact that people of
education and intellect, until quite lately, believed that
all this intellectual and literary magnificence had reached
that pitch of excellence in the short space of less than
four thousand years. In this period of time it was
believed that man had so far risen in intellectual capacity
from the absolutely ignorant condition of the first pair
as described in Genesis as to have reached that state of
mental perfection possessed by the professors in the
Alexandrian, Athenian, and Sicilian schools. We can see
Professor [Euclid pointing out on the blackboard how,
the sides of a rectilinear polygon all touching a circle,
the area of the polygon is equal to the rectangle con-
tained by the radius of the circle and the semi-perimeter
of the polygon ; Professor Archimedes would be explain-
ing the theory that, if a force act upon a body, the
measure "of the force in absolute units is numerically
equal to the time-rate of change of momentum and to
the space-rate of change of kinetic energy ; Professor
Eratosthenes would be impressing upon his class the im-
portance of the knowledge of the globular shape of the
earth ; and Professor Hipparchus would be startling his
hearers by stating that he would show them how the
failure of the sun to reach the same point in the same
time in his annual circuit (according to the old geocentric
theory) caused the vernal equinoxial sign to give place
to the next zodiacal sign every 2,152 years.
Here was a galaxy of intellectual attainments indeed !
With such a picture before our eyes we are calmly asked
to believe that so little time as less than four thousand
years had been sufficient for the building up of this vast
intellectual edifice out of such rude materials as the man
and woman of Eden, when the two thousand years
following have been productive of so little advancement,
notwithstanding the exquisite materials upon which to
work that were left for us by the Alexandrian and
Athenian sages. We cannot believe so evident an
absurdity to-day ; and yet it is little more than half a
century since the whole of Christendom accepted without
any doubt whatever the old traditional statement of the
.Church that man had only inhabited this earth for rather
less than six thousand years.
How is it, then, that we have believed the traditionary
story for so long and now reject it as absurd ? People
have believed the story of the creation according to
Genesis partly because it was dangerous to do otherwise
and partly because there was no absolute proof to the
contrary. In 1774, however, a German of the name of
Esper made a discovery which gave the finishing touch
to the mortal wound inflicted upon the Christian and
Jewish superstitions by the previous adoption of the
Copernican system of astronomy ; and, just as Coperni-
cus, Bruno, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton
drove the first half-dozen nails into the coffin of the
Bible, so did this discovery of Esper drive into it the
first of the last half-dozen, the remaining five to be
subsequently added by Darwin, Huxley, Lyell, Spencer,
and Carpenter. The discovery made by J. F. Esper
consisted of some human bones, mingled with remains
of the Northern bear and other species then unknown,
which were lying in the famous cavern of Gailenreuth,
in Bavaria ; and this was soon followed by the discovery,
in 1797, by John Frere, at Hoxne, in Suffolk, of a
number of flint weapons, mixed up with bones of extinct
animals, the whole being embedded in rocks. These
and other similar discoveries made some sensation among
scientific men, which resulted in the publication, in 1823,
of Dr. Buckland's "Reliquiae Diluvianas," in which
the author summed up all the facts then known tending
to the establishment of the truth that man co-existed
with animals long since extinct. Immediately after this,
in 1826, Tournal, of Narbonne, gave to the world an
[3]
account of some discoveries he had made in a cave in
Aude (France), where he had found bones of the bison
and reindeer, cut and carved by the hand of man,
together with remains of edible shell-fish, which must
have been brought there by some one who dwelt there.
A few years afterwards De Christol, of Montpellier,
discovered human bones and fragments of pottery, mixed
with the remains of the Northern bear, hyaena, and
rhinoceros, in the caverns of Pondres and Souvignargues.
In 1833 Schmerling found in the caverns of Engis and
Enghihoul, in Belgium, two human skulls, surrounded
by teeth of the rhinoceros, elephant, bear, and hyaena,
on some of which were marks of human workmanship,
and under which were flint knives and arrow-heads.
Two years afterwards Joly, a Montpellier professor,
found in the cave of Nabrigas (Lozere) the skull of a
cave-bear, having upon it marks made by an arrow,
beside which were scattered fragments of pottery bearing
the imprints of human fingers. Following upon these
discoveries were those made in 1842 by Godwin Austen
at Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, consisting of animal
remains and results of man's handiwork ; and those
made in 1844, by Lund, in the caves of Brazil, consisting
of skeletons of thirty human beings, an ape, various
carnivora, rodents, pachyderms, sloths, etc. Kent's
Cavern, in 1847, was again the spot to which all eyes
were turned ; for there McEnery had found, under a
layer of stalagmite, the remains of men and extinct
.animals. This remarkable discovery was followed, in the
same year, by the appearance of a work by Boucher
de Perthes, of Abbeville, in which he described the
flint tools, etc., found in the excavations made there and
in the Somme valley as far as Amiens. In 1857 the
celebrated Neanderthal skull was discovered; and in
1858 Prestwich, Falconer, and Pengelly (Englishmen)
found more flint implements in the lower strata of the
Baumann cave, in the Hartz mountains, at the same time
that Gosse fils obtained from the sand-pits of Grenelle
various flint implements and bones of the mammoth ;
while in the following year Fontan discovered in the
cave of Massat (Ariege) utensils, human teeth, and
bones of the cave-bear, hyaena, and cave-lion. Near
[4]
Bedford, about the same time, Wyatt found, in the gravel-
beds, flints similar to those found at Abbeville, and bones
of the mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, ox, horse,
and deer ; which discovery was soon followed by that
of the celebrated human burial place at Aurignac, by
Lartet, in 1860, in which were found human remains,
together with bones of the bear, reindeer, bison, hyaena,
wolf, mammoth, and rhinoceros, a number of flint and
horn implements, and the remaining ashes of fires. The
world was at last induced to give some heed to the new
cry of man's extreme antiquity when Boucher de Perthes,
of Abbeville, in 1863, discovered at Moulin-Quignon,
at a depth of fifteen feet, in a virgin argilo-ferruginous
bed belonging to the later Pleiocene or early Pleistocene
period, the half of a human lower jaw-bone (which had
belonged to an aged person of small stature), covered
with an earthy crust, by the side of which lay a flint
hatchet, covered with the same kind of crust ; and not
far from which were also buried, in the same bed, two
mammoths' teeth. After this discovery scientific men
generally subscribed to the new theory of the antiquity
of man, and all seemed eager to pursue their investiga-
tions without delay, the result being that we are now
receiving, almost day by day, fresh evidence on the
subject, and hope soon to arrive at a tolerably accurate
conclusion as to the earliest date of man's appearance
upon earth.
Let us now look more closely at the discoveries made
in the various caves referred to above, and also see what
advances had been made by geologists in other directions
during the same period, as well as what amount of
progress has been made during the last twenty years.
Dr. Schmerling, the Belgian geologist and comparative
anatomist, after exploring the Engis and other caves in
the province of Liege, published an illustrated work,
giving the results of his investigations, which were highly
interesting, and contributed largely to the establishment
of the theory of man's antiquity. In these caves
Schmerling found the bones of the cave-bear, hyaena,
elephant, and rhinoceros, together with human bones,
none of which gave any evidence of having been gnawed,
from which circumstance it was inferred that these caves
Ls]
'had not been the dwelling-places of wild beasts ; and the
fact that the bones were scattered about without any
order having been observed in their distribution pointed
to the conclusion that the caves had not been used as
burying-places. Probably, therefore, these remains had
been washed into the caves from time to time, and had
gradually become covered with deposit, and thus pro-
tected and preserved. There were no complete skeletons
found; but in the Engis cave were discovered the
remains of at least three human beings, the skull of
one being embedded by the side of a mammoth's tooth,
and in such a state of disintegration that it fell to pieces
on being moved ; while the skull of another, an adult,
was buried, five feet deep, by the side of a tooth of a
rhinoceros, several bones of a horse, and some reindeer
bones. Besides the bones, there were also discovered
some rude flint implements, a polished bone needle, and
other products of man's industry, all embedded in the
same layer as the bones. It follows from these facts
that man lived on the banks of the Meuse at the same
time as the rhinoceros, mammoth, hyaena, and cave-bear,
extinct animals of the Pleiocene and early Pleistocene
era.
Not far from these caves are those of the Lesse
Valley, in which Dupont discovered, in 1864, three
different layers of human and other remains, the lowest
of which contained the bones of the mammoth, rhino-
ceros, and other extinct animals, together with flint
instruments of the rudest type, instruments of reindeer
horn, and a human lower jaw with a marked resemblance
to the lower jaw of the higher apes. Another discovery
at some little distance away from these caves was made
in 1857 in what is called the Neanderthal Cave, in the
valley of the Diissel, between Diisseldorf and Elberfeld,
which is important, not so much as an indication of the
length of time that man has lived on the earth, as of the
close resemblance existing between the skulls of human
beings in the early Pleistocene era and the skulls of apes.
The discovery consisted of a human skull and a number
of human bones, together with the bones of the rhino-
ceros, which latter were subsequently unearthed. The
skull was of such a character as to raise the question of
[61
whether it was human or not, the forehead being narrow
and very low and the projection of the supra-orbital
ridges enormously great. The long bones of the skeleton
agreed with those of men of the present day in respect
to length, but were of extraordinary thickness, and the
ridges for the attachment of muscles were developed in
an unusual degree, showing that the individual was
possessed of great muscular strength, especially in the
thoracic neighbourhood. Drs. Schaafhausen and Fuhlrott
pointed out that the depression of the forehead was not'
due to any artificial pressure, as the whole skull was
symmetrical, and that the individual must have been
distinguished by an extraordinarily small cerebral deve-
lopment as well as uncommon corporeal strength. Pro-
fessor Huxley considers this Neanderthal skull to be the
most ape-like one he ever beheld, and Busk, a great
anthority, gives valuable reasons for supposing it to be
the skull of an individual occupying a position midway
between the man and the gorilla or chimpanzee. Huxley
has carefully compared the Engis and Neanderthal
skulls, and his remarks upon them are given in their
entirety in Lyell's " Antiquity of Man." From these
remarks we gather that the Engis skull was dolichoce-
phalic in form, extreme length 7.7 inches, extreme
breadth not more than 5.25 inches, forehead well arched,
superciliary prominences well but not abnormally deve-
loped, horizontal circumference 20^ inches, longitu-
dinal arc from nasal spine to occipital protuberance 13^
inches, transverse arc from one auditory foramen to the
other, across the middle of the sagittal suture, 13 inches.
The Neanderthal skull is so different from the Engis
skull that Huxley says "it [Neanderthal] might well be
supposed to belong to a distinct race of mankind." It
is 8 inches in extreme length, 5.75 inches in breadth,
and only 3.4 inches from the glabello-occipital line to
the vertex; the longitudinal arc is 12 inches, and the
transverse arc probably about 10^ inches, but, owing
to incompleteness of temporal bones, this could not be
correctly ascertained ; the horizontal circumference is
23 inches, which high figure is due to the vast develop-
ment of the superciliary ridges ; and the sagittal suture,
notwithstanding the great length of the skull, only 4^
[7]
inches. Huxley sums up his examination of the Nean-
derthal skull in these words : " There can be no doubt
that, as Professor Schaafhausen and Mr. Busk have
stated, this skull is the most brutal of all known human
skulls, resembling those of the apes, not only in the pro-
digious development of the superciliary prominences and
the forward extension of the orbits, but still more in the
depressed form of the brain-case, in the straightness of
the squamosal suture, and in the complete retreat of the
occiput forward and upward from the superior occi-
pital ridges ;" and he then proceeds to clearly show
that the skull could not have belonged to an idiot. On
the whole, the Engis skull more clearly approaches the
Caucasian type, while the Neanderthal differs entirely
from all known human skulls, being more nearly allied
to the chimpanzee than to the human. Both these
skulls belonged to individuals who lived in the early
Pleistocene era, the Engis being probably the older of
the two, and yet the Engis is the most like the modern
European skull, which tells us plainly that in those
remote times there were existing in Belgium and the sur-
rounding districts two different races of men, one highly
advanced in brain evolution and the other in a
wretchedly low condition of intellectual development.
The Neanderthal skull probably formed part of an indi-
vidual belonging to the tail-end of a semi-human race,
while the Engis skull, in all probability, belonged to an
oriental immigrant belonging to a more advanced race.
It must be always remembered that scientific men have
long since admitted the truth of the theory that the dif-
ferences in character between the brain of the highest
races of men and that of the lowest, though less in degree,
are of the same order as those which separate the human
from the ape brain, the same rule holding good in regard
to the shape of the skull.
The discoveries made in Kent's Cavern, in the year
1842 and again in 1847, led to a thorough investigation
of the series of galleries forming the now celebrated
Brixharn Caves, near Torquay, and as early as 1859 the
labours of the explorers were rewarded by the discovery
of a number of flint implements in the cave-earth or
loam, underneath the layer of stalagmite, which were the
work of men living in Palaeolithic times, prior to the
existence of the reindeer, whose antlers were found depo-
sited in the layer of stalagmite. Previous to this time,
when McEnery, in 1826, examined Kent's Cavern, he had
stated that he had found several teeth of Ursus cultridens,
a huge carnivore belonging to Tertiary formations, but
now extinct ; and as this monster was first known in
Meiocene deposits in France, but had never been traced
in any cavern or fluviatile Pleistocene deposits, although
it had occurred in Pleiocene formations, considerable
excitement was caused on the score that the flint imple-
ments lately found might possibly have belonged to
Meiocene, or at latest early Pleiocene men. Further
investigations were accordingly commenced for the pur-
pose of solving this problem, the explorations being
under the superintendence of Messrs. Vivian and Pen-
gelley; and in 1872 they at last came upon a fine
incisor of Ursus cultridens in the uppermost part of the
cave-earth, which settled the point as to man's existence
at the same time with the extinct bear in England. The
Kent's Cavern deposits are as follows : i. Limestone.
2. Black mould, containing articles of mediaeval, Romano -
British, and pre-Roman date. 3. Stalagmite floor, from
1 6 to 20 inches thick, containing a human jaw and
remains of extinct animals. 4. Black earth, containing
charcoal and other evidence of fire, and also bone and
flint instruments. 5. Red cave-earth, containing Palaeo-
lithic implements and bones and teeth of extinct animals,
such as cave-lion, mammoth, rhinoceros, and hyaena, and
including the tooth of the Ursus cultridens, or Machai-
rodus latidens. 6. Second stalagmite floor, from 3 to
12 feet thick, covering bones of bears only. 7. Dark
red sandy loam, containing bones of bears, three flint
implements, and one flint chip. The fact of the Ursus
cultridens being contemporary in England with man is
of enormous interest to geologists and anthropologists,
for it places the date of Palaeolithic man as far back as
the Pleiocene age, instead of, as heretofore, in the
Pleistocene.
The caves of the Dordogne Valley in south-western
France have supplied us with some very good relics of a
very remote period. They are situated in rocks of Cre-
taceous age, and form shelters in which ancient hunts-
men used to find dwelling-places, leaving behind them
refuse-heaps and instruments of various kinds. In the
Vezere Caves, which are included in the Dordogne
series, there is one of very ancient date, Le Moustier,
in which is a bed of sand having both above and below
floors of a similar character, containing charcoal, flint
instruments, and other remains. The depth of this sandy
bed is about 10 inches, having the appearance of a river
deposit ; and, although many flint instruments have been
found in it of a more ancient date than those unearthed
in the other caves, yet no worked bone instruments have
been discovered. In another cave, the Langerie, bronze
and polished stone objects have been found, together
with various kinds of pottery, below which, and under
masses of fallen rock, covered with Palaeolithic flints
and sculptured bones and antlers of reindeer, a human
skeleton was discovered lying under a block of stone.
In another cave, La Madeleine, was found a mammoth
tusk, on which was rudely carved a picture of the animal
itself, proving incontestably that cave-men lived here in
mammoth times. In the Mentone cave Dr. Riviere, in
1872, suddenly came upon the bones of a human foot,
which caused him to make a very careful examination of
the deposit, the result being that he unearthed an entire
human skeleton at a depth of 20 feet, surrounded by a
large number of unpolished flint flakes and scrapers, and
a fragment of a skewer, about six inches long. No metal,
pottery, or polished flint was found ; but bones of extinct
mammals were scattered about, thus suggesting a remote
Palaeolithic antiquity. The skeleton is 5 feet 9 inches
high, the skull dolichocephalic, forehead narrow, temple
flattened, and facial angle measuring 80 to 85 degrees ;
the teeth were worn flat by eating hard food, and the
long bones are strong and flattened.
No human bones have as yet been discovered in the
deposit of the Somme valley, where so many Palaeolithic
flints have been found ; but in the valley of the Seine, at
Clichy, Messrs. Bertrand and Reboux found, in 1868,
portions of human skeletons in the same beds where
Palaeolithic implements had been embedded. These
bones were found at a depth of seventeen feet, and in-
[10]
eluded a female skull of very inferior type, having
enormously thick frontal bone and a low, narrow roof,
slanting from before backwards. A very good specimen of
human fossil is that known as the " Denise Fossil Man,"
comprising the remains of more than one skeleton found
in a volcanic breccia near Le Puy-en-Velay, in Central
France. These bones have been very carefully examined
by the members of the French Scientific Congress, as
also the deposit in which they were found, and the
opinion arrived at is that the fossils are genuine and their
age early Pleistocene. Another most interesting specimen-
of ancient human remains is the skeleton found buried
under four Cypress forests, superimposed one upon the
other, in the delta of the Mississippi, near New Orleans,
at a depth of sixteen feet. Dr. Dowler ascribes to this
skeleton an antiquity of at least 50,000 years, reckoning
by the minimum length of time that must have elapsed
during the formation of the deposits found and the sink-
ing of the four successive forest beds. In another part
of the same delta, near Natchez, a human bone, os-
innominatum, accompanied by bones of the mastodon
and megalonyx, was washed out of what is believed to be
a still more ancient alluvial deposit. Dr. Dickeson, in
whose possession the said bone is now, states that it
was buried at a depth of thirty feet, and geologists agree
that its date is very early, some maintaining that it is
probably of a higher antiquity than any yet discovered.
From these discoveries it is abundantly evident that
man existed on the earth contemporaneously with the
mastodon and other extinct mammals belonging to the
Pleiocene and early Pleistocene eras. There are, how-
ever, people who stoutly deny that this can be so at
any rate, as regards Northern and Central Europe and
who rank the discoveries at Moulin Quignon, Engis,
Kent's Cavern, etc., with late Pleistocene remains..
They maintain that the beds in which these relics were
found could not have been of Pleiocene or early Pleis-
tocene formation, inasmuch as they lie above the till and
boulder-clay which form the glacial deposits of the time
when Europe was an Arctic region that is to say, of
late Pleistocene times. Therefore, they say, man's
earliest existence in Europe was post-glacial cr late
Pleistocene. But while the fact of the human remains
having been discovered above the boulder-clay appears
to point to a post-glacial date, still there is con-
fronting us the perplexing anomaly of the contemporary
existence of extinct mammals belonging to a tropical
fauna, which, if we accept this theory, involves the ne-
cessity of admitting that a tropical climate followed the
last glacial epoch a condition of things that we know
never existed at all. The fact is there have been more
periods of glaciation than one, each being followed by
the deposition of boulder-clays ; and between the periods
of intense Arctic cold there were intervals of tropical or
sub-tropical heat, when mammals belonging to and
requiring a tropical climate ventured as far north as
the north of England, to become extinct when the period
of glaciation supervened. The last glacial period, we
know, extended its area of influence as far as the high
peaks of Switzerland and Northern Italy, completely
overwhelming the whole of Northern Europe as far south
as the latitude of 45, and the whole of North America
as far south as the latitude of 40 ; since when there has
been a gradual diminution of cold until the present tem-
perate climate supervened. Now, if it can be positively
ascertained that all the boulder-clays found in England
and Northern Europe were deposited during and imme-
diately after this last glacial period, the date of man's
first appearance in those districts, as far as we have as
yet any evidence, must be post-glacial ; but in such a
case it would have been impossible that a tropical fauna
and flora could have existed in the same localities,
whereas their remains have been abundantly found lying
side by side with the remains of Palaeolithic man. The
conclusion we must draw is that the boulder-clays found
below the remains of Palaeolithic man could not have
been deposited after the last period of glaciation, but
must have followed some prior glacial condition, and
that man existed in England and Northern Europe con-
temporaneously with extinct mammalia during inter-
glacial or pre-glacial times, when the climate of England
was tropical or sub-tropical that is to say, in middle
Pleistocene or late Pleiocene times. If man really
existed in England in Pleiocene times, in favour o
[12]
which view there appears to be strong evidence, he would
have been in all probability the companion of the extinct
tropical mammalia found deposited in the Cromer Forest
beds, and some of which belonged to Meiocene times.
This forest was in existence at the close of thePleiocene
era, and stretched from Cromer far away into what is
now the German Ocean, uniting Norfolk and Suffolk to
Holland and Belgium ; but soon after the commence-
ment of the Pleistocene period the North Sea gradually
swept over the old continent between Britain on the
west and Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands on the
east, thus converting the old forest at Cromer into the
bed of the ocean, where the stumps of the trees may
now be seen embedded in deposit at very low tide.
Immediately after the disappearance of this forest the
first period of glaciation commenced, from which moment
until the close of the glacial periods the alternations in
temperature and surface level were frequent and of enor-
mous magnitude, the correct sequence of which changes
we have as yet no proper conception.
If we go back to the commencement of the Tertiary
great division of the geological periods, we shall find
that, at the beginning of the Eocene deposits, the
Secondary cretaceous rocks had been upheaved from the
bottom of the sea, and had become the dry ground of
a large continent, of which the British Islands formed a
part ; so that Eocene fauna and flora in England had
free communication with continental life. The relative
positions of land and water during this first Tertiary
period were as follows : The great continent spread from
North America to Europe, uniting Canada, Greenland,
Iceland, Faroes, Shetlands, Orkneys, Ireland, and Britain
(except south-east portion), with Scandinavia and Spitz-
bergen on the north-east, and with France (Brittany) and
Sp.ain on the south. There were three seas the North
Sea, which, like a wedge with its point downwards,
separated Greenland, Iceland, and Faroes from Spits-
bergen and Scandinavia ; the South-Eastern Sea, which
stretched from the top of Denmark to Boston in Lincoln-
shire, thence to Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire, and on to
Cherbourg, covering the whole of the east and south-
east of England ; and the Atlantic, which was separated
t'3]
from the North Sea by Iceland, Faroes, and intermediate
lands, and from the South-Eastern Sea by the British
Islands, Western France, and intermediate lands. These
Eocene seas teemed with fish now only found in more
Southern latitudes ; while the inland lakes and rivers
abounded with reptilian life. On the land tropical flora
and fauna flourished, among the former being palms,
cypresses, and giant cacti, and among the latter, in
Lower Eocene times, large numbers of marsupial species,
in the Middle Eocene also lion-like carnivora, and in
Upper Eocene tapir-like animals, herds of Anchitheres
(ancestors of the horse), Hyaenodon (ancestors of hyaena),
and Lemurs. The Miocene period opened with a lower
temperature than that of the Eocene, and with a con-
siderable difference of surface level in Denmark and on
the South of England, the land having been upheaved
to such an extent as to leave no part of the country under
water, uniting Yorkshire with Denmark, and dividing
the South-Eastern Sea into two portions, the Northern
one stretching from Schleswig as far as a few miles from
the present Lincolnshire coast and then back to the
present mouth of the Scheldt ; and the latter stretching
from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Hastings and Portland Bill,
and back to Cherbourg. Otherwise the relationship
between land and water was much the same as in Eocene
times. The climate of the Meiocene period was sub-
tropical, and in the lower strata were found placental
mammals, but few marsupials ; in the middle beds
remains of the mastodon, rhinoceros, anthropomorphous
apes, sloths, and ant-eaters ; and in the upper layers
antelopes and gazelles; but no mammalian species in
any Meiocene deposit has continued to present times
all having become extinct. When we arrive at the
Pleiocene age we have quite a different state of things ;
the Atlantic and North Seas gradually united together,
thus separating Europe from Faroes, Iceland, Green-
land, and North America ; and on the east of Britain
the North Sea slowly descended as far as the present
mouth of the Thames, thus separating Britain from
Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands ; while the two
Southern seas disappeared altogether, leaving a huge
continent, the borders of which stretched from the
[14]
present west coast of Norway to Denmark, the Nether-
lands, across to Essex, central Norfolk (east Nor-
folk and Suffolk being part of North Sea), and up to the
Shetlands, at which point a turn was made south to a
few miles west of present west coast of Ireland, and
thence southward to a few miles west of present coast
of Brittany, in France, thus leaving the British Isles,
France, and the rest of Europe as one large continent.
To accomplish these enormous changes, a very long time
was required, during which the climate was gradually
becoming more temperate, being in older Pleiocene
times sub-tropical and in newer Pleiocene warm-tem-
perate ; while the fauna and flora gradually became less
tropical in kind. The older Pleiocene deposits are
divided into coralline crag and reg crag, while the newer
Pleiocene consist of Norwich crags and Weybourne
sands, on a level with which latter was the Cromer
forest, submerged by the North Sea during the earlier
Pleistocene period.
At this point commence those enormous alterations in
the surface level and climate of this part of the world
which produced such extraordinary results, and during
which man made his first appearance in Britain. At the
very commencement of the Pleistocene era the tempera-
ture in Britain was lowered to such an extent as to pro-
duce a sudden disappearance of the semi-tropical fauna
and flora : the land had reached the high elevation of
500 feet above the present level, joining Scotland and
Scandinavia, and there had appeared in the North Sea
large blocks of ice, which rapidly increased in size and
quantity, and continually pushed farther south, until at
length, after a long lapse of time, the whole of Northern
Europe, Asia, and America as far as the latitude of
about 45 became like a huge ice-house, the Arctic cold
driving all life before it to a more southern latitude, those
forms which had lived in Britain during Meiocene and
Pleiocene times being the first to disappear on the earliest
sign of the approaching cold, and the Arctic flora and
fauna which took their place being afterwards compelled
also to move southward, owing to the intense severity
of the glaciation.
When this state of things had lasted a very considerable
time the climate became milder, the melting ice deposited
its boulder clay, and the high continent commenced to
sink again to its former level, during which gradual sub-
mergence the climate became still warmer, until it at
length reached a more than temperate mildness, at one
time being almost tropical. Still the land continued to
sink, and this submergence lasted until the British part
of the great continent had become a large archipelago of
small islands, the surface of the land being upwards of
one thousand feet below the present level. It has been
calculated that such a submergence would require at the
least 88,000 years to be completed ; so that a general
idea may be formed of the enormous periods of time
occupied by these glacial and inter-glacial epochs. While
the British archipelago existed, another change of
climate took place, resulting in another glacial period,
but probably not of such intensity as the previous
one. At this period the upper boulder clay was
deposited in the sea, to be afterwards upheaved above
the sea level in Yorkshire and other places. After a
long continuance of this glaciation the land commenced
to rise again and the climate to improve, until, after a
period of about 136,000 years (according to careful
computation), there was produced another continental
condition, the ground reaching about 600 feet higher than
now, and the climate becoming temperate once more.
England, Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Denmark, the
Netherlands, France, and Spain once again formed a
mighty continent, the climate of which was cold-tempe-
rate, becoming milder year by year, and the elevation of
which was gradually declining, as it has continued to do
until the present time, the British islands slowly becoming
once more separated from the continent of Europe.
During the last temperate continental condition Palaeo-
lithic and Neolithic man lived in Britain, as is clearly
proved by the evidence brought forward by various
authors in support of the contention ; but, as we have
seen, Palaeolithic man's remains discovered in the various
deposits were often in the company of the bones of
extinct mammals belonging to a tropical fauna, which
species could not have existed in Britain with such a
climate as that which followed the last period of glacia-
tion, but must have lived either in pre-glacial times, or,
in other words, at the end of Pleiocene or very beginning
of Pleistocene times, or else in inter-glacial or mid-
Pleistocene times ; and whichever alternative be adopted
we are bound to fix the date of the Palaeolithic remains
at the same period. To fix their date in the very earliest
of Pleistocene, or latest of Pleiocene times, would give
them an antiquity of nearly 300,000 years ; to fix it in
mid-Pleistocene times, during the temperate or inter-
glacial period of submergence, would give them an anti-
quity of upwards of 170,000 years ; and to fix it in post-
glacial times would give them an antiquity of probably
70,000 or 80,000 years at most. The inter-glacial theory
would, on the whole, appear most likely to be the correct
one, were it not for the fact that, during the inter-glacial
period, this country was partially submerged, which would
probably have prevented any communication in those
times between the islands and the mainland. We must,
however, not forget that the great submergence com-
menced during the first period of glaciation, and did not
cease until the second period had been reached, so that
the inter-glacial period of warmth would take place when
England and Scotland were but little different from now
in their relationship to the continent, and long before the
archipelago was formed. Whether it would have been
possible under these conditions for Palaeolithic man to
cross from the continent to the British islands we cannot
say ; but the probability is that the distance to travel by
water would have been far too great in such early times ;
in which case we have no alternative but to place the
date of man's earliest existence in England at the latest
Pleiocene age, as indeed we are compelled to do by the
fact that Palaeolithic implements have been found in
Kent's cavern side by side with teeth of the extinct bear
of that period, as well as by the discoveries made in the
Engis and other caves.
In Southern Europe and the Southern States of North
America the glacial epoch had little effect, so that man's
age upon the earth in those districts will be better calcu-
lated than it can ever be here or in France and Belgium ;
and it will not be surprising if we learn before long that
man lived in the districts surrounding the Mediterranean
Sea in early Pleiocene times. This sea, it must be re-
collected, was almost dried up during the early and
middle Pleistocene periods, and there was no communica-
tion between it and the Atlantic Ocean, so that Europe
was connected both on the east and west with Africa,
and was also one continuous continent with Asia, there
being then no Black Sea and no Caspian Sea. The
probability, therefore, is that man first became a rational
being, parting with his ape-like characteristics, some-
where in Southern Asia or Northern Africa, or, more
probably still, in the now submerged continent of
Lemuria, which once joined China, India, and Africa in
one continental system ; after which he emigrated in
different directions, finding his way north-westwards over
the European continent as far as the very limit of the
Franco-British continental system. At what period man
first existed in the districts around the Mexican Gulf it
is at present impossible to say but the skull found in
the Mississippi beds is calculated to be at least 50,000
years old, and by some the date is fixed at 100,000
years, which would carry us back to middle Pleistocene
times at least. Man, therefore, most probably existed
in Europe long before he had made his appearance in
the new world, although it is quite possible that further
investigation may lead to the discovery of a still more
ancient stock than that to which the Mississippi skull
belonged. How long a time elapsed between the first
appearance of Palaeolithic man in Northern Europe, and
the subsequent advent of Neolithic man, it is at present
impossible to say with any degree of certainty ; but the
interval must have been of enormous length, for we find
no traces of polished stone implements until the very
close of the Pleistocene era during the last Franco-
British continental system. At this period man had
become much more civilised than his ancestors of the
Palaeolithic age j his implements were more ornamental
and better fitted for the purposes for which they were
intended ; his mode of life had become more settled ;
and he had developed primitive industries. In the
ancient "hut circles" found at Standlake and at Fisherton,
near Salisbury, have been found instruments used for
spinning and weaving, which date back to Neolithic
times, also fragments of pottery and stones used for
grinding corn, side by side with the remains of domestic
animals. From this we conclude that Neolithic man was
at this time a companion of domestic animals, a keeper
of flocks and herds,' and an agriculturalist. He very soon
became, in addition to this, a miner, as is evident from
the remains found at Cissbury, on the South Downs, and
at Grimes Graves, near Bandon, in Suffolk. Shafts had
been sunk and galleries dug out of the ground in order
to unearth a better kind of flint for manufacturing useful
implements ; and in some of these galleries the tools of
the workmen have been discovered, consisting of picks
made out of stags' antlers, polished stone celts, chisels of
bone and antler, and small cups made of chalk. With
these and other primitive tools the flint had been worked
out in several places, forming deep hollows in and near
which were the remains of birds, sheep, goats, horses,
pigs, and dogs, which evidently had served as companions
to and food for the miners. Canoes, hollowed out of
large trees by the use of fire and axes, have also been
discovered, together with huge paddles for propelling
them and numerous have been the discoveries of heads
of javelins, arrows, and spears, which were probably used
as weapons of warfare, the population by this time having
grown large and divided itself into small communities
more or less at enmity with each other.
Similar progress was made by Neolithic man on the
continent of Europe, as we know from the discoveries
made in Switzerland. As early as 1829 very ancient
piles had been discovered in the lake of Zurich, which
have since been found to be the remains of primitive
lake-dwellings, dating from Neolithic times. These
peculiar habitations consisted of wooden houses built on
platforms erected on a number of wooden piles driven
into the bottom of the lake, and were, no doubt, so
constructed with the view of protecting the small colony
from the raids of wild beasts and warlike people from
other parts of the country. Most of these lake-dwellings
were burnt down, their charred remains sinking to the
bottom of the lake, where they have been discovered
together with heaps of corn, pieces of woven and plaited
cloth, mealing or grinding stones, earthenware imple-
['9']
ments, nets and mats, and implements of stone, antler,
and bone. Numbers of domestic and other animals were
kept in these dwellings, such as the dog, horse, pig,
sheep, and cow ; and fish appears to have been a regular
article of consumption. Similar discoveries have been
made in Denmark by Professor Steenstrup and others,
which show an equal advance in civilisation and culture
during early Neolithic times. Vast accumulations of
refuse matter, in the form of oyster-shells, fish-bones,
and animal remains, have been found near the shores of
the Baltic, the whole being heaped up into mounds,
evidently having formed public refuse-heaps for commu-
nities of settlers. Scattered about were also found
polished stone axes, but no metal implements; while
upon some of the stones were well-drawn engravings,
pointing to a considerable advance in culture ; and the
fact that the remains of the domestic animals prove them
to be of southern and eastern origin suggests the pro-
bability that these settlers were immigrants from the
south-east of Europe, where we should expect consider-
able advance to have been effected in civilisation.
It is extremely probable and generally admitted that
man became civilised in oriental countries, and made
his way northwards and westwards, gradually covering
the whole of Europe ; so that we should expect the races
of Egypt, Persia, and India to be far more highly cultured
than those who were establishing themselves in the west
at the same time. It would take a very long time indeed
for people to spread themselves from Egypt and Persia
over the whole of Europe, and during all this time they
would naturally, owing to their wandering habits, advance
in civilisation far more slowly than those who remained
in their original homes. At the time, therefore, that
Neolithic man had become a settler in Europe and
Britain we may fairly suppose that Egypt, Persia, and
India were great, powerful, and prosperous states, well
advanced in civilisation and art, and, perhaps, even the
tail-end of a mighty and prosperous civilisation that had
preceded them long ages before. It was probably from
these highly-civilised centres that the discovery of bronze
was carried into Europe, which marked the commence-
ment of what is called the Bronze or Prehistoric Age,
[ 20 ]
during which period the use of bronze implements
almost entirely superseded that of polished stone
weapons.
Before the Bronze Age had fairly commenced the last
of the Pleistocene deposits had taken place, and the
recent layers of earth had begun to distribute themselves
upon the older strata ; but how long a time has actually
elapsed since the completion of the Pleistocene stratifica-
tion has not been accurately ascertained. A rough
approximation to the relative length of the Pleistocene
and Prehistoric periods may be obtained from the fact
that the valleys were cut down by streams flowing through
them as much as a hundred feet deep in the former
period, while the work done by the rivers during the
latter period is measured by the insignificant fluviatile
deposits close to the adjacent streams. We may, there-
fore, conclude that the Pleistocene era was, beyond all
calculation, of longer duration than the Prehistoric. It
must not be imagined from this that the Prehistoric
period was a short one, for there have been a series of
changes in the fauna, and a series of invasions of different
races of men into Europe, which must have required a
very long time to have been brought about, judging from
similar changes recorded in history.
It is believed that, soon after the commencement
of the Bronze Age, an Aryan stream of life poured over
Europe from Central Asia, and finally invaded England,
driving out the old inhabitants and re-stocking the
country with a host of Aryan Celts, who brought with
them the knowledge of bronze manufacture. The defeated
natives retreated to Ireland and the west of England
and Scotland, and finally gave themselves up to their
conquerors, whom they in future served as slaves. Thus
were annihilated the Neolithic men of Britain, and thus
was the use of polished stone weapons superseded by
that of bronze implements. These Celtic invaders, like
their conquered predecessors, lived upon the flesh both
of wild and domestic animals, as is evident from the
discovery made in 1867 at Barton Mere, near Bury St.
Edmunds, where bronze spear-heads were found in and
around large piles and blocks of stone, together with
vast quantities of the broken bones of the stag, roe, wild
[21]
boar, hare, urus, horse, ox, hog, and dog, as well as
fragments of pottery. Fire was produced by these men
by striking a flint flake against a piece of iron pyrites, as
is evident from the discovery of these articles in and
around charred remains of fires ; thus a great advance
was made in this direction upon the habits of the older
inhabitants, who had only been able to procure fire by
rapidly turning a piece of wood between their two hands,
the point being fixed in a hollow on another piece of
wood, so that the great friction which resulted produced
heat sufficient to generate flame.
Following the Bronze Age was the Iron Age, during
which period the historic era commenced ; and thus we
have not only various discoveries to prove that iron
gradually supplanted bronze, but history bears witness to
the same truth. The Homeric legends abound with feats
performed by heroes who wielded bronze and iron
weapons ; and from Hesiod, who wrote nearly five hun-
dred years before Herodotus, we learn that iron had
already superseded bronze among the Greeks, and that
the archaeologists of his day recognised a distinct era of
the past as the Age of Bronze. The probability is that
the discovery of the mode of separating iron from its
ore and turning it into useful articles was made in Asia,
from whence it was afterwards introduced into Europe;
for we find that at the very first appearance of iron in
Britain and France there were iron coins and iron orna-
ments in regular use among the people, which articles
were no doubt brought by invading tribes of oriental
people. In the early or prehistoric portion of the Iron
Age the practice of burying the dead at full length
first became known in Britain, cremation having always
been practised previously.
Having now arrived at historic times, our inquiry into
man's antiquity need not be further continued. For the
searcher after truth there only now remains the task of
carefully considering the facts here brought forward
and comparing the conclusions arrived at with the old
orthodox story of the creation of the world and man as
found in the Bible. If the story read in the Book of
Nature be a true one, then man has lived upon the
earth several hundred thousand years, and has passed
from a state of unconscious animal existence, through
innumerable stages of savage, semi-savage, and civilised
conditions, to his present commanding position. If the
story read in the so-called Book of God be a true one,
then the world and man were created less than six
thousand years ago. The reader must judge for himself
which is the truth.
PLAN OF' EVOLUTION OF
MIND IN MAN
INTELLECTUA
EMOTIONAL PHOOUCTS
ffomo
Moiiotheisrn
Homo Cu tfa-s
Jfrs.
, /Remorse
/ we ah id
tfqin
Jemt -
/Ivftrjcc finvy , 'ritzl'tr flope?
Vanity, Mirthflave. of &ea.iity
Pef^7^it6 Me ratify
Homo ftro*
22 Mas
fipeec/i,
Afics
20 Me*
oft/ve
-
/Ir ti
Jndkftniti Morality
True
ft-ide
t/ridcrsta?idi7$ of WordS
/parses
?n 11, let. l
'Sy, Joy,
lio
ZircU
flew g?iiti 07T- <?f 7*taces
///Wks
&onsctoic.s Memory
CrustZlceciTis
1 If t,
formes
tfieher
B/KTH
-
Mo lia
GEKM
n'atd/jUt,snue
or
Cei2-*7iia-eleits xix
. Af-ter
Gasfr-u-la of a.
7vo
EVOLUTION OF MIND.
IT seems hardly credible that there should exist people
who profess to accept the Darwinian theory of develop-
ment of species in all its fulness, and yet reject the idea
of the human mind having been evolved by slow stages
from the primitive sense-organ of our lowliest ancestors,
the Protamnia. Such inconsistency seems almost puerile,
.and, were 7T not for the fact that the admission of this
truth would be the final blow at the various faiths of the
world, we should not be called upon to-day to defend a
position so utterly impregnable as that assumed by
Haeckel and others in regard to the evolution of the
human mind. When education has advanced further
there will, we must hope, be less of this shutting of the
eyes to obvious truths for the mere sake of propping up
for a little while longer the belief in a batch of fairy
tales and preposterous legends. As we look around us
upon the wonderful objects of nature we see everywhere
animation and law ; the heavens above are full of life
suns, planets, moons, and other celestial bodies in-
cessantly moving to and fro, all bound in their courses
by the immutable laws of nature ; the vast ocean, teeming
with myriads of living beings, is incessantly rolling and
-roaring like some great monster, but never exceeds the
limits which nature has assigned to its action ; and the
whole face of the earth presents a constant scene of
activity of some kind or other volcanoes discharging
their molten fluid, huge glaciers grinding along the
ground, monster rivers rushing forward with incessant
roar, and the vegetable and animal kingdoms increasing
and multiplying at a marvellous pace. All this is life
in fact, everything we see around us, of whatever form
or shape, is life of some sort. The very ground upon
which we stand is full of life, each particle of dust being
[J
held to its fellow particles by mutual attraction; and 1
there is not a single atom of the earth's substance or of
the whole universe that we can say is minus this property
of life or activity ; nothing in the universe that we know
of ever remains for one moment in a state of rest ; every-
thing is constantly moving, and every particle of the
whole contributes its own share to the general activity
which we term motion or life. The whole universe is a
huge manifestation of phenomena, which make up the
sum-total of life or activity. The sun rotating on its
axis is one form of life ; the moon silently wandering
round our planet is another form of life ; the trees and
animals growing and multiplying on the land are other
forms ; and every lump of ore taken out of the ground
and every paving stone in our streets are other forms of
life. Every particle of every substance whatever is in a
state of continual motion, and therefore full of life. In
fact, it is this very motion or life that sustains matter ;
for matter could not exist that is, its particles could not
hold together, and thus form substance without the life,
motion, activity, or whatever we like to term the property
which operates upon them and produces mutual cohe-
sion.
Life has always, therefore, been active in matter, and
always will be, for life or motion cannot be separated
from matter ; and, just as matter has passed from a con-
dition of homogeneity to one of heterogeneity, so has
life done likewise. Life possesses infinite potentiality,
and manifests itself in an infinite variety of ways by
means of different combinations, which it brings about in
the molecular atoms of universal matter. It acts, for
instance, upon a planet by causing its particles to hold
together in one mass apart from other bodies of a similar
or dissimilar character ; it also acts upon what we un-
scientifically call inanimate nature by causing its particles
to hold together, forming in one case a stone, in another
a metal, etc. ; and it acts upon what we term animated
nature by causing its molecules to combine and procreate.
This power of attraction and cohesion of particles of
universal matter is life, and it depends entirely upon what
particular combination of the molecular atoms of univer-
sal matter takes place whether a sun, a moon, a planet,.
[3]
a stone, a crystal, a sponge, a tree, or a man be the
result. This much is certain, however, that not one of
these bodies can ever be produced except by an evolu-
tionary process subject to the universal and unchange-
able law which fixes the sequence.
Animal life, as distinct from all other life, is a com-
paratively late development or manifestation in the
sequence of universal phenomena. This world on which
we live had existed as a compact body for millions of
ages before life assumed the character of animal life ;
and so gradual was the process of evolution from the
primal condition of homogeneity, through all the mani-
fold stages of life, until the condition of animal life was
reached, that it is impossible to fix a particular moment
when such life became manifest. So it is with every
stage of the evolutionary process ; there are no starting-
places for particular species, the whole being one con-
tinuous unfolding of phenomena, without arrest of any
kind.
It is equally impossible to fix a particular point or
moment for the manifestation of the crystal life as it is
for that of the animal or the vegetable life. All are but
gradual unfoldings of the universal potentiality. Crystal
life is the highest development of what is popularly but
erroneously termed inanimate nature, and differs not one
iota from Moneron life, which is the lowest form of
animal life, in its constituent elements, the only differ-
ence between the two being in the mode of combination
of the elementary particles composing each. The crystal
elements combine in such proportions as to cause the
mass to hold together like other solid bodies, its bulk
being increased by the deposition of fresh particles upon
its outer surface ; while the Moneron elements combine
in such a manner as to render the body soft and yielding,
so that it can absorb nutriment from without to within
and multiply by fission. The elements of both are iden-
tically the same : the manner of combination causes the
differences between them. Many learned men declare
that, if this were true, we ought to be able to take the
five elements viz., Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Car-
bon, and Sulphur in the necessary proportions, and, by
uniting them, form animal life. This, they say, has been
[4-1
attempted, and the result has been failure ; therefore,
animal life could not have been generated in that manner,
but must have been specially created at some particular
moment. This argument is absurdly unsound. These
persons might just as well say that, to substantiate the
assertion that crystals are formed of a combination of
elementary molecules, we ought to be able to take the
necessary quantity of these elements, and, by uniting
them together, form a crystal ; and that, if this cannot
be done, then crystals also require a special creation.
The same argument for a special creation will apply to
every species of the animal, vegetable, and mineral king-
doms. Protoplasm is the lowest form of animal life,
differing from the highest form of mineral life only in
the mode of combination of its elementary particles;
but this difference causes the manifestation of fresh
phenomena, in this case as in every other modification
of a previous state of nature, which gives it the appear-
ance of possessing a property that had not been possessed
by any substance previously, whereas, in truth, the
apparently new property is but a further development of
that previously possessed by inorganic bodies. In short,
the power of absorption possessed by the Moneron is
simply one of the many manifestations of that universal
life or energy that is inherent in all matter, and has been
so from all time ; but it is a comparatively late develop-
ment, occurring at a particular period in the world's
history, when the conditions necessary for such a deve-
lopment were present. Before this period no such
combination of molecular atoms took place with the
same result, simply because the necessary conditions of
development were absent. In the same manner precisely
there was a prior period when no such substance as a
crystal existed, the conditions requisite for the peculiar
combination of molecular atoms to result in the forma-
tion of a crystal having been absent.
When the world had undergone sufficient evolutionary
development there came a time when such atmospheric
and other conditions were present as to permit of a
modification of the then existing substances and proper-
ties, which resulted in the formation of the crystal ; and,
precisely in the same manner, and for the same reason,
Is]
a further and later modification resulted in the formation
of Protoplasm, which is the earliest form of animal life.
This little substance gradually differentiated into two
distinct parts, by a nucleus being formed in the centre
of the protoplasmic mass, and became possessed with a
peculiar power of locomotion, which caused a still
greater difference to exist between itself and its ancestral
stock. This power of locomotion, again, is but a modi-
fication of that life-power of which we have spoken, and
forms a stepping-stone between the molecular action of
mineral substances and the mental wonders of the human
being. The crystal, in common with all other bodies in
the mineral kingdom, always possessed this power of
locomotion to a limited extent; every one of the indi-
vidual atoms which make up the whole substance has
always had the power of locomotion, for they all attract
and repel each other and effect cohesions by their
mutual attraction. This locomotive power underwent
such a modification when cell-life (Protozoa) was mani-
fested that not only were the constituent molecular
atoms individually possessed of this power, as before,
but the whole mass of the cell became endowed with the
same property, just as a whole continent of free people
who have been in the habit of defending themselves
singly against their enemies sometimes combine and
co-operate with each other in the form of a republic, the
function of the individual being assumed by the body
as a whole. The little cellular organisms, which are
called Amoebae, possess this extended power of locomo-
tion, and may be seen constantly moving about in the
endeavour to locate themselves in the brightest part of
their dwelling place, frequently a little pond. They are
attracted by light, which clearly proves that they possess
a degree of sensory perception, although special sense-
organs are of course wanting, the whole mass of the
body being nothing more than a single cell composed of
protoplasm and nucleus. These little cellular organisms
soon unite with each other, forming small bodies com-
posed of several cells in a state of cohesion (Synamcebae),
and on the surface of these multicellur organisms are
shortly afterwards thrown out minute threads or ciliae,
the first attempt at separation of sense-organs from the
[6]
surface of the body. In these tiny Protozoa, those
organisms which consist of one single cell only, the
Amoebae, as well as those consisting of several cells in a
state of union, the Synamcebae, are able to perform all
the functions of animal life cohesion, sensation, motion,
digestion, and reproduction ; but, as the organism be-
comes more and more complex, these different functions
are shared among several groups of cells. This differ-
entiation proceeds steadily stage by stage, until at last
different senses are located in different parts of the body,
and we find animals possessing eyes, ears, noses, and
mouths, one organ performing the function of sight,
another that of hearing, and so on. All these organs of
sense are but parts of the general nervous organisation
of the body, which is apparently absent in the Protista,
but existing potentially in the protoplasmic substance,
as it also does in every other substance in the uni-
verse.
The ciliated multiple cell-organism, in course of time,
becomes transformed into a hollow body, having a wall
composed of a single layer of cells, and this again, by
invagination, or folding of itself within itself, forms a
double-walled cavity, or Gastrula, having an external
opening like a mouth. These little animals, the Gas-
trceada, having an inner layer of cells (the endoderm),
which carries on the nutritive and assimilative functions
of the organism, and an outer layer (the ectoderm),
which forms the general motor and sense-organ of the
body, are the first animal organisms to possess a real
sense-organ separate and distinct from other parts of the
body. From this epidermal organ of sense are deve-
loped, as higher forms of animal life make their appear-
ance, the nerve-cells and sense-cells which form the
whole nervous system.
In the fresh-water polyp, or Hydra, which is wanting
in distinct organs of sense and nervous system, we find
a remarkable sensitiveness to touch, warmth, and light,
individual ectodermic neuro-muscular cells performing
these functions, but a far greater sensibility being exhi-
bited in the circle of fine prehensible tentacles surround-
ing the mouth than elsewhere. Here we have a marked
attempt at localisation of sense-organs, and a manifesta-
[7]
>tion of instinct, which makes the little animal shrink
from the touch.
From the Hydrse evolved the Medusae, which, instead
of being dependent entirely on neuro-muscular cells like
the parent forms, developed minute sets of nerves and
muscles, by the use of which they became enabled to
swim about easily and at their own will and pleasure.
We get in this little animal the first appearance of real
nerve function, or conductibility of stimulus along the
nervous fibre to a muscle which it causes to contract a
totally different function to the contraction of the whole
body upon a stimulus being applied to it, as in the case
of the Hydrae.
In the worm forms, which evolve from the Gastraaada,
we come across the first attempt at special sense-organ
formation, in the shape of depressions on the integu-
ment of the body. The Himatega, or sack-worms,
possess a rudimentary spinal cord, and were the parents
of the first true vertebrates, organisms without skulls
or brains, but with a true vertebral cord. These little
vermiform animals, in addition to their rudimentary
spinal cords, exhibited upon the surface of the body
several small depressions, which answered the purpose of
a set of special sense-organs, one tiny depression being
set apart especially for the perception of light waves,
another for the perception of sound waves, another
for the perception of odours, etc. ; and thus gradually
came about that wonderful evolutionary process by which
bodies became endowed with more or less perfect special
sense-organs.
As the animal kingdom developed into higher and
higher forms of life, and skulls and brains became the
order of the day, the special sense-organs became
possessed of larger powers, at the same time that the
whole nervous organisation assumed higher and more
complex functions, resulting eventually in a very gradual
unfolding of the most wonderful of all the latent poten-
tialities of universal life the marvel of consciousness.
This is the present climax of Nature's evolution, the
grandest and most awful achievement of that hidden and
mysterious force which baffles comprehension, and beside
which all things seen, heard, or felt pale into insignificance.
[8]
To point out the precise method of the evolution of
mind, step by step, until the final climax of consciousness-
was reached, would require an abler pen than mine ;
therefore I shall be content to briefly notice the different
products of intellectual development in the order in
which they are unfolded, showing the analogy between
ontogenesis, or the life-history of the individual, and
phylogenesis, or that of the whole race, not now as
regards bodily, but only mental, evolution. We must
ever remember that the biogenetic law insists that the
process of development in the race is reflected in minia-
ture in the embryonic history of every individual. In
other words, it is, beyond doubt, an accepted article of
faith with biologists that the development of the indivi-
dual from the embryo in utero to the full-grown man is
an exact counterpart of the development of the whole
race from the primitive protoplasmic atom, the lowly
Moneron, to homo sapiens^ equally in regard to mental
as to bodily evolution.
Every human individual commences his term of separate
existence as a tiny speck of protoplasm, and slowly
advances through the phases of separate cell-life, multi-
cellular existence, and the gastrula, vermiform, and pisci-
form stages, being finally born as a partially-developed
member of the human family, from which moment he
grows rapidly to the perfection of the adult state, having
accomplished, in the short period of about a score of
years, precisely what his counterpart, the race, effected
in many millions of years. During the period in which
the individual dwells in utero great and rapid modifica- -
tions take place in the general construction of the foetus ;
sensory perception makes its appearance very early, being
followed quickly by the first attempt at differentiation of
special sense-organs in the form of tiny surface depres-
sions ; the brain and spinal system gradually take shape
and make ready for future action ; and the little body
slowly assumes a form suitable for separate extra-uterine
existence. At the moment of birth the brain and special
sense-organs are not yet developed to such a degree that
they can properly discharge the functions they are called
upon to perform in the mature state; they have to
advance gradually to perfection in harmony with the
19]
growth of the whole body ; and thus it is that a newly-
born individual does not see, hear, or exhibit signs of
consciousness until some time has elapsed from birth,
although it is, at first, quite sensitive to cold and heat.
If a lighted candle be held in front of the eyes of a newly-
born infant, and moved to and fro, it will be at once
observed that the child is totally unconscious of it ; and,
if a gun be fired off in the room occupied by the child;
the effect upon the infantile organism is nil ; but, if the
air of the room be allowed to cool, the effect will be at
once perceived, for the muscles of the child will soon
begin to contract, and his vocal bellows to act vigorously.
Gradually, however, the sight, hearing, etc., become
adjusted, and the infant begins to take notice of surround-
ing objects, until at about a month after birth pain and
pleasure, the first indications of the dawn of the mental
powers, manifest themselves. Conscious, as distinguished
from instinctive or non-conscious, memory appears to
be exercised at about the thirteenth week, and to be
immediately followed by association of ideas, the recog-
nition of places and persons, and dreaming. At the same
time that these indications of intellectual development
are manifesting themselves, a corresponding unfolding of
the emotions is observed. Side by side with memory
appears fear, followed by pugnacity, play, and, later,
anger; while, still later, about on a par with the first
period of dreaming, or at about the age of five months,
are manifested emulation, jealousy, joy, and grief. In
about another month we notice that the child begins to
understand words, while, on the emotional side, he
evinces signs of awakening sympathy, curiosity, revenge,
and gratitude, followed within a couple of months by
pride, shame, deceitfulness, passionateness, cruelty, and
ludicrousness, which show themselves at the moment the
child appears to first exercise what we term true reason.
From this point we see rapidly unfolded the higher pro-
ducts of intellectual development, the first of which is
morality of a very indefinite kind, which immediately
precedes articulation at the age of about fourteen months,
being closely followed by knowledge of the use of various
simple instruments, afterwards at the age of twenty
months by concerted action, and still later by speech^.
[10]
which generally is effected at the age of two years, or
rather earlier. Following quickly upon speech we observe
judgment, recollection, and self-consciousness manifesting
themselves, and, by the time the child has attained the
age of two years and a half, morality of a definite kind
makes its appearance.
Tracing the child's development still further, we find
the next important intellectual manifestation viz., super-
stition to take place at about three years of age, while
concurrently the following emotional products appear
avarice, envy, hate, hope, vanity, mirth, and a love of the
beautiful, which are followed, in the course of a few
months, by awe and an appreciation of art. From this
age to the condition of adult life, the intellectual facul-
ties develop according to the surroundings of the indivi-
dual, while, on the emotional side, reverence, remorse,
and courtesy make their appearance at about the age of
five years, and melancholy and ecstasy at about the tenth
year.
In the foregoing ontogenetic mirror will be found the
key to the unfolding of the great mystery of the evolu-
tion of mind in the animal kingdom. We have only to
take the geological periods one after the other, and study
the various life-forms found in each to see at once that,
with the race, the order of sequence in the appearance
of the intellectual and emotional faculties is precisely the
same as with the individual. We may place the new-
born infant intellectually on a par with the lowly molluscs
or the vermiform little animals which existed in the
Cambrian period, in which little organisms probably pain
first made its entry upon the earth, followed by the
appearance of pleasure, memory (conscious), and associa-
tion of ideas in the lowly crustaceans of the later Cambrian
and early Silurian periods. With the spiders, fishes,
and crabs of the later Silurian and Devonian periods we
have brought before us the faculty of recognising places
of which these animals are capable, which places them
intellectually on a level with a child of four or five
months old.
The recognition of individuals next made its appearance
in the reptiles of the Carboniferous and Permian epochs ;
-while the birds of the Oolitic and Cretaceous periods
were the first to dream, and are thus placed on an intel-
lectual level with a child of five or six months. The
emotional development coincides with the intellectual,
just as in the case of the infant, for we find fear mani-
festing itself among the lower molluscs, pugnacity among
the crustaceans, play among spiders and crabs, anger
among reptiles, and emulation, jealousy, joy, and grief
among birds. We now rise in the palseontological scale
to the Tertiary period, and find in the Eocene age equine
and other mammal forms, such as cats and pigs, which
are capable of understanding words and signs, and among
which we notice a manifestation of sympathy, curiosity,
revenge, and gratitude. In the early Meiocene age we
have monkeys, dogs, and elephants exhibiting the clearest
signs of true reason, as may be observed at the present
day, and at the same time manifesting such emotional
signs as pride, shame, deceitfulness, passionateness,
cruelty, and ludicrousness, which places them on an in-
tellectual par with the infant of less than a year old.
In the later Meiocene age we have anthropoid apes,
which may be placed on a level with one-year-old infants,
and from which evolved apes of a higher order, which
acquired the faculty of articulation, and, afterwards
becoming more human, the knowledge of the use of
simple instruments, thus reaching the intellectual level of
the child of fifteen months old. As the apes became
more and more human in the later Meiocene and early
Pleistocene ages, they gradually acquired the faculty of
acting in concert and of speech ; and when, having
arrived at that stage of development in which they
partook more of the character of savage man than human
ape, judgment, recollection, self-consciousness, and,
lastly, definite morality manifested themselves, thus
raising the ape-like man to the level of the child of two
and a half years. In the lowest savages of to-day, as
well as in the old descendants of the ape-like men, super-
stition developed to a large extent at the same time that
the emotional unfolding proceeded in the direction of
avarice, envy, hate, hope, vanity, mirth, a love of the
beautiful, and afterwards art appreciation, awe, reverence,
remorse, courtesy, melancholy, and ecstacy, precisely as
with the child of from five to ten years of age. As the
[12]
race improved, becoming in turn semi-savage, semi-
civilised, civilised, and cultured, the intellectual powers,,
of course, developed similarly, until, at the present day,
we find men possessed of the most wonderful mental
grandeur, we might almost say, conceivable. But this
would be saying too much, for we must not forget that,,
just as evolution has continued in the past from eternity,
so will it continue in the future to eternity ; and who
can tell to what heights the human mind may soar in
the future?
Lofty as is the human intellect at the present time, as
compared with the mental powers of those we have left
far behind in the march of evolution, it is yet very far
from being able to grasp many of the great problems
of the universe, such as that of existence. Perhaps at
some future time, in millions of ages to come, these
great questions may be answered; but at present we
know they baffle the wisest men, and continually remind
us of the finite and limited character of our intellectual
faculties.
This comparison of the mental development of the
individual with that of the whole race is extremely
interesting, and provides ample material for thought.
By such comparison, and by it alone, can the science of
psychology ever be based on a sure and enduring founda-
tion. It is all very well for theologians and other biassed
people to declare that animal intelligence has nothing
in common with the reasoning powers of man ; but let
them honestly look at the facts as they are, thanks to the
indefatigable energy and indomitable perseverance of
lovers of science and truth, now presented to us. Candid
observers cannot fail to notice that the difference between
the intelligence of man and that of the lower animals is-
one only of degree, and not of kind. When we see
the order of sequence being followed in the develop-
ment of the individual so like that of the whole race,
not only as regards the bodily structure, but also as
regards the mental functions, can we help arriving at
the conclusion that the one is but the epitome of the
other, and that the superior intellect of man is but a
higher development of the so-called instincts of the
lower animals ? Have we not at the present day, among..
[13]
members of the human family itself, various degrees of
intelligence, from the almost barren brains of the lowest
races of savages to the brilliant mental achievements of
a Newton or a Spencer ?
It is beyond doubt that the intellectual superiority of
civilised man over his savage brethren is due to the
greater multiplicity of his objects of thought, and it
follows that savage man's intellectual superiority over
the lower animals is due to the same cause. The actions
of both have the same aim viz., the supplying of the
wants of the physical nature and the gratifying of the
desires aroused in the mind. It is frequently asserted
that man differs from the lower animals in possessing
the power of reflection ; but this I hold to be an ex-
ploded argument, and at variance with all recent teaching.
Dogs, elephants, and monkeys most certainly possess the
faculty of reflection, and it is not difficult to find races
belonging to the human family whose powers of reflec-
tion transcend hardly in the least degree those possessed
by the higher apes ; while the difference between the
reflective capacity of the lowest savage, which is of the
simplest conceivable kind, and that of the civilised
European, which has developed into genius, is enormous.
Then, again, it is often said that only man is emotional ;
but one need only have an ordinary acquaintanceship
with domestic animals to at once see the absurdity of
this argument, for dogs are frequently observed to laugh,
to cry, to express joy and gratitude by their actions, and
to betray feelings of shame and remorse; while horses
and elephants have been observed to punish their cruel
keepers in the most cunning manner and then to laugh
at the poor fellows' discomfiture. As to the " conscience
argument," so frequently brought forward, by religionists
especially, all I have to say here is that conscience, or the
knowledge of the distinction between right and wrong,
is not an inherent quality of the human mind, being
merely a result of the operation of the reflective faculty
aided by experience, as is quite evident from the fact
that the ideas of morality vary according to the age in
which we live. The same may be said about the greatest
of all the arguments against evolution viz., that of
language ; for, just as conscience is but a product of re-
t'4.3
flection and experience, so is language also. It is a
mistake to imagine that the power of speech is possessed
by man alone, and that his language differs altogether
from the cries and signals of the lower animals, for such
is not the case. Many animals possess the faculty of
speech, and human language differs from that of the
lower animals only in its degree of development, and
in no sense in its origin. Probably all language origi-
nated in interjection, or the " instinctive expression of
the subjective impressions derived from external nature,"
as Mr. Farrar puts it. And, just as the reflective powers
of the race were developed and shone more brilliantly
as each stage in the evolutionary march of intellect
was passed, so did language pass from the simple mono-
syllabic cries to the complex dialects of modern civilisa-
tion ; and it is worthy of notice that, at the present day,
or at any rate very recently, there were races of savage
men inhabiting this earth who possessed no language at
all, and could not, on account of their mode of living,
be placed on a higher intellectual level than the higher
apes ; while we have the authority of the leading philolo-
gists of the times in support of the fact that the mono-
syllabic cries of some of the lower human tribes are
quite within the grasp of the ape's voice.
Human beings have been discovered in wild and
hitherto unexplored regions who have not the remotest
idea of what we should term civilisation. They lead a
wandering and useless life, sleeping at nights, not in huts,
nor in caves, but squatting among the branches of tall
trees, where they are placed out of the reach of savage
animals. They do not appear capable of expressing
their thoughts in sentences, but make use of exclamatory
grunts, which serve the purposes of speech quite suffi-
ciently for their limited requirements ; and their general
appearance approaches to a remarkable extent that of
the higher apes, in that they are almost completely
covered with hair, possess a dirty brown skin, short legs,,
long arms, and full abdomens, can pick up stones, sticks,
etc., with their toes as well as their fingers, and show
few if any signs of intellectual powers. Let any one
visit the Zoological Gardens, in London, and carefully
observe the apes exhibited there, and then say whether
there is a vast difference between some of them and the
human beings who answer to the above description. One
need but visit the travelling menagerie of Messrs.
Edmunds, and view their " missing link," an excellent
sample of the chimpanzee troglodyte, to see that the
difference between man and the lower animals is one
only of degree, quite as much as regards intellect as
bodily form. I once saw exhibited in the Jardin
d 1 Acclimatation, in Paris, a lot of Patagonian or Fuegan (I
forget which) natives, who were very little superior intel-
lectually to the chimpanzee. They were stark naked, in
a wretchedly dirty condition, and appeared quite incap-
able of anything like sustained mental effort. But these
are by no means the lowest among the human species.
In conclusion, I need only re-state my opinion that
all so-called living things are but products of the develop-
ment of protoplasm, whether belonging to the animal or
vegetable kingdoms ; that this protoplasm possesses the
property of vitality, or the power of perceiving stimuli
of various kinds and responding to them by definite
movements ; that the phenomena of mind are but
functional manifestations of this protoplasmic develop-
ment ; and that the highest intellectual product of the
human mind exists and has existed from eternity in a
state of latent potentiality in every atom of protoplasm,
as well as in every particle of matter in the universe.
THE SPECIAL SENSES.
ACCORDING to the now almost universally (that is, among educated scien-
tific people) accepted theory of Evolution, each living being upon this
earth is a result of a very slow process of development, which com-
menced with a low form of life many millions of years ago, and has since
been operating continuously, becoming more and more complex, and
imperceptibly attaining greater perfection as each fresh stage was accom-
plished. From the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from inorganic
to organic, from Amoeba to man, the evolutionary development has
slowly, steadily, and surely advanced step by step, in obedience to cer-
tain well-defined laws. Yet it is impossible to discern in this slow
process of evolution any well-marked difference between one particular
species and the next of kin, although the difference becomes clearly ap-
parent if we take two species separated from each other by considerable
time ; just as it is impossible to detect any alteration in form and feature
between a child of six days old and the same child of seven days old,
while the change is very evident after the lapse of several weeks or
months. If we were to photograph a human being regularly each day
from the moment of its' birth to the time of its decease at the age of
eighty, we should be unable to detect any real difference between the por-
traits on any two consecutive days ; but the difference between the child
of a week old and the young man of twenty years would be enormous,
as would be that between the full-grown youth and the tottering old
man. As the human individual in its earliest condition of existence is
not possessed of the same faculties as it afterwards enjoys as a more per-
fect development, so, in like manner, the species in its primal condition
was wanting in the loftier qualities now possessed by the higher animals,
such as consciousness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, all of
which have been gradually evolved as the various life-forms developed
from lower and more simple to higher and more complex kind. For
instance, at a very early period of man's individual existence he pos-
sessed no brain, eyes, ears, mouth, or nose, and, therefore, was quite in-
capable of mentating, seeing, hearing, tasting, or smelling ; but, as the
organism very gradually developed into a higher and more - complex
kind, these various organs manifested themselves, and slowly arrived at
such perfection as we find in the human infant at birth. Precisely so
was it with the race. The lowly Moneron was of homogeneous struc-
ture, possessing neither parts nor kind, but gradually differentiating into-
nucleus and cell ; its descendants, the Gastrceada, becoming possessed,.
by a process of invagination, of an external layer of nucleated cells and
an internal and more delicate layer, thus forming a hollow organism, or
Gastrula. This external cellular integument was the original sense-
organ of the animal kingdom, from which developed the organs of spe-
cial sense. Though without nerve and special sense-organs, yet these
little hollow Gastroeada, and, in fact, their ancestors, the Amoebae, which
consisted of simple protoplasmic cells, each enclosing a nucleus, were
possessed with sensory perception, being influenced by light, and by
variations of pressure and temperature. As the evolutionary process
continued, and the animal kingdom assumed higher forms, the original
epidermal general sense-organ became converted into several special
organs of sense, each specialisation commencing with a simple depres-
sion upon the integument of the organism ; numerous little epidermal
nerves of perception were formed, which could perceive changes of
pressure and of temperature, and some of which gradually became en-
abled to understand particular influences affecting them, such as those
produced by a strong odour, light-waves, and sound-waves. By adapta-
tion, the extremities of these sense-nerves became expanded and en-
larged, so as to enable them the better to understand the particular
influences ; and this expansion was accompanied by a corresponding
depression on the integument, which cup-like formation afterwards
became converted into an eye, or other organ of special sense, very
imperfect in the invertebrate forms of life, imperfect in the fish, more
perfect in the amphibian, and still more perfect in the mammal forms,
such as apes and men. In short, the life-history of the individual is an
exact counterpart in miniature of the life-history of the species up to
the particular point reached by the particular individual.
The order and mode of development is precisely the same in
all animal organisms, and may be conveniently studied by placing a
hen's egg in an incubating machine, and carefully watching it for the
space of three weeks. It will be observed that the eye, ear, nose, and
mouth are not present at the commencement of the process, but make
their appearance later on, about the third or fourth day of incubation, as
tiny depressions on the integument, from which condition they gradu-
ally develop into perfect organs of special sense, as possessed by the full-
grown chicken ; the eyes, which receive the impressions caused by light-
waves; the ears, which receive those made by sound-waves; the nose,
by which odours are discerned ; the mouth, which holds the taste-organ;
and the skin, which remains the organ of touch and perception of tem-
[3]
perature. Now, when we consider for a moment these wonderful phe-
nomena, we cannot help being struck by the remarkable manner in
which the animal kingdom has been slowly and steadily progressing
towards perfection, in spite of the enormous physical difficulties encoun-
tered ; and we cannot help coming to the conclusion that, inasmuch as
there was once a time when no animal existed having eyes, ears, nose, or
mouth, and, still later, a period when these special sense-organs existed
in a very imperfect condition, it is highly probable that in the future
ages man, who now possesses special senses of a high order, will acquire
even still more highly-developed faculties.
In congratulating ourselves upon the advance made by our own par-
ticular species over other members of the animal kingdom, we must
never forget that, although we can mentate, see, hear, smell, taste, and
feel, while myriads of our lowly brethren can do none of these, we yet
are incapable of solving the mighty problems of the universe with any
or all of these organs without artificial aid. No man on earth has ever yet
been able to solve the mighty problem of existence, in spite of his great
intellectual powers. No man has ever yet been able to see a millionth part
of the wonders in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, with his
own unaided eye ; but with the telescope and microscope new worlds have
been opened out to him. We are as yet, undoubtedly, in but a transi-
tory condition, the victims of an imperfect organisation, subject to a par-
tially-developed brain and nervous system, and to five imperfect special
senses. We must accept the situation philosophically, and without
grumbling, and do our best to make good use of the senses we have, and
leave the solution of problems we are unable to solve to future races of
men, who will be possessed of better materials with which to operate.
SUPREME STIKIT IN THE ACT OF CREATION
JY VC?CA, TWO-^L2), THH
LEFT W/S FMKRITJ.* (
WAS HALF, TH
BRAHM
THE HrWDU ANDROGYNOUS
/r<m
ISIS, HORIJS WD FISH
From a.
Cc7vx.'i
of $ro*n,e**
TH l/HMC I//&&//V, /A/DRA/V,
THF H/WDU M3) VISHNU, NUKSED
, LAKSHMI.
DEVAK/ AND CHR/STNA
From, n 00 r' s " H tVi du,
//V2W
VIJKHN
, NURSED BY H/S
statuette iW Li
?nu$eum.
AMEN-RA
la. Hi.7i.2it. en 6 rav *.'?.
/Ifter tfrt,
/I A/J)
IDALIUM IN CYPRUS
After Jlotwl
ISI3
H07ZUS
EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA.
" KNOWING his adopted land well, the Eastern does not require recon-
dite volumes to explain ' Dionysiak myths ' or ' solar theories,' as the
old faiths are now called in the West. He sees these pervading the
tales and epiks of East and West alike, just as Yahvism or Yahu-ism
pervades the Scriptures of Jews or Yahus that ever-familiar and ex-
pressive faith-term by which alone Asia knows the ' Yahudean ' race."
While fully admitting the true character of the old faith as here
expressed, yet, with all due deference to one of such acknowledged
repute in the literary world as Major-General Forlong, whose splendid
work, entitled "Rivers of Faith" (Preface, p. xxi.) contains the above
paragraph, it may be fairly urged that the educated few only, both
among Easterns and Westerns, have hitherto been capable of discerning
the vein of solar myth which pervades all systems of religion ; while
the vast multitude of ignorant and credulous people even yet perceive,
or think they perceive, the Divine handiwork in the particular sacred
oracle to which they firmly pin their faith. The Hindu supreme deity
is known as Brahm, the Persian as Ormuzd, the Mohammedan as
Allah, and the Jewish and Christian as El, Elohim, Yahouh (or
Jehovah), God, etc. Probably few among the many millions who
worship these various deities know much or anything about their origin,
innocently imagining that the Deity they bow allegiance to once mani-
fested itself to some chosen individual, to whom it gave a revelation,
the facts of which were handed down to posterity. They little dream
of the vast cycles of time that have rolled past since the brain of
man attained such a state of perfection as to enable it to evolve the
idea of Deity. It is utterly impossible for the human mind to grasp
the enormous interval of time that has elapsed since primeval man
emerged from the condition of unreasoning existence to enter upon
the bright dawn of intellectual activity, which has developed into such
mighty proportions as we behold to-day. Let us carry the mind back
far beyond the Dark Ages, through the classic era, as far even as the
very commencement of Egyptian history ; and even then we find our-
selves but little nearer that remote period in which the first spark of
intelligence made its debut upon the platform of life. In imagination
we may go still further back, and view the wonders of that ancient Asian
civilisation which preceded that of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks,
and which was probably derived very gradually from the earliest social
conceptions of the Caucasian branch of the Polynesian primitive man.
Still we are ages away from the period we desire to arrive at ; and even
were we able to trace the human family back to that remote time when
man could not be said to partake more of the character of the human
than the ape species, still we should even then be unable to point to
the precise moment when intellect shed its glorious rays upon the race,
making bright, clear, and beautiful what before was dark, misty, and
unmeaning. The ancient Prosimiae gradually became Catarrhine apes,
which, in their turn, as slowly assumed the characters of the Anthro-
poidae, and afterwards of ape-like men ; but the time required for this
imperceptibly gradual process of evolution was probably many hundred
thousands of years, during which period, or perhaps even at a prior time
the first intellectual spark became manifest : how, when, or for what
ultimate purpose it is apparently beyond our power to devise.
How soon after the dawn of intellect the conception of Deity was
evolved in the human brain it is equally impossible to say ; but the
probability is that the date was a very early one, for it seems highly
probable that such a conception would be among the very first efforts
of the mind, the materials necessary for the stimulation of such an
effort being at hand at any moment. We can imagine our early fathers
groping in the darkness of ignorance, with mental powers on a par with
those of the awakening minds of our own children, seeing bogies in
every natural phenomenon, and tremblingly glowering at the spectra ot
their own imaginations. Having no experience of the past or know-
ledge of the future, they would indeed be in a most helpless condition,
relying entirely upon the instinctive capabilities they had inherited from
their ancestors. By degrees, however, their various faculties would be
further awakened by impressions received from external objects ; their
wants would be multiplied in proportion to their intellectual develop-
ment, causing them to manifest a desire for industry ; and their self-
consciousness would arouse within them a feeling of dignity and
importance to which they had hitherto been strangers. Thus gradually
would the race cast off its animal and put on its human clothes. The
old plan of hand-to-mouth existence would be abolished by the newly-
developed reason of man ; the innumerable dangers which confronted
him would undoubtedly stimulate him to approach his fellows with the
object of establishing mutual aid and of co-operating for their common
welfare ; and a feeling of confident superiority over others of the animal
kingdom would become apparent among them. Not only would man's
[3]
attention be arrested by the impending dangers of each day, the neces-
sity of procuring sustenance for himself and family, and the obvious
advantages accruing from co-operation, but also by the constantly-
recurring natural phenomena, such as the rising and setting of the sun,
moon and stars, the never-ending succession of day and night, etc., as
well as by the no less wonderful, and certainly more awful, occasional
natural occurrences, such as lightning, thunder, and earthquake. He
would be as much struck with wonder and amazement at the one set of
phenomena as with awe at the other. The returning sun-light would
each morning produce joy in his heart equally as much as the inevitable
recurrence each night of darkness would produce a feeling of sadness,
dread, and despair. We can easily imagine the long hours of horror
our first fathers must have passed through each night among the yells
and howls of the savage monsters by which they were surrounded, and
how they anxiously looked forward to the return of that glorious orb
which would bring back to them daylight, sunshine, warmth, and happi-
ness. What a boon it must have been to them ! Can we wonder that
they should have regarded the sun with particular affection ? It would
have been remarkable, indeed, had they not done so ; and it is more
than probable that this daily re-appearance of the sun on the eastern
horizon was actually what prompted the first conception of deity. The
very oldest mythology with which we are acquainted appears strongly
to bear out this theory, and, indeed, in every other mythological system
we find the re-appearing sun to be one of the principal objects of devo-
tion and affection. If we turn our gaze to that part of Asia, along the
banks of the Oxus, over which our Aryan ancestors wandered thousands
of years before the time of the earliest Egyptian dynasty, we find there
a clue to the origin of the original conception of deity. Among these
early people were composed the hymns of the Rig-Veda, which are
probably the earliest records of any race, and in which we find personi-
fied the phenomena of the heavens and earth, the storm, the wind, the
rain, the stars, etc. The earth is represented as a flat, indefinite surface,
existing passively, and forming the foundation of the whole universe ;
while above it the luminous vault of heaven forms a dwelling place for
the fertile and life-giving light and a covering for the earth below. To
the earth the Aryans gave the name of Prihovi, " the wide expanse ;"
the vault of heaven they called Varuna, " the vault ;" while the light
between the two, in the cloud region, they named Dyaus, " the luminous
air," " the dawn." Varuna and Prihovi, in space, together begat Agni,
the fire-god, the sun in heaven and life-giver of the universe ; and Soma,
the ambrosial deity of earth, god of immortality, fertiliser of the waters,
nourisher of plants, and quickener of the semen of men and animals.
In these hymns frequent mention is made of the joy experienced at the
[4]
return of dawn, and of the saddening effect produced upon the mind
by the ever-recurring twilight which ushered in the dark and dreary
night. We meet with incantations expressive of the wildest excitement
at the welcome appearance of the dawn-god, Dyaus, which heralded the
approach of the sun-god, Agni, who is led up to the summit of his
ascension, or bosom of Varuna, by the conquering god of battle, Indra,
the defeater of the evil powers of darkness; and we find the most
pathetical appeals both to Agni and Indra to remain longer over the
earth, and co-operate with Soma in replenishing nature, instead of
sinking into the twilight, or shades of evening, to be slain by Vritra,
" the coverer," and tormented in the darkness of night by Ahi, the
dragon, and other cruel monsters. This is precisely the drama we
should expect to find depicted in the earliest writings of man ; is the
root of all future religious ideas ; and is still to be found pervading
almost every modern religious faith. It is a beautiful representation of
the earliest yearnings and fears of our forefathers ; and, though the
picture is now and then almost effaced by numerous subsequent addi-
tions of mythological lore, yet the original conception remains indelibly
depicted in the religions of the present day, furnishing us with the key
to the study of comparative mythology.
It will be necessary, in order to compare, with any degree of accuracy,
the mythological systems which subsequently developed from this primi-
tive conception of a ruling power, to glance at the mode of distribution
of the various branches of the earliest human family ; and in doing so
we must ever keep in mind the more than probable fact that that portion
of the earth's surface which is now covered by the Indian Ocean once
formed a large equatorial continent, uniting the east coast of Africa
with Arabia, India, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula. Instead of the
rivers Tigris and Euphrates emptying their waters into the Persian Gulf,
and the Indus into the Arabian Sea, it is highly probable that these
rivers united to form one large estuary, which emptied itself into the
ocean on the south of the now submerged continent of Lemuria. It is
equally probable that the large rivers, Ganges and Brahmapootra, like-
wise found an outlet south of a line drawn from Point de Gall to Singa-
pore. On this submerged continent, and on the shores of these long-
lost streams, it is supposed man evolved from the anthropoid apes, in
the early Pleiocene, or perhaps even in the later Meiocene, geological
period of the world's history. The transition stage in the pedigree of
man between the Anthropoidse and true men that is to say, between
man-like Catarrhine apes and beings possessing a larger proportion of
the characteristics of the human than of the ape species is known to
Anthropologists by the name of Alali, or ape-like men. These wild
and ill-formed savages wandered about in bands along the banks of
[5]
these monster rivers, passing their time in hunting their less fortunate
brethren of the animal kind. In course of time they multiplied and
spread over the entire continent, killing all such monsters as interfered
with their safety or comfort, and gradually dividing and sub-dividing
into families and races, each acquiring, under the influence of the two
laws of selection and adaptation, peculiarities and characteristics not
common to the remainder. One branch wandered away to the west
and south, becoming the progenitors of the South African races ;
another found its way to the east and south, to people Australasia ;
while a third struck out towards the north, overrunning Malaya, Burmah,
and Southern India. This last branch, which we term the Malay, or
Polynesian, subdivided into two distinct families the Mongolian, or
Turanian, the progenitors of the ancient Chinese, Ural Turks, Akka-
dians, and Finns; and the Caucasian, or Iranian, the first human
inhabitants of South-Western Asia. Of these Iranians one stream, it is
supposed, found its way to the banks of the Nile, and became, in course
of time, a distinct and powerful Egyptian race; another, the Semitic,
followed the direction of the Persian Gulf, and settled in Arabia and
along the banks of the Euphrates ; while a third, which we call the
Aryan or Indo-Germanic, covered India, Afghanistan, and Northern
Persia, gradually extending along the northern shores of the Black Sea
into Europe.
Now, as already stated, the earliest known records of any race are
the hymns of the Jtig- Veda, composed among the Aryans of Northern
Persia, probably from earlier traditions handed down to them from the
older Iranian stock, or even from the still earlier Polynesians ; and it is
remarkable that in all ancient mythological records, as well as on monu-
mental inscriptions, the same vein of solar myth as is found in the
Rig- Veda is clearly traceable beneath the accumulated mythological lore
of future ages. The main idea in all mythologies seems to have been
that of a saviour-deity conquering the evil genius of night, or winter,
and bringing back the day, or summer, to replenish the earth. As
already stated, Indra was to the Aryans of the early Vedic period the
saviour-god who, with his companions, Vishnu and Rudra, leads forth
Agni, the god of celestial and terrestrial fire, to the bosom of Varuna,
where his influence operates upon Soma, the fertilizer of earth. A
conqueror from early morn to midday, Indra's power grows weaker as
the evening approaches, until at last the twilight yields him up to
Vritra, who slays him, after which he is tormented by Ahi, the dragon,
for the remainder of the night. This drama was probably derived from
the original Iranian stock, and as probably underwent considerable
modification before being finally committed to writing as a cultus by
the Aryans ; and, therefore, we should expect to find some resemblance
16]
between the Aryan, Semitic, and Egyptian mythological systems. This
is precisely what we do find on carefully comparing these three oldest
of all known mythologies, though, as will be seen further on, each
accumulates such a vast quantity of fresh mythological matter that the
original conception is considerably obscured, and in each the original
deities become in course of time so mixed up with one another that it
is almost impossible to separate their individual characteristics.
Although Agni was said to have been begotten by the conjunction
in the air of Varuna and Prihovi (Prithivi), all the principal gods, or
Devas, originally conceived as the phenomena and power of heaven,
were called the children of Dyaus and Prihovi, Agni and Indra being
considered the two chief of the twelve Devas. Dyaus, Prihovi, and
their progeny afterwards became endowed with moral qualities, and
were looked upon as creators and governors of the world ; and as time
wore on the original Vedic deities gradually gave place to purely solar
deities : the sun was called Surya, and differed from Agni, who was god
of terrestrial and celestial fire sun, lightning, and altar fire in one, the
soul of universe, and mediator between the gods and men ; Surya was
also Savitri, the quickener, who in the early morn rouses the sleepers,
and in the evening twilight buries them again in sleep; he is also
Vishnu, the companion of Indra, who traverses the celestial space in
three long strides he is Pushan, the nourisher and faithful guide of
men and animals ; and he is Yama, who traverses the steep road to
death and the shades. Thus the gods multiplied the original supreme
deity, Varuna, who was one with Indra, though different from him,
giving place to a multitude of solar deities, children of Dyaus, the great
dawn-god or day-father.
As the old Vedic language became lost to the people there arose a
custom of setting apart certain individuals to faithfully preserve the old
and sacred records, and thus arose the priestly caste of Brahmans, whose
duties consisted in transcribing the sacred hymns of the Rig- Veda and
preserving the knowledge of the sacred language in which they were
first written. The great day-father, Dyaus, now received the name of
Brahma, the magic power, and Prajapeti, the lord of creatures, and was
endowed with three divine energies Agni (fire), Vayu (air), and Surya
(the sun), which together formed a subordinate triad. Soma became
associated with the moon ; Asura became the demon of hell, which was
peopled with tormenting monsters ; Indra and Vishnu became blended
with Surya ; and Rudra was converted into Siva and identified with
Agni. As Brahmanism progressed the principal worship on the shores
of the Ganges gradually centred round Vishnu, who was supposed to
undergo periodically a number of Avataras, or incarnations, by means
of which he rescued fallen man from the fate awaiting him. These
17]
descents to the lower world were very frequent, and appear to have
had some connection with the zodiacal constellations ; for we find the
incarnation at one time taking place as a man, at another as a fish, at
another as a lion, and so on.
The most ancient of the Avataras was probably the incarnation of
Krishna, the Indian Hercules, who was mentioned in the Vedic writings
as " Krishna, the son of Devaki," and in whose honour festivals were
kept, at a very early period, similar to those connected with the cultus
of Bacchus. Megasthenes found the worship of Krishna prevailing
along the shores of the Ganges at the beginning of the third century
before our era, and described it as the worship of Hercules. This
incarnate offspring of the ancient sun-god, Vishnu, was said to have
been born at Mathura, a place situated between Delhi and Agra, and
to have acted the part of a saviour of the world and a mediator between
the gods and men. Soon after his birth his life was sought by the
reigning tyrant, Kamsa, who feared for the safety of his throne, which
necessitated the removal of Krishna to a place of safety. Arriving at
manhood, this young divinity slew the serpent Kaliya, and sported with
the Gopis, or female cowherds, among whom he had been brought up.
He was fond of wine, Bacchanalian revels, and sensualities, though
considered to be immaculately holy, and resigned to his fate, which was
to suffer death in order to relieve the earth of the burden of a proud
race. For this purpose he was incarnated in the womb of his mother,
Devaki, and for this purpose he lived and died.
In the mountainous regions away from the Ganges the cultus of Siva
was the more prevalent, Vishnu being considered of secondary import-
ance ; but, as sects gradually were formed out of the ancient religion,
one party preferring this deity and another that, an attempt was made,
which eventually proved successful, to re-unite the various religious
parties and re-instate the principal gods in their original places. The
ancient orthodoxy was brought into sympathy with the new religion in a
very curious manner, by making Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva a trinity of
essences or attributes of the supreme Brahm, each a supreme god in
itself, and each equal with the others in importance ; Brahma being
specially the creator, Vishnu the redeemer or preserver, and Siva the
destroyer. At times Krishna was added to the new trinity as a fourth
figure ; but this was an innovation which found little favour, inasmuch
as Vishnu and Krishna were the same god, the one but the incarnation
of the other. Thus the old idea of Prajapeti, or Brahma, with the three
divine energies Agni (fire), Vayu (air), and Surya (the sun) were
revived in a manner as a new trinity of essences of the supreme deity,
under other names ; and the arrangement thus concluded has continued
in use to this day with the orthodox Hindus. We find, therefore, that,
[8]
despite the accumulation of fresh myths, which grew larger as time wore
on, the original conception of the constant necessity for a divine saviour
was never lost, and that, as the approach of night in the Vedic system
was followed by the torments of the shades, and the powers of darkness
were destroyed by the re-appearance of the dawn-god, so also the
approaching extinction of the people under a wicked tyrant was followed
by the misery which preceded the appearance of the saviour-god,
Krishna. In fact, every myth that occurs in the religions of India is
built out of this original idea of the powers of light being overcome
by the powers of darkness and finally rescued by a redeeming god.
In later times, as the science of astronomy became more popular and
better understood, not only was the daily apparent course of the sun
the source from which myths were fabricated, but his annual apparent
march through the zodiacal signs was also drawn upon for the creation
of more imposing and elaborate dramas ; and in this manner were
produced the fables containing allusions to the two crucifixions, or
passage of the sun across the equator at the vernal and autumnal
equinoxes, and the rites of baptism when the sun was passing through
the sign Aquarius, and fasting during the period of the sun's transit
through Pisces, etc.
The religion of Boodhism is an offshoot of the Brahman system,
having originated in the so-called incarnation of Vishnu, Gautama
Boodha, whose powerful personality has left an indelible impress upon
the religion. This remarkable man lived about the end of the sixth
century ; but the real history of Boodhism does not commence until
about the middle of the third century before our era. The doctrines
taught by this great reformer were brotherly love, self-sacrifice, and an
eternal Nirvana as the consummation of all bliss. The doctrine of the
transmigration of the soul was still maintained ; but a state of Nirvana,
or absolute non-existence, was declared to be the deliverance from the
ejidless succession of re-births for those who, by their purity of life and
heart, merit such a blissful end. Admitting that men were born in
different castes, determined by their good or evil deeds in a prior exist-
ence, Boodha yet declared that all might attain the highest salvation,
and that none, not even those of the highest caste and most sacred
offices, could do this without having regard to the well-being of all his
fellow creatures. The authority of the Vedas was rejected by the
Boodhists, as also the whole dogmatic system of the Brahmans ; and in
their place was substituted a higher moral teaching, a more equitable
relationship of men, and a wide-spreading system of communism. This
reformation of ancient dogmatic faith was not destined to last long
uncorrupted, for the monasteries established by the Boodhists for the
purpose of affording an asylum to the poor and destitute soon became
[9]
infested with religious fanatics Jainas, as they were called, some of
whom went naked, while others robed themselves in white linen. These
ascetic monks looked forward to Nirvana as their final goal, practised
the most severe austerities, received confession, administered priestly
absolution, and kept regular feast and fast days ; but they discoun-
tenanced the growing custom of worshipping relics which was finding
favour with other Boodhist sects. Thus gradually the primitive Aryan
conception of a ruling power developed into a huge system of dogma-
tism, monachism, and ritual in the countries south and east of the Indus,
as far even as the confines of the country of the great Mongol race,
whose religion is as yet but little known to us, although it bears strong
marks of having been originally derived from the same source as that
from which came the Vedic system.
Having glanced somewhat cursorily at the religious development of
the Eastern Aryan peoples, we will now turn to the Western Aryans,
and observe the manner in which the old Vedic myth was perpetuated
in Western Europe, leaving the Central Aryans, or that branch which
remained in and around Persia and Western Afghanistan, for subsequent
consideration ; for, in this central district, the Mongol Akkadians and
the Semites intermingled so frequently with the Aryans that a very
intricate mythological system gradually came into operation in some
districts, bearing resemblance to the Vedic, the Semitic, and the Mon-
golian mythologies.
The Western branch of the great Aryan family, after penetrating
into Southern Europe, became the progenitors of the ancient Pelasgi,
the earliest known inhabitants of Greece, and through them transmitted
the original Aryan myth to their successors, the Hellenes. Homer, in
his " Iliad " and " Odyssey," written at latest B.C. 900, well describes
the religion of the Acheans, who inhabited Hellas for centuries prior
to B.C. 1000, and long before the supremacy of the Dorians; and, in
this description, as well as in that of Hesiod's "Theogony," written
immediately afterwards, there is exhibited a remarkable similarity to the
old Vedic system, the very name of the supreme deity being clearly
derived from an Aryan source, and that root being the identical expres-
sion used to designate the Vedic Dawn God. From Dyaus Pitar, the
Day Father or Dawn God of the Aryans, the Greeks derived their
Zeus Pater, from whence we get Dios, Theos, the Latin Deus Pater^
Dies Pater and Jupiter, and the French Dieu. Zeus was supreme
god, high above all others, having unlimited power, and living up
in the vault of heaven, surrounded by the inferior and subordinate
deities, who together formed his Olympian court. Instead of being
nature powers, these gods were endowed with freedom of action,
subject to pain and pleasure, and depended for their sustenance upon
food. The supremacy of King Zeus was firmly established ; he pre-
sided over councils of the gods to deliberate great matters, and was
not bound or fettered by any recognised restraint. With Athena and
Apollo, he formed a supreme triad, himself being the head, Athena
the reason or wisdom of the Divine Father, and Apollo the mouth,
revealer of his counsel, and loving son, who is always of one will with
his father. With Apollo was closely associated Prometheus, the great
benefactor and liberator of the race of man, who, according to that
beautiful tragedy of "yEschylus," brought salvation to the world in
spite of Jupiter, his father and torturer, by whom he was crucified on
a rock, where he remained in fearful anguish until liberated by
Hercules. Here we find the old Vedic saviour redeeming the world
from the darkness and misery of night or winter, the same drama
precisely as that described in connection with the Eastern Aryan
mythology. In both instances the apparent daily and annual ascension
and decline of the sun is depicted : in the one case it rises again after
its period of defeat in winter, or night, as the sun-god Indra, afterwards
Surya, and still later Krishna ; while in the other case it resuscitates the
earth as Prometheus, the benefactor of mankind. Just as Prometheus
was but the Greek counterpart of the Hindu Krishna, so also were
Apollo, Hercules, lao, and Dionysos precisely the same. Each was
the new-born sun, bringing back light and glory to suffering humanity j
and each passed through the very same periods of power, decline, and
misery before being born again.
Zeus was the sun-god par excellence, residing on the summit of
Olympus, or in the highest part of the heavenly vault, during the
summer months, when he was called Olympian Zeus, and down in
Hades during the winter period, when he was known as the Stygian
Zeus; and thus the oracle of the Klarion Apollon taught that the
supreme God was called, according to the seasons of the year, Hades,
Zeus, Helios, and lao. Apollo and Prometheus, although saviour
sun-gods, representing the new-born sun victorious over death and
winter, were yet one with Zeus, and merely repetitions of the same
character under different names. So, in like manner, Hercules was
not only son of Zeus, but Zeus himself, and may be traced right
through the complete annual circuit in his twelve labours, from Hades
to Olympus, and from Olympus to Hades again. Dionysos was, in
reality, not an Aryan deity, but of Egyptian origin, having been intro-
duced into Greece at a very early time, either from 'Egypt, where he was
worshipped as Mises, or, more probably, from Phoenicia, where he was
worshipped under the name of les, which accounts for the fact that
hero personifications of Dionysos in later times were accorded the
designation of lesous, ('IiyeroDc, or in capitals IH2OY2 Latin Jesus\
the Greek form of les (Ir/e, or in capitals IHS). This Egyptian saviour
sun-god became later the popular god Bacchus of the Romans, just
as Apollo had been the popular Greek divinity, and was thus described
by Macrobius : " The images or statues of Bacchus represent him some-
times under the form of a child, sometimes under that of a young
man, at other times with a beard of a mature man, and, lastly, with
the wrinkles of old age, as the Greeks represent the god whom they
call Baccapee and Briseis, and as the Neapolitans in Campania paint
the god whom they honour under the name of Hebon. These
differences of age relate to the sun, who seems to be a tender child at
the winter solstice, such as the Egyptians represent him on a certain
day [December 25th], when they bring forth from an obscure nook of
their sanctuary his infantine image, because, the day being then at the
shortest, the god seems yet to be but a feeble infant : gradually growing
from this moment, he arrives, by degrees, at the vernal equinox, under
the form of a young man, of which his images at that time bear the
appearance then he arrives at his maturity, indicated by the tufted
beard with which the images which represent him at the summer solstice
are adorned, the day having then taken all the increase of which it is sus-
ceptible. Lastly, he decreases insensibly, and arrives at his old age,
pictured by the state of decrepitude in which he is portrayed in the
images."
Yao, lao, or Adonis was of Semitic origin, although widely wor-
shipped in Greece, and generally identified with Zeus, whose Semitic
counterpart he really was, although himself a saviour sun-god. Yao, to
the Phoenicians and Chaldeans, was as Zeus and Prometheus to the
Greeks, and represented the whole annual circuit, though he was always
called by the Greeks specially the god of the autumn, on account of
his having, at that period, to part from his lover, Aphrodite (Venus), for
six months ; and thus there was usually a certain melancholy attached
to his worship, the oracle of the Klarion Apollon terming him the
darling or tender Yao ('law), god of the autumn.
As the Greek power and civilisation declined and the Roman
advanced, the god Yao, like his counterpart les, became one of the
most popular of the Roman deities, being worshipped under the name
Adonis in every city of Italy ; and the mythological horizon became
crowded with gods and demi-gods of every description, until, at length,
it became a very difficult matter to determine who was a god and who
was not worthy of that distinction ; for the Roman Emperors were
invariably deified, as well as others of less degree. The old Aryan
drama, however,. was preserved throughout in the worship of the princi-
pal gods, and has even been perpetuated in the reformed religion of the
Semitic communistic enthusiast, Yahoshua, which became, soon after
the commencement of our era, the popular religious system of the whole
of Europe.
We have now to deal with the Central Aryans, or Eranians ; and, in
doing so, must bear in mind that, while the Eastern Aryans, or Hindus,
and the Western Aryans of Europe, were almost altogether uninfluenced
for many centuries by the mythologies of surrounding tribes of other
and distinct families of the human race, this was far from being the
case with the Eranians, who were almost entirely cut off from their
Western brethren ; and, although still in comparatively close contact
with the Eastern Aryans, were yet completely wedged in between the
Turanian Urals on the north, and the great Semitic stream of life on
the south and west. Such being the case, it is at once apparent that the
religion of the Eranian people would quickly lose many of its distinc-
tive Aryan marks and acquire many Turanian and Semitic character-
istics. Bactria, in Eastern Eran (Persia), appears to have been the
ancient birthplace of this semi-Aryan religion, which afterwards deve-
loped, under the influence of that great reformer, Zoroaster (Zarathustra),
into the cultus called Mazdeism, or Parsism. From the Avesta, the
sacred writings of the Parsis, written in the old Zend language, we
derive considerable knowledge of Mazdeism. Ahura Mazdao (Ormazd),
the all-wise spirit, is supreme god, far above all gods, being creator of
the world, god of light and truth, existing from the beginning, and
eternal. Inferior to him are Mithra, god of light ; Nairyo Sanha, god of
fire ; Apan Napat, god of water ; Haoma, god of the drink of immor-
tality ; and Tistrya, the dog-star god. The chief goddess of fruitfulness
was Anahita, who in later time became an important deity in association
with the worship of Mithra, the son of Ormuzd. Mazdeism also recog-
nised a god of evil, Ahro Mainyus (Ahriman), who, with the evil Devas,
inhabit the underworld, and oppose Ormuzd on every occasion ; the
world lying between the two kingdoms of righteousness and evil, ruled
over respectively by Ormuzd and Ahriman. This dualism is the most
marked feature of Mazdeism, and runs through the whole religion, being
found in every myth, and giving rise to the most hideous conceptions
of morality. In the cosmogony of the Parsis the great creator, Ormuzd,
after making a perfect world and introducing a perfect pair of human
beings, is defeated by the wicked Ahriman, who creates evil, and seduces
the man and woman to sin, thus placing in opposition to each other
upon this earth the two forces, good and evil. To avoid the influence of
this evil force, and to gain that of the good power, was the great aim of
all true Mazda-worshippers ; and the means whereby this much-desired
end could be attained was the fire-god, Nairyo Sanha, to whom constant
supplications were made for this purpose. So great was the influence
of Ahriman upon human beings that the god of light, Mithra, was
promised as a saviour to come upon the earth and rescue his people
from the power of evil, his mission being to avenge his father's defeat
by the god of the underworld, after doing which he would ascend to
his father and become one with him for ever The Magi, or Mithraitic
priests of the "black art," or "hidden science of astrology," are thus
addressed in the " Zend-Avesta" : " You, my children, shall be first
honoured by that divine person who is to appear in the world ; a star
shall be before you to conduct you to the place of his nativity ; and
when you have found him, present to him your oblations and sacrifices,
for he is indeed your lord and an everlasting king," meaning that after
the constellation of the virgin came to the eastern line of the horizon,
as it did at twelve o'clock at midnight, between December 24th and
December 25th, in the period immediately following that in which the
words were written, the great star, Vindemiatrix, in the virgin's elbow,
would, on January 6th, begin to shine, pointing out to the astrologers,
or Magi, her exact situation, who would then know that the birth of the
god-light of the new revolution had taken place, and that by his re-
appearance he would declare himself to be the everlasting ruler of the
universe. Consequently, for centuries after this time the image of the
god-light Mithra was presented to the people for adoration every year
on December 25th, soon after midnight, in the shape of a newly-born
male child, brought from the recesses of the sacred grotto, or mystic
cave of Mithra. Another image, supposed to be the same deity fully
grown, was said to die, and was carried to the tomb after death by the
priests, who chanted solemn hymns and groaned. After pretending to
mourn for three days, the sacred torch, or emblem of new life, was
lighted, and the priests exclaimed, " Reassure yourselves, sacred bands
of initiated ; your god is restored to life ; his pains and sufferings pro-
cure your salvation." This took place at the vernal equinox, and the
people responded : " I salute you, new light ; I salute you, young bride-
groom and new light."
Like the old Aryan scheme, this Mithra myth was derived from the
constellations, having reference to the decline of the year in autumn,
the defeat of the sun by the powers of darkness (or winter), and the re-
birth and ascension of that grand luminary in the spring of the year.
Mithra was "spiritual life contending with spiritual darkness, and through
his labours the kingdom of darkness will be lit with heaven's own light :
the eternal will receive all things back into his favour ; and the world
will be redeemed to God. The impure are to be purified, and the evil
made good, through the mediation of Mithras, the reconciler of Ormuzd
and Ahriman. Mithras is the good ; his name is Love. In relation to
the Eternal he is the source of grace; in relation to men he is the life-
giver and mediator. He brings the Word, as Brahma brings the Vedas
[14]
from the mouth of the Eternal " (Plutarch, " De Iside et Osiride "). The
close connection of the later Eranians with the Chaldeans no doubt
gave the former facilities for studying the Akkadian astronomy ; and,
therefore, it is fair to presume that the phenomenon of the precession of
the equinoxes was well understood by them, which would account for
the fact that Mithra is always represented in earlier times under the
figure of a bull, and afterwards under that of a lamb. The reason of
this is that, prior to about B.C. 2,200, the vernal equinoxial sign was the
zodiacal figure of the bull (Taurus) ; while, after that period, the figure
of the lamb or ram (Aries) took its place ; and as the saviour sun-god
Mithra was the personification of the new annual sun, born in the
December constellation, crossing the equator in March, and thereby
conquering the powers of evil or darkness, he was invariably represented
by the figure of that zodiacal constellation which happened to be at the
vernal equinoxial point at the time.*
Having thus briefly glanced at the religious cults of the three
branches of the great Aryan family, and found the very same religious
conception of a divine and incarnate saviour, redeeming the universe
from the powers of darkness and evil, running through each mytholo-
gical system, we cannot help coming to the conclusion that, inasmuch
as the saviour-myth was developed into its full proportions long after the
separation of the families took place, and inasmuch as the development
followed similar lines in each separate case, there must have been some
common guide, and that guide was the unwritten word of nature as
expressed in the heavens above.
Leaving the Aryan stream, and turning back to that division of the
great Iranian family which migrated to the valley of the Nile, and which
we call the Egyptian, we find a very similar religious system in vogue
among them from the very earliest times, as existed among the Aryans.
The first settlers in Egypt carried with them, no doubt, the primitive
religious conceptions of their Iranian fathers, which were derived from
a contemplation of the various phenomena of nature, as previously
stated ; and it is highly probable that, at a very early period, they gave
considerable attention to the movements of the heavenly bodies, for
from monumental inscriptions, unearthed in modern times, which geolo-
gists inform us must have lain sub terra for several thousands of years,
we learn that the Egyptians, at that remote time, well understood the
theory of the precession of the equinoxes, placing the zodiacal constella-
tion of the bull at the vernal equinoctial point in the period prior to
about B.C. 4300, and that of the ram in the period immediately following.
It is probable, therefore, that hundreds of years before this time these
* Vide my " Popular Faith Unveiled."
primitive men of the Nile were engaging themselves with the study of
astronomy, and using effective astronomical instruments, which indicates
a high state of civilisation ; and this is further borne out by the fact that,
at the commencement of the first Egyptian dynasty, about the year
B.C. 5000, when Menes reigned over Egypt, there was every appearance
of a very advanced civilisation that had lasted for centuries. From the
" Book of the Dead " and the Prisse Papyrus (most of the former written
at latest prior to B.C. 4000, and the latter very soon after) we derive a
tolerably accurate notion of the mythological system of the Egyptians
during the first portion of the Old Empire, and probably many hundreds
of years previously ; while, from the writings of Herodotus, Diodorus,
Plutarch, and Manetho, we learn the progress the religion made during
the 4,000 following years.
The " Book of the Dead " treats principally of the refining processes
through which the spirits of dead people passed in the under-world, or
Cher Nuter, before being purified sufficiently to inherit a state of bliss
and become spirits of light (Chu) to be absorbed into the sun at the
point where it is born, and taken within it to An, the celestial Heliopolis.
Before the time of Menes the religion of Egypt was animistic, blended
with a vague kind of sun-worship, the supreme deity being, at Thinis-
Abydos, the ancient capital, called Osiris, the god of gods, son of Seb,
god of earth, and Nu, goddess of the heavenly ocean, and grandson of
Ra. Osiris was the sun-god of the daily and annual circle, who enjoyed
his spouse, Isis, the great mother, during the summer months and the
daytime, after which he was overcome by the evil Set-Typhon and his
wife Nephthys, and tortured in the under-world, until released by his
son Horus, the conqueror sun-god, who rose into the upper world as
the avenger of his father's defeat, and liberated the soul of Osiris from
torture, to be absorbed by, and for ever shine forth in the constellation
Orion, as the soul of Isis shines for ever in Sirius. At Heliopolis, An.
On, or Para, the city of the sun, Ra was worshipped as supreme god,
who as Turn, the hidden god, fought the demon of darkness, the serpent
Apap, in Amenti, and who rose again from the under-world as Har-
machis. Later, when Menes reigned as the first monarch of the Old
Empire (circa B.C. 5000), Memphis, or Mennefer, was the capital city,
in which Phtah was worshipped as the supreme god or creator of the
world (called Sekru, the slain god, when in the lower world), together
with Ma, goddess of righteousness, and Imhotep, the chief of priests,
whose name signified " I come in peace," and who formed the third
part of a kind of trinity, with Phtah and Ma. All these, and other
minor deities, such as deified kings, etc., were represented on earth by
incarnations in the shape of animals, Ra, Osiris, and Phtah, the supreme
gods, being manifested in the sacred bull Apis, representing the sun at
the vernal equinoctial point in the zodiacal constellation Taurus. During
six dynasties these gods were worshipped peacefully, their incarnations
and religious rites being protected by the kings ; but about the year
B.C. 3800 the kingdom appears to have dropped to bits, its religion to
have been mixed up in a most confused manner, and its people divided
into a number of small nationalities, with separate kings and separate
laws ; until, at length, the whole country was once more united under
the reigning monarchs of the eleventh dynasty (Second Empire), whose
capital was Thebes, and whose popular deity was Amen, the hidden
god, called also Amen-Ra, to signify that he was not only the sun-god
in the under-world, but also the rising and conquering sun-god of the
early morn and spring of the year. In fact, Amen was the sun-god of
the whole revolution, the Theban Yao, one with his father Osiris in the
mid-day and mid-summer, one with his counterpart Horus at the early
morn and spring of the year, and one with Turn in the darkness of
night and winter ; just as Zeus of the Greeks was Zeus Amen (Jupiter
Ammon), Olympian Zeus, Zeus Yao, and Stygian Zeus, according to the
season of the year.
Between the Middle Empire and the New Empire another catas-
trophe occurred to the Egyptians, in the form of an invasion of the
Hyksos, or shepherd kings of Arabia, who overran the whole country,
destroyed the temples, and levied heavy tribute on the people, eventu-
ally settling down for four centuries as Kings of Egypt, adopting many
of the native customs, and introducing many Semitic deities and obser-
vances. At last the Hyksos were driven forth, and the New Empire
commenced with the eighteenth dynasty ; but a considerable difference
was now found to exist in the religion of the country, partly on account
of the introduction of Semitic rites, and partly owing to the change that
had taken place at the vernal equinoctial point, by the precessional
movement of the zodiacal constellation Taurus. The vernal equinoctial
point was now (B.C. 2000) in the sign Aries, and therefore the principal
deities should be no longer represented as incarnate bulls, but as incar-
nate rams. Accordingly, we find that after this date the bull-god Apis,
or Serapis, gradually fell into disrepute ; and Amen, who was now the
supreme and representative god, was worshipped as an incarnate ram,
being depicted as a man wearing ram's horns.
Another mode of worshipping the young sun-god, born at the winter
solstice, December 25th, was that known as the Mysteries of the Night,
or Passion of Osiris, at which an idol of the infant Horus, or Amen,
called also the Holy Word, was presented to the people in its mother's
arms, or exposed to view in a crib for the adoration of the people by
the priests, who were, according to Adrian, called Bishops of Christ
the anointed one) ; and when King Ptolemy, B.C. 350, asked
the meaning of the custom, he was informed that it was a sacred
mystery. During these mysteries, which took place annually, bread,
after sacerdotal rites, was mystically converted into the body of Osiris,
to be partaken of by all the faithful, who were called Christians ; and
an idol representing the body of the god, stretched on a cross within a
circle, was placed upon the mystic table for adoration and praise.
The winter solstitial point is really December 2ist ; but the ancients
always kept the festival of the birth of the sun-god on December 25th,
because at twelve o'clock, midnight between December 24th and 25th
the uppermost stars in the constellation Virgo made their appearance
above the horizon, being the first indication of the birth of the new sun,
which had taken place exactly three days and three nights previously.
This gave rise to the popular superstition that the new sun-god was born
of a virgin, from whose womb he had been trying to extricate himself
for the space of three days and three nights. From this the idea pre-
vailed that the sun-god underwent similar periods of struggle also at
the summer solstice and the two equinoctial points ; and thus arose the
legend of the two crucifixions, the one at the vernal equinox, when the
sun in Aries crossed the Equator and was crucified as the " Lamb of
God" on March 2ist, commencing the ascension to heaven on March
25th ; and the other at the autumnal equinox, when the sun in Libra
(the balance of justice) crossed the Equator and was crucified as the
"Just Man" on September 23rd, descending to hell for three days
and three nights, after which he emerged into the shades until born
again at the winter solstice.
A very popular deity of the Lower Nile was Mises (drawn from
water), the sun-god of wine and mirth, who was born on Mount Nyssa
(Sinai), and was found as a babe in a box floating on the Red Sea, and
who, by means of his magic wand, took his army dry-shod through
the Sea and the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes, drew water from rocks,
and caused the land through which he passed to flow with milk, wine,
and honey. He was depicted with a ram's horn on his forehead,
being the personification of the new-born sun delivering the world
from the powers- of darkness, and was afterwards worshipped in
Phoenicia as les, in Greece as Dionysos (Aidvwos, God of Nyssa), son
of Zeus, and in Rome as Bacchus. The temples dedicated to this sun-
god were, in the time of the Greek kings of Egypt, very gorgeous, the
mystic table having upon it, not only the infant in its cradle, the tran-
substantiated bread, and the Osirian crucifix, but also a bleeding lamb,
the emblem of the sun-god at the vernal equinox, over which was
placed the Phoenician name of Mises, les, in Greek capitals (IHS),
surrounded by the rays of glory, to signify that he was the risen and
crucified sun-god, and one with Horus and Amen-Ra.
Turning to the third great division of the Iranians viz., the Semites,
who migrated to the Valley of the Euphrates, we find a more or less
complicated religious system, varying in accordance with the amount
of intercommunication which took place between the Semites and the
tribes belonging to the Aryan, Mongolian, and Egyptian families. The
earliest Semitic settlement was in the district stretching from the
Euphrates to the Red Sea and Mediterranean, and their religion was,
at first, one of pure animistic polydsemonism, varying enormously in
details of drama in the different tribes, but exhibiting in all common
characteristics.
All early Semitic peoples worshipped the sun-god, Shamsh, and all
were moon, planet, and star-worshippers to a very large extent ; but,
as the race became divided into Northern and Southern Semites, a
distinct difference gradually arose between the religious cults of the
two branches. The Southern, or Arab, tribes, on account of their
more isolated situation, retained the original Semitic mythology, worship-
ping the sun as their chief god, Shamsh, the moon as his consort,
and the stars and planets as inferior gods and goddesses, the Pleiades
being objects of special homage. Shamsh was father of all, and
disappeared to the underworld at night to rest in slumber until
awakened into activity in the morning as Yachavah, his son, who
became one with his father.
The Northern Semites, on penetrating, at a later period, the borders
of Mesopotamia, came in contact with a powerful and advanced civilisa-
tion, which had been already established by the Akkadian branch of
the Northern Mongolian family, and thus the original Semitic religion
became very much modified by the introduction into it of many of
the Mongol, as well as some also of the Aryan, myths.
Very little is known of the Akkadian mythology ; but it is pretty
certain that they were, at a very early period, acquainted with the
science of astronomy, and that the Chaldeans, their successors, who
were a mongrel race, partly Akkadian and partly Semitic, invented the
cuneiform writing to take the place of the old Mongolian hieroglyphic
characters. From what we know of the religion of the old Mongol
Chinese empire prior to 1200 B.C., it was a kind of spirit-worship, the
Shang-ti, or supreme spirit, being Thian (Heaven), who, in co-operation
with Heu-thu (earth), produced everything. Man, according to this
cultus, had two souls, one of which ascended after death to heaven,
while the other descended into the earth, both being absorbed respec-
tively into Thian and Heu-thu.
The Akkadians, who were but a branch of the same race as the
progenitors of the ancient Chinese, also worshipped spirits, the greatest
of whom was Ana (the highest heaven), the next Mulge (the hidden
heaven in the interior of the earth), and the third Ea, the god of the
atmosphere and of moisture. After these came an inferior group
Uru-ki, the moon-god ; Ud, the sun-god ; and Im, the wind-god. The
spirits were divided into good and bad, which were constantly at war
with each other; and thus was introduced into the religion of the
semi-Semitic Chaldeans the dualistic notion of good and evil existing
in conflict throughout all time.
The Northern Semites may be conveniently divided into four
distinct nations viz., the Chaldeans (Babylonians and Assyrians), who
were partly Semitic and partly Akkadian, the Aramaeans, the Canaanites,
and the Phoenicians. These peoples soon became acquainted with
the astronomical learning of the Akkadians, and were taught the
wonderful phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes ; and it is
highly probable that the fact of the vernal equinoctial sign having
changed shortly before B.C. 2000 from that of the Bull to that of the
Ram or Lamb had much to do with the changing of the old Semitic
name Shamsh to that of El, as a designation of the sun-god, El (^^)
being the old Chaldean word for Ram.
Owing to the mixed character of the Chaldean nation, their religion
was a peculiar blending of the Akkadian and Semitic mythologies, El
Ilu, or Ilah, being their chief deity ; but, instead of sinking into the
lower world each night for peaceful slumber, as the older Shamsh had
done, he became the victim of the wicked demons, who tormented him
all through the dark hours, until he was avenged by his son Yachavah,
who thereby became the conqueror and saviour god, one with his father
Ilu, and yet different. To a great extent the religion of the purely
Semitic tribes of the north was affected by this Chaldean myth ; but
there arose many points of difference between them. The Assyrians
worshipped El under the name of Asur, their national deity, the Baby-
lonians converting the name into Bel ; while the pure Semites worshipped
him as Bel and Baal in the west, and as Al in the south. Out of the
.story of El and Yachavah was fabricated the great Adonis myth of the
Chaldeans, which became so popular in future times among all the
Semites except the Arabs of the south, who retained the original cha-
racter of the supreme Shamsh, El or Al (afterwards Allah), and his
son Yachavah, afterwards Yahouh. This Adonis drama, as originally
conceived, was that El reigned in supreme power and glory in the
highest heaven, enjoying the delights of his spouse Istar, but that in the
autumn the wicked gods of winter overcame him, separating him from
his lover, and tormenting him all through the winter months, until in the
spring he conquered the evil demons as Adon, the beautiful youth, who
is restored to his mourning Istar. The worship of Adonis, or Adon
was generally adopted by all the Northern Semites, the god becoming
eventually the most popular deity of the Semitic people, being known as
Yao (lAft of the Greeks) to the Phoenicians, Yahoo OH* 1 ) to the
Canaanites, and Tammuz to the Aramaeans, while his lover Istar became
the Phoenician Ashtoreth. les, the god of wine, and Greek Dionysos r
was another saviour sun-god worshipped largely by the Phoenicians ; but
was most probably of Egyptian origin, being identical with Mises, the
Egyptian Bacchus. As already stated, the Southern Semites of Arabia
retained, in common with their Ethiopian brethren, the old and simpler
worship of the supreme god El and his son Yahouh, although, owing to
their propinquity to Egypt, many strange inferior deities had been intro-
duced into Arabia from that country, which resulted, in much later times,
in the formation of various religious sects, each having a particular
tribal deity, or patron god, though all recognising El as supreme. One
of these tribes, with Yahouh as their tribal god, on which account they
were called Yahoudi, having left their native Arabian home, penetrated
far into the country of the Northern Semites, learning from the
Canaanites, Phoenicians, and Babylonians the strange legends of the
Northern Semitic deities, including the Adonis myth ; and, after
wandering about for many years, one large portion of their tribe settled
in the delta of the Nile, while the remainder crossed the desert of Syria
and approached the confines of Babylonia, finally settling in the barren
and rocky interior of Syria, and making the spot where now stands the
small town of El-Khuds (Jerusalem) their headquarters. During their
long wanderings they became acquainted not only with the various
Semitic myths of the north, but also with the Babylonian and Persian
legends, and incorporated a quantity of strange deities and customs into-
their own rude and primitive religion, thus manufacturing a very com-
plicated and weird system of mythology.
The date of the Yahudean migration into Syria was certainly not
earlier than about B.C. 250, despite the declaration of interested parties
that these people were known as Israelites and Jews for centuries before
that time. The following quotation from Major-General Forlong's
"Rivers of Faith" is worth reproducing on this point: "The first
notice of the Jews is, possibly^ that of certain Shemitic rulers of the
Aram, paying tribute about 850 B.C. to Vool-Nirari, the successor of
Shalmaneser of Syria, regarding which, however, much more is made
by Biblicists than the simple record warrants. This is the case also-
where Champollion affirms that mention is made on the Theban
temples of the capture of certain towns of the land we call Judea, this
being thought to prove the existence of Jews. Similar assumption
takes place in regard to the hieratic papyri of the Leyden Museum,
held to belong to the time of Rameses II. ; an inscription read on the
rocks of El-Hamamat, and the discovery of some names like Chedor-
laomer in the records of Babylonia ; but this is all the * evidence ' as
to the existence of ancient Jews which has been advanced, and the
most is made of it in Dr. Birch's opening address on * The Progress
of Biblical Archeology,' at the inauguration of that Society. The only
logical conclusion justifiable, when we give up the inspiration theory, is
that Arabs and Syro-Phenicians were known to Assyrians and Egyptians,
and this none would deny. Indeed, we readily grant with Dr. Birch
that, 'under the nineteenth and twentieth Egyptian dynasties, the
influence of the Armenian nations is distinctly marked ; that not only,
by blood and alliances, had the Pharaohs been closely united with the
"princes of Palestine and Syria, but that the language of the period
abounds in Semitic words, quite different from the Egyptian, with
which they were embroidered and intermingled.' Could it possibly be
otherwise? Is it not so this day? Is a vast and rapidly-spawning
Shemitic continent like Arabia not td influence the narrow delta of a
river adjoining it, or the wild highlands of Syria to its north ? Of course,
Arabs, or Shemites, were everywhere spread over Egypt, Syria, and
Phenicia, as well as in their ancient seats of empire in Arabi Irak
(Kaldia), and on the imperial mounds of Kalneh and Kouyunjik, but
not necessarily as Jews. I cannot find that these last were anything more
than possibly a peculiar religious sect of Arabs, who settled down from
their pristine nomadic habits, and obtained a quasi government under
petty princes or sheks, such as we have seen take place in the case of
numerous Arabian and Indian sects."
Again, the author of " Rivers of Faith " remarks : " No efforts, say
the leaders of the Biblical Archaeological Society, have been able to find,
either amid the numerous engravings on the rocks of Arabia Petrea or
Palestine, any save Phenician inscriptions not even a record of the Syro-
Hebrew character, which was once thought to be the peculiar property
of Hebrews. ' Most of those inscriptions hitherto discovered do not date
anterior to the Roman Empire ' (Dr. Birch, President of Soc., op. cit,
p. 9). { Few, if any, monuments (of Jews) have been obtained in
Palestine ' or the neighbouring countries of any useful antiquity, save
the Moabite Stone, and the value of this last is all in favour of my
previous arguments on these points. At the pool of Siloam we have
an ' inscription, in the Phenician character, as old as the time of the
kings It is incised upon the walls of a rock chamber, apparently
dedicated to Baal, who is mentioned on it? So that here, in a most holy
place of this ' peculiar people,' we find only Phenicians, and these
worshipping the Sun-God of Fertility, as was customary on every coast
of Europe, from unknown times down to the rise of Christianity. The
Biblical Archaeological Society and British Museum authorities tell us
frankly and clearly that no Hebrew square character can be proved to
exist till after the Babylonian captivity, and that, ' at all events, this
inscription of Silo am shows that the curved or Phenidan character was in
use in Jerusalem itself under the Hebrew Monarchy r , as well as the conter-
minous Phenicia^ Moabitis, and the more distant Assyria. No monu-
ment, indeed,' continues Dr. Birch, ' of greater antiquity, inscribed in
the square character (Hebrew), has been found, as yet^ older than the
fifth century^ A.D. ; and the coins of the Maccabean princes, as well
as those of the revolter Barcochab, are impressed with Samaritan
characters.' " As to the Moabite Stone, I would refer my readers to a
little work entitled "An Inquiry into the Age of the Moabite Stone,"
by Samuel Sharpe, the celebrated author of " The History of Egypt,"
in which will be found abundant evidence to prove that the inscription
on the Stone is a forgery of about the year A.D. 260.
Apart from the history contained in the books of the Old Testament,
there is absolutely no record of the Jews as an independent people,
except that contained in the writings of Josephus (about A.D. 100) ;
and, although that author may be tolerably trustworthy when relating
matters near to his own time, yet in his description of Jewish
antiquities he evidently, as he himself asserts, rests only on tradition.
For instance, he alone records the story of Alexander entering the holy
place at Jerusalem and offering sacrifice on the altar ; but Arrian, in his
" Anabasis of Alexander the Great," where he specially treats of the life
and actions of this great conqueror, says not one word about such a
place as Jerusalem, or about such a story as that recorded by Josephus,
Curtius, who wrote a far more detailed account of the life and conquests
of Alexander, mentions neither Jerusalem nor the story of Alexander
and the holy place. Herodotus, about B.C. 430, when narrating the
two raids of the Scythians through Syria, as far as Egypt, says not a
word about any Jews. Xenophon, who wrote 150 years after they were
said to have returned from Babylon, or about B.C. 386, appears to have
been unconscious of their existence, only mentioning the Syrians of
Palestine. Neither did Sanchoniathon, Ctesias, Berosus, nor Manetho
even once mention them as a nation. Diodorus also, when writing of
the siege of Tyre by the soldiers of Alexander, neither mentions the
Jews as a nation nor Jerusalem as their chief town. In fact, we have
no account of them at all, except that contained in the Old Testament
and that in the writings of Josephus, until we find them subject to the
Romans, under Antiochus Epiphanes, about B.C. 165, when in all 1
probability they had just settled down into a dependent nation, having
been driven into Syria by the Babylonians, whose fertile valleys these
Arabian nomads had attempted to colonise. Being surrounded on all
sides by nations whose religions so very far surpassed their own in
development, it did not take long for the Yahoudi (afterwards called
tts-J
Jews) to become affected by the mythological dramas of their neigh-
bours ; and, in carefully examining the mythical records of their tribe,
\ve find that they very soon became acquainted with, and in some cases
offered worship to, almost all the purely Semitic and Chaldean, as well
as to a few of the Egyptian, deities. Their principal god always
remained as before, El (^v$) signifying the zodiacal sign Aries, the
heavenly ram and first of the twelve zodiacal figures. Combined with
Yah (PP), the abbreviation of Yahouh (PHPP), their tribal deity, it
formed a compound word, Eloh (nV*?^)> or Elyah (pp?N tn ^ 1 and **
being interchangeable), the plural of which was Elohim (C3ipT/fc$)> a
word used frequently in the Bible to signify the supreme God. Bearing
in mind the fact that the fables of the Bible are not actual history, but
merely so many accounts of the ever-recurring phenomena of the sidereal
heavens, and that in the various saviour myths the vernal equinoxial
sign, or saviour sign, Aries, was looked upon as the supreme god, who
housed the new-born sun on his first appearance in the upper world,
just as in the present day the song of praise on Easterday is " Worthy
is the lamb who was slain (crucified) to receive the power and bring
back salvation to the world," the meanings of these names of the
supreme deity become apparent at once. All the words and, in fact,
almost every divine name found in every divine record signify the sun
in one or other of the divisions of his annual or daily apparent march,
or else one of the divisions itself. El signifies the first and saviour sign of
the zodiac, the celestial ram, and is always used when the winter period
is referred to, because from the autumnal to the vernal equinox the sun-
god, Yahouh, is separated from the ram, El, which remains god of the
lower world, until again united with its spouse, the sun, at the vernal
equinox, becoming the ram-sun-god, El- Yah or Eloh, whose plural is
Elohim, the ram-sun-gods, from the vernal to the autumnal equinox,
when the sun and Aries are together for six months. At a later time,
when the old Bacchus worship was revived at Alexandria in the person
of the young Semitic Yahoshua, who was named lesous, we have a good
illustration of this when the sun-god, in his agony at being separated
from the ram at the autumnal equinox or crucifixion, exclaimed: "Eloi,
Eloi, lama sabachthani ?" " My ram, my ram, why hast thou forsaken
me?" In, I believe, every instance in which the plural word, Elohim,
is used in the Bible the reference is to the summer half of the year,
from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, when El and Yah are toge-
ther. We meet with El in its Babylonian form, Bel j in its Aramaean
forms, Bel and Belus ; and in its Phenician form, Baal frequently in
the Bible, and often in combination with other deities, as El-Shaddai
and Bel-Shaddai Onu^^Q), signifying the " breasted ram," or the ram
at the vernal equinox, the period of suckling.* Other forms of the
same divine name were Baal-Berith, god of the equinox or covenant
(co-venire, to come together, as when the ecliptic crosses the equator at
the two equinoxes or crucifixions) ; Baal-Yah and El-Yah, rendered in
the authorised version respectively Bealiah and Elijah, when in reality
they signify the god Yahouh, or ram-sun-god ; El-Yah also does duty
for Joel ; Elishah signifies the saviour ram ; Eliakim, the setting ram ;
Eleazar, the creating ram ; Samuel, the god of fame, or famous ram ;
Daniel, the ram judge ; and Israel, the struggle with El. The
Phenician Hercules wrestled with Typhon (the sun at the meridian)
in the sand, just as Israel or Jacob wrestled with Elohim in the dust
Hercules, like Jacob, being wounded in the thigh ; and the Canaanites
knew the Greek Hercules, who wrestled with Zeus, by the name of
Ysrael.
Baal-gad (1^^^) was tne d f Fortune, Gad being a Babylonian
deity representing fortune, which was placed at the foot of Hermon for
public worship. From this deity G D ("13) are derived the English
words God and Good, the German Gott and Gut, the Danish and
Swedish Gud, and the Wesleyan Methodist Gawd. Baal-Peor was the
Phallic deity (Deus Vulvcz\ god of the opening, worshipped largely by
the Hebrews, who, as General Forlong points out, " had a strong solo-
phalik fire-and-serpent cult. They all had Baal, Nebu, and Peor on
their high places ; Yachavah or Yahue, the ' Grove,' or Asherah
[Ashtoreth] and fire in their central groves." Baal Zephon was the god
Typhon ; Baal Hermon was another name for Gad, god of Fortune ;
Baal Hazor was the god Hathor ; and Baal Hamon (ptefcOVl) was the
god Amen, or Jupiter Ammon. The word Yahouh, in various terminal
forms, was frequently used to designate the sun at different times and
seasons as Joseph, the lamented Yah ; Jehu, Yahouh himself; and,
according to Gesenius, Jehozabad, Yeho the giver ; Jehohanan, Yeho is
good ; Jehoiada, Yeho is knowing ; Jehoshua, or Joshua ; Jehoshaphat ;
Jehoiakim ; Hoshea ; Zedekiyah, etc. Yahoshua (Joshua) was the
Canaanitish name for the Phenician Yes or les, and Egyptian Mises,
and became in Latin Josue, or Jesus, according to whether the Romans
referred to the Phenician or Canaanitish Bacchus, whose histories,
though similar in the main, differed considerably in details. The
Egyptian Mises became also the Jewish law-giver and leader, Moses,
and is described in Ex. xxxiv. as being horned like Bacchus (vide my
" Popular Faith Unveiled "). The Adonis myth occurs over and over
* El not only signified a ram, but also a lamb, or any other kind of sheep. The
vernal equinoxial sign, for instance, of the Persians was a lamb, while that of the
Egyptians was a ram.
again in fragments throughout the Bible, the Babylonish name Adon
frequently being found in that form (JIN), in its Hebrew rendering
Adonai P-lfc$), and occasionally in its Aramaean form of Tammuz.
It occurs alone, as in Psalm ex. i, " Yahouh said to Adonis, sit at my
right hand;" in Isaiah vii. 14, "Therefore our Adonis himself shall
give you a sign ;" and in conjunction with Yahouh, as in Isaiah vii. 7,
"Thus saith Yahouh, our Adonis," and numerous other places. It
also occurs with different terminations, to signify different forms and
positions of the sun-god as Adoniyah or Adonijah, Adonis is Yahouh ;
Adoni-zedek, the liberated Adonis ; Adoni-bezek, the rising Adonis; etc.
The old Semitic sun-god Shamsh remained, as of old, the Hebrew
ttffttt) (Shemosh), signifying the sun ; and his Greek alter ego, Hercules,
the sun-hero, was not forgotten either, for we find a very poor attempt
to reproduce him in the history of Samson. Moloch, Dagon, and other
Semitic deities are also introduced into the Jewish Scriptures. There
is one other deity frequently met with which must now be named, and
that is the Egyptian Amen--the Zeus Amen (few 'A/^y) of the Greeks,
and the Jupiter Ammon of the Romans. This god Ammon (]N or
pN) was worshipped by the Jews as the equal in power to, and the
very counterpart of, Yahouh, and was called by the very same names
by which he was known to the Egyptians viz., the hidden god, true
and faithful witness (which epithet gave origin to the Greek adverb,
'AprjVj truly)/ and saviour of the world, or regenerator of nature. In
Isaiah xlv. 15 we read, "Truly thou art the hidden god of Israel, the
saviour;" and, again, in chapter Ixv. 16, "He who ,blesses himself on
earth shall bless himself by his god Ammon (JEWnbN) ; and he who
sweareth in the earth shall swear by the god Ammon, because the
former troubles are delivered to oblivion, and because they are hidden
from mine eyes." This hidden or occult god, Ammon, or Amen, is
frequently addressed in the Psalms and other places, and is there iden-
tified with Yahouh and Adonis. In Psalm xxvii. 8, 9, we read, " Seek
ye my face. My heart said to thee, Thy face, O Yahouh, will I seek.
O hide not thy face from me ;" and Psalm x. i, "And why standest
thou so far off, Yahouh, and hidest thy face in the needful time of
trouble ? " Psalm Ixxxix. 46 says, " Yahouh, how long wilt thou hide
thyself?" Verses 49, 50, " O our Adonis, where are thy loving kind-
nesses of old, which thou swearest to David in thy truth ?" and verse
52, "Blessed be Yahouh for evermore (who is) Ammon, even Ammon."
In Isaiah i. 15 we also read, "When ye spread forth your hands I will
hide myself from you ; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear
you." We find the same god also in the New Testament Scriptures of
the later Christian sect of Eclectic Egyptian Jews. In the Apocalypse,
for instance, the word 'Aprjv is rendered " Amen " in the authorised
1*6]
version, and is sometimes met with as a Greek noun, 'O 'A^ v (never
heard of in the classics), when it is rendered "the Amen," which sense-
less rendering is no doubt intended to conceal the real and obvious
meaning. In Rev. i. 18 we read, "I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold I, Ammon, am alive for evermore," the word 'A/x n >- being
rendered "Amen;" and in chap. iii. 14, " These things saith Ammon
[" the Amen " in the authorised version], the true and faithful witness,
the beginning of the creation of God." As the celestial ram or lamb,
Aries, Amen is again mentioned in chap. xiii. 8, " The lamb which has
been slain from the foundation of the world "that is, each year at the
vernal equinox, when the occult god rose from his hiding-place in the
lower hemisphere to bring salvation to the world.
This concludes the examination of the old sun-myth religions ; but
there are yet three very important religious systems to be dealt with
viz., Confucianism, Mohammedanism, and Christianism.
Confucianism took its birth in the sixth century B.C., at a time when
the old solar myth was very extensively believed in China and the neigh-
bouring countries, and was, strictly speaking, a system of morality and
conduct. Its author, Confucius (Kong-fu-tse), was born B.C. 550, in
Lu, a province of China, and at a very early age commenced to preach
a higher and purer morality among the Chinese people, many of whom
became regular followers of the young reformer, and followed his good
example by likewise teaching the people at every favourable opportunity.
He was strongly opposed to all false show, hypocrisy, and deceit, and
abhorred the life of a hermit as unnatural and mischievous. He pre-
ferred not to speak of heaven as a personal being, as was the habit of.
his countrymen, but was exceedingly fond of quoting its example as the
preserver of order, frequently alluding to its commands, ordinances,
and purposes. He attached no value to prayer, preached the doctrine
that good and evil are rewarded on the earth by prosperity and adversity,
and expressed his disbelief in special revelations to men. The canonical
books of the Confucians are known as the five Kings (the historical
Shu-King, the psalms of the Shi-King, and the ritual of the Li-ki, the
chronicles of the Tshun-tsiew, and the magical Yi-King), and the three
volumes containing the remarkable and benevolent utterances of the
master Confucius himself viz., the Lun-yu, the Ta-hio, and the Tshung-
yung. In the Ta-hio occur those celebrated and beautiful moral
passages which have so justly immortalised the name of Confucius.
The one is the 24th moral : " Do unto another what you would he
should do to you, and do not to another what you would should not
be done to you. Thou needest this law alone ; it is the foundation and
principle of all the rest." The other is the 53rd moral : " Acknowledge
thy benefits by return of other benefits, but never avenge injuries."
['7]
Notwithstanding the great persecution of Confucians in B.C. 212, by
the Ts'in rulers, and other smaller attempts to destroy the new system
of morality in favour of the sun-gods, the moral code of Confucius was
publicly permitted to be used in A.D. 57, and since the seventh century
has almost entirely taken the place of god-worship, a few only of the
more uneducated classes still professing to worship Fo-hi.
Mohammedanism, or Islamism, the reformed faith of Arab polythe-
ists, arose in the sixth century of our era. Mahomet, or Mohammed,
was a young religious enthusiast, a camel-driver of Mecca, who deter-
mined to uproot the idolatry and superstition of the Arab tribes, and
was singularly successful in his arduous undertaking. He had a power-
ful aversion to all kinds of priestcraft, sacrifices, and superstitious
ordeals, and boldly preached the unity of God, declaring that " there
is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet." Of all the religions of
the world, perhaps none has been more successful than this ; and,
certainly, not one ever spread so rapidly over the face of the earth. In
less than 100 years after the decease of the prophet the Khalifs of
Islamism were masters of the whole of Northern Africa, Spain, and
part of France, besides a great portion of Asia ; which vast territories
they retained possession of for about 600 years, encouraging the while
philosophical and scientific studies, establishing libraries, schools, and
universities, and otherwise benefitting the human race. At the present
day upwards of 100,000,000 people embrace this faith, whose God is
Allah, the great unity, whose prophet is Mahomet, and whose Bible is
the Koran.
We now come to Christianism, that widely-spread faith, whose cradle
was Alexandria, whose nursery was Rome, and whose workshop was
Europe. The founder of this religion, if he ever lived at all, about
which there is considerable doubt, was a young ascetic monk belonging
to the Essenes a Syrian branch of the large order of Therapeutae
whose headquarters were in Alexandria. His name was Yahoshua bent
Pandira and Stada ; he was born about B.C. 120, in the reign of Alex-
ander Jannaeus ; and he preached the doctrines of Confucius, declaring
publicly that the priests were liars and hypocrites, and inculcating com-
munistic and socialistic theories. He gained many lowly followers, who
followed him about preaching in the open air, and begging their bread
from day to day, and, at last, was publicly executed for his seditious
conduct.
At the same time a remarkable mental revolution was taking place
in Greece and Egypt, the natural homes of mythology ; the University
of Alexandria and the Academic Groves of Athens were fast sending to-
the right-about-face the old superstitions, much to the dismay of the
priests and religious fanatics, who were driven to their wits' end to know
[28]
how to counteract this dangerous tendency of the age towards infidelity
and science. The idea struck them of utilising for their purpose the
new sect of religious reformers, who lived according to the teaching of
the young socialist, Yahoshua ; they boldly declared that this man was,
when on earth, an incarnate deity, and proceeded to attribute to him
all the miraculous performances that had been previously imputed to
the sun-god Bacchus ; and commenced forthwith to prepare their docu-
mentary evidences ready for the ignorant and credulous multitudes. A
new sect of the Therapeut monks of Alexandria came into existence,
called Eclectics, whose mission was to collect all that was good and
useful in the religions of their neighbours, and commit them to manu-
script for the use of their monasteries and the priestly class generally.
It did not take long to fabricate a very imposing story of the young man
Yahoshua, whom they now called lesous (T^o-oOs, a name used by the
Greeks to signify a hero personification of the sun-god Bacchus, the
Phcenican I^s), Greek being at that time the prevailing language of
Lower Egypt. The performances of the ancient sun-gods of Egypt,
Persia, Arabia, India, Greece, Phoenicia, and Italy were recalled to
the minds of. these Eclectic monks, by diligent search among their old
musty MSS., and, after carefully and judiciously collating the fables, they
were enabled to clothe their new lesous, or Jesus, with all the leading
characteristics of these various deities. He was born of a virgin at
midnight between December 24th and December 25th, as were all the
sun-gods : his birth, like that of Mithra and that of Krishna, was fore-
told : a star pointed out the place of his nativity, as in the case of Mithra :
his birth-place was a manger in a stable, as in the case of Hercules ; or,
according to another account, a cave, as in the case of Mithra and
Horus : he cured the sick, as did ^Esculapius : he fasted in the wilder-
ness, as did Buddha : he performed miracles, as did Bacchus, Hercules,
-and others : he turned water into wine, as did the Egyptain Bacchus, and
.as was done at the Bacchanalian orgies : he was crucified, as were also
Krishna, Osiris, and Prometheus : he rose from the dead after having
been in the grave three days and three nights, as did all the sun-gods :
he descended to hell, as did all the sun-gods : he was called Saviour
<(2amjp, Gr., and Saotes, Egyp.) and Lamb of God (Agnus Dei)> as
were all the sun-gods (Zeus 2om/p, Mises Saotes, etc.) ; Amen, as was
Jupiter Ammon (Zeus 'A/^v) ; Christ, or the Anointed (^pio-ros), as was
Osiris ; Son of God, as were Plato's Logos (Ao'yos), Bacchus, Mithra,
and Horus ; Holy Word (of Plato and Philo), as also was Horus ; God
of Love, as were Adonis, Mithra, and Krishna ; Light of the World, as
-were all the sun-gods ; and, like his alter ego ', Krishna, The Resurrection,
The Incarnate, The Beginning and the End, Existing before All
Things, Chief of Prophets, and Messenger of Peace : he was the
['9]
incarnation of one third of a trinity, as were also Horus, Krishna,
and Plato's Logos : his day was called the Day of the Sun : his
followers were called Christians, and his priests Bishops of Christ,
just as were those of Osiris : his priests absolved sins, received confes-
sions, and practised celibacy, as did the priests of Bacchus, Adonis,
Mithra, Krishna, Buddha, etc. : his feast was called the Lord's Supper
and the Mystery of the Night, as were those of Bacchus, Adonis, and
Osiris : these suppers became, in course of time, obscene midnight
orgies, as did those of Bacchus and Adonis : at these suppers the
insignia over the table were the letters I H 3 (the Phoenician name of
^Bacchus, in Greek capitals), surrounded by the rays of light and sur-
mounted by a crucifix and a bleeding lamb, precisely as was the case
with the Bacchanalian orgies : at the Lord's Supper bread and wine
were transubstantiated into the body and blood of Jesus, exactly as was
done in the case of Bacchus and Osiris : and lights were used at these
feasts just as they were at the Bacchanalian orgies.
These fables were carefully compiled together, attributed to various
imaginary authors, and finally issued to the people as an appendix, or
New Testament, to the volume of the old Jewish Scriptures, or Old
Testament. Thus were gathered together by the Alexandrian Eclectics
the principal essentials of all the old mythological cults, and thus came
into existence the huge and powerful system of religion called Chris-
tianism, which has been the great curse of Europe for well nigh two
thousand years. From the brutal murder of Hypatia, in a Christian
church, by the fanatical mob of a Christian bishop, down to the last
poor wretch burnt alive at the stake by the orders of the Church of
Jesus, the story of Christian infamy is not relieved by one bright spot.
Humanity stands aghast, and shudders at the hideous tale of crime
which the history of Christian Europe unfolds. It is one long wail of
anguish, poured forth by suffering man, finding relief only in the
silence of the grave that stronghold of peace within which neither
god, devil, priest, nor tyrant can wreak their diabolical vengeance further.
How terrible have been the sufferings of poor Humanity under the
ghastly shadow of the Cross is beautifully expressed in Shelley's " Queen
Mab," in the dialogue between the spirit of lanthe and the Fairy
Queen :
SPIRIT. I was an infant when my mother went
To see an Atheist burned. She took me there :
The dark-robed priests were met around the pile
The multitude was gazing silently ;
And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien,
Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye,
'Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth :
The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs ;
His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon ;
His death-pang rent my heart ! the insensate mob
Uttered a cry of triumph, and I wept.
Weep not, child ! cried my mother, for that man
Has said, There is no God.
TAIRY. There is no God !
Nature confirms the faith his death-groan seal'd :
Let heaven and earth, let man's revolving race,
His ceaseless generations, tell their tale ;
Let every part depending on the chain
That links it to the whole, point to the hand
That grasps its term ! Let every seed that falls,
In silent eloquence unfold its store
Of argument : infinity within,
Infinity without, belie creation ;
The exterminable spirit it contains
Is Nature's only God ; but human pride
Is skilful to invent most serious names
To hide its ignorance.
The name of God
Has fenced about all crime with holiness,
Himself the creature of his worshippers,
Whose names and attributes and passions change,
Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord,
Even with the human dupes who build his shrines,
Still serving o'er the war-polluted world
For desolation's watchword ; whether hosts
Stain his death- blushing chariot wheels, as on
Triumphantly they roll, whilst Brahmins raise
A sacred hymn to mingle with the groans ;
Or countless partners of his power divide
His tyranny to weakness ; or the smoke
Of burning towns, the cries of female helplessness,
Unarmed old age, and youth, and infancy,
Horribly massacred, ascend to heaven
In honour of his name ; or, last and worst,
Earth groans beneath religion's iron age,
And priests dare babble of a God of peace,
Even while their hands are red with guiltless blood,
Murdering the while, uprooting every germ
Of truth, exterminating, spoiling all,
Making the earth a slaughter-house !
There is no God ! What, then, caused this mighty universe ? To
be caused implies a cause, certainly ; and that cause must, in the very
nature of things, be adequate for the production of the effect manifested-
But, inasmuch as cause and effect are but relative terms, the cause could
not exist independently of the effect, and vice versa. Therefore, as far
as the human mind is capable of mentating, the universe could not
liave been caused. It is, therefore, eternal. What that inherent
power of matter is that hides itself so mysteriously behind the pheno-
mena of nature we cannot tell, further than that, being the inherent pro-
perty of eternal matter, it also is eternal. This point is the limit of the
Tiuman understanding, beyond which it is apparently impossible at
present for the mind of man to soar. In the words of Mr. Herbert
Spencer, " there is a power behind humanity and behind all things ; a
power of which humanity is but a small and fugitive product ; a power
which was, in the course of ever-changing manifestations, before
Tiumanity was, and will continue through all other manifestations when
humanity has ceased to be." This power, of which matter and motion,
thought and volition, are but the phenomenal manifestations, and
which regulates the varied movements of those myriads of stellar
systems interspersed throughout the infinity of space this exhaust-
less power of life and energy is to the human mind, as at present
constituted, unknowable. Call it Law ; call it Gravity ; call it the
Mysterious Unknown ; but call it not God, that word which has
brought so much bitter anguish to humanity, and which blighted the
beauty of nature, causing hate where love should be, and tears to
fall where smiles should gladden the heart of man. Whether or not
the mind of man in future ages will be able to lift the veil that at present
lies between him and the Great Unknown time alone can tell.
At present we are at the mercy of an imperfectly-developed nervous
organisation, with its five special senses, which, though very far superior
to the lowly nervous development of our remote ancestors of millions
of centuries back in the history of life, is perfectly inadequate for the
solution of the great problem of existence. But a time will probably
.arrive in the dim and misty future when other and more important
senses will be evolved within the human frame, which may bring man
nearer the elucidation of this greatest of all mysteries. Meanwhile let
us apply ourselves boldly to the uprooting of the old Upas tree of
religious faith that pernicious development of the god-idea that has
been the constant blight of all ages, stifling reason by fostering blind
faith and gross credulity, robbing the race of all that is noble, manly,
and honest, by the propagation of those canker worms, hypocrisy and
cant, and retarding the temporal salvation of man by the substitution
-of the vain and foolish theory of future rewards and punishments.
Pr'mhd by Watts & Co., 77, Johnson's Court, Fket Street, London, E.C,
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ZODIACAL MYTHOLOGY.
To us of the nineteenth century, who have our national
institutions for the discovery and propagation of scien-
tific truths, thus being saved the trouble of investigating
for ourselves, having only to open a book to see when
the next eclipse of the sun will take place, or whether
the Easter holidays fall later, or earlier than usual, it
seems almost incredible that there once existed races of
men who devoted almost all their time to the study of
astronomy ; but such is nevertheless the fact ; and when
we consider the different conditions under which society
existed in very remote times from what we are now sub-
ject to, we shall at once see that it was not altogether a
pleasure, but in fact a stern necessity, that impelled the
people of those early times to make themselves tho-
roughly acquainted with the various natural phenomena
taking place around them day after day, month after
month, and year after year. In those days, when writing
was either altogether unknown or limited entirely to a
few, and when such things as almanacks and encyclo-
pedias were not the order of the day, people had to trust
to their own knowledge of the movements of the heavenly
bodies and the properties and uses of plants, etc., for
the successful carrying on of their daily pursuits, which
were then principally of an agricultural nature. Instead
of watches and clocks, the people had only the sun in
heaven to tell them the hours of the day ; instead of
monthly almanacks, they had the moon for their guide ;
and, instead of annual calendars to mark the commence-
ment of the seasons, they had only the stars above to
teach them the proper times to till their lands and sow
their grain. Consequently, it was absolutely necessary
that they should be well acquainted with all the move-
ments of the heavenly bodies ; and we need only glance
at the earliest records of the human race to find that
[*]
they were more or less full of astronomical allusions in
fact, that the principal study which engaged the atten-
tion of primitive man was the study of the starry
heavens.
In my lecture on "The Evolution of the God Idea "
I have already pointed out how the earliest religious
conceptions arose from this study ; and in my " Popular
Faith Unveiled " I have endeavoured to show that, in
naming the constellations, the ancients adopted the
wise device of giving to groups of stars the names
of the particular earth productions or earth phe-
nomena that happened to take place at the time
when such star groups made their appearance in
the heavens. Now, it is a very remarkable fact
that in those ancient countries of which we have any
exact knowledge the heavenly bodies received very
similar and, in many instances, identical names, which is
just what we should expect if the above theory of the
naming be correct. Take the zodiac, for example, which
is the line of the apparent annual circuit of the sun,
and we find that in Egypt, India, Persia, and Greece it
was divided into twelve portions of 30 degrees each, the
whole circuit consisting of 360 degrees ; and the equiva-
lent signs bore a wonderful similarity to each other. In
the old Indian zodiac published in the " Philosophical
Transactions" of 1772 the signs are as follows, com-
mencing at the vernal equinoxial point : Ram, Bull,
Man with two shields, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Balances,
Scorpion, Bow and Arrow, Monster with goat's head and
fish's hindquarters, Urn, Fish. In the Indian zodiac
published by Sir W. Jones they are as follows : Ram,
Bull, Youth and Damsel, Crab, Lion, Virgin in a boat,
holding an ear of rice-corn, Man holding the balances,
Scorpion, Centaur shooting with a bow and arrow,
Monster with antelope's head and fish's hindquarters,
Man carrying a water-pot on his shoulder, Two Fishes.
The ancient Persian zodiacal signs were : Lamb, Bull,
Twins, Crab, Lion, Ear of Corn, Balances, Scorpion,
Bow, Goat, Pitcher of Water, Two Fishes. In the zodiac
depicted on the ceiling of the Egyptian temple of Isis
at Dendera the following are the signs : Ram, Bull,
Twins, Beetle, Lion, Virgin holding an ear of corn,
[3]
Balances, Scorpion, Centaur shooting with bow and
arrow, Monster with goat's head and fish's hindquarters,
Man pouring water from two water-pots, Two Fishes. In
Kircher's Egyptian zodiac thesignsare: Man with ram's
horns, Bull, Twins, Hermes with head of an Ibis, Lion,
Virgin holding an ear of corn, Man holding the
balances, Man with serpents for legs and having a ser-
pent twisted round his body, Centaur shooting with
bow and arrow, Monster with goat's head and fish's
hindquarters, Man with an urn from which water
was falling, Woman with fish's tail. Ancient Greek
zodiacs had the following signs : Ram, Bull, Twins,
Crab, Lion, Virgin, Balances, Scorpion, Centaur
shooting with bow and arrow, Goat with fish's
hindquarters, Canobus with his pitcher of water, Two
Fishes. The Romans followed the Greeks, and these
signs have since remained unchanged in all modern
zodiacs, being now known under the following names :
Aries, the ram ; Taurus, the bull ; Gemini, the twins ;
Cancer, the crab; Leo, the lion; Virgo, the virgin;
Libra, the balances ; Scorpio, the scorpion ; Sagittarius,
the centaur-archer ; Capricornus, the goat-fish ; Aquarius,
the water-bearer ; Pisces, the fishes.
Each of these signs corresponds with, a particular
portion of the year, varying according to the slow move-
ment known as the precession of the equinbxes, by which
all the signs are moved forward very slight!^ year by year,
at the rate of one degree in 71 or 72 years, until, at the
end of about 2,152 years, a whole sign has moved forward
into the position previously occupied by the sign imme-
diately preceding it. This is caused by the failure of the
sun to reach the same point in the same time in his
apparent circuit each year; and thus it happens that, in
a period of rather less than 26,000 years, each sign will
have moved completely round the zodiacal band. Now,
by careful calculation it has been found that the vernal
equinoxial point coincided with the first degree of Aries
about 28,000 years ago, with the first degree of Libra
about 17,000 years ago, with the first degree of Taurus
B.C. 4,340, with that of Aries B.C. 2,188, and with that
of Pisces B.C. 36 ; so that, at the present time, the vernal
.equinoxial point is really occupied by the sign of the
[4-1
fishes, although, for astronomical purposes, the sign of
the ram is always placed in that position, and will, for
the future, always be considered as the first sign of the
zodiac, no matter what sign may really occupy that posi-
tion. Thus there is now what is called a fixed zodiac,
which never changes, and which is an arbitrary arrange-
ment made for scientific purposes, and a real zodiac
whose figures move steadily and slowly year by year, until
at the end of rather more than two thousand years the
vernal equinoxial point is occupied by the sign imme-
diately following the one which occupied it during that
period of time.
Although now the fixed zodiac is an established fact,
such an arrangement was undreamed of by the ancients,
who regulated their almanacks from the actual sign at
the time occupying the vernal equinoxial point ; so that
between the years 4340 B.C. and 2188 B.C. the sign of
the bull was the first and chief sign of the zodiac, while
during the two thousand years following that is, until
36 B.C. the sign of the ram or lamb took its place.
The vernal equinox falls on March 2ist each year, at
which time the sun, having ascended from its lowest
point of declination (December 2ist), arrives at that
portion of its annual course at which the equator and
the ecliptic cross each other; and thus during the period'
when the sign of the bull was the vernal equincxial sign
the sun was said to be in Taurus, while in the following:
period, when the sign of the ram took the place of that
of the bull, the sun was said to be in Aries. In order to
understand thoroughly the apparent annual march of the,
sun round our earth, it will be necessary to observe the
actual double motions of our earth round the sun and
upon its own axis. Let us suppose that we are again in
the period when the sun was in Aries at the vernal;
equinox; on the 2ist of March our earth, in travelling
round the sun (annual motion), has reached a point
at which the sun is placed between us and the first stars
of Aries, which are then, of course, invisible, because
when the sun is visible it is daytime that is, the part of
the earth on which we stand is opposed to the sun,,
which renders all the stars in that part of the heavens
invisible; but, as the earth continues to turn upon its-
is]
(daily motion), we gradually lose sight of the sun,
.and as the darkness closes around us the stars upon the
opposite side of the heavens become visible; so that,
when the sun is in Aries, or any other sign, that sign is
.always invisible to us, and at night we see the sign that
occupies the opposite side of the zodiac. Day after
day, as the earth continues to move round the sun, a
few more stars in the sign Aries are covered, until at the
end of a month the sun reaches the next sign, Taurus ;
.and the opposite signs, which we see at night, have also
moved on to the same extent. Thus at noon on
March 2ist the sun is at its highest daily ascension,
south of the zenith, or highest point of the heavens,
obliterating by its effulgence .the first stars of the sign
Aries, through which it is apparently about to pass, and
. at midnight following the opposite sign, Libra, is seen
at the same distance from the nadir, or highest point of
the darkened heavens ; while a month later, when the
sun at noon is in Taurus, the sign Scorpio is seen at the
opposite point at midnight ; and so on through all the
signs, one month being occupied by the passing of the
sun through each sign, so that it passes through Aries in
March, Taurus in April, Gemini in May, Cancer in June,
Leo in July, Virgo in August, Libra in September,
Scorpio in October, Sagittarius in November, Capricornus
in December, Aquarius in January, Pisces in February.
This was precisely what occurred in the zodiac during
the years from B.C. 2188 to B.C. 36; but in the period
of two thousand years immediately preceding this, owing
to the precession of the equinoxes, the order was changed,
so that Taurus was the sign of March, Gemini of April,
. and so on, each sign being a month earlier ; while at
the present time Pisces is the sign of March, and each
other sign one month later than when Aries was at the
vernal equinoxial point. Each of these signs occupies
30 degrees of the zodiac, the whole twelve making up
360 degrees, which is the total length of the imaginary
sphere of the heavenly vault; and the ancients again
divided each of these signs into three portions of ten
degrees each, called decans making 36 decans for the
complete zodiacal circle. When the sun was passing
through a sign the astrologers publicly proclaimed the
[61
exact moment of its entry upon the first decan, which
they called the upper room, the whole sign being called
the house of the sun ; the second decan they called the
middle or inner room, and the third the lower room.
On each side of the zodiacal band there are also a
number of what are called extra-zodiacal constellations,
which never vary their position with regard to the
zodiacal signs, the constellations on either side of Aries
always rising and setting at the same time with that sign,
those on each side of Taurus doing likewise, and so on
through all the signs.
As the various astronomical figures became endowed
by the ancients with divine honours, each of .these signs
became associated with a number of romantic stories,
until at length the struggles, victories, and defeats of the
gods were told in such a variety of ways that sufficient
lore existed to fill, if written down, whole libraries. The
zodiacal signs were all gods of great importance ; the
planets were gods, the sun was a god, the moon was a
goddess, and the extra-zodiacal constellations were
either gods or heroes; but all were not of equal import-
ance, and, owing to the constant changing of positions,
some were powerful and victorious at one time and weak
and dying at another. The chief deity, which to the
Aryans was Dyaus, the day-father, became in later times
a concentrated essence of all the gods, and was supposed
to undergo all the vicissitudes to which they were sub-
jected ; but, inasmuch as the new-born sun was the life
of the world, bringing back happiness, and the vernal
equinoxial sign was the one at which his influence began
to be felt, these two deities were looked upon as god
par excellence, a dual deity, separate yet conjoined, and
of equal power and authority. So, when the bull was
the vernal equinoxial point, the sun-in- Taurus was
supreme god; and when the ram, or lamb, was the
vernal equinoxial point the sun-'m-Artes was supreme
God ; and, although it was only in March that the sun
was at the vernal equinoxial point, yet the bull-god, for
two thousand years prior to B.C. 2188, was always su-
preme, and the ram-god (in Egypt) or lamb-god (in
Persia) after that date. On leaving the vernal equinoxial
sign the sun passed into the next in order ; but, although
[7]
then not actually in conjunction with the chief sign, it
yet was but slightly removed from it, the distance grow-
ing larger as each fresh sign was occupied ; and never
were the sun and the principal sign actually separated
from each other in the zodiac, so as to pass into opposite
hemispheres, until the autumnal equinoxial point was
crossed, after which the sun passed successively through
all the winter constellations, being separated for the
space of six months from the sign of the vernal equinox.
Therefore the six summer signs were accounted specially
bountiful and holy, the sign of the vernal equinox being
the head and chief of the six, while the six winter signs
were accounted less holy, but quite as powerful for evil
as the others were for good.
From this was formed the main drama of all subsequent
mythological systems, the groundwork of which was,
briefly, as follows : The saviour-sun-god was born at
the winter solstice, and ascended to the vernal equinox,
where he was united with the bull, becoming the bull-
god, and in aftertime with the ram or lamb, becoming
the ram-god or lamb-god ; after crossing the equator at
the spring covenant, or coming together of the equator
and ecliptic, he ascended to the summit of the heavens,
becoming the lion-god, at the height of his power, and
then descending again to the autumnal covenant, or
equinox, to pass through the winter or scorpion signs,
alone, and mourning the loss of the vernal equinoxial
sign, which was torn from him at the autumnal equinox.
This simple narrative received numerous embellish-
ments in after times, according to the fancy of the
astrologers and priests, who, in many cases, contrived to
make out of it a beautiful poem or a sublime allegorical
drama.
In describing the entry of the sun upon any particular
sign the ancient astrologers were in the habit of referring,
not only to the sign itself and to its decans, but also to
the accompanying extra-zodiacal constellations, as well
as to the visible zodiacal signs and extra-zodiacal constel-
lations of the opposite hemisphere. For instance, during
the period of the lamb's supremacy (B.C. 2188 to B.C. 36)
the position of the stars at the moment of the commence-
ment of the annual apparent march of the sun round the
zodiac was as follows : The first stars of the zodiacal
sign Capricornus were at the winter solstitial point,
December 2ist, and invisible to the eye, being directly
south of the zenith at noon, the extra-zodiacal constel-
lations Pisa's Australis on the south, and Aquila on the
north, being on either side of it, and the zodiacal signs
Sagittarius in front and Aquarius behind, accompanying
it in its march ; while on the opposite side of the zodiac,
at midnight, was seen, directly to the south of the nadir,
the sign Cancer, in which were the Pr&sepe, or stable of
Augias ; the lo-sepe, cradle of Jupiter or manger of Jao ;
and the Aselli, or two asses ; on the east the sign Virgo
was just about to appear above the horizon ; on the
western horizon was the sign Aries, above which, and
crossing the equator, was the extra-zodiacal constella-
tion Orion, with the three large stars in his belt ; and
immediately below which was the sea monster Cetus,
just sinking below the horizon. In proclaiming the birth
of the sun at Christmas, therefore, the astrologers would
make mention of all these points ; and, consequently,
the more prominent and interesting of them would
become impressed more or less upon the minds of the
people, to be converted in after times into various fantastic
and romantic fables, as the manufacture of gods out of
these astronomical phenomena proceeded.
The principal astronomical features of this annual sun-
birth were, therefore, as follows : The birth took place
in the house of the goat, exactly opposite to which were
the manger of Jao and the stable of Augias, between
two asses ; at the same moment the virgin was about to
appear above the eastern horizon; the lamb was, as it
were, hurling the sea monster Cetus below the western
horizon ; and the three brilliant stars, called the three
kings, in the belt of Orion, were shining above the lamb,
on the opposite horizon to where, after the lapse oi"
sixteen days (January 6th), would appear that brilliant
star Vindemiatrix, the Virgin by that time having risen
sufficiently high above the horizon for that orb, which is
situated in her elbow, to be seen at midnight.
All the subsequent fables concerning the birth of a
saviour-god were but modifications of this. Mithra,
Krishna, Horus, Bacchus, Jesus, and, in fact, all the sun-
19]
gods, were born on December 25th, at midnight; and
the stories related of each bore a marked resemblance
to each other. The real birthday of the sun-god was
December 22nd, at the first hour; but it was always
reckoned from the same time on December 25th, because
at that moment, and not before, the first stars of Virgo
appeared above the horizon, which was the sign by which
it became known that the birth had actually taken place
three days and three nights previously. This gave rise
to a popular notion that the sun-god struggled for that
length of time at each of the solstitial and. equinoxial
points, and accounts for the fable of the two crucifixions
when the sun-god, in crossing the equator in March and
September, was, for three days and three nights, in torture
before he finally ascended to heaven in the one case,
and descended to hell in the other.
The Christian myth of the birth and death of the
saviour-god, although now considerably amplified and
converted into a long history, was originally, no doubt,
of a much simpler form, and, probably, of the following
nature : Jesus, the sun-god, was born at midnight,
between December 24th and December 25th, his mother,
Virgo, having been three days and three nights in the
agony of childbirth ; the virgin, not being allowed to
enter the house of the goat, being on the opposite side
of the zodiac, was obliged to seek refuge in the stable
of Augias (Cancer), and place her baby in the manger Oi
Jao, at which moment the lamb of god, Aries, hurled
into the abyss the great monster of evil, or Cetus \ the
three kings in the belt of Orion, perceiving, on January
6th, the great star Vindemiatrix rise in the east, which
was their guiding star, made obeisance to the new-born
god and disappeared below the horizon, going down by
the west, instead of returning by the east, or way they had
come. Growing from this moment, the young sun-god
commenced his journey towards the city of god, the
summer solstice, at the top of the hill, or height ot
annual ascension, meeting at the outset Aquarius, the
man with the pitcher of water, or John the Baptist, with
whom he remained for a time ; after which he entered
upon the season of fasting, or the sign Pisces, the fishes,
and prepared by austerities for the coming feast of the
[10]
Passover, or coming together (covenant) of the ecliptk
and equator, when he would be crucified that is, be
placed cross-wise on the two lines (ecliptic and equator).
After this he entered into the sign, Aries, the lamb,
having been shown the way by the man with the pitcher
of water, Aquarius, and partook of the feast in the upper
room or first decan, immediately after which he was-
crucified as the lamb of god that is, passed the cross-
ing of the equator and ecliptic in the sign of the lamb-.
For three days and three nights he struggled in the-
tomb, or suspense, and then ascended into heaven r
accompanied by the lamb, passing the signs Taurus and
Gemini, saying to the twins that he could stay with them
but a little while, and where he was going they could
not go (John xii.), and finally reaching the city of heaven,
Jerusalem, or Cancer, passing over the two asses (Aselli)
at the entrance to it. Here, on the top of the mount,
or at the height of his annual ascension, he had another
three days and three nights of tribulation, struggling
with the devil, the heavenly serpent, who had led or
preceded him up the mount, but who left him as soon as
he arrived at the top ; for Serpens, at this point, returns-
while the sun commences his descent towards the
autumnal crucifixion. Passing into Leo, he was trans-
figured on the mount that is, became more resplendent
than ever, after which he entered Virgo, where the seduc-
tions of the lady sorely tempted him, for being offered
the juice of the autumn grape he drank copiously with-
the damsel until none was left ; whereupon she suggested
that he should turn water into wine, but he resisted
further temptation, exclaiming, " Woman, what have I
to do with thee ?" and pursued his course towards the
autumnal equinox, where he passed into Libra and
crossed the equator and ecliptic again, or, in other words,
was crucified in Egypt as the "just man," being at length
separated from Aries for six months, which caused him
to exclaim in grief, " My ram ! my ram ! why hast thou
forsaken me?" After three days' and three nights'
struggle he descended into hell, the tomb, or the dark
regions, to be born again at the winter solstice as before ;,
after which he would reconquer the powers of evil, or
the winter signs, and again become the lamb of god,.
" slain from the foundation of the world " (Rev. xiii. 8)
the Amen, or Jupiter Ammon, of the Apocalypse, at
which moment he exclaims, " I am he that liveth and
was dead, and behold I, Arnen, am alive for evermore "
(Rev. i. 1 8), and " These things saith Amen, the true and
faithful witness, the beginning of the creation of God "
(Rev. iii. 14). The winter period, commencing with
Libra, was called by the ancients the period of scorpions,
because Scorpio was the principal sign of the period, and
next after the equinoxial sign ; Egypt (see Rev. xi. 8),
because, that being the most southerly country then
known, the sun appeared to descend into it at that time
of the year ; and Sodom, Gomorrah, etc., because it was
a period of evil. The sea-monster, Cetus, is the same
that is referred to in Rev. xiii. as blasphemy, with a
mouth like a lion, feet like a bear, and leopard-like marks
on its forequarters, and whose number was declared to
be 666, which figure being made up of D 60, r\ 400,
") 6, and 1 200, stands fci the word "YinD> Setur, the
concealed one, the Latin equivalent of which is Cetus*
This was probably something like the original Christian
myth, which, as time wore on, became converted into
the absurd story presented to us in the four Gospels.
The story of Adonis being separated from his darling
Venus for six months, and being afterwards re -united to
her in love for another six months, was fabricated from
the same source ; as also were the legends of Osiris and
Horus, Vishnu and Krishna, Ormuzd and Mithras,
Jupiter and Apollo, Jupiter and Bacchus, and Jupiter
and Hercules. The cult of Bacchus, indeed, was almost
a fac simile of those of Jesus and Adonis, the three
being but representations in different countries of the
very same drama. The twelve labours of Hercules were
no more than the passage of the sun through the twelve
signs of the zodiac, just as the twelve patriarchs, the
twelve tribes, the twelve stones, and the twelve apostles
were the twelve signs themselves. In my " Popular
Faith Unveiled" I have pointed out the reasons for
thinking the twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve
apostles to be the twelve zodiacal signs ; but I may here
state that, on re-consideration, I am inclined to modify
the order maintained there in regard to the twelve
of Jacob (p. 122) by changing the places of Benjamin
and Zebulun, the former being, in my present opinion,
the sign Gemini] and the latter Capricornus ; and as to
the twelve apostles, I may here supply an omission made
in the same work, by stating that Andrew (p. 198) repre-
sents Aries, of March, being always depicted with a x ,
which forms the angle made by the crossing of the equator
and ecliptic on March 2ist. The mystic number seven
was derived from the summer signs of the zodiac, in-
cluding the two equinoxial signs, which were called the
pillars of the temple, the vault of the summer heavens
being the temple itself. Thus arose the allusions to the
seven trumpets, the seven candlesticks, the seven
churches, and the seven seals in the Apocalypse, each of
which was a summer zodiacal sign ; and here I may again
supply an omission in my " Popular Faith Unveiled "
(p. 246) by stating that the church of Smyrna repre-
sented Virgo, of August, in which month bundles of
myrrh were always offered to the sun, the word ^vpva
signifying "myrrh."
Besides mystic numbers, there were a number of
mystic symbols in use among the ancients, by which the
great and important phenomena in nature were kept
constantly before the eyes of the people. The chief and
most widely known symbol is the cross, representing the
ascending sun bringing back fresh life to the world at
the vernal equinox ; but the cross was by no means the
only symbol of this important occurrence ; trees, torches,
the male organs of generation, or ..phallus, and various
animals were frequently used for the same purpose in
fact, the symbolical worship of the ancients assumed
gigantic proportions, almost every conceivable device
being seized upon to render homage to the great re-fer-
tiliser of the earth. No one of the religious cults was
free from a large admixture of what is known as phallic
worship that is, worship of the fertilising principle ; and
it was a common custom for people to swear by their
generative organs, as being the most sacred things on
earth, representing the divine energy in a state of pro-
creative activity. Thus we find in Psalm Ixxxix. 49 the
following words (literally translated) : " O my Adonis,
where are thy endearments of old, which thou swearedst
for the sake of love by thy phallus, O Ammon ?" The
Hebrew letter j~| was the sign of the cross, or phallus,,
which was also used by the Phoenicians, being derived
from the Arabic v^, the symbol of the life-giver. This
passage evidently had reference to the violent death of
Adonis, who, at the autumnal equinox, was attacked by
a wild boar, which tore away his generative organs and ren-
dered him consequently impotent, until he was born again,
when he acquired fresh powers and grew in beauty and
stature, ready to re-unite with Venus at the spring equinox.
On the mithraitic monuments the spring equinox is
represented by lighted and elevated torches, trees covered
with leaves, entire bulls, and young men holding lighted
torches ; while the autumnal equinox is represented by a,
hydra, or long serpent, a scorpion, reversed and extin-
guished torches, trees loaded with autumn fruits, a bull
with its generative organs torn away, and old men hold-
ing reversed and extinguished torches. The Rev. G.
W. Cox, M.A. and scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in
his "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," says : " The male
and female powers of nature were denoted respectively
by an upright and an oval emblem, and the conjunction
of the two furnished at once the altar and the ashera, or
grove, against which the Hebrew prophets lifted up their
voice in earnest protest In the kingdom both of
Judah and Israel the rites connected with these emblems
assumed their most corrupting form. Even in the temple
itself stood the Ashera, or the upright emblem on the
circular altar of Baal-Peor, the Priapos of the Jews, thus
reproducing the Linga and Yoni of the Hindu. For
this symbol the women wove hangings, as the Athenian
maidens embroidered the sacred peplos for the ship
presented to Athene at the great Dionysiac festival. -
Here, at the winter solstice, they wept and mourned for
Tammuz, the fair Adonis, done to death by the boar.
Here, also, on the third day, they rejoiced at the
resurrection of the lord of light. Hence, as most inti-
mately connected with the reproduction of life on earth,,,
it became the symbol under which the sun, invoked
with a thousand names, has been worshipped throughout
the world as the restorer of the powers of nature after
the long sleep or death of winter."
['4]
This symbol was from the earliest times venerated as
a protecting power, and Jacob, on his journey to Laban,
slept under its protecting influence : placed erect
sometimes as a tree, at others as a cross, and often as a
phallus and resting on a crescent, the modified form of
the yoni, this symbol set forth the marriage of heaven
and earth ; and in the form of a serpent, representing
life and healing, it was worshipped by the Egyptians and
Jews. In the book of Genesis the phallic tree is intro-
duced, where it is called the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. From Plutarch we learn that the Egyptians
represented Osiris with the organ of generation erect, to
show his generative and prolific power, and that he was
the same deity as the Bacchus of the Greek mythology
and the first begotten love (Epws Tr/awroyovos) of Orpheus
and Hesiod. In an excellent work entitled " Discourse
on the Worship of Priapus," by Richard Payne Knight,
there are a number of plates illustrating the mode in
which this phallic worship was carried on by the ancients,
some of which are very curious and well worth the
^ : . ( I trouble of studying carefully. One plate represents a
celebrated bronze in the Vatican, with the male organs
of generation placed on the head of a cock, the emblem
of the rising sun, supported by the neck and shoulders
of a man, the whole being emblematical of god incar-
nate with man, and on the base of which are inscribed
the words 2OTHP KO2MOY, " Saviour of the world."
Another figure on the same plate represents an ornament
in the British Museum, consisting of a male organ with
wings and the foot of a man suspended from a chain.
Another plate shows two representations of the god Pan,
one with the organ erect, the symbol of power, or spring,
the other with the organ in a state of tumid languor, and
loaded with the productions of the earth, the symbol of
the results of prolific efforts. Both these last are copies
of bronzes in the museum of C. Townley. On another
plate is a copy of another of Mr. Townley's treasures,
representing the incarnation of deity, in the shape of a
man having sexual intercourse with a goat, the emblem
of the new-born deity at the winter solstice, to which is
appended the following note by Mr. Payne Knight : " At
Mendes a living goat was kept as the image of the
['5]
generative power, to whom the women presented them-
selves naked, and had the honour of being publicly
enjoyed by him. Herodotus saw the act openly per-
formed (es eTrtciei^ei/ avOpwTrwv), and calls it a prodigy
(re/xis). But the Egyptians had no such horror of it ;
for it was to them a representation of the incarnation of
the deity, and the communication of his creative spirit to
man. It was one of the sacraments of that ancient
church, and was, without doubt, beheld with that pious
awe and reverence with which devout persons always
contemplate the mysteries of their faith, whatever they
happen to be." This figure represented the human
male symbol as incarnate with the divine, instead of the
divine male incarnate with the Jiuman, as in the well-
known one found among the ruins of Herculaneum and
kept concealed in the Royal Museum of Portici. It is
unnecessary to describe the whole of the interesting
plates which illustrate Mr. Knight's work, copies of all
of which I have carefully taken.
There is abundant evidence in ancient authors as to
the prevalence of this worship of the generative organs,
and all agree as to the real meaning of the symbol. In
every part of the then known world the conquering sun
bringing back life to the world at the spring equinox was
represented in some phallic form or other, either as a
-cross, a phallus, a tree, a serpent, a goat, a bull, a torch,
or some other device emblematic of the sexual union of
the powers of heaven with mother earth. The cross
was the most commonly used phallic symbol, and was
generally of the following form > tne being the
emblem of the earth, or female organ, and the T that
of the sun, or fecundating principle, the combination
forming a crux ansata, which was worn as a charm by
devout people. This was converted into a simple cross,
in which form, as well as in many others, it is found on
.ancient temples of the most remote periods, as well as
at the corners of roads, where it evidently was used as
a sign-post, as well as a religious symbol. Among the
paintings found at Pompeii there are some in which the
god Priapus is represented as a Hermes, on a square
pedestal, with an enormous phallus ; and others in which
he is represented with the usual prominent feature, and,
in addition, with a long stick in his hand to point out
the way to travellers. Herodotus thus describes a festival
in Egypt : " The festival is celebrated almost exactly as
Bacchic festivals in Greece. They also use, instead of
phalli, another invention, consisting of images a cubit
high, pulled by strings, which the women carry round
to the villages. The virile member of these figures is
scarcely less than the rest of the body, and this member
they contrive to move. A piper goes in front, and the
women follow, singing hymns in honour of Bacchus."
Among the royal offerings to the god Amen by
Rameses III. in the great Harris Papyrus are loaves
(called " Taenhannur ") in the form of the phallus.*
In the Pamelia the Egyptians exhibited a statue provided
with three phalli ; and in the festivals of Bacchus, cele-
brated by Ptolemy Philadelphus, a gilt phallus, 120 cubits-
high, was carried in procession. St. Jerome tells us
that, in Syria, Baal-Peor, the Hebrew Priapus, was repre-
sented with a phallus in his mouth ; and in Ezekiel xvi. 1 7
we find the Jewish women manufacturing silver and
golden phalli.
According to Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, the
worship of Bacchus was imported into Greece by Melam-
pus, who taught the Greeks the mysteries connected
with phallic worship ; and Plutarch says that " nothing,
is simpler than the manner in which they celebrated
formerly in my country the Dionysiaca. Two men walked
at the head of the procession ; one carried an amphora-
of wine, the other a vine branch ; a third led a goat ; a
fourth bore a basket of figs ; a figure of a phallus closed
the procession."
Tertullian tells us that that which in the mysteries-
of Eleusis is considered as most holy, concealed with
most care, and only explained to the initiated at the last
moment, is the image of the virile member. The festival
of Venus, held at Rome in the beginning of April each
year, was in honour of the sexual union of the powers
of heaven and of earth. The Roman ladies led a cart r
in which was a huge phallus, to the temple of Venus,
outside the Colline gate, and there presented the member
* " Primitive Symbolism," by Hodder M. Westropp.
f'7]
to the sexual part of the goddess. Spring was, indeed,
the special season for phallic processions, as we learn
from a passage of " lamblichus de Mysteriis," given by
Mr. Westropp : " We say the erection of the phalli is a
certain sign of prolific power, which, through this, is
called forth to the generative energy of the world ; on t .
which account many phalli are consecrated in the spring,
because then the whole world receives from the gods the"
power which is productive of all generation."
It is sufficiently obvious that the return of the sun to ^T
the vernal equinoxial sign each year, or the union of the
active and passive principles, formed the cornerstone
of the various religious systems, and that this marriage,
as it were, of heaven with earth, occurring each spring-
time, and bringing with it such a train of good results,
gave rise to the most sacred institutions and rites, which
to us may appear disgusting, but which, to the ancients,
were looked upon with the greatest awe and veneration.
It was not to the generative organs that the ancients
offered homage, but to the principles represented by
them to the active and procreative power of the god of
nature, the prolific ram-sun, at the spring equinox, and
to the passive and recipient mother-earth, the womb of
nature, from which we all emanate and to which we all
return. It is, however, reasonable to imagine, with the
Rev. G. W. Cox, that " it is clear that such a cultus as
this would carry with it a constantly-increasing danger,
until the original character of the emblem should be
as thoroughly disguised as the names of some of the
Vedic deities when transferred to Hellenic soil." Indeed,
it is matter of history that these rites, which were held
so sacred by the Egyptians, were turned to the basest
and most wicked purposes in after times by the wor-
shippers of Bacchus, Adonis, and other deities. The
Bacchanalian mysteries and secret rites called Dionysia^
or Supper of the lord Dionysos, were publicly denounced
by the Roman authorities at the commencement of our
era, as were also the Adonia, or Suppers of the lord
Adonis, and the Love Feasts, Agapae^ or Suppers of the
lord Jesus. From Gibbon we learn that the early Chris-
tians were in the habit of committting at their Love
Feasts the most unnatural crimes with sisters, mothers,
and others, as is also clearly testified by Justin Martyr,
Athenagoras, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix ; and Livy's
account of similar practices indulged in by the Baccha-
nalians at their Dionysia leaves no doubt as to their
participation in these horrors. So widely spread was
this phallic worship that, within one hundred years of
the present time, it was openly followed in some parts of
Europe, as appears from a letter of Sir William Hamilton,
K.B., British Minister at the Court of Naples, to Sir
Joseph Banks, Bart., President of the Royal Society.
Accompanying the letter the writer sends an amulet
worn by women and children of Naples and the neigh-
bourhood as ornaments of dress, which they imagine
will be a preservative against malocchii (" evil eyes "), or
enchantment. It represents a hand clenched, with the
point of the thumb thrust between the index and middle
finger, on one side, and a male organ erect on the other
side, with a ring, or female organ, above, and a flaccid
male organ and scrotum beneath, the whole in the form
of a cross. The letter is so remarkable that it is worth
while reproducing a considerable portion of it, as it
appears in Mr. Knight's work.
" The following is the account of the Fete of St. Cosmo
and Damiano, as it was actually celebrated at Isernia,
on the confines of Abruzzo, in the kingdom of Naples,
so late as in the year of our Lord 1780. On the 2;th
of September, at Isernia, one of the most ancient cities
of the kingdom of Naples, situated in the province called
the Contado di Molise, and adjoining to Abruzzo, an
annual fair is held, which lasts three days. The situa-
tion of this fair is on a rising ground, between two rivers,
about half a mile from the town of Isernia ; on the most
elevated part of which there is an ancient church, with a
vestibule. The architecture is of the style of the lower
ages ; and it is said to have been a church and convent
belonging to the Benedictine monks in the time of their
poverty. This church is dedicated to St. Cosmus and
Damianus. One of the days of the fair the relics of the
saints are exposed, and afterwards carried in procession
from the cathedral of the city to this church, attended
by a prodigious concourse of people. In the city, and
at the fair, ex-wti of wax, representing the male parts of
t'9]
generation, of various dimensions, some even of the
length of a palm, are publicly offered to sale. There are
also waxen vows, that represent other parts of the body
mixed with them ; but of these there are few in com-
parison of the number of Priapi. The devout distributors
of these vows carry a basket full of them in one hand,
and hold a plate in the other to receive the money,
crying aloud, ' St. Cosmo and Damiano !' If you ask
the price of one, the answer is, Piu d metti, piu meriti
' The more you give, the more's the merit.' In the
vestibule are two tables, at each of which one of the
canons of the church presides, this crying out, Out si
ricevina le Misse, e Litanie ' Here Masses and Litanies
are received ;' and the other, Oui si riceveno li Voti ' Here
the Vows are received.' The price of a mass is fifteen Nea-
politan grains, and of a litany five grains. On each table
is a large basin for the reception of the different offerings.
The vows are chiefly presented by the female sex ; and
they are seldom such as represent legs, arms, &c., but
most commonly the male parts of generation. The
person who was at this fete in the year 1780, and who
gave me this account (the authenticity of every article of
which has since been fully confirmed to me by the
Governor of Isernia), told me also that he heard a
woman say, at the time she presented a vow, like that
which is represented in Plate I., Fig. I., Santo Cosimo
benedetto, cost lo voglio ' Blessed St. Cosmo, let it be
like this ;' another, St. Cosimo^ a te mi raccommendo
' St. Cosmo, I recommend myself to you ;' and a third,
St. Cosimo, ti ruigrazio ' St. Cosmo, I thank you.' The
vow is never presented without being accompanied by a
piece of money, and is always kissed by the devotee at
the moment of presentation. At the great altar in the
church another of its canons attends to give the holy
unction, with the oil of St. Cosmo ; which is prepared
by the same receipt as that of the Roman Ritual, with
the addition only of the prayer of the Holy Martyrs, St.
Cosmus and Damianus. Those who have an infirmity
in any of their members present themselves at the great
altar, and uncover the member affected (not even ex-
cepting that which is most frequently represented by the
ex-voti] ; and the reverend canon anoints it, saying,
[ 2 o]
Per intercessionem beati Cosmi, liberet te ab omni malo,
Amen. The ceremony finishes by the canons of the
church dividing the spoils, both money and wax, which
must be to a very considerable amount, as the concourse
at this fete is said to be prodigiously numerous."
At the present day phallic symbolism is perpetuated
in our church steeples, in the crosses and circles on our
altars and prayer-books, in the pictures of the lamb
holding a cross within a circle on our church windows,
in the cross-buns eaten at the paschal feast, in the Easter
eggs, and in various other ways ; while the Pyramids of
Egypt and the Luxor obelisks one in London, one in
Paris, and one in St. Petersburg form a connecting
phallic link between the ancient Egyptians and our-
selves. The sphynx has been said by some to be a
phallic figure ; but I do not subscribe to this view at all,
holding the opinion that it is simply a union of two
zodiacal signs, July and August of the fixed zodiac. It
appears to me that at a very remote time, when the sign
Virgo was about to be supplanted at the vernal equinox
by the next sign, Leo somewhere about fifteen thou-
sand years ago, or rather later the priests or astrologers
hit upon the idea of placing the head of Virgo upon the
shoulders of Leo, thus manufacturing a new kind of
figure, which, on account of its partaking of the dual
nature of the then most prominent of the gods, became
very popular, and was depicted in various forms and in
many parts of the country. This may also have been
the modus faciendi of Capricornus and Sagittarius, if we
can imagine a still earlier period when the .zodiac was
so different from the present form as to have signs re-
presented by a fish, a goat, a horse, and an archer
respectively.
Next to the vernal equinoxial sign the ancients held
the winter solstitial sign in the greatest veneration, and
consequently the goat was a very sacred animal and
occupied a prominent place in all symbolical mytho-
logies. It was from this point that the Egyptians calcu-
lated their new year, although the Persians always
reckoned theirs from the vernal equinox ; and it was on
December 2ist that the Egyptians fixed the creation of
the world, which gave origin to the fable of a goat
having been the creator, thus accounting for the fact of
the early copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch commenc-
ing with the following words : " At the commencement
the goat (t3Jn) renovated the heavens and the earth "
(Genesis i. i). Here we meet with a very good example
of the patchwork style in which the Bible was compiled.
In Egypt the new year reckoned from December 2ist,
and the creation was supposed to date from the same
time of the year, and consequently in all records ema-
nating from the Nile district the celestial goat was
honoured for the occasion with the chief godship ; but
in Persia the new year commenced on March 2ist, the
date of the creation being fixed at the same point of
the zodiac, so that the chief godship was assigned to the
celestial lamb or ram and its five fellow signs of the
summer hemisphere. Therefore, as the Hebrews derived
their creation fable from the Persians, using also the
Egyptian mythology with which to embellish their newly-
made cosmogony, the two fables became mixed some-
what in the minds of these ignorant wanderers, the
consequence being that in some of their MSS. the crea-
tion was said to have been the act of the goat (t^H),
while in others it was attributed to the ram-sun, Elyah
(rV /N), or the six summer signs commencing with the
ram-sun, and called on that account the Elohim (OYl 7N),
this word being the plural form of Eloh (HlvM) or
Elyah (5T7N), a compound word made up of Yah (PP),
the Hebrew name for the sun-god, and El (vM), the
celestial lamb or ram.
Not only were the three principal signs the bull, the
ram, and the goat held in great veneration by the
Egyptians, but all the zodiacal signs were worshipped in
various degrees ; indeed, each figure of the zodiac can
be easily assigned to one of the principal gods of Egypt,
as they were known prior to B.C. 2188. The ram was
Amen, the Egyptian Jupiter, called Zeus Amen (Zevs
AfJLr)v) by the Greeks and Jupiter Ammon by the Romans,
who was represented with a ram's head and horns. The
bull was Apis, or Serapis, worshipped as a living bull,
the incarnation of the principal deity at the vernal
equinox. The twins were the Greek Castor and Pollux,
who were worshipped by the Egyptians under similar
names. The crab was Anubis, the Egyptian Mercury.
The lion was Osiris, Ra, or Phthah, according to the
district and age, the sun-god at the height of his power
at the summer solstitial point, June 24th. The virgin
was Isis, the beloved of Osiris. The balances were
included with the scorpion, the two being worshipped as
Set-Typhon, Turn, or Sekru, according to the district
and age, the sun-god at the autumnal equinox, suffering
defeat at the hands of the powers of darkness. The
centaur-archer was the Egyptian Hercules. The goat
was Pan, or Mendes. The water-bearer was Horus, the
avenger of his father's defeat, born December 2ist, and
a conqueror on March 2ist; also Mises, the Egyptian
Bacchus, who, being the sign of the sun-god's birth, leads
the twelve signs out of the land of bondage, and insti-
tutes the feast of commemoration at the sign of the
lamb, whose horns he wears ; and also Harmachis. The
fishes are Oannes, the Egyptian saviour-fish, who, when
that sign was at the winter solstitial point, saved the
world as the new-born sun.
These twelve signs of the zodiac were, in fact, the
twelve principal gods of all races \ the seven summer
signs, including the two equinoxial signs, being the
seven specially sacred gods, inhabiting the upper temple
of the most high god, which was the vault of the summer
heavens, supported by the two pillars of the equinoxes
or covenants. Almost every race had temples divided
into upper and lower courts or rooms, the upper one
being the residence of their chief gods ; and these tem-
ples were originally meant to represent the universe,
having an upper hemisphere, governed by the good prin-
ciple, and a lower hemisphere, governed by the bad
principle, this idea being frequently further represented
by a closed ark or chest, representing the lower or dark
hemisphere, upon which sat the chief deity, representing
the good principle of the upper hemisphere. The
Egyptians, according to Plutarch, enclosed the body of
Osiris in an ark every year at the autumnal equinox,
when the sun was in Scorpio, which was a rite emble-
matical of the annual death of the sun-god of summer ;
and the Jews, it will be remembered, suffered defeat at
the hands of the Philistines, immediately after they had
taken the ark out of Shiloh, where it had been depo-
sited, the word Shiloh being the name of a tiny group
of stars in the sign Scorpio. The movable temple of the
Hebrews, or tabernacle, as described in Exodus, is the
best example we have of this representation of the uni-
verse, being described in such minute detail as to betray
its meaning to the dullest mind. It was divided into
two portions the lower or outer portion, and the upper
or inner portion, the holy of holies, where dwelt the
Hebrew chief tribal god, Yahouh, or Yah, sitting upon
the ark of the covenant, representing the winter part of
the heavens between the two covenants or equinoxes.
On each side of Yah was a cherub, or monster with four
faces (or, according to some, with four bodies) one like
a bull, another like a man, a third like an eagle, and the
last like a lion, as we find fully described by Ezekiel
(chap. i.). In my " Popular Faith Unveiled" (pp. 131,
174, and 247) I have attributed these heads (or bodies)
to the four zodiacal signs of ascension after the vernal
equinox, that like a bull to Taurus, that like a man to
Gemini, that like an eagle to Cancer, and that like a
lion to Leo ; but, according to Sir W. Drummond, in
his " (Edipus Judaicus," they correspond with the signs
at the four quarters of the sphere viz., the man to
Aquarius, the ox to Taurus, the lion to Leo, and the
eagle to Scorpio, this calculation being based on the
supposition that the cherubim were first introduced
during the period prior to B.C. 2188, when Taurus was
the vernal equinoxial point, while mine supposes Aries
to have been the chief zodiacal sign. Which calculation
is right the reader must decide for himself, after care-
fully studying the reasons given for both conclusions.
Clement of Alexandria, in his " Stromata," says of these
cherubim : " Each of them has six wings, whether they
typify the two bears, as some will have it, or, which is
better, the two hemispheres Both have twelve wings,
and thus through the circle of the zodiac, and of self-
marrying time, they typify the world perceived by the
senses." The table in the temple was symbolical of the
earth, as we learn from Clement of Alexandria again,
when he says : " The table, as I think, signifies the
[=4]
image of the earth \ it is sustained by four feet, answer-
ing to the summer, autumn, spring, and winter." The
shew-bread was placed on the table m front of Yah, and
was divided into twelve pieces, typical of the twelve
signs, as we find stated in Ex. xxv. 22 and 30 (literally
translated) : " And I will hang [or be deposited] there,
set [or sitting] before thee ; and I will talk to thee from
above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim,
which are upon the ark of the testimony and thou
shalt set shew-bread always upon the table in front of me."
The candlesticks, with three branches on each side and
one in the centre, having seven lamps burning on them,
represented the seven summer signs, including both the
equinoxial ones. Josephus tells us that the candlesticks
were divided into seventy parts, answering to the seventy
decans of the seven signs. The veil of the temple was
of blue, purple, and scarlet, and represented the atmos-
pheric vault of heaven tinged, as it frequently is, by the
sun's rays. The pomegranates represented the fixed
stars. The dress of the high priest was ornamented with
566 bells, corresponding with the days of the sidereal
year, with two bright emeralds and twelve precious
stones, which, according to Clement of Alexandria, re-
presented the sun and moon and the twelve signs of the
zodiac.
Sufficient has been said to leave no doubt as to the
real meaning of the tabernacle and its appurtenances,
and, I think, to establish the truth of what I have pre-
viously stated viz., that the ancient religions were of
astronomical origin and abounding in symbolical rites
and ceremonies. It only remains for me now to repeat
what I have maintained before in other essays that
the Christian religion of to-day, although modified by
time and circumstances, having been considerably mani-
pulated so as to be brought within touch of modern
requirements, is nothing more or less than a rehash of
the Egyptian, Persian, Hindu, and Phoenician mytho-
logies an old worn-out faith, in fact, dressed in gaudy
and attractive garments.
THE EARTH OF THE VEVIC PRIESTS
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B.C.
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MAP OF MARCO POLO
of llf.tk. Century.
COSMOGRAPHY OF St DENIS
EGYPTIAN PL/IN ET/WY SYSTEM
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OS an
INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS
IN EUROPE.
No scientific student or observer of nature will have
failed to notice that all phenomena around him are ever
in a condition of progressive change, ever advancing
from the simple to the complex, and ever conforming to
specific laws. Just as the world in which we live has
gradually developed from a condition of nebulous vapour
to its present complex form, and just as man has evolved
from a simple molecule of protoplasm by wonderful and
manifold stages to his present commanding position, so
have civilisation, trade, politics, arts, literature, and
science all been slowly and gradually evolved from the
primitive mind of prehistoric man. A continual change
has ever been going on from the simple to the complex,
from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from the
imperfect to the more perfect. This continual progress
has been in operation during all time, and will proceed
in the future as "of old, leaving the present day far behind
in its march, as the present day has left behind it the
past.
In considering the evolution of reform, or progress of
civilisation, we are necessarily limited to a comparatively
late period in man's history, for many thousands of years
had passed away, during which time man had gradually
established himself as a social animal, before any trust-
worthy records appeared to throw light in future ages
upon the primitive condition and habits of the human
family. From the patient and persevering studies of
scientific men, we are now in possession of a number of
facts which lead us to the conclusion that primitive man
first lived the life of a wild beast, inhabiting caves, and
devoting all his energies to battling with the ferocious
monsters around him. From this condition he developed
into a more civilised being, becoming an agriculturalist,
afterwards a manufacturer of stuffs and hardware, and
still later a member of an organised state. These changes
probably occupied hundreds of thousands of years, com-
pared to which enormous lapse of time the period
embraced between the Egypto-Greek or classic era and
the present moment is a mere speck on the face of time.
We are now tolerably well acquainted with the civilisa-
tion of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, which had
existed for many centuries before the time of Aristotle,
and which some four or five centuries before our era had
commenced its entry upon the wide field of scientific
development which followed the conquest of Persia by
Alexander the Great. These civilisations, which for
centuries had been bound up with the vain superstitions
connected with the legion of divinities of Olympus, of
Memphis, and of Thebes, were gradually casting off the
yoke of ignorance, and becoming more acquainted with
the majesty of the operations of nature. Philosophers
began to publicly declaim against the Olympian absur-
dities, and to ridicule the notion of miracles or prodigies ;
traditions began to be doubted and were fast being cast
aside; Zeus and his court were ceasing to command
respect; and the priests were often publicly insulted.
The Ionian gods of Homer, as well as the Doric of
Hesiod, appeared likely to be quickly committed to the
darkness of oblivion. Powerful and influential resistance
was, of course, opposed to the wave of progress and
reason ; the philosophers were branded as Atheists and
their followers persecuted rigorously ; Euripides was de-
clared a heretic, and ^Eschylus narrowly escaped being
stoned to death for blasphemy. So great was the oppo-
sition offered to the movement that the philosophers
would undoubtedly have been silenced for some time to
come had it not been for the sudden military expedition
against the Persians. Alexander, with his 38,000 Mace-
donian soldiers, having crossed the Hellespont, B.C. 334,
proceeded to subjugate the imperious monarch of Persia,
and, after successfully conquering Asia x Minor and Syria,
completely defeated the Persian army led by King
Darius, and took possession of the great city of Babylon.
[3]
This war engrossed the attention of all classes at home,
so that the philosophers were enabled to prosecute their
studies unmolested. It also in many other ways was a
means of furthering the scientific efforts of that and of
future ages. For the first time the Macedonians beheld
the ebbing and flowing of the tides ; they discovered and
examined the Chaldean astronomical instruments, and
learnt their calculations, extending over several thousand
years ; and they observed the Chaldean division of the
zodiac into twelve portions, and of the day and night into
twelve hours each. The particulars of these they sent
home to Aristotle. What a field was here opened out
for Greek speculation ! The Chaldeans had detected
the precession of the equinoxes, and were well acquainted
with the causes of eclipses; they printed from a revolving
roller, on which they had engraved cuneiform letters ;
they possessed magnifying instruments ; and were, in fact,
the tail-end of a mighty and advanced Accadian civilisa-
tion which had been in existence for thousands of years.
Not satisfied with these achievements, the conquering
Alexander next subdued the ancient monarchy of Egypt,
learnt the great feat of the Pharaohs viz., the circum-
navigation of Africa by the Cape of Good Hope and the
pillars of Hercules, and founded the celebrated city of
Alexandria. He died at Babylon B.C. 323, after which
his huge empire was divided among his generals ; his
half brother, Ptolemy Soter, who had been governor of
Egypt during Alexander's lifetime, taking possession of
that country, and establishing his seat of government at
the new city of Alexandria.
This period marks the commencement of European
civilisation. Owing to the excellent government adopted
by Ptolemy, large numbers of Arabians, Jews, and Greeks
were induced to take up their residence at Alexandria,
which quickly became the centre of learning and first
commercial city of the whole known world, and the
resort of people of all nationalities. The celebrated
museum, which was commenced by Ptolemy Soter and
completed by his successor, Ptolemy Philadelphus, con-
tained a library, which grew so largely that 400,000
volumes were soon acquired by it, and a daughter library,
containing 300,000 volumes, built at the Serapion, or
[4]
Temple of Serapis. Books were freely bought, tran-
scribers engaged, apartments set aside, at the king's
expense, for the residence of Greek philosophers and
students, and four faculties established, for literature,
mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, including natural
history. There were also in connection with the univer-
sity botanical and zoological gardens, an astronomical
observatory, with spheres, globes, parallactic rules, etc.,
and an anatomical theatre for the dissection of dead
bodies. It was here that Euclid produced his celebrated
geometrical demonstrations, which are at this day used
in our schools. Here also Archimedes proclaimed his
method for the determination of specific gravities, and
invented the theory of the lever. Here Eratosthenes
daily taught that the earth was a globe, and determined
the interval between the tropics. The earth was described
as possessing imaginary poles, axis, equator, arctic and
antarctic circles, equinoxial points, solstices, climate, etc.
Hipparchus taught the precession of the equinoxes,
catalogued the stars, and adopted lines of latitude and
longitude in describing the situations of places. Thus
science progressed under the wise and beneficent rule
of the Ptolemies.
But a dark cloud was already looming in the distance,
which was destined to develop into a fierce storm, the
effect of whose fury was felt for centuries afterwards.
Julius Caesar, in B.C. 30, defeated Cleopatra, then Queen
of Egypt, and added that country to the Roman domi-
nions, the museum and larger library being entirely
destroyed during the siege of Alexandria. From this
time learning and science began to decline. Numerous
religious sects. arose around Alexandria, the old mytholo-
gies were revived, and the priests once more gained
influence. The temples of Jupiter Ammon and Apollo
in Egypt, of Adonis and les in Phoenicia, of Dionysos
in Greece, and of Bacchus in Rome, were again filled to
overflowing, and miracles were performed in abundance.
In the short space of about fifty years all the work of
the Ptolemies appeared to have been undone, and the
world once more given up to darkness, superstition, and
ignorance, the popular frenzy being kept up by a number
of ascetic monks, called Therapeutse, who inhabited the
[5]
hills around Alexandria, the desert and rocky plains of
Arabia Petmea, and the barren hills of Syria, and
travelled about the country, preaching in the open air
to the ignorant and credulous multitudes. Matters pro-
gressed favourably for the revivalists for a short time ;
but there had shortly before occurred a circumstance
which proved to be, for us, the most important event in
the world's history, and which considerably modified the
Therapeut programme.
According to ancient records, it appears that a monk,
of the ascetic order of Essenes, called Yahoshuah
(Joshua) ben Pandira, was born in Syria, in the
fourth year of the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, or about
B.C. 120; and, being educated in Egypt, under the
supervision of Yahoshuah-ben Perachia, soon made him-
self specially obnoxious to the priests by his heterodox
teaching. From the exceedingly scanty information to
be obtained from the historical writers of the time, it
appears that this young man had, in addition to his know-
ledge of Egyptian sorcery, a large acquaintance with the
sublime and moral teachings of Confucius, for whose
memory he appears to have had a profound respect.
Observing the despicable manner in which the priests
manipulated their sacred offices for their own advan-
tage, robbing the poor and credulous people of their hard
earnings and indulging in all kinds of immoralities, this
young man boldly attacked these human parasites in the
public places, calling them liars and hypocrites, preach-
ing Socialistic and Communistic doctrines, and declaring
that there was but one law necessary for man viz., the
golden rule of Confucius, " Do unto another," etc. The
wrath of the priests knew no bounds; a council was
called to consider the matter, and the bold reformer
was, it is said, sentenced to death for his noble efforts on
behalf of suffering humanity. Whether or not this young
man ever lived, or whether he was merely an ideal
creation of the fanatical minds of these therapeut monks,
suggested by necessity, it is impossible to say positively ;
for there are no really trustworthy records from which a
safe conclusion can be deduced. It is, however, prob-
able that such a man did actually exist, for it is not likely
that, had he been but an idea, the fact of his having
[6]
declared one law to be sufficient for man's moral gui-
dance would have been included among the fabulous
performances afterwards attributed to him, as such a
declaration was destructive of all priestcraft; besides
which, we are told in the Babylonian Gemara to the
Mishna that Yahoshua, " son of Pandira and Stada," was
stoned to death as a wizard in the city of Ludd, or Lydia,
after which he was crucified on a tree on the eve of the
Passover, about B.C. 70, which was the punishment
generally inflicted on preachers of heresy and sedition.
Whether he had an actual existence or was but an idea,
it is an undisputed fact that his name has been, during
the past eighteen hundred years, a household word, and
that the whole face of European history has been moulded
by the various sayings and doings fabulously attributed
to him.
The reason of this is as follows. The therapeut
monks of Alexandria, who flourished in the first and
second centuries of our era, in attempting to revive the
old mythological systems, and thus to deprive scientists
and philosophers of their late rapidly-increasing power,
were at a great disadvantage, owing to the length of time
that had elapsed since the wonderful feats of the gods
had been performed. They well understood the abso-
lute necessity of keeping alive in the memories of the
people the older miraculous events by the performance
of fresh wonders in their own day ; but the difficulty they
had to encounter was in finding suitable individuals for
the occasion. The Syrian Essene monk, who had in-
fected a great number of the lower classes of society by
his heretical and revolutionary teachings, which, at first
sight, appeared likely to be damaging to the cause of the
priesthood, was quickly requisitioned by these astute
monks for the great purpose they had in view viz., the
reproduction on earth of the popular god Bacchus, the
Greek Dionysos, and Phoenician les. They boldly
declared that this man was, when on earth, an incarnate
deity, and proceeded to attribute to him all the wonderful
performances that had previously been imputed to the
young sun-god Bacchus, such as miraculous birth from a
virgin, resurrection from the grave three days after death,
ascension to heaven, etc.; and, finally, gave him the
t7]
Phoenician name of Bacchus, les, in its Greek form
lesous Greek being, at that time, the prevailing language
around Alexandria. The new religion gradually spread
from Egypt over the European provinces of the Roman
empire, and soon became such a great political power in
the State that the incarnate fiend and Emperor Con-
stantine, in A.D. 312, was induced to place himself at its
head, and use its increasing influence to further his own
wicked projects. The new Church, by this act, gained
an enormous power ; its priests became arrogant, the
philosophers were even more persecuted than before, and
learning was fast approaching its end. The only scien-
tific work which the Church retained was the " Syntaxis "
of Ptolemy, the Alexandrian astronomer, which taught
that the earth was the fixed centre of the universe, around
which all other heavenly bodies rotated. It also treated
of the precession of the equinoxes, the milky way, and
the distances of the various bodies in the heavens from
the earth ; but, as the geocentric theory was clearly taught
in conformity with the Bible records and the religious
convictions of the people, this system was gradually
adopted by all classes of society, and became the recog-
nised authority on astronomy.
A furious and important controversy about this time
broke out between Arius, the leader of those who retained
the original belief in the manhood of Jesus, and Athana-
sius, the leader of the Christians, who declared him to
be divine, which culminated in the celebrated Council of
Nicea, A.D. 325, at which it was decided that he was
actually god. From this moment not only Arians, but
all others who refused to believe in the god Jesus, were
savagely persecuted, until, at last, science and learning
received their death-blow by the destruction of the
Serapion, under the order of the Emperor Theodosius,
and the murder of Hypatia at Alexandria. This philo-
sopher was in the habit of lecturing on mathematics at
the university, and was so popular that the jealousy of
Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, was aroused ; she was seized
by his fanatical followers as she was going to her lecture-
room, stripped naked, dragged into a Christian church,
and there brained by the club of Peter the Reader, in
A.D. 414.
[8]
Justinian next ordered the teaching of philosophy to
be discontinued at Athens, and closed all the schools.
The sciences were made to conform to Genesis, which
was declared to be the only true account of the origin of
nature ; and the earth was declared to be flat, the sky
spreading over it like a dome or, in the words of St.
Augustine, like a skin in which all the bodies moved to
give light to man. Lactantius declared the globular
theory to be heretical. " Is it possible," he said, ;c that
man can be so absurd as to believe that the crops and
the trees on the other side of the earth hang downwards,
and that men have their feet higher than their heads ? If
you ask them how they defend these monstrosities, how
things do not fall away from the earth on that side, they
reply that the nature of things is such that heavy bodies
tend towards the centre, like the spokes of a wheel,
while light bodies, as clouds, smoke, fire, tend from the
centre to the heavens on all sides. Now, I am really at
a loss what to say of those who, when they have once
gone wrong, steadily persevere in their folly, and defend
one absurd opinion by another." St. Augustine also said
that " it is impossible there should be inhabitants on the
opposite side of the earth, since no such race is recorded
by Scripture among the descendants of Adam;" and
again : " In the day of judgment men on the other side
of a globe could not see the Lord descending through
the air." Thus perished all the grand work effected by
the Ptolemies. Science was annihilated, progress arrested,
and the dark ages had commenced, which lasted until the
time of Luther and Copernicus, in the commencement
of the sixteenth century. Throughout this long and
dreary period the most cruel enormities were practised
upon unoffending people ; the Church became gorged
with wealth ; the clergy gave themselves up to all kinds
of lust and debauchery ; relics were sold, dispensations
bartered ; and no one's property or person was safe.
Progress was, however, only arrested for a time.
About the year 570 Mohammed was born in Arabia,
and in 610 he declared to the world that he had been
commissioned by the angel Gabriel to preach the unity
of god. He appears to have been a very remarkable
religious enthusiast, who believed himself in his divine
[9]
mission, and was eminently successful in his arduous
undertaking. Idolatry was quickly abolished among the
Arabs, and replaced by the religion of Mohammed. On
the death of the prophet his successors as vigorously
pursued the course he had entered upon. Ali, the general
of Khalif Omar's army, in A.D. 637, captured Jerusalem
and conquered Syria in the name of the one true god
and his prophet Mohammed. The Khalif rode from
Medina to Jerusalem upon a red camel, and, as he
entered the conquered city, issued the following procla-
mation : " In the name of the most merciful God. From
Omar Ebno'l Alchitab to the inhabitants of CElia. They
shall be protected and secured, both in their lives and
their fortunes ; and their churches shall neither be pulled
down nor made use of by any but themselves." Sophro-
nius, the chief Christian priest, having invited the con-
queror to pray in a Christian church, received a polite
refusal, Omar contenting himself with kneeling on the
steps outside, so that his followers might not have 'any
excuse for seizing the edifice or otherwise annoying the
conquered Christians. The Khalif and his followers
then pressed northwards, conquered the Roman Emperor
Heraclius, sent a fleet to the Hellespont, defeated the
Roman fleet, and laid siege to Constantinople, then
called Byzantium. Egypt was next conquered, the rem-
nants of the Serapion destroyed, and the whole of North
Africa added to the dominions of the Khalif. Spain
was then seized upon, and the entire country, as far
north as the Loire, annexed to the growing empire. In
732 Charles Martel succeeded in stopping the Saracen
foe at Poictiers and driving him back to Spain, thus re-
lieving the anxiety of the Church, which was now becom-
ing intense. In 846 a Mussulman fleet sailed up the
Tiber, menaced Rome, and carried away St. Peter's altar
to Africa, the Christian empire being saved from further
trouble only by the Mohammedan power being divided
into three Khalifates.
According to the Koran, the earth was a square plane,
on the edges of which rested the heavenly vault, divided
into seven stones, in the topmost of which dwelt god in
his omnipotence. This theory, however, was quickly
given up by the learned Saracens, Al-Mamun declaring
[10]
it to be unscientific, and asserting that the earth was
globular, with a circumference of about 24,000 miles,
which was not far wrong. In 66 1 the Khalif Moawyah
encouraged this new teaching, and ordered the writings of
the Greek philosophers to be translated into Arabic. In
753 the Khalif Almansar recommended the study of
astronomy, medicine, and law at Bagdad; and his
grandson, Haroum-al-Raschid, ordered that every mosque
should have a school attached to it, and established a
large library at Bagdad for the use of learned men. The
sciences of chemistry and geometry were revived, and
algebra invented by the Saracens. At Cairo the Fatimist
Library became the wonder of the world ; and the great
library of the Spanish Khalifs had 600,000 vols., its cata-
logue alone occupying 44 vols. Gibbon tells us that
they " diffused the taste and the rewards of science from
Samarcand and Bokhara to Fez and Cordova, and that
the vizier of a sultan consecrated a sum of two hundred
thousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a college
at Bagdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of
fifteen thousand dinars." The first medical college in
Europe was founded by the Saracens at Salerno in Italy,
and the first astronomical observatory was erected by
them at Seville in Spain. The streets in Spain were
lighted, baths were erected, and total abstinence univer-
sally practised. Thus we see that, while the power of
the Church was gradually steeping central Europe in
darkness, ignorance, and wretchedness, progress was on
the march again in Western Asia, Africa, and Spain.
During this period, however, there were not wanting in
Europe bold men who attempted a revival of philosophy ;
but these were quickly suppressed by the Church. In
A.D. 800 there appeared a man in Britain called John
Erigena, who, having read Aristotle's works, adopted his
views and attempted to reconcile them with the Christian
religion. There were also many Christian divines who
had crossed the Mediterranean to study philosophy
secretly from Mohammedan doctors. Erigena declared
that every living thing evolved from something that had
previously lived ; that each particular life-form was but
a part of general existence or mundane soul ; and that
all life must be eventually re-absorbed in deity. The
Church became infuriated and alarmed at this heretical
barbarian, who taught the pernicious doctrines of emana-
tion and absorption, and steps were immediately taken
to suppress him.
During the period of quiet which followed a certain
priest of Thuringia, Bernhardt by name, created a great
sensation in central Europe by declaring that the end of
the world was fast approaching ; that the prophecy con-
tained in the twentieth chapter of Revelation would be
fulfilled on December 3ist, in the year 1000 or possibly
immediately before that time when the devil would be
unbound ; and that unutterable calamity or annihilation
would come upon the world. The clergy quickly followed
suit, and as the fearful day approached every church and
cloister in Europe resounded with the frantic appeals of
the monks and priests for their flocks to prepare for the
awful doom. Europe was turned upside down ; business
was suspended; kings, princes, senators, nobles, and
peasants all alike left their occupations to seek refuge in
some holy sanctuary against the coming event. As the
dread moment approached there was not a church or
convent in Europe that was not crowded to suffocation,
the people imagining that, if they were found at the last
moment in some consecrated place, their chances of
being saved would be better. Hundreds and thousands
of these poor wretches never had opportunity of obtain-
ing the coveted shelter, having been bereft of their reason
under the awful excitement of the hour. Amid prayer,
faintings, hysterical screaming, and chanting of choirs
priests, monarchs, and beggars all huddled together any-
how the clock struck twelve, and dead silence prevailed.
Gradually the people roused themselves from their stupor
to find themselves the victims of a cruel hoax. Strange
to say, not any attempt was made to punish those who
had produced such a melancholy state of things. Kings
and nobles had endowed monasteries and churches with
lands and wealth, which they believed would soon be of so
little use to them, and became suddenly penitent, assum-
ing the monk's shirt of hair, and otherwise showing
evidence of their piety and humility. William of the
Long Sword, Duke of Normandy, Hugh Duke of Bur-
gundy, Hugh Count of Aries, the Emperor Henry II.,
all renounced their wealth and position to become monks.
Nobles had left lands and castles to the Church, the
deeds being drawn up by monks and witnessed by prelates
and sovereigns, as though no day of reckoning was at
hand, the form being invariably as follows : " Seeing that
the end of the world is now approaching, and that every
day accumulates fresh miseries, I, Baron (or
King ), for the good of my soul, give to the
monastery of ," etc. The Church, which before
was poor, now became gorged with wealth, and the
ignorance and credulity of the people secured the treasures
to the now powerful prelates.
During this period of excitement and terror the number
of pilgrimages to the Holy Land had enormously in-
creased, so much so that the Saracen masters of Jeru-
salem, with the view of putting a stop to the now trouble-
some and inconvenient influx of Christians to the Holy
City, commenced to persecute the pilgrims, thus creating
a very great ill-feeling against themselves throughout
Europe. Peter the Hermit, a monk of Amiens, took up
the cause of his ill-treated brethren, and forthwith com-
menced to preach a holy war against the Saracens of
Syria, Pope Urban II. and his priests promising absolu-
tion from all sin to those who took up arms against the
Infidel. A vast multitude of rabble from all parts of
Europe soon started on their march to the Holy Land,
being divided into three large armies, one led by Walter
the Penniless, another by Peter the Hermit, and the
third by Gottschalk, a monk. The armies gave them-
selves up to unheard-of iniquities, spreading poverty and
misery on all sides in their march, braining all who re-
fused to give up their provisions and property to them,
and, at last, arriving in Constantinople footsore and
diseased, having left two-thirds of their comrades to die
of starvation on the road. Crossing over into Syria, they
met the Saracen foe, who quickly put an end to their
sufferings by annihilating the whole lot. Seven other
Crusades followed, one composed altogether of children,
who, the priests declared, were to be the inheritors of
the Holy Land, it being now apparent that full-grown
men were too sinful to conquer the Infidel. The army
of children was accordingly shipped off to destroy the
['3]
Saracen foe, but never reached Palestine, the boys having
been sold as slaves, and the girls drafted into Turkish
harems. When, at last, Acre surrendered to the Crusa-
ders under Richard Cceur de Lion, the leniency displayed
by the Khalif Omar in his capture of Jerusalem in 637
was repaid by 2,700 Saracen hostages being brutally be-
headed outside the city walls for the sport of the Chris-
tian soldiers. All this time Europe was in a constant
state of agitation and alarm, which was further intensified
by the revival in- 1180 of the doctrines of John Erigena
by the Saracen philosopher Averroes, who boldly preached
them in Spain, making converts in all directions, among
whom was the great Jewish writer, Maimonides, who had
been held by the Jews in the highest esteem, and con-
sidered second only in wisdom to Moses.
Under the tolerant and liberal rule of the Saracens
Averroism made great progress in Spain, where Moham-
medans, Christians, and Jews were permitted to live
peaceably together, and where philosophical theories were
openly and fearlessly taught ; but a day of reckoning was
at hand. On the death of the Caliph Hakem, Almansor
usurped the throne, and, in order to secure his position,
entered into a secret treaty with the orthodox section of
the Mohammedans, thus establishing a Church and State
party of enormous power, which culminated in the ex-
pulsion of Averroes from Spain and the suppression of
the study of philosophy. Thus were crushed again phi-
losophy and progress in 1198. The Christians of Italy,
Germany, and France followed suit, ordering all Aver-
roists to be seized and punished, and shortly afterwards
extending the order also to Jews and Mohammedans.
From the accession of Almansor dates the downfall of
the Mohammedan power in Spain and the commence-
ment of the fearful persecutions of Infidels by the Chris-
tian Church, which has left such a dark blot upon the
pages of European history.
The Saracen power in Europe was annihilated by
Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Inquisition established
by Pope Innocent IV. in 1243. For two hundred years
it seemed as though philosophy and progress were indeed
dead, so relentlessly did the Church persecute all heretics
and denounce all scientific studies. But an occurrence
[14]
took place in 1440 which completely turned the .tide of
events. In that year the art of printing was introduced
into Europe by the Venetians, who had learnt it from
the Chinese ; and in 1469 it was carried to France, and
from thence to all the great cities of the continent. At
first the Church paid little heed to the innovation ; but it
soon became apparent that a dangerous medium had
been introduced for intercommunication of the people
and their governments, which must lessen the need and
importance of a religious medium. Books were only
allowed to be published under the supervision of the
ecclesiastical authority, and heavy penalties inflicted upon
all who attempted to circulate any heretical works. The
writings of Averroes, Maimonides, and other heretics,
were ordered to be burnt, the doctrines taught by them
being declared blasphemous and subversive of all good
government. The leading and most learned Jews and
Mohammedans in Spain and Southern France were
avowed Averroists, and did not shrink from preaching
their doctrines in the public thoroughfares ; and the in-
fection was extending so rapidly that the Church feared
that a great calamity would overtake the orthodox faith
unless some steps were taken to put a stop to the heresy.
The Inquisition, which had been found so effective in
silencing heretics in France, was now utilised for dealing
with the Jews and Moors. A cry was made in Castile
by the orthodox Christians for the establishment of the
Inquisition in Spain, which was immediately taken up by
all haters of progress ; and so great was the influence
brought to bear by the Dominican monk and arch-fiend,
Torquemada, upon the Queen Isabella that the Pope
was petitioned for a bull, which was issued in 1478, for
the detection and suppression of heresy in Spain. The
Christian monster, Torquemada, proved himself a worthy
agent of the Inquisition, burning at the stake in eighteen
years about 10,220 persons of both sexes. Dispensations
from the operation of the Inquisition were sold by the
Pope to such as could afford to purchase them ; and in
1492 all unbaptised Jews, old or young, were ordered by
Torquemada to leave Spain within four months, and to
leave behind them all those effects they could not sell in
the meantime. These poor wretches swarmed in the
roads in their thousands, rending the air with their piteous
cries, the Christian Spaniards being forbidden to render
assistance under penalty of torture. The consequence
was that hundreds and thousands of men, women, and
children died by the wayside from hunger, thirst, and
fatigue. In 1502 a further order was issued at Seville
for the Spaniards to drive out of their country every
Infidel they could hear of, no matter what the nationality
might be. The Moors were particularly indicated in the
document, one clause stating that it was justifiable to
kill Mohammedans on account of their shameless infi-
delity. The consequence was that, in a marvellously
short space of time, there was not a Mohammedan to be
found on the European side of the Straits of Gibraltar.
In spite of the precautions made use of by the Christians
for the prevention of the study of philosophy and the
acquirement of knowledge, the news of the discovery of
America by Columbus, in 1492, very soon found its way
all over Europe, producing the most intense sensation,
for the discovery came as a terrific blow to the Church
and its inspired Bible. To make matters worse, in 1522
Magellan sailed completely round the world, thus demon
strating conclusively that the earth was a globe.
Matters appeared to be going wrong with the Church,
in spite of the recent bloody triumphs of the Inquisition ;
and the clergy and laity were not slow to notice the turn
events were taking. Martin Luther, a young Augustinian
monk, in particular, took advantage of the unsettled state
of the mind of Europe to make a furious onslaught against
the Pope and the Church. Having been told by Cajetan
that he must " believe that one single drop of Christ's
blood is sufficient to redeem the whole human race, and
the remaining quantity that was shed in the garden and
on the cross was left as a legacy to the Pope, to be a
treasure from which indulgences were to be drawn," this
young priest declared he never would accept such a
doctrine, and commenced forthwith to preach openly
against the sale of indulgences, declaring that the Church
must stand or fall on the Bible, which taught no such
doctrine. The orthodox clergy, on the contrary, declared
that the Bible derived its authority from the Church, and
not the Church from the Bible, and demanded that Luther
[,6J
should be arrested for heresy. In 1520 the Tope ex-
communicated the bold monk, who, in return, defiantly
burnt the Papal bull, for which he was ordered to appear
before the Imperial Diet at Worms, when he deliberately
refused to retract. The views of the reformer quickly
spread through Switzerland and Germany, Pope Leo
thundering forth his anathemas upon all who joined the
dangerous movement, until, at length, after many bloody
wars and horrible massacres, such as the slaughter of the
Huguenots, etc., the Reformation was firmly established,
and the Bible became, to the Reformed Church, the only
guide to morals and duty. At first, the Pope sullenly
submitted to what appeared to be the inevitable ; but
soon it became apparent that, in order to keep any autho-
rity at all over the people, some plan would have to be
adopted to curtail the growing influence of the Reformed
Church. Accordingly, Pope Paul III., in 1540, estab-
lished the Society of Jesus, the members of which order
were sent abroad all over Europe for the purpose of
secretly undermining the influence of the Reformers.
Three years afterwards, as if to counteract the evil designs
of the Jesuits, there appeared on the scene the celebrated
work of Copernicus, which was destined for ever to
demolish the geocentric theory of Ptolemy, and to estab-
lish the heliocentric philosophy, which taught that the
sun was the centre of our system, and that all the planets,
including our earth, revolved in regular order round it,
and which, of course, called forth a volley of abuse from
the Vatican, the theory being declared heretical and its
author anathematised. The effect of all this was to
cause quite a revolution in thought among the learned of
Europe, which gave rise to another schism in the Church,
departure being this time from the ranks of the Reformers.
Arianism was once more revived by a number of people,
who maintained that the doctrine of the Trinity was un-
Scriptural, and that Jesus was but a man like themselves,
though endowed with great authority from god. The
orthodox and reformed Churches both alike were alarmed
at this turn of events, and co-operated to suppress the
new heresy, denouncing all philosophical studies, and
branding the Unitarians as Infidels. The upshot was
that Servetus was burnt to death at the stake by the order
[-7]
of the Trinitarian Calvin, and a check was thereby given
to the propagation of the Arian doctrines. It is satis-
factory to note that a Unitarian College now stands upon
the very spot where Servetus was murdered.
Again progress was arrested, and this time it seemed
as though a mortal blow had been dealt at all acquirement
of knowledge, for shortly afterwards, in 1559, Pope
Paul IV. established the Congregation of the Index
~icPurgatorius for the purpose of examining all books and
manuscripts intended for publication, and of deciding
whether the people should read them. The usual counter-
poise, however, quickly made its appearance, proving
once more that progress cannot be arrested for long.
In 1563 the first newspaper was produced in Venice,
which again set the ball of intellect rolling along, never
more to be stopped by priest or prince. The new
Copernican philosophy was now accepted by many
learned men, among whom even were some of the
priesthood. Giordano Bruno, an Italian Dominican
monk, among others, embraced these truths, and was
not afraid to openly teach them, for which daring act
he was soon obliged to seek refuge in Switzerland, where
he prosecuted his studies for some time in peace. The
fiends of the Inquisition, however, soon discovered his
whereabouts and drove him into France, then into
England, and then back to Germany ; in the end arrest-
ing him at Venice. He was taken thence to Rome,
publicly accused of teaching the plurality of worlds, and
burnt at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600. Eighteen
years after the murder of this noble Italian, Kepler, of
Wiirtemberg, published his " Epitome of the Copernican
System," in which he demonstrated for the first time
that all the heavenly bodies are bound in their courses
by various laws. This work, like those of Copernicus
and Bruno, was prohibited by the Congregation of the
_Jfodex^Purgatorius, and Kepler himself declared a
dangerous infidel. Still, in spite of the fury of the
priesthood, Catholic and Reformer alike, the study ot
the sciences made rapid strides, and in 1632 the vener-
able Galileo published his " System of the World," in
which he maintained the accuracy of the Copernican
theory. For this daring disregard of the Church's
warnings he was summoned to Rome and brought
before the Inquisition, accused of having taught that the
earth moves round the sun. The poor old man was
compelled to kneel on the floor of the court, place his
hand on the Bible, and recant, after which he was incar-
cerated in the prison of the Inquisition, where, ten years
afterwards, he died. Still science progressed, and was
considerably aided by the rapid increase in the number
of newspapers throughout Europe. In 1631 the French
Gazette was established, and, soon after, newspapers
appeared in all important cities, much to the discomfi-
ture of the Church, whose power was now more seriously
imperilled than ever. Confidence was gradually becom-
ing established, and Descartes dared, in 1680, to make
an attempt to analyse the mind, declaring that the neces-
sity of universal doubt was the only starting-point of all
true philosophy. He was followed, six years later, by
Newton, who published his " Principia," in which he
demonstrated the grand truth which has immortalised
his name viz., that all bodies attract each other with
forces jointly proportionate to their masses, varying
universally as the squares of their distances. Thus was
established the great law of universal gravitation, which
marks an epoch in the intellectual development of man.
Owing to the constantly-recurring feuds between the
Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics, this great discovery
passed for a while almost unnoticed ; but it soon became
apparent that the final blow had been given to the old
theory of divine intervention in the movements of the
universe, and that learned men of all countries were
rapidly embracing the Newtonian theory of irreversible
laws.
It was, however, now too late for the Church to inter-
fere, for all classes were quickly becoming impressed
with the grand theory of gravitation, which was destined
for ever to remain the most wonderful discovery of man ;
and, although the clergy still continued to anathematise
all scholars and scientists, the study of nature was
pursued with rapidly-increasing enthusiasm, as though
to make up for lost time. In 1690 Locke, the physi-
cian and philosopher, published his "Essay on the
Human Understanding," in which he declared all human
['9]
knowledge to be the result of experience, thus entirely
upsetting the old theory of intuition. Twenty years
later Leibnitz published his work entitled "Theodicee,"
in which he endeavoured to solve the difficult problem
of existence of evil in the world under the moral govern-
ment of Deity. These two rival philosophers soon
became the leaders of philosophic thought in their
respective countries ; but barely thirty years had passed
away before an iconoclast appeared, in the person of
David Hume, who cut away the ground ruthlessly from
beneath their feet. His " Treatise on Human Nature,"
published in 1739, upset all the philosophical systems
of the past, replacing them by the great theory of causa-
tion, which was soon accepted by every philosopher and
scientist. Kant followed in 1781 with his "Critique of
Pure Reason," in which he submitted matter to analysis,
and declared it to be possessed of inherent force.
The other sciences were also joining in the march of
progress. Chemistry was fast becoming a settled science ;
Priestley's discovery of oxygen, in 1774, had created a
great sensation; Cavendish shortly afterwards, in 1783,
discovered the constitution of water ; and Lavoisier, in
1789, summarised the combined researches of these two
chemists and himself in his " Elements of Chemistry,"
which at once was recognised as the standard work on
the subject. Astronomy had, since Newton's discovery
of gravitation, assumed a more settled condition, but
was destined to further modification by the enunciation
of the nebular hypothesis by Laplace, who commenced
to publish his bulky work, "Mecanique Celeste," in
1799.
The nineteenth century opened with progress, as it
were, on the gallop. In 1804 the first locomotive engine
was started in England, at the same time that the first
screw steamer was run at New York. It is needless to
enumerate all the inventions of scientific men during the
century, which are so well known to every one. Suffice
it to say that, in a marvellously short space of time, the
whole face of Europe has been changed. Railways
cross each other at ajl points, like a huge network ;
telegraph wires link together as one place all important
centres of population; public buildings arc protected
t 20 ]
frum nature's freaks by lightning conductors; light-
houses dot the whole length of our coasts ; the penny
postage conveys our thoughts to and fro throughout the
length and breadth of the land ; a free press ventilates
our grievances and enlightens our minds ; hospitals and
dispensaries minister to the sick and maimed wherever
we go ; and the Habeas Corpus Act endows each well-
disposed individual with freedom and liberty. What a
metamorphosis to be effected in so short a time !
The lesson we learn from such a cursory glance as
this necessarily is at the intellectual progress of Europe
during the last two thousand years is full of the deepest
meaning. We cannot help being struck by the dogged
manner in which the Christian religion has opposed all
progress, ruthlessly murdering in cold blood any who
dared to suggest that the now-established and universally-
accepted theories might possibly possess some little of
the truth. Every new scientific truth or discovery has
been denounced by the Church, every great benefactor
to the human race persecuted and hunted to death by
the sleuth-hounds of bigotry and intolerance, and every
European war or massacre hatched out of religious
differences. To this very day the Church, though robbed
of all its old power to inflict evil and misery, persists
in its denunciation of all scientific discoveries ; and not
one of the numerous sects which at present divide the
Christian Church is exempt from this charge. Hegel,
Bunscn, John Stuart Mill, Renan, Huxley, Darwin,
Tyndall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Carpenter, Herbert
Spencer, Emerson, Haeckel, Schopenhauer, Victor Hugo,
and, in short, all the leaders of thought of our century,
have incurred the bitter hostility of the various Christian
sects ; and yet what a^heirloom the works of these men
form for the coming generation !
The discovery of the power of chloroform and ether
to relieve pain was denounced by the Church because
it was proposed to apply it to the relief of the agony of
childbirth, the natural inheritance of woman under
the divine curse of Eden ; the abolition of slavery was
also opposed by these human parasites because the
practice was ordered in the Bible ; and it is well known
how the priests of the Church utilised for their own
purposes those abominable texts of the Old Testament,
" Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," and " Neither
shalt thou countenance a poor man in his own cause."
The Middle Ages bear attestation to the fidelity of
the priesthood to their sacred oracles. Have not two
honest citizens of London quite lately undergone one
whole year's imprisonment for the grave sin of ridicul-
ing the notion of the Hebrew and Christian gods being
other than creations of man's imagination ? This very
lecture will probably be the means of bringing down the
wrath of the priesthood State Church and Noncon-
formist alike upon its author. And why ? Are the
facts untrue ? Just the reverse. The writer, historian,
or pseudo-scientist who writes volumes of falsehoods
for the purpose of propping up for a short time longer
priestcraft and tyranny will assuredly fare well at the
hands of these insinuating gentlemen of the cloth ; but
let the man who dares to write the honest, unvarnished
truth beware ! His fair name, his business, and his
social and family ties will be undermined and destroyed
in an incredibly short space of time. All honor, there-
fore, be given to those brave ones who have dared to
stand before the world and speak out the truth in the
cause of humanity ! They have done their share in
helping forward the march of intellect, in stifling super-
stition, and in uprooting ignorance '1 he state of Europe
to-day, as compared with its condition two thousand
years since, is overwhelming evidence of the continual
progress of civilization, which, in spite of the opposition
from its old enemy, the Church, in the past and, to a
limited extent, in the present, has proved to the world
that it must, of necessity, continue for all time as one
of the great and immutable laws of Nature.
GENESIS I. 1, according- to' authorised Hebrew version,
with final letters, but without vowel points and breathings.
" In the beginning- the ram (or lamb)-sun-gods (or the good gods)
renovated (reorganized or re-started) the heavens and the earth.'*
This refers to the commencement of. the Persian new-year, at the
vernal equinox, Aries > the ram or lamb.
GENESIS I. 1, according to the Samaritan Pentateuch,
transcribed into ante -Masore tic, or original Hebrew, as written
before the invention of the five final letters.
u In the beginning the goat renovated the heavens and the earth."
This refers to the commencement of the Egyptian new-year, at the
winter solstice, Capi'icornus, the goat.
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THE BIBLE.
THERE is probably no book on earth that has ever had anything like so
large a circulation as that which is known as the Bible ; and yet few
among the many millions who possess a copy ever think of asking
themselves the question, " Where and how did it originate ?" They are
satisfied with the ipse dixit of their parson that it " came from God."
That may be sufficient to satisfy the unthinking multitude, but it does
not suffice for thinking people, who prefer to follow the dictates of their
reason rather than rest on the mere word of a man or a number of men
who are paid to preach that the Bible is the word of God, and whose
incomes would cease if their followers thought otherwise.
What is this Bible ? Where did it come from ? Let us see. As we
now have it, it consists of a number of books, which are divided into
two main portions, the Old and the New Testaments, the former being
made up of the five books said to have been written by Moses under
God's inspiration, and called the Pentateuch, and a number of historical,
poetical, and prophetic writings ; and the latter consisting of four narra-
tives of the life of Jesus, called the Gospels, a narrative of the Acts of
the Apostles, a number of letters, and the Vision or Revelation of one
John. The number of books which make up the Bible has varied from
time to time, according to the fancy of the age; but about 360 years
since a Council of Protestants determined that a number of hitherto
received sacred writings were not the "Word of God," and finally
decided that only those now included in the authorised version were of
divine origin. Before that time the following books had formed part of
the Bible viz., Tobit and Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch,
Epistle of Jeremiah, Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the
Dragon, and Maccabees, all of which are considered canonical at the
present time by the Roman Catholic Church. Besides these writings
there are a large number of others that have, at different times, occupied
positions of honour in this ever-varying compilation, but which are now
almost forgotten by pious divines, and entirely unknown by their
credulous and ignorant dupes.
Dr, Dupin, Professor of Philosophy at the Paris University, and one
of the most pious and learned Christian writers of his time, gives a list
of over 150 books that have, from time to time, been held sacred, and
said to have formed part of the " Word of God," as follows :
OLD TESTAMENT.
Books now Considered Canonical by Jews and Christians.
The five Books of Moses.
The Book of Joshua.
The Book of Judges.
The Book of Samuel, or the first and second Books of Kings.
The third and fourth Books of Kings.
Isaiah.
Jeremiah.
Ezekiel.
The Twelve Minor Prophets.
The Book of Job.
The Hundred and Fifty Psalms.
The Proverbs of Solomon.
The Ecclesiastes.
The Canticles.
Daniel.
The Chronicles.
Esdras, divided into two Books.
Books Received as Canonical by some Jeivs and Rejected by Others.
Esther, Ruth.
Books Exchided the Jewish Canon, and Reckoned as Apocryphal by some of the Ancient
Christians, but Allowed as Canonical of late by the Chtirch of Rome.
Baruch, Tobit, Judith, the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the two Books of the
Maccabees.
The Song of the three Children in the Fiery Furnace.
The History of Susanna.
The History of Bel and the Dragon.
Books that are Excluded the Canon without Apparent Reason.
The Prayer of Manasseh, inserted in the Apocrypha.
The third and fourth Books of Esdras (ibid).
The third and fourth Books of Maccabees, in the Septuagint Bible.
The Genealogy of Job, and his Wife's Speech, at the end of the Greek text of the
Book of Job.
The I5ist Psalm, at the end of the Greek Psalms.
A Discourse of King Solomon, at the end of the Book of Wisdom.
The Preace before the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in the vulgar Latin and Greek
text.
Other Apocryphal Books of the same Nature, which are Lost.
The Book of Enoch.
The Book of the Assumption of Moses.
The Assumption, Apocalypse, or Secrets of Elias.
The Secrets of Jeremiah.
Books Full of Fables and Errors^ which are Lost.
The Generation, or the Creation of Adam.
The Revelation of Adam.
Of the Genealogy, or of the sons and daughters of Adam.
Cham's Book of Magic*
[3]
A Treatise, entitled Seth.
The Assumption of Abraham.
Jetsira, or concerning the Creation ascribed to Abraham.
The Book of the Twelve Patriarchs.
The Discourses of Jacob and Joseph.
The Prophecy of Habakkuk.
A Collection of the Prophecies of Ezekiel.
The Prophecy of Eldad and Medad.
The Treatise of Jannes and Jambres.
The Book of King Og.
Jacob's Ladder, and several other Tracts.
NEW TESTAMENT.
Books Owned as Canonical at all times and by all Christians.
The Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The Acts of the Apostles.
Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul.
The First Epistle of St. Peter.
The First Epistle of St. John.
Books Questioned, but afterwards Admitted by the Church as Canonical.
The Epistle to the Hebrews.
The Epistle of St. James.
The Second Epistle of St. Peter.
The Second and Third of St. John.
The Epistle of St. Jude.
The Apocalypse, or Revelations of St. John, which was a long time before it was
admitted as Canonical.
The history of the angel and the agony of our Saviour related (Luke xxii. ).
The end of the last chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel.
The history of the woman taken in adultery, related in the eighth chapter of St.
John's Gospel.
The end of St. John's Gospel.
The passage concerning the Trinity, taken out of the fifth chapter of the First
Epistle of St. John.
Apocryphal Writings which are not Full of Errors.
The letter of Jesus Christ to Abgarus.
The letter of the Blessed Virgin.
The Gospel according to the Egyptians.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Additions to the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Luke, in the Cambridge manuscript.
The Proto-Evangelicum of St. James.
The Gospel of Nicodemus.
The Ancient Acts of Paul and Thecla.
The Epistle of the Laodicseans.
The Epistle of St. Paul to Seneca.
The Epistle of St. Barnabas.
The Liturgies of St. Peter.
The Liturgies of St. Mark.
The Liturgies of St. James.
The Liturgies of St. Matthew.
The Canons and Constitutions of the Apostles.
The Treatise of Prochorus.
The Books of St. Linus.
The Treatise of Abdias.
The Acts of the Passion of St. Andrew.
[4]
Books Full of Errors, almost all of them Lost.
The Gospel of St. Peter.
The Gospel of St. Thomas.
The Gospel of St. Matthias
The Gospel of St. Bartholomew.
The Gospel of St. Philip.
The Gospel of Judas Iscariot.
The Gospel of Thaddaeus.
The Gospel of Barnabas.
The Gospel of Truth by the Valentinians.
The Gospel of Perfection by the Gnostics.
The Gospel of Eve by the Gnostics.
A Book concerning the Infancy of Jesus Christ.
A Treatise concerning the Birth of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and her Midwife.
A Treatise concerning the Virgin's Lying-in, and the questions she asked.
A Treatise of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, cited by St. Jerome.
The Apocryphal Treatise of the Life of the Virgin, cited by St. Gregory Nysene.
Another Apocryphal Book on the Virgin, cited by Faustus.
The Writings of Jesus Christ about Miracles.
The Acts of St. Peter.
The Acts of St. Paul.
The Acts of St. Andrew.
The Acts of St. John.
The Acts of the Apostles.
The Acts of St. Philip.
The Acts of St. Thomas.
The Doctrine, Preaching, and Itinerary of St. Peter.
The Rapture of St. Paul.
The Memoirs of the Apostles.
The Lots of the Apostles.
The Itinerary of the Apostles.
The Treatise concerning the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.
The Apostolical Tract.
The Treatise of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin.
The Apocalypses or Revelations of St. Peter.
The Revelations of St. Paul.
The Revelations of St. Thomas.
The Revelations of St. Stephen.
The Revelations of the Great Apostle.
The Revelations of Abraham.
The Revelations of Seth.
The Revelations of Noriah.
In addition to those already named there were a number of lost books
referred to and quoted from by the authors of the various canonical
books, such as :
The Book of the Wars of the Lord (Numbers xxi. 14).
The Book of the Covenant (Exodus xxiv. 7).
The Book of Jasher, or the Upright (Joshua x. 13, 2 Samuel i. 18).
The Book of the Acts of Solomon (i Kings xi. 41).
The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (i Kings xiv. 19, and eighteen
other places in the Books of Kings ; also 2 Chron. xx. 34 and xxxiii. 18).
The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (i Kings xiv. 29, and twelve other places in
the Books of Kings).
The Book of Samuel the Seer (i Chronicles xxix. 29).
The Book of Nathan the Prophet (i Chronicles xxix. 29).
The Book of Gad the Seer (i Chronicles xxix. 29).
The Chronicles of King David (i Chronicles xxvii. 24).
The Book of Nathan the Prophet (2 Chronicles ix, 29).
[5]
The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilomite (2 Chronicles ix, 29).
The Visions of Iddo the Seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat (2 Chron. ix, 29).
The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet (2 Chronicles xii. 15).
The Book of Iddo the Seer concerning Genealogies (2 Chronicles xii. 15).
The Story of the Prophet Iddo (2 Chronicles xiii. 22).
The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chronicles xvi. 1 1, and six other
places in the same Book).
The Book of Jehu (2 Chronicles xx. 34).
The Memoirs of Hircanus (mentioned in I Maccabees).
The Books of Jason (mentioned in 2 Maccabees ii.).
The Acts of Uriah (mentioned in 2 Chronicles xxvi. 22).
Three thousand Proverbs of Solomon (mentioned in I Kings iv. 32).
A thousand and five Songs (mentioned in ibid).
Several other volumes by the same author (mentioned in ibid).
The Prophecy of Jeremiah, torn in pieces by Jehoiakim (cited in Jeremiah xxxvi. ),
Another Prophecy of his upon the city of Babylon (mentioned in Jeremiah li. ),
Memoirs or descriptions of the same author (mentioned in i Maccabees ii.).
The Prophecy of Jonah (mentioned in the Book of Jonah).
We can readily imagine what trouble our pious ancestors must have
experienced in deciding which of these writings really emanated from
the ghost of God and which were fraudulent productions, for the style
in which most of them were written rendered it almost impossible to
decipher them : written on rough skins, in ink which had become obli-
terated by age, many of them had fallen into the hands of monks and
other rogues, who appeared to have suffered severely from cacoethes
scribendi, and who recorded events connected with their own persons or
surroundings over the original writing, like a lady " crosses " her letters,
so that the whole manuscript became a complete jumble. In most cases
the original or ground language was Hebrew or Greek in ill-formed and
continuous capitals, undivided into words, and without accents, points,
or breathings, while the " crossing " was in Arabic, Latin, or some other
different dialect, badly written and accompanied with ink spots and
senseless dashes. Out of this heterogeneous mass of scribblings the
pious divines of the Reformation period compiled our authorised version
of the Bible, the translation into English being made, in the case of the
Old Testament, from the modern Hebrew text, and in that of the New
Testament from Beza's fifth edition of the Greek text.
There are three different versions of the complete Old Testament
viz., the Hebrew, the Greek Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate, and two
Samaritan versions of the Pentateuch, one written in Aramaen and the
other in Arabic. The MSS. of the Hebrew version are all written in
modern or Masoretic Hebrew, which dates from about the year 1,000
A.D. The original language of the Hebrews, which was derived from
the Egyptians and afterwards modified by contact with the Chaldeans,
was very different from that we are accustomed to read to-day in Hebrew
Bibles : instead of each word being separated from its neighbour, and
vowel points being subscribed to assist in the reading, sentences,
[6]
paragraphs, and even pages were written as though the whole formed
but one long word ; and, considering that the Hebrew alphabet consists
of consonants only, the absence of the vowel points and final letters
afterwards introduced rendered the meaning of the writer most obscure.
For instance, the first verse of Genesis would have been written as
follows in ancient Hebrew, but in letters more nearly approaching the
cuneiform type, ^^nri^^^tOTnS^nS^^^Dn^^pD. Th e
equivalent letters in English are (reading from right to left, as in Hebrew)
TS.R.A.H.T.A.V.M.Y.M.SH.H.T.A.M.Y.H.L.A.A.R.B.T.Y.SH.A.R.B
and the translators tell us that they signify, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth." Now, as they stand, it is utterly
impossible to pronounce the words ; and, even supposing that vowels
were added, this could be done in such a variety of ways that hundreds
of different pronunciations might result; so also might the sense be
varied by many different renderings. Suppose we wrote down the autho-
rised translation, using consonants only, and leaving entirely out the
vowels, the result would be as follows (reading from left to right, as in
English), NTHBGNNGGDCRTDTHHVNSNDTHRTH, which would
be entirely unpronounceable unless we added vowels ; and, by adding
vowels indiscriminately, a variety of renderings would result. The
absurdity of a written language composed only of consonants is thus
made very apparent. This difficulty opposed itself to the Jewish priests,
and was obviated by the introduction of vowel points, the manufacture
of five final letters, and the division of sentences into words according
to the arbitrary rendering of the introducers of the -vowel points ; so that
now we possess a Hebrew language which may be, and probably is, as
unlike the ancient Hebrew dialect as chalk is unlike cheese.
By slightly altering the vowel points of a sentence or a word, the
whole sense may be entirely destroyed ; and that this has been frequently
enough done requires no proof here, for it has been abundantly shown
elsewhere. Certain priests have attempted to prove that the vowel
points and final letters were in use in Ezra's time ; but it is now
generally admitted by scholars that they were inventions of the middle
ages. Hear what the learned Christian Dupin, Doctor of the Sorbonne,
says : " The Hebrew alphabet is composed of twenty-two letters, like
those of the Samaritans, Chaldeans, and Syrians. But, of these letters,
none are vowels, and, in consequence, the pronunciation cannot be
determined. The Hebrews have invented points, which, being put
under the letters, answer the purpose of vowels. Those vowel-points
serve not only to fix the pronunciation, but also the signification of a
word, because, many times, the word being differently pointed and pro-
nounced alters the meaning entirely. This is the consideration which has
[7]
made the question as to the antiquity of the points of so much im-
portance, and has, consequently, had such elaborate treatment. Some
have pretended that these points are as ancient as the Hebrew tongue,
and that Abraham made use of them. Others make Moses the author
of them. But the most common opinion among the Jews is that, Moses
having learnt of God the true pronunciation of Hebrew words, this
science was preserved in the synagogue by oral tradition till the time of
Ezra, who invented the points and accents to fix the meaning. Elias
Levita, a German Jew of the last generation, and deeply learned in
Hebrew grammar, has rejected this opinion, and contended that the
invention of points took place in much more recent times. He ascribes
the invention to the Jews of Tiberias and to the year 500 A.D., and
alleges that the invention was not perfected till about the year 1040 A.D.,
by two famous Maserites, Ben-Ascher and Ben-Naphtali."
Hear, also, what the learned and pious Dr. Prideaux says : " The
sacred books made use of among the Jews in their synagogues have
ever been, and still are, without the vowel-points, which could not have
happened had they been placed there by Ezra, and had, consequently,
been of the same authority with the letters ; for, had they been so, they
would certainly have been preserved in the synagogues with the same
care as the rest of the text." He then goes on to say that no mention
is made of the points in either the Mishna or Gemara, and continues :
" Neither do we find the least hint of them in Philo-Judseus or Josephus,
who are the oldest writers of the Jews, or in any of the ancient Chris-
tian writers for several hundred years after Christ. And, although
among them Origen and Jerome were well skilled in the Hebrew
language, yet in none of their writings do they speak the least of them.
Origen flourished in the third, and Jerome in the fifth, century ; and
the latter, having lived a long while in Judaea, and there more especially
applied himself to the study of the Hebrew learning, and much con-
versed with the Jewish rabbis for his improvement herein, it is not
likely that he could have missed making some mention of them through
all his voluminous works, if they had been either in being among the
Jews in his time, or in any credit or authority with them, and that
especially since, in his commentaries, there were so many necessary
occasions for taking notice of them." The Doctor then declares that
after the Babylonish Captivity " the Hebrew language ceased to be the
mother tongue of the Jews," Aramsen, as we know, being the dialect of
Judaea at the time of Herod.
We may, then, safely fix the date of our earliest Hebrew MS. at a
later period than 1000 A.D., for there does not exist one single ante-
Masoretic or unpointed Hebrew MS. of the Bible. The Greek Septua
[8]
gint was also written in Greek capitals, without accents and breathings
and without divisions between the words, and continued thus until the
eighth century, when accents and breathings came into use, which were
followed, in the tenth century, by small letters, as we have them now in
our Greek Bibles. The very same may be said about the New Testa-
ment MSS., all of which are written in continuous Greek capitals.
The oldest MS. of the New Testament is the Codex Sinaiticus,
discovered by Tischendorf at the convent of St. Catherine, on Mount
Sinai, in 1859, and supposed to belong to the fourth century. The
Codex Vaticanus is also supposed to belong to the fourth century, and
was first published at Rome by Vercellone, in 1858. The Codex
Alexandrinus, containing both Old and New Testaments, is supposed
to belong to the fifth century, and was first published by Woide, in 1786,
and afterwards by Cowper, in 1860. Of the Old Testament it contains,
besides the canonical and most apocryphal books found in our editions,
the third and fourth books of the Maccabees, Epistle of Athanasius to
Marcellinus (prefixed to the Psalms), and fourteen hymns, the eleventh
in honour of the Virgin. Ecclesiasticus, the Song of the Three Chil-
dren, Susannah, and Bell and the Dragon do not appear. Of the New
Testament there is, in addition to the received books, the First Epistle
of Clement to the Corinthians and part of the Second. The Codex
Ephraemi is supposed to belong to the fifth century, and was published
by Tischendorf in 1843. The Codex Bezae is a Graeco-Latin MS., said
to belong to the sixth century, and first published by Kipling, in 1793,
and afterwards by Scrivener, in 1864. All these MSS. are written in
continuous capitals, so badly formed, and so jumbled together, as to be
almost illegible.
According to the showing of those most interested in proving the
antiquity of sacred writings, the very^earliest MS. cannot lay claim to an
earlier date than the fourth century^ 'and, if the authors to whom the
Church has attributed the various writings in the Bible wrote the said
records, it is clear that the latest originals must date from the first
century. But the originals do not anywhere exist, and consequently it is
utterly impossible for anybody to know who wrote any one of the books
of the Bible, which is, therefore, a compilation of anonymous writings,
and, as such, is of no authority whatever. So far from being a divinely-
inspired record, it is, as we have seen, a product of the cunning and
ingenuity of knaves and fanatics, who deserve credit for only one thing,
and that is that they managed to make any sense whatever out of the
wretched scribble and scrawl from which they derived their information,
THE
" ANNALS" OF TACITUS.
ONE of the darkest epochs in the history of Christianity
is that period which commenced with the annihilation
of the Saracen power in Europe and the establishment
of the Inquisition by Pope Innocent IV. in 1243, and
continued until about the end of the fifteenth century.
The ghastly horrors perpetrated by the Christian Church
at this time against unoffending people are too well
known to need any reproduction here, and may be found
fully detailed in Rule's " History of the Inquisition,"
Draper's " Conflict," and other similar works. My pur-
pose just now is not to follow in detail these wicked
and cruel abominations connected with the Christian
superstition, but to study carefully the various circum-
stances surrounding the sudden appearance, in the early
part of the fifteenth century, of so many MSS. purport-
ing to have been written by the ancients. Among these
manuscripts were the so-called "Annals of Tacitus,"
which have since become so celebrated on account of
the reference made by the author in his fifteenth book
to the persecution of the early Christians by Nero. It
has long been suspected by learned scholars that these
" Annals," and in particular the passage relating to Nero's
persecution of Christians, were never written by Tacitus ;
but, owing to the danger usually incurred in giving ex-
pression to opinions so detrimental to the interests of
the Church, no one ventured until quite lately publicly
to state his doubts as to the genuineness of these cele-
brated writings. It is now, however, pretty generally
admitted among such scholars as do not make their
honour subservient to their interests that the author of
the " History " and the author of the " Annals " were
not the same person, and that the latter, moreover, were
.not written until many centuries after the death of
Tacitus.
To find out who was the real author of these " Annals,"
and how they became associated with the name of
Tacitus, it will be necessary to glance at the condition
of the Christian Church during the period referred to
above ; and in doing so none but authors of the highest
repute will be consulted.
For some time after the establishment of the Inquisi-
tion in 1243 the Church had been able to suppress, to a
very large extent, the growing tendency of the age
towards the acquirement of knowledge : by the rack, the
stake, and the gibbet, by torture, by fire, and by the
knife, she had relentlessly pursued her horrid and dia-
bolical career, hoping by these means to preserve the
faith and silence her 'enemies. To a large extent it is
admitted she was successful ; but in remote places the
spirit of inquiry lived and grew in spite of her : Abelard,
the first Freethinker, had well sown his seeds in France ;
Arnold of Brescia had left to his brethren in Italy a
scheme of reform which was destined to take practical
shape in the autumn of 1870 ; and Wicliffe had preached
from his chair at Oxford doctrines which could not fail
ere long to have their effect upon the intellect of Eng-
land. This bold Yorkshireman did not scruple to
publicly declare that the mendicant friars who were
commissioned by the Pope to travel over England and
grant absolution and indulgences to the people were a
pack of thieves and sensualists, that the clergy were
indulging in open wickedness, that the indulgences of
the Pope were a manifest blasphemy, and that the
priesthood had no right to deprive the people of the
right to search the Bible. He even went so far as to
speak of the Pope as " Antichrist, the proud worldly
priest of Rome, and the most cursed of clippers and
purse-kervers." From the pulpit of his little church at
Lutterworth he openly preached against the authority of
the Pope in England, and declared that Christ had given
no temporal lordship to the popes and no supremacy
over kings. The Pope and the Sacred College very
naturally resented this behaviour, and ordered copies of
Wicliffe's works to be sent forthwith to Rome for
[3]
inspection, the result being that three bulls were drafted
on May 22nd, 1377, and despatched to England, one
being addressed to Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Can-
terbury, and William Courtenay, Bishop of London,
another being addressed to the King, and the third to
the University of Oxford. These bulls expressed the
surprise of his Holiness that such a fearful heresy had
not been at once suppressed, and commanded that
immediate steps should be taken for silencing the author
of it. He was to be apprehended and shut up in prison
until the further orders of the Pope arrived ; and all
proofs and evidence of his heresy were to be sent by
special messenger to Rome without delay. These bulls,
however, arrived too late to be of much use. Already
Wicliffe had been brought to trial before the Bishop of
London and his court at St. Paul's, with a result not at
all to the liking of his Holiness or any of his pious fol-
lowers, as he very soon discovered.
On February iQth, 1377, Courtenay sat in Our Lady's
Chapel in St. Paul's, surrounded by Church dignitaries,
to hear the accusation against the reformer, a large and
excited crowd, favourably disposed towards Wicliffe,
howling outside the doors. Suddenly a disturbance
took place inside the chapel, caused by Lord Percy and
John of Gaunt forcing their way towards the reformer ;
the Bishop and his court were scandalised, and imme-
diately called upon the intruders to withdraw ; but,
instead of doing so, Percy quietly turned to Wicliffe and
politely requested. him to be seated, whereupon Courte-
nay became furious and yelled out : " He must and
shall stand; it is unreasonable that one on his trial
before his ordinary should sit." High words followed ;
the mob outside was in a state of fury, and the bishops
and clergy were terrified. The end soon came, for John
of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, stepping in front of the
Bishop, shouted : " As for you, who are growing so arro-
gant and proud, I will bring down the pride, not of you
alone, but that of all the prelacy in England," and then
declared that in a few moments he would drag him out
of the court by the hair of his head. This brought
matters to a climax ; the mob burst into the chapel, the
Bishop and clergy fled, and the reformer was set free.
U1
The greatest consternation prevailed among the clergy
upon the news of this outrage being carried through the
country, and for several weeks secret deliberations were
carried on for the purpose of devising some good plan
for restoring the visibly decreasing prestige of the clerical
party.
At last the three bulls arrived from Rome, but were,
as we have seen, too late in the field ; for not only had
the trial of Wicliffe turned out a failure, but the King
had in the meantime died, and the Oxford doctors had
almost all sided with the reformer. Still, the Church
determined to punish Wicliffe, who was summoned to
appear before Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, in
Lambeth Chapel, to answer charges of heresy and insu-
bordination ; but this trial proved as unfortunate for the
clergy as the former one, for another angry mob besieged
the chapel and demanded the release of the reformer,
in addition to which Sir Lewis Clifford arrived in haste
from the Queen to forbid the bishops passing any sen-
tence upon Wicliffe. This was indeed a surprise for
their reverences, who precipitately left the chapel and
reached their homes in the best way they could. All
this had a great effect upon the minds of the people
both in England and on the Continent ; for the Pope
and his satellites had not only been attacked, but, what
was more amazing, they had suffered an unparalleled
defeat ; and the probability was that the discontented
of France and Italy would follow the example of the
English reformer and attempt to put into practice the
theories of Arnold and Abelard. The times certainly
looked black for the Church ; but an event happened
shortly afterwards which added still more to the general
dismay of the clericals, and was near being the end of
the Papacy.
.Pope Gregory XL died on March 27th, 1378, at the
Vatican, where he had arrived shortly before from his
beautiful residence at Avignon ; and the Italian clergy,
fearing that the next pope would also take up his resi-
dence in France, determined to exert every effort to
place upon the vacant chair of St. Peter an Italian who
would be likely to remain at the Vatican. At this time
the sacred college consisted of twenty-two cardinals,
Li]
twelve of whom were French, so that it would have been
an easy matter for the French majority to elect a French
pope ; but the clamour, not only of the clergy, but of
the laity of Rome, was so great that the majority did not
avail themselves of their opportunity, and allowed the
Archbishop of Bari, a Neapolitan, to be nominated and
unanimously elected to the vacant see, under the title
of Urban VI. Not many weeks passed away before the
French majority began to repent their haste, and ended
by publicly excommunicating Pope Urban VI., calling
him apostate and antichrist, and electing in his stead, on
September 2ist, Robert of Geneva, under the title of
Clement VII. The Italian bishops and clergy stood by
the Pope of their choice, who resided at the Vatican,
while the French bishops and clergy bowed allegiance
only to their Pope, who took up his residence at the old
papal palace at Avignon ; and thus it happened that for
the first time in the history of the Church there were two
popes at the same time, each pouring forth his anathemas
at the other, and each declaring himself to be the divinely-
ordained vicar of Christ on earth. Owing to this schism,
Wicliffe was allowed to preach his heresy without let or
hindrance, for the whole of Europe was in a constant
ferment, and the bishops could ill bestow time upon such
an insignificant person when two such lofty individuals
were attracting the attention of both clergy and laity.
For forty years these rival popes and their successors
carried on a perpetual warfare, both with the sword and
the pen, Pope Urban being succeeded in turn by
Pope Boniface IX., Pope Innocent VIL, and Pope
Gregory XII., and Pope Clement by Pope Bene-
dict XIII. During this time there were not wanting men
who were bold enough to turn to account this papal
schism in the interest of reform. Wicliffe was working
silently but steadily in England, and actually had the
audacity to render the Bible in the vulgar tongue, so
that the people could read it in the churches, the thing
of all others that the popes and the cardinals dreaded,
for they well knew that, as soon as the Bible was read
and understood, the authority of the Church would
gradually wane, and eventually cease to exist at all. In
vain did the popes thunder forth their curses upon
Wicliffe's venerable head, for was not the whole of Europe
at that very time discussing more or less fiercely the very
question as to which of the two holy ones was really
Pope ? Of what use was it that he of Avignon denounced
Wicliffe, when half of Christendom denied his right to
the papal chair? He of Rome was in precisely the
same position, so that the high-sounding anathemas fell
but lightly on the old reformer ; but it was far otherwise
with the heretical teachings which called forth the papal
curses ; for they were carried into the most remote
corners of Europe, causing quite a sensation among the
hitherto loyal servants of the Church. Jerome of Prague,
in the year 1400, just sixteen years after Wicliffe's death,
carried across the channel a large assortment of Wicliffe's
writings, and immediately commenced to carry on the
work of the great reformer in Europe, challenging the
doctors of Paris and Vienna on his way home. Uniting
with John Huss, a Professor of Prague University, he
attacked with great violence the Papacy, declaring that
the very fact of the head of the Church being split into
two was sufficient to destroy for ever the notion of papal
infallibility. Things had now arrived at such a pass that
the doctors of the Sorbonne in Paris made a desperate
attempt to settle the difficulty. For fifteen years past
they had been urging the two popes to resign simul-
taneously, so that one successor to both could be unani-
mously elected, and the dispute thus settled ; but neither
party would yield an inch. At last, in 1409, driven to
desperation by the effect produced by Wicliffe's writings,
and by the bold preaching of Huss and Jerome, the
Council of Pisa deposed both popes, and elected a third
viz., Balthazar Corsa, who assumed the title of Pope
John XXIII. and took up his residence at Bologna. The
two deposed pontiffs, however, refused to recognise the
decree of the Council, the consequence being that,
instead of there being two popes, there were three. This
strengthened the position of Huss and Jerome, who
said : " If we must obey, to whom is our obedience to
be paid ? If all three are infallible, why does not their
testimony agree? And if only one of them is the most
Holy Father, why is it that we cannot distinguish him
from the rest?" The Bolognan Pope declared the
[7]
Roman Pope to be a heretic, a demon, and antichrist ;
the Roman Pope entertained similar views about his holy
brother of Bologna ; and both stigmatised the Avignon
Pope as an impostor and schismatic ; while his Holiness
of Avignon had as much affection for his two holy
brethren as they had for him.
Another Council was held at Constance in 1418, at
which all three Holinesses were deposed, excellent pre-
cautions being at the same time taken to ensure the
proper carrying out of the sentences. Otho Colonna was
then elected to the chair of St. Peter, as Martin V., and
the schism at last put an end to. But at what a cost
had this schism been kept up for forty years ! People
had begun to seriously question the right of the popes
to claim infallibility; many were now in the habit of
daily reading the Bible, and some had even dared to
search ancient authors for fuller information respecting
the establishment of Christianity. Unless these three
ulcers were immediately cauterised and effectively effaced,
the Church must fall from its high position, as the holy
ones at the Vatican well knew. Accordingly, the Inquisi-
tion was brought into service of the Pope, to put a stop
to the insolence of those who dared to assail the dogma
of infallibility, and who had been guilty of the blasphemy
of reading the Bible. Huss and Jerome had already
been burnt at the stake. In addition to this, large sums
of money were offered for freshly-discovered MSS. of
the ancients, in order that all the evidence it was possible
to collect together might be available in case of emer-
gency. These means were very effectual ; for trouble-
some people, who had inquiring minds or who had learnt
to read and write, were quickly despatched to a happier
land by the agents of the Inquisition, while the money
offered for newly-discovered MSS. acted like magic in
causing old musty writings to turn up in every direction.
While the Council of Constance was being held for
the purpose of electing one pope, and one only, to sit in
the chair of St. Peter, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Win-
chester, second son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
happened to pass through the town, and took advantage
of the opportunity thus offered him to attend the sittings,
where he made the acquaintance of many, among whom
[8]
was Boggio Bracciolini, one of the Papal Secretaries. A
friendship soon sprang up between the two, which re-
sulted in Bracciolini returning to England with Bishop
afterwards Cardinal Beaufort, in the autumn of 1418.
After a year or two spent with Beaufort, the late Secre-
tary became dissatisfied with his lot, complaining bitterly
in his letters to his friend, Niccolo Niccoli, of the many
unfulfilled promises of the Cardinal. At last he was
offered, and duly accepted, a small living of 120 florins
a year, which he soon afterwards exchanged for one worth
40 a year, and having fewer duties attached to it,
which gave him more leisure time for study, and, con-
sequently, made him considerably happier, for his passion
for studying ancient authors was as intense as his know-
ledge of the classic languages was profound.
In a very short time, however, he became again dis-
satisfied with his lot, and begged the Cardinal to supply
him with an honorary canonry, so that he might visit
Italy and prosecute his studies, at the same time that he
drew a snug little salary from England. He was not
successful, for the Cardinal probably had many such
applications, and found more suitable objects upon which
to bestow his favours.
Just at this time the rage for finding old MSS. increased
enormously, owing to the large sums of money given by
the Vatican to the lucky finders, who, as a rule, were
simply villains of the monk type and the most impudent
forgers. Bracciolini, whose passion for money was even
greater than his passion for knowledge, bitterly bewailed
his fate, and longed for an opportunity to turn his wits
to account, and thus secure some of the fine prizes
which were being so lavishly bestowed by his Holiness
upon indigent Italian and Hungarian monks. While he
was despairing of any such good fortune turning up he
unexpectedly received from Piero Lamberteschi of
Florence, agent to Cosmo de Medici, an offer which
greatly gratified him, and which he could plainly see
emanated in the first instance from his old friend
Niccoli. The nature of this offer was, for obvious
reasons, kept strictly secret ; but, from a perusal of some
of the letters which passed between Bracciolini and
Niccoli, no doubt now exists that it was really a proposal
19]
that Bracciolini should enter into retirement and forge
an introduction to the " History " of Tacitus, for which
work he would be paid 500 gold sequins, equivalent to
upwards of ;i 0,000. Niccoli strongly urged his friend
to accept the offer, and Bracciolini, in reply, u thinks he
will follow his advice ;" but the venture was such a
daring one that 500 sequins appeared to him insuffi-
cient ; so he wrote again to Niccoli about this " sugges-
tion" and "offer" made by Lamberteschi, who, he
states, " will endeavour to procure for me in three years
500 gold sequins. If he will make it 600, 1 will at once
close with his proposal. He holds forth sanguine hopes
about several future profitable contingencies, which, I
am inclined to believe, may probably be realised ; yet it
is more prudent to covenant for something certain than
to depend on hope alone I like the occupation to
which he has invited me, and hope I shall be able to
produce something worth reading ; but for this purpose,
as I tell him in my letters, I require the retirement and
leisure that are necessary for literary work." An arrange-
ment was eventually arrived at, and it was definitely
settled that Bracciolini should leave England and go to
Hungary, in which country it was popularly believed
were to be found lost literary treasures. Still, Bracciolini
had his doubts about the due payment of the money,
and, as he was about to give up a living in England, he
was anxious to have some security for the money pro-
mised by Lamberteschi, for we find him writing to
Niccoli as follows : "You know well how I prefer liberty
and literary leisure to the other things which the vast
majority hold in the highest estimation and make the
objects of their ambition If I were to see that I
should get that which our friend Piero expects, I would
go not only to the end of Europe, but as far as the wilds
of Tartary, especially as I should have the opportunity
of paying attention to Greek literature, which it is my
desire to devour with avidity, were it but to avoid those
wretched translations, which so torment me that there is
more pain in reading than pleasure in acquiring know-
ledge." He then wrote : " If I undertake a journey to
Hungary, it will be unknown to everybody but a few,
and down the throats of these I shall cram all sorts of
[10]
speeches, since I will pretend I have come from here
[England]."
Apparently matters were soon satisfactorily arranged ;
for, from this time, Bracciolini commenced to prepare
for his forgery. He made good use of the library of
Cardinal Beaufort, and searched everywhere for old
writers from whom he could gather information respect-
ing the old Roman empire; and, finally, made arrange-
ments for quitting England. In a letter to Niccoli,
dated London, July lyth, 1420, he says that he has
' skimmed over Aristotle during the spring of the year,
not for the purpose of studying him then, but reading
and seeing what there was in each of his works." He
had found that sort of " perusal not wholly unprofitable,
as he had learnt something every day, superficially though
it might be, from understanding Aristotle in his own
language, where he found him in the words of transla-
tors either incomprehensible or nonsensical." It was
arranged between the three friends that Bracciolini should
repair at once to Italy, where consultations could be
held frequently, "to deliberate fully what was best to
be done f so, after vainly attempting to dispose of his
living, Bracciolini finally departed for France, en route for
Italy. Before doing so, however, he wrote to Niccoli,
expressing his fear that the forgery he had undertaken
was too great a toil for him, but declaring his intention
to proceed at all hazards. He says : " I want you to
have no distrust ; give me the leisure and the time for
writing that history, and I will do something you will
approve. My heart is in the work, though I question
my powers I have not for four years devoted any
attention to literature, nor read a single book that can
be considered well written as you may judge from these
letters of mine, which are not what they used to be ; but
I shall soon get back into my old manner. When I reflect
on the merits of the ancient writers of history, I recoil
with fear from the undertaking, though, when I consider
what are writers of the present day, I recover some con-
fidence in the hope that, if I strive with all my might, I
shall be inferior to few of them." A few days afterwards
he wrote his last letter from England to Niccoli on June
25th, 1422, still expressing fear about the ultimate result,
and especially the payment : " If Lamberteschi would
only place something certain before us, which we could
adopt or approve," he wrote ; and " How heartily I hope
that Lamberteschi will do what would be agreeable to
us both."
Arrived in Rome, Bracciolini was offered and accepted
the post of Principal Secretary to the Pope, and, con-
sequently, did not go, as previously arranged, to Hungary,
but set himself to work instead, examining the old MSS.
in the Vatican Library, for which he had ample time, as
his new post was almost a sinecure. He also wrote to
his friend Niccoli on May i5th, 1423, asking him to
forward to him without the least delay all his notes and
extracts from the various books which he had read ; after
receiving which he commenced in earnest his labour, He
had not worked long, however, before he discovered what
an arduous task he had undertaken, and again fear over-
came him lest he should find himself unequal to the
effort ; but, pulling himself together again, he determined
once more to keep up his courage and persevere to the
end, the gold sequins probably acting as a stimulus to
him.
Writing to his friend Niccoli on October 8th, 1423,
he says that " beginnings of any kind are arduous and
difficult ;" and continues : " What the ancients did
pleasantly, quickly, and easily, is to me troublesome,
tedious, and burdensome." In another letter to Niccoli,
dated Rome, November 6th, 1423, he begs his friend
to make every effort to procure for him some map of
Ptolemy's " Geography," and not to forget Suetonius and
the other historians, above all Plutarch's " Lives of
Illustrious Men."
For upwards of three years after this period Bracciolini
shut himself up with his papers, extracts, maps, etc., and
worked steadily and laboriously at his task, and, at the
end of that time, had completed the first instalment of
his forgery. The next part of the process was to find
a suitable place in which the forged MS. could be dis-
covered ; consequently, Bracciolini and Niccoli put their
heads together in consultation, finally settling upon
Hirschfeldt, a small Saxon town on the borders of
Bohemia, which was celebrated for an old abbey of the
Benedictine monks. Bracciolini had accidentally met
with one of the monks from this place in Rome, and
had managed to place this man under an obligation to
him ; so, finding that he was needy, ignorant, and stupid,
he determined to make use of him for producing his
MS. to the public. Speaking of this monk in one of
his letters to Niccoli, he says: "The good fellow, who
has not our attainments, thought that we were equally
ignorant of what he found he did not know himself."
To this ignorant fellow he gave a long list of books that
he wished him to hunt up in the Abbey library, including
a copy of Tacitus, telling him to send a full description
of each as soon as found. The object of this was to
find out whether the Abbey possessed a copy of Tacitus
in the oldest writing possible, which could be used as a
guide to the transcriber of the forgery ; and the reason
of giving such a long list was to throw the monk off the
scent.
With all their precautions, however, their scheme was
all but discovered in the summer of 1427, for we find
Bracciolini, on September 25th of that year, writing to
Niccoli that, " when Tacitus came, he would keep it a
secret ; that he knew all the tittle-tattle that was going
on whence it came, through whom, and how it was got
up ; but that he need have no fear, for that not a syllable
should escape him I hear nothing of the Tacitus
that is in Germany. I am expecting an answer from
the monk." From this it would appear that the monk
had not yet supplied the information about the books ;
but, in the following October, Niccoli had forwarded to
Bracciolini an old copy of Tacitus that he had become
possessed of. Bracciolini, however, returned it at once,
saying that it was so badly damaged as to be illegible to
an ordinary transcriber, and continuing : " Take care,
therefore, that I have another, if it can be done ; but
you can do it, if you will strive your utmost You
have sent me the book without the parchment. I know
not the state of mind you were in when you did this,
except that you were as mad as a March hare. For
what book can be transcribed if there be not the parch-
ment ? Have a care to it, then, and also to a second
manuscript ; but, above all, keep in mind the vellum,"
After a while the parchment arrived, together with an
old copy of Tacitus that could be easily read by a tran-
scriber ; and then all was silence again for about a year.
During this period the old monk was busily engaged
transcribing the forged writings into very ancient
characters, using the old copy of Tacitus supplied by
Niccoli as an example of style, the forgery being intended
as an introduction to the " History."
On September nth, 1428, Bracciolini was evidently
becoming impatient with the work, for he wrote to Niccoli
as follows : " Not a word of Cornelius Tacitus from
Germany ; nor have I heard thence any further news of
his work." Then, again, he writes February 26th, 1429 :
" The Hirschfeldt monk has come without the book, and
I gave him a sound rnting for it. He has given me his
assurance that he will be back again soon, for he is carry-
ing on a suit about his abbey in the law courts, and will
bring the book. He made heavy demands upon me ;
but I told him I would do nothing for him until I have
the book ; I am, therefore, in hopes that I shall have it,
as he is in need of my good offices." The book at length
arrived, and Bracciolini wrote to Niccoli that, so far as
he was himself concerned, everything was " now complete
with respect to the Little Work^ concerning which he
would, on some future opportunity, write to him ; and,
at the same time, send it to him to read, in order to get
his opinion of it."
So the forgery was complete, and there can be no
doubt that Bracciolini from this date was a rich man,
living in his own villa at Valdarno in Tuscany. The
forged writings were handed over to Cosmo de Medici
in return for 500 gold sequins, according to arrangement^
and remained in the Library at Florence ever after. It
was not, however, published before 1468, when Johannes
de Spire produced what are now known as the last six
books of the " Annals '* of Tacitus, which he declared
had been copied from an (imaginary) original in St.
Mark's, Venice, but which we now know were really
copied from the forgery of Bracciolini, in possession of
the Medicis at Florence.
What are now known as the first six books of the
"Annals" did not make their appearance until
t'4]
and most probably had also been forged by Bracciolini
immediately after he had finished the last six books.
The delight of the clergy at the sudden and unexpected
discovery of these hitherto altogether unknown writings
knew no bounds ; for they now possessed the most
precious heathen testimony to the sufferings of the early
Christians on account of their religion, which would
form a valuable addition to the evidence in course of
collection by pious monks intended to show forth clearly
and indisputably the divine origin of Christianity. The
wily Pope knew well enough the enormous value of such
a record as this ; for it was quite evident that a vein of
scepticism was permeating every class of society, in spite
of the vigilance of the Inquisitioners.
The reformers who succeeded Wicliffe, Jerome, and
Huss had been waxing bolder day by day, and had even
repulsed a large army sent against them by his Holiness
and led by Cardinal Cesarini and a host of German
princes, since which they had boldly and openly preached
against the papal supremacy, and were in many districts
publicly distributing copies of the writings of Aristotle
and Averroes. The Church and the Papacy were thus
in real and imminent danger, for hitherto the people
had believed whatever the priests had told them, whereas
now they appeared determined to investigate the whole
matter themselves and to dispense with the services of
the priestly mediator. At such a time the discovery of
the " Annals " came as a windfall to the Church ; every
one apparently accepting them as having been originally
written by Tacitus ; and every author, from this time
forward, quoted them repeatedly. The strangest thing
about the affair is that no one even thought of question-
ing the genuineness of the writings, especially when it
must have been well known that not one historian or
writer, from the time of Tacitus, who lived in the first
century, down to the end of the fifteenth century, when
the "Annals" (so-called for the first time by Beatus
Rhenanus in 1533) were discovered, had ever once
quoted or even referred to them ; not even Christian
writers had as much as once noticed them, which they
could not have failed to do had such valuable evidence
of the sufferings of their brethren really existed. Besides
the "Annals" other MSS. were produced by pioiis
monks and passed off as ancient writings, until at length
the Vatican and other papal libraries were literally swarm-
ing with them ; but all these writings paled into insignifi-
cance before such a record as the " Annals," which was
destined henceforth to be the chief evidence in support
of Christianity. Together with the passages in the
writings of Josephus, which were forged beyond doubt
by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, and the doubtful letter
of the younger Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, which
time most assuredly will prove to be as great a forgery as
the other two, the Church had now heathen testimony
in abundance to prove that religion was divinely instituted
and that many suffered death in defence of it. Neither
Averroism nor Arianism could shake this testimony,
which would be a powerful prop to the religion for cen-
turies to come. It remained for Dr. Lardner and others,
in the commencement of last century, to expose the
forgery in Josephus ; to the present century has been
reserved the honour of unveiling the real authorship of
the forged "Annals " of Tacitus; and to future searchers
after truth is left the duty of discovering the real perpe-
trator of the forged letter which has hitherto been known
as from Pliny to Trajan.
If any one should still doubt that Bracciolini forged
the "Annals," let me recommend him to carefully read
a work entitled " Tacitus and Bracciolini," and published
by Messrs. Diprose & Bateman, of Lincoln's Inn Fields,
London, in which will be found the most convincing
proofs that Bracciolini, and no other than he, was the
real author of the work. In that able indictment, from
which I have drawn extensively for this essay, the
writings and peculiarities of both Tacitus and Braccio-
lini have been most carefully detailed, with the result
that no one can help arriving at the conclusion that one
person could not have written both the "History" and
the "Annals;" that Tacitus could not possibly have written
the "Annals," owing to chronological difficulties ; and
that suspicion points so forcibly to Bracciolini as the
author that it almost amounts to positive proof.
What I have endeavoured to show is (i) that, owing
to the teachings of Abelard, Arnold, Wicliffe, Jerome }
I*]
Huss, and other fifteenth-century reformers, the authority
of the Church and the very existence of Christianity were
seriously menaced ; (2) that, on account of the failure
of the Inquisition to stem the current of scepticism, large
sums of money were offered for the discovery of ancient
writings which would bear testimony to the divine autho-
rity of the Church and the divine establishment of
Christianity; (3) that, in consequence of this bribe, shoals
of writings were forged by needy monks and scholars,
and attributed to ancient authors ; and (4) that among
these forgeries were the " Annals " of Tacitus, which
were composed by Bracciolini and re-written by the
Hirschfeldt monk in a style as nearly as possible like a
very old copy of the " History " of Tacitus, which was
supplied to him as a guide.
CREATION AND FALL.
The one great differential mark between man and the brutes is his
higher development of brain power, by which he is enabled to discrim-
inate between right and wrong, or good and evil, and thus to improve
his bodily and social condition. The individual who obstinately refuses
to avail himself of the great mental power within him not only deprives
himself of the greatest pleasure in life, but also allows himself to sink
to the level of the brutes from which he evolved, exhibiting at the
same time a gross want of gratitude to the being who endowed him
with so lofty an attribute. On the other hand, he who cultivates his
mental faculties, and uses them for his own improvement and advance-
ment, and also that of his fellows, fulfils the highest mission of man,
and continually shows his deep gratitude to his mysterious benefactor.
^] To think is the grandest faculty of- man. To think logically and
well ought to be his noblest aspiration. To prevent, -by dnj nii^iiA
individual from exercising his Wjt^to think, and from
expression to his thoughts, is a direct -eutrdgE upon the giudl
author of iiff all, np^p tb Q individual himself, and also upon the whole
human race.^ The greatest thinker of modern times, John Stuart Mill,
says, " The peculiar evil of silencing the expression .of an opinion is
that it is robbing the human race, posterity as well as the existing
generation ; those who dissent from the opinion still more than those
who hold it. If the opinion is right they are deprived of the oppor-
tunity of exchanging error for truth ; if wrong, they lose what is
almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression
of truth, produced by its collision with error. No one can be a great
thinker who does not recognise that, as a thinker, it is his first duty to
to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth
gains more even by the errors of one who with due study and prepara-
tion thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only /
hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think completes
liberty of contradicting- and disproving- our opinion is the very con-
dition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action ;
and on no other terms can a being- with human faculties have any
rational assurance of being rig-ht."
\ We claim the right to think upon any and every subject, and also to
express our thoughts before the world, in spite of the menace held out
to us by those whose interests conflict with any honest expression of
opinion. There is no tribunal but that of reason to which we possibly
r 0^'v.tt~*
can submit any theory or piopusiticm. To talk of faith as opposed to
reason is to speak without seriously thinking-.
weird phantom that haunts the irresolute a^
which really has no existence at all. A man may say that he believes
something entirely opposed to reason, but he deceives himself, for it is
quite impossible to believe what does not appear to the mind to be in
accordance with reason. Such a man accepts, but does not believe.
We have faith in th3~exlstenee of the island of Otaheite, although we
have never been there ourselves. Geographers tell us that such an
island exists on the other side of the world ; and we have full faith in
such an existence, because it is in accordance with reason. But if we
were -tokl-tlmt the king- of Otaheite had never been born, but had, like
T^ppey, ^grow'd,' or that he and his subjects, instead of talking, crowed
like cocks, or brayed like donkeys, we should not believe it, because it
would be contrary to reason. Sensible and thoughtful people will,
therefore, not accept anything as truth that does not accord with
reason | and I ask you to night to follow me in my endeavour to sub-
mit the two important dogmas of my lecture to the test of reason, in
the full belief that you are as anxious as myself to arrive at a reason-
able and true conclusion regarding them.
The doctrines of the creation and fall are, as it were, the foundations
upon which the huge superstructure of Christianity has been founded
.3
Take away these fundamental doctrines, and the whole fabric totters
to the ground ; for without a fall there can be no possible need for a
redemption, and the etceteras of the religion, such as the miraculous
conception and ascension, baptism, and the eucharistic feast, vanish
into thin air as vain imaginations and things of naught.
It cannot be too clearly and forcibly insisted upon that no fall ne-
cessitates no redemption, for the proposition is self-evident, and thus
incapable of contradiction. If, therefore, we find the story of the
creation and fall, as given to us in the first three chapters of Genesis,
to be credible and reasonable, then our duty, upon another occasion,
will be to examine the evidence for and against the subsequent theories
of the religion, in order to discover whether they also are credible and
reasonable. If, on the other hand, we find the story to be incredible
arid absurd, it will be our duty to reject tbe whole Christian scheme
that has emanated from it. Our business at the present time is with
these fundamental doctrines of creation and the fall, and our sole object
is the elucidation of the truth, no matter whether it should be palatable
or not to our minds. * No sensible man can desire to retain that which
is not true, for no system that is not founded on truth can be of any
permanent service to the human race, but must on the contrary produce
most pernicious results, j^
Having thus clearly explained my premisses, I shall now proceed to
the examination of the first three chapters of Genesis, and shall divide
my text into the two natural divisions suggested in the authorised
version. The first chapter and first three verses of the second chapter
contain what is known as the Elohistic narrative, so called on account
of the deity being throughout designated Elohim tDTrbtf, the plural
of Eloh (nib), or Elyah (n$**), a compound word made up of El (i>), a
ram, and Yah (IT), an abbreviation of Yahouh (mrp), the future tense
of the verb Hahouh (mn), to be. Eloh literally means * the ram will
be,' and is used to signify the ram-sun, the sun-god, or the sun in the
zodiacal sign Aries, at the vernal equinox ; the plural form, Elohim,
being used to signify the ram-suns, or the six summer months of the
year, in which the ram and the sun are together, from equinox to equi-
nox. El signifies ram, or god, alone, or without the sun, in the winter
period, and is always used to designate the evil principle, the wicked
god, or the winter period, in contradistinction to Eloh, the ram -sun of
the vernal equinox, and Elohim, the ram-suns of the summer months*
the good principle, or the good gods. In this first narrative of the
creation Elohim is rendered ' God ' in the authorised version, though in
other parts of the Bible it is rendered * gods/ * men/ or ' angels.' The
remainder of the second and the third chapters contain the second, or
Jehovistic narrative, so called on account of the deity being designated
throughout, Yahouh, or Jehovah (so pronounced by Christians) Elohim
(CD^nbw ffiir), rendered in the authorised version ' the Lord God.' That
these two accounts were not written by one person will become clear
enough as we proceed in our examination, in which the rendering of
the authorised version will be strictly adhered to.
According to the first narrative, god (Elohim) created the* heavens
and the earth and all they contain in six ordinary days, and rested from
his work on the seventh day. It has been asserted by some zealous
but not over scrupulous Christians that days of twenty four hours' dura-
tion were not meant by the writer, but that the word tDV (day) signifies
an enormous lapse of time ; but it is quite clear to anyone with average
intelligence that an ordinary day was meant, or else there would have
been no use in saying that the evening and the morning were the first
day. Moreover, we are distinctly told in Exodus XX. 10, 11, that we
are to keep the seventh day as a holiday, " for in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the
seventh day." We therefore have here the creation of the world, with
day and night, but no sun, in one day, which we must admit at once is
an absurdity, for it is beyond all doubt scientifically proved that this
world could never have existed for one moment without the sun round
which it revolves, and our common sense tells us plainly that without
a sun there could never have been days and nights, or evenings and
mornings.
On the second day we are told that god created the firmament, and
called it heaven, and that this firmament separated the waters above
from those below, which clearly proves that the writer had no other
conception of the universe than that it was limited above to the height
of the clouds, and bounded below by the earth itself. The third day
was set apart for the gathering together of the waters into seas and
rivers, and for the creation of the vegetable kingdom, which again is
contradictory of all known scientific facts, for there was still no sun in
existence. At last, on the fourth day, the sun was created, as also the
moon and stars, all being- placed in the firmament, between the clouds
and the earth, for the sole purpose of acting as lamps and marking-
time for this world. The writer evidently imagined that the only
object of the heavenly orbs is to light up this world, to divide our day
from our night, and to limit our seasons, being, apparently, ignorant of
the fact that our days and seasons are regulated by the motions of the
earth itself, quite irrespective of the movements of the celestial bodies.
He was also clearly under the impression that the sun was, after our
earth, the larg-est body in the universe, the moon being next, and the
stars the smallest ; whereas the sun is five hundred times larger than
the earth and all the planets and their moons put together ; while the
earth is about forty nine times larger in bulk than the moon ; and some
of the stars are immensely larger than our sun, and all of them, more-
over, suns themselves.
It is sufficiently evident from this account that the world had been
in existence for three days and three nights before the sun was made,
and that vegetation had in the meantime baen produced, which is, we
know, an absurdity. There are some ingenious individuals who have
declared that this is quite possible, for there are, they sa^, lig-hts that
are unconnected with the sun, and that the writer evidently alluded to
these faint glimmerings ; but I assert confidently that, leaving- out of
the question the light derived from the stars, so far as we know from
science, there is no light known which is not either directly produced
from the sun, or a reflection of the sun's light from some other object.
On the fifth day were created fishes, birds, and mammals in the form
of whales. Now there has been so far no creation of land animals ex-
cept birds, and yet the writer declares that whales were made, being-
clearly quite ignorant of the fact that whales are not true fishes, but
mammals, belonging to the sub-king-dom Mammalia, to which belong
also horses, cows, apes and men. Whales were not evolved until long-
a f ter creeping animals, such as lizards, serpents, etc., and took to the
water ag-ain after having been, in the parent form, long accustomed to
dry land, just in the same manner as did the walrus, porpoise, sea-cow>
dolphin and seal, all of which are mammals. It was not until the next
(sixth) day that creeping animals were created, according- to Genesis,
and yet we know well enough that they slowly evolved from molluscs,
of soft-bodied animals, at a very early period, ages before such species
as whales and cattle existed. On the very same day, according to the
narrative, god formed an androgynous, or hermaphrodite man, having
two sexes, and being the fac-simile of himself. Many ancient races
believed that their god was androgynous, and no doubt the writer of
this account held the same opinion, regarding the good principle of the
summer months, or Elohim, as a bi-sexual and reproductive deity. If
this be not the correct view of the matter, it would be interesting to
know which of the two sexes the god of Genesis partakes of.
On the seventh day god rested from his work ; but we do not find
any record of his having done anything to cause fatigue, except giving
utterance to his fiat day by day.
This story is so palpably absurd as to need no argument to prove it
so, were it not for the fact that certain crafty persons, seeing the utter
impossibility of reconciling it with science and reason, have seen fit to
invent new interpretations of the original, in order to give it an appear-
ance of truth. One sect maintains that the days were epochs, and not
ordinary days, which, if it were true, would merely augment the diffi-
culty by making the earth to have existed, with vegetation, for ages
instead of days, without the sun ; but we have already seen that this
theory will not hold ground for a moment.
Another more cunning class of religionists have propounded the
hypothesis that the whole story is meant to be an epitome of what oc-
curred at the origin of the universe and life, and that ordinary days
were really meant, and purposely utilised to epitomise long periods of
time, as was customary with ancient writers, who frequently availed
themselves of poets' licence in this manner. This theory is pnmd facie
a plausible one, and has, no doubt, satisfied many restless and thought-
less spirits amongst us ; but in reality it differs but little, if at all, from
the preceding hypothesis, both leaving us in much the same position
They declare that the very same order is maintained in the narrative as
that adopted by scientists ; that both agree that the earth was foiled
first, and then, in the following order, vegetation, fishes, birds, beasts
of the field, and man. We know well enough, however, that the sun
is absolutely necessary for the existence of the vegetable kingdom ;
that birds did not appear before reptiles and worms, but long after
them ; and that mammals made their appearance, not before creeping
animals, and kangaroos, opossums and others of the marsupial species,
but many ages after them.
In direct contradiction of this fable in Genesis, we learn from science
that our solar system once existed in a condition of highly attenuated
nebulous vapour ; and that in the course of millions of years this huge
chaotic mass of matter, with its sum of force or energy, subject alike
to the laws of gravitation and transformation, gradually condensed,
and became moulded into cosmic order, forming in process of time a
number of rotating spherical nebular masses, in a state of intense heat,
owing to the shock of their recently united atoms. These spheres
gradually cooled by radiation, consequently contracting and becoming-
possessed of a more rapid rotary movement, throwing off from their
equatorial regions large rings of vapour, which in their turn also con-
densed, and, under the influence of the same two laws, formed separate
spheres for themselves. Thus gradually came into existence our sun,
planets and moons.
In the course of time, as our earth cooled down, large volumes of
water were precipitated on the surface, causing an enormous wear and
tear of the now solid rock of the earth's crust, which eventually gave
rise to depositions of various kinds of earth grits, in layers, one above
the other ; which strata have been divided by geologists into periods,
according to various peculiarities observed in the course of their de-
position. In the earliest of these periods, owing to the gradual change
that took place in the relative proportions of the atmospheric gases,
and to the great decrease in temperature, a peculiar combination of th
molecular atoms of the earth's substance took place, which resulted in
the formation of an albuminous substance, called protoplasm, possess-
ing the power of absorption, assimilation, and reproduction by fission,
or, in other words, developing the property called life. Under the
influence of the laws of heredity and selection this primordial germ
of life gradually developed into higher and still higher organic forms
of existence, from Amoebae to Gastroeada, cr molluscs with mouths ;
next to Vermes, or worm life ; then to Vertebrata, or back-boned ani-
mals ; through fishes ; amphibians, living both in and out of water ;
reptiles, from which eventually erolved birds ; arid marsupials ; up to.
mammals, such as whales, quadrupeds, apes and men. The gradual
e/olution of these species occupied many millions of years before the
8.
date of the creation in Genesis (B.C. 4004), during which period the
face of the earth underwent manifold and great changes.
Now, in the name of common sense and reason, does this hypothesis
agree with and corroborate, as it is said to do by some divines, the 1st
Bible story of creation, in any manner at all ? I maintain that the
man who replies in the affirmative does an injustice to his reasoning
faculties and outrages the common sen^e of his fellows. The theory
of creation is absolutely opposed to that of evolution on every point.
Now let us examine the second narrative, as given in the second and
third chapters of Genesis. Here we have a direct contradiction of the
story in the first chapter ; for we are told that god created the earth,
the heavens, vegetation and man, but not woman, all in one day. We
are also told that there had been no rain upon the earth, and yet that
" there went up a mist from the earth," which we know is impossible.
" But," say the orthodox, " everything is possible with god." The
reply of the evolutionist is, " Can god, then, make a stick with one
end only ?" God next planted a garden, in which he placed his newly
made man, after giving him instructions to eat of every tree within it,
except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of which
was not to be touched, and the penalty of disobedience being instant
death. Then, in fresh contradiction of the first narrative, beasts of the
field and birds were created, after man ; after which Adam, the man,
named them all ; but how he acquired the power of speech necessary
for such a feat is not recorded. For absurdity the next part of the
narrative exceeds all that has preceded it. God created cattle and
birds in abundance, but yet could not manufacture a suitable partner
for the man; so he adopted the strange device of taking from Adam's
body, while he slept, one of his ribs, with which he made a woman.
Now it must strike every thoughtful man and woman that this act was
the yery acme of stupidity, for surely it would have been far easier to
have created the woman at once by another fiat, or to have created a
spare rib with which to make the woman. To attribute such conduct
to the great author is surely the height of irreverence.
It is quite evident that both these stories were not written by one
author, and that both cannot be true, for they totally contradict each
other, and are written in quite different styles, the deity himself being
differently designated in each. We a-re told by certain parties that if
we do not believe these stories we shall most certainly be roasted for
all eternity ; and indeed the New Testament distinctly bears out this
fearful fiat. According to this, every man in the whole world who has
been unfortunate enough to hear these two accounts read, and who is
endowed with sufficient intelligence to discriminate between a pop-gun
and an elephant, will inevitably perish ; for it is impossible for any sane
man to believe two such contradictory statements. It is not within the
power of any man to do so. You might just as well demand of a man
that he must believe that a brick and a pan-cake are identical articles.
He could not do so, no matter how hard he tried.
Compared with these fables, how ennobling, grand and sublime is the
theory of evolution. We behold the great and mysterious energy of
universe operating in a manner calculated to inspire our minds with
wonder, awe arid admiration. The truly marvellous development of
ourselves from a chaotic nebula of attenuated matter, through all the
varied and manifold stages of existence, with their beautiful and useful
properties, is indeed an overwhelmingly convincing evidence of the
existence of an omniscient and omnipotent, although absolutely inscru-
table author ; and I doubt much whether anyone ever approached this
subject with an honest desire to be guided by reason in his search for
truth, who did not experience this profound reverence for the unknown
author. Can we believe that these two narratives in Genesis are also
calculated to inspire such a sentiment in the minds of those who are
fairly well educated and amenable to reason ? What kind of a deity,
think you, is this god of Genesis ? The concluding portion of the 2nd
narrative will at once inform us.
This story is well known to all of us, and is a very remarkable one,
for we learn from it the startling fact that the serpent, or devil, was
the greatest benefactor to the human race, and, moreover, truthful ;
while god was the greatest enemy the race ever had, and was guilty
of falsehood and treachery. God placed this man and woman in the
garden, in front of a very strong temptation, pointed out the tempta-
tion to them, and threatened them with instant death if they yielded
to it. This god is supposed to be omnicieiit, and therefore knew well
enough before he placed them there that the poor creatures would fall
on the very first temptation. Can we conceive more glaring injustice
and diabolical cruelty than this ? Now the serpent knew very well
10
that they would not die if they aite the fruit, but that, instead, they
would become wise ; and eventually he persuaded them to eat. Who
spoke the truth, god or the devil ? Did the man and woman die on
the day they ate the fruit ? Far from it. That day, were there any
truth at all in the narrative, would have been the grandest day ever
known to man ; for by the eating of that fruit was made known to him
the difference between good and evil, that he might be able to seek
the one and avoid the other ; his benefactor being the serpent, or devil,
the circumventor and conqueror of god.
But notice further on how impotent this so-called almighty deity
really was. He exclaimed in fear, " Behold, the man is become as one
of us [which was precisely what the devil predicted] to know good
and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree
of life and live for ever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from
the garden." Now how easy it would have been for an omnipotent
creator to have annihilated his own work, and thus cleared the way for
a fresh start. It would be interesting to know who the " we " were
that the writer refers to, if not an androgynous deity or a multitude of
gods or goddesses.
What was the consequence of this sin of Adam and Eve ? Every
man and every woman ever born upon this earth is guilty of this sin,
and will eternally burn in hell fire, says the Christian church, unless
they believe that this circumvented god became a man, lived on this
earth, and died the death of a criminal, in order to give satisfaction to
himself for the outrage committed on his divine majesty by three of
his creatures. The countless myriads of human beings who have in-
habited this earth during the six thousand years (according to Bible
chronology) that the world has existed, are all and each under this
fearful curse, although they had no more to do with Adam's sin than
the man in the moon, and had no power to prevent it. These people
have been brought into the world, whether they liked it or not, and
are subject to this penalty, the enormous majority of them being inevi-
tably doomed t) eternal torment ; for there have lived many millions
of people who never even heard of the Bible, its gods or its scheme of
redemption. We may go farther and declare that all are inevitably
doomed, for we cannot conceive that anyone can believe suoh a story
as that of the fall No one will venture to assert that infants and idiots
11
can believe anything, therefore there is no hope for these unfortunates,
whatever clianres (here may be for others.
As the expression of the infantile imagination of primitive man, after
emerging from his brute ancestry, and commencing to exercise morn
fully his reasoning faculties, these fables are easily understood ; but as
the writings of men who had been inspired by the almighty power to
record a true account of the origin of nature and man for the use of
others, they must be at once rejected by all reasonable and thoughtful
people as gross absurdities. We can easily understand how the mind
of primitive man pondered over the strange mixture of good and evil
in the world, just as the awakening mind of a child would do to day ;
how the mystery would be explained by the analogy of the celestial
movements ; and how, as the result of the infantile reasoning, the good
principle became associated with the mental conception of a venerable
old gentleman, who planted a garden, and performed the principle part
in the drama just described from the third chapter of Genesis.
The whole story bears the strongest marks of being the production
of an infantile intellect. The simple manner in which the writer tells
us that the man and woman sewed fig leaves together and made aprons
for themselves is sullicicnt evidence of this. We cannot believe that
Adam and Eve went through the many processes necessary for the
production of the needles and thread, with which to sew their leaves
together. Then the conversation between god, as he took his stroll in
the garden in the cool of the evening, and Adam and Eve, is just what
we should expect from the crude imaginations of our early ancestors ;
as also is the manner in which the man placed the blame on the woman,
and she in her turn upon the serpent. The curse, too, is precisely in
the same style ; first the serpent, then the woman, afterwards the man,
and lasty the earth itself being brought under the divine anathema.
No less apparent is the absurdity of the writer stating that Adam called
his wife Eve "because she was tho mother of all living," when there
were then no other human beings in \istenro ; and declaring that god
made coats and breeches (see " Breeches Bible") of skins, when as yel
death had not entered in'o the world. Such fables cannot be accepted
as true history by tho intellect of the nineteenth century.
That we suffer for the sins of our fathers is unfortunately too true ;
but that we shall eternally iVi/./le for tham I declare, without the least
12
hesitation, to be a vile falsehood and an insult to our intellects. The
vices and diseases of our ancestors are undoubtedly reproduced in our-
selves, as are their good deeds and lofty sentiments ; and we again
transmit these properties to our offspring. We have, in fact, the power
of rendering- happy or miserable those who follow us, and making- the
general state of society somewhat better or worse. Our great mental
attributes were not surely evolved within us for no purpose, and to lie
dormant, but that we should exercise them and use them for the moral
and social improvement of ourselves and our fellows. But to imagine
that we shall suffer ag-ain in some other condition of existence, because
of our fathers' sin?, is the height of insanity.
Respecting- the authorship of these fables, we are told that the book
\vhich contains them, as well as the other four books of the Pentateuch,
were written by Moses, under the inspiration of what is called the holy
ghost ; but when we examine these books we find that this is without
doubt false, for it is not possible for any man to record his own death
and burial, and the lives of a succession of prophets who lived after
him, as is done in the last chapter of Deuteronomy. Then, ag-ain, in
the seventh chapter of Genesis clean and unclean beasts are mentioned
hi connexion with the ark fable, whereas, according to the Bible, clean
and unclean beasts were not declared such until GOO years after Moses
is said to have died ; which proves that Genesis was not written before
that late period. The town of Dan is also mentioned in the fourteenth
chapter, which town had no existence until 331 years after the recorded
death of Moses. In chap. XXXVI. a list is given of all the kings that
reigned over Edom u before there reigned any king- over the children
of Israel," proving- once more that this book was not written until long
after kings had reigned over Israel. Numerous other passages might
be quoted to show that Moses could riot have written the books that
arc ascribed to him. To cut the matter short, however, we are told in
the 2nd apocryphal book of Ezra that he and his clerks wrote all the
tooks of Moses ; and in Chronicles and Kings that Shaphan discovered
the writings in an old chest.
We find, therefore, not only (hat these fables of the creation and
fall are not true records, but that it is not known who wrote them,
although suspicion attaches to one Ezra; and yet we are expected to
hang our chances of salvation upon them. We are handed these books
13
and told by a priest that they were originally derived from god. Now
instead of believing the man, and taking no pains to find out what the
volume really contains, as is unfortunately the habit of most people, our
duty is clearly to investigate the matter, and try 'to find out whether
that priest speaks the truth or not, whether he has any sort of inter e.s*
in making us believe the volume to be the word of god, or, assuming
that he himself honestly believes it to be so, whether he is a sufficient
authority on the point. Let us, for instance, take the case of a stranger
to the Christian faith, one who never heard of the Bible or its gods,
and who meets a Christian priest in the backwoods of America. The
holy one informs the stranger that he possesses a book which has been
written by god, through the medium of the inspired minds cf a number
of holy men. Would you consider the stranger to be a man of sound
mental faculties if he at once accepted the word of the parasite, and
shaped his whole career according to the teaching cf that book ? Most
assuredly not. The most natural thing for the strang-er to do would be
to stare in amazement at the saint, and wonder whether he was quite
right in his mind. Observing that the priest was really in earnest, and
apparently of sane mind, he would parley with him, asking where he
procured his book from ; who were the very holy partie^ who had been
inspired to write it ; when and where they lived ; and who knew any-
thing about them : in short he would demand from the unctions one his
credentials before believing such an astounding assertion as that god
wrote a book. The replies would be after this fashion. The book was
derived in the first instance from a publisher's shop, where it had been
printed with lead type and black ink, from another printed copy, which
had been printed from another copy, and so on back to the first printed
edition, which was copied from a translation of various Hebrew and
Greek * originals.' It was about two thousand years, he would say,
since some of these ' originals ' were written, and the remainder were
supposed to be of much earlier date ; but who the actual writers were
he could not tell, although it was beyond doubt they were guided by
god's inspiration, for it was so declared in the writings themselves,
which had never yet been doubted, except by a few naughty men who
were now in hell. Do you think this would be good enough for tho
stranger ? Of course not. Then, in the name of common sense, why
should we accept these Bible books without enquiry ? To accept any
14
anonymous writing's in blind faith as being- the production of particular
individuals, without corroborative evidence, is the act of a fool, not of
a wise man. A sensible person will make some enquiry about them
before accepting them.
Unfortunately for ourselves it is only lately that people have been
wise or bold enough to use their reasoning- faculties in these matters,
the consequence being- that the ordinary mind is now almost unequal
to the task of unravelling- the net which has been so cunningly spun
around society by the Christian church. A careful investigation of the
matter, however, leads to the inference that about B.C. 250 or 300 the
Jewish chief priest Ezra, assisted by a number of clerks, commenced to
form a national history out of the various legends they had picked up
in their long wanderings, soon producing what are now known as the
books of Judges (from the 3rd chap.), Samuel, Kings and Chronicles,
which, tog-ether with the poems and incantations of various men of the
tribes, they set forth as the divinely inspired history of their people.
Not long afterwards the Persian system of creation, and story of the
full of man were committed to manuscript, and adapted to the require-
ments of the Jewish people by the substitution of their race in place of
the Chaldeans as the chosen people of god ; and thus were produced
the books of the Pentateuch, with Joshua, and the two first chapters of
Judges. This explains why the stories of the creation, fall, flood, tower
of Babel, etc., are never mentioned in any of the books of the Bible
after Genesis for the space of about a thousand years ; why in all the
books from Joshua as far as II. Kings the name of Moses is never met
with, the most remarkable man in the whole Jewish history ; and why
such names as Adam, Eve, Seth, Cain, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Ham,
Japhet, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never occur again after Genesis till
the time of the so-called return from Babylon.
The real meaning of the Chaldean and Jewish stories of the creation
and fall, which were derived originally from the constellations above, it
would take too long here to unfold, but the riddle has been explained
in my " Popular Faith Unveiled," to which those who desire to further
pursue the subject are referred.
For nearly two thousand years Christianity, based on these fables of
the creation and fall, has had an unfettered career throughout Europe,
its avowed object being to bring salvation to men in the next world,
and to teach the doctrines of love, forbearance, humility and charity
while in this world. Respecting- the bringing- of salvation to men in
the next world, we cannot well determine to what extent the religion
has been successful ; but with regard to its earthly mission it has
signally and utterly failed. The two thousand years have passed away
and still the evils surrounding us continue, and are even intensified ;
poverty, misery, immorality and tyranny exist as of old, in spite of the
promise to the church that she should be helped, even to the end, by
the divine power. So far from love, charity, forbearance and humility
being inculcated by the church, we find the followers of the meek and
lowly one occupying high and lucrative offices, one declaring himself
the vice-regent of god on earth, and others, in our own country, being-
in receipt of salaries ranging- from fifteen and ten thousand pounds
annually to two or three hundred, driving their carriages, sporting-
livery servants and cockades, stiling- themselves as Reverend, Very
Reverend, Venerable, Most Reverend Father in God, Right Honorable
and other titles expressive of superior quality of make ; and all in a
constant state of warfare amongst themselves. One cannot take up a
daily paper without seeing an instance of clerical intolerance, hatred,
envy or malice. The Romanist damns the Protestant ; the churchman
rides the high horse over the dissenter, and would like to deprive him
of what is vulgarly considered to be decent burial ; the evangelicals
denounce the high church party ; the nonconformist bodies are all at
constant war with each other on points of doctrine ; and while all are
eaten up with pride, egotism, selfishness, greed and mutual hatred,
each sect declares itself to be the genuine teacher of love, forbearance,
humility and charity.
As a body the church has from the first opposed all progress. As
early as the year 414 Bishop Cyril's mob brained the learned Hypatia
in a Christian church, for the heinous crime of teaching mathematics.
The Pope and his pious court attempted to prevent the art of printing-
becoming known in Europe. Copernicus was excommunicated for the
sin of announcing the grand truth that the earth revolves round the
sun. Galileo rotted in the prison of the Inquisition for daring to say
that the earth rotates on its axis. Bruno was burnt at the stake for
declaring his belief in the Copernican philosophy. Newton's theory of
oravitation was denounced by the church. Descartes, Kepler, Locke.
16
Laplace and Darwin all were abused and insulted by the holy ones for
their heretical writings, which have brought us such blessings. The
church opposed the abolition of slavery, both here and in America, the
bishops in the House of Lords applauding king George when he said
that slavery was a useful institution because it was taught in the holy
Bible, and the southern States of the Union appealing to the ' word of
god ' in justification of their cruelty. The burning of witches, taught
in the Bible, was vigorously encouraged by the church ; and the cruel
horrors of the Inquisition are too well known to need description. All
measures of reform in our own country have been opposed by bishops
and nobles together ; the church and the state having aided each other
in trampling on the people's rights, and enslaving both their minds and
bodies. In spite of the present very apparent poverty and misery, the
people are exhorted by the church to increase and multiply, being told
that it is a blessed thing to have one's quiver full, and that it is wicked
to listen to those who preach conjugal prudence, small families, and
social thrift. In short the Christian religion has entirely failed in its
mission, being a standing menace to all progress, and a cause of un-
ceasing animosity all over Europe.
Do we imagine that all the priests and ministers of the Christian
church believe the fables of the creation and fall ? I would stake my
existence on it that if we were to cut off their salaries there would be
barely half a dozen parsons in each denomination who would stick to
i'heir soul-saving business. ( Their trinity is supposed to consist of god
the father, god the son, and god the holy ghost; but if we represent
the first by the letter 1, the second by s, and the third by d, we should
be much nearer the mark. . s. d. is the Christian trinity, and pew
rents, tithes, etc., the means by which the one thing needful is kept
up. Ten million pounds sterling are annually spent in supporting the
clergy of the established church alone, while poverty, wretchedness
and crime confront us at every turn. The struggling workers of this
country, not content with having to contribute towards the payment
of 29,000,000 annually, as interest on the national debt resulting from
accumulated religious war charges, are foolish enough to spend more
than a third of this amount in keeping a host of state-made drones,
who oppose all progress, drain the hard earnings from the workers,
and assume haughty airs towards their poor dupes. In the face of the
17
depressed state of our trade, and the poverty and misery around us, it
is appalling to think of the enormous quantity of money that annually
drifts into the pockets of these human parasites, both episcopalian and
nonconformist alike.
We know well enough that the large majority of those laymen who
profess to believe the fall and redemption scheme do not really believe
it at all, but play the part of the believer in order to serve their own
private interests. The laity may be divided into four classes : 1st,
those few honest and sincere men who deceive themselves by imagin-
ing that they can really believe such unreasonable doctrines, and who
attempt by their means to do what could be done so very much better
without them. 2nd, those who are deficient in education and mental
power, and who will accept anything the priest tells them, no matter
how absurd. 3rd, those who have some little education but very little
brain power, and who consider themselves very important members of
society, when in reality the world does not know them even by name.
They resent in their little minds the silent affront offered to them by
their fellows, who, they think, ought to know their superior worth ;
and they look around for a little church or chapel, where the stream of
intellect is sufficiently thin to allow of their feeble mental power being
perceived. They join, lake a leading part in the performances, carry
the collecting box, open pew doors, hand hymn-books to strangers,
and are happy in the consciousness of their importance, being gazed at
Sunday after Sunday by an admiring congregation. Were these folk
obliged to do their religious work under cover of masks, their names
being at the same time studiously concealed from the congregation,
the race of pew openers, box carriers, etc., would soon die out; but
as it is, vanity, egotism and pomposity yet keep the race alive. The
fourth class consists of sharp business men, with plenty of brains and
fair average education, who join a church with a large congregation
and adopt the particular creed in vogue there, as a means of pushing
their business, by assuming a mien of pious " respectability." These
are the men, devoid of all honour, who forfeit their manhood at the
shrine of hypocrisy, and who ought more particularly to be shewn up
in^their true colors. Without these four classes the religion of the fall
and redemption scheme would soon become a thing of the past. No
mention has been made of the ladies, who, according to some rude and
18
ungallant people, look forward to the lord's day as one on which they
can display their new bonnets, procure food for another week's gossip,
or hold sweet communion with the unmarried curate all for Jesus. It
is unnecessary to say that this may not be true, and that a higher and
nobler motive may prompt the ardent zeal of the fair sex.
Do not believe the parsons when they tell you that your souls are in
jeopardy for rejecting the Christian doctrines ; the truth is that their
incomes are in danger, not your souls. Take care not to follow their
evil advice that it is a blessed thing to have your quiver full, and that
the lord loves a cheerful giver. Have small families, being careful to
bring into the world only as many as you can decently provide for, so
as to give them a fair chance in the world ; and let your creditors and
your saving-banks, and not your lord, have your spare cash your lord
being but another name for your parson. When they tell you that you
must take no thought for the morrow, and must not lay up treasure on
earth, where moths and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through
and steal, give them the cold shoulder, insure your life in some sound
office, and leave the laws of the country in which you live to take care
of the thieves, and their reverences to look after the moths and rust.
It will, no doubt, be urged that Christianity has done, and is doing a
great good in the world. This I emphatically deny. I readily admit
that some good has been effected in the name of Christianity, but deny
that the fall and redemption religion has been the cause. The same
amount of good would have resulted with any other religion, and much
more with no religion at all. All the good that has ever been effected
in the world has emanated from lofty individual minds ; but as chance
has had it, the majority of these men in the past have been Christians,
simply because that religion has prevailed in Europe for nearly two
thousand years. In the present day this is not the case ; and it is a
fact beyond contradiction that all the leaders of thought of our time
are men who have rejected the fables of the creation and fall as given
in Genesis, together with the consequent redemption scheme, as false
and vain. John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Tyndal,
Carpenter, Huxley, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Renan, Victor Hugo, Schopenhauer, Haeckel, and in fact every other
modern leader of thought, have rejected the orthodox faith ; and yet
we look forward to the future with bright hope, expecting a steady
19
progress in man's general welfare. Even when Christians themselves
in days long gone by, attempted to introduce any useful reform, their
church invariably persecuted them, as for instance Copernicus, Galileo,
Bruno, Luther, etc.; and the only Christian priest who ever propounded
any theory which was calculated to be a lasting boon to society was
Malthus, who declared that over population was the great cause of all
misery, and that until people were taught conjugal prudence it was
useless to attempt to ameliorate their social condition. This friend of
humanity was bitterly denounced by the church, and to this day his
followers are held in contempt, notwithstanding that the Malthusian
principles are now endorsed by the leading social scientists, and that
it is as clear as the sun at noon day that within the short space of 45
years the present population of this country now about 36,000,000
will have doubled itself. The people now cannot support themselves,
so how they will manage when the population is 72,000,000 it is hard
to say. What with over population and land monopoly the future has
indeed some terrible social evils in store for us.
Individual Christians undoubtedly have done something towards
making their fellows happy, but not so Christianity, as witness the
Inquisition and other enormities of the middle ages. But do the Jews,
Unitarians and Infidels of to day do nothing for their fellows ? What
about Sir Moses Montefiore, who rejects the atonement ? Have not
the Agnostics just founded the Whitminster College for purely secular
education ? And what do we not owe to those heterodox scientists
just mentioned ? It is the fashion with some people to give the name
of Christianity to the morality of this century ; but this very ingenuous
attempt to clothe one of the most immoral of the world's religions with
the garment of righteousness carries no weight for the scholar and the
historian. There is as much difference between the morality of to day
and the genuine Christian religion as there is between the north and
south poles. The two are the exact antitheses of each other. The real
reason that the human race has in the last hundred years so rapidly
advanced in intellectual qualities and moral progress is not because it
has become more Christian in its character but because it has gradually
shaken off the yoke of Christianity piece by piece. The whole Mosaic
cosmogony, with its flat earth theory, creation of man, etc., as taught
in Genesis, has been destroyed by Copernicus, Newton, Laplace and
20
Darwin ; slavery has been abolished ; witches are no longer burnt at
the stake ; polygamy is discountenanced ; and human sacrifice, murder,
rapine, theft and personal assaults are no longer justified. All these
immoralities are distinctly and prominently taught in the Christian
Bible, but have been expunged from the moral code of this century.
Were Christianity now dead instead of dying the same amount of good
would accrue to the race as before ; and, judging from past history,
there would be a very vast decrease in the opposition that has for two
thousand years been offered to progress.
The question after all is not what Christianity has done, but whether
or not its story is a true one. As already stated, if the creation and
fall stories are not true the whole scheme of Christianity, with its god-
man and its sacraments, is a fraud and a delusion. No religion that
cannot bear the test of reason, and be maintained on a public platform
can be founded on truth. If the Christian story be true there is no
need for the holy ones to secure themselves behind the fortifications of
' coward's castle ' every Sunday to preach their doctrines ; the open
platform being a more suitable place from which to propagate the truth.
But what are the facts ? The man who dares to submit the religion to
the test of reason, or even to discourse publicly upon evolution or any
other scientific theory that is likely to interfere with the steady flow of
bullion into the collection box, is denounced from the pulpit, the holy
ones branding him as a dangerous infidel, and using all the means in
their power to blacken his character and to insidiously undermine his
business. The challenge to debate is never accepted.
The question before us is a momentous one. Creation or Evolution ?
Moses or Darwin ? We cannot follow both.
WORKS BY DR. H. J, HARDWICKE.
Demy vo.,pp. 202, price 10/-
MEDICAL EDUCATION AND PRACTICE
IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD.
" This book contains a fund of information The whole is preceded
by an introduction, which is worth the attention of all persons taking- a
broad interest in medical education Some weaknesses in home and
foreign regulations are lightly passed over, and it may well be that such
a mass of statement will, on experience, be found to be defective at points.
But we accept "it gratefully, as an attempt to supply a very great want,
and we commend some of the reflections of the author on the defects of
our own system to all whom it may concern." Lancet.
" Here the reader will find information respecting the educational
bodies, examinations, and medical laws of every civilised state, and he
will also come to the humiliating confession that though there exist a
good many time-honoured institutions in the United States, and an
anxiety to put matters on a scientific footing in others, yet farther south
'the condition of medicine is as bad as can possibly be imagined.'... .But
the authorities, and not Dr. Hardwicke, are responsible for this, and we
cordially thank him for his decidedly useful addition to our knowledge
of medical education in other countries." Medical Press and Circular.
" A good deal of information will be found in a useful book entitled,
' Medical Education and Practice in all Parts of the World,' by Dr. H.
J. Hardwicke." British Medical journal.
" A book which ought to cut the ground from beneath all bogus
diploma-dealers." Medical Times and Gazette.
" This volume, extending to 202 pages, with double columns, really
contains the information which the title-page promises. It must ha ye
cost tho author a great amount of trouble. It is a useful guide for r all
entrants to the profession, those especially who contemplate settling in
foreignjparts. It will do good also indirectly by letting those schools
whose education is defective see what other schools are doing, and so
be the means of stimulating them to aim at higher things. To be
informed, for example, that medical teaching in Japan is already tread-
ing on the heels of some of our British schools cannot fail to do good."
Edinburgh Medical Journal.
"'Dr. Hardwicke's book will prove a valuable source of information
to those who may desire to know the conditions upon which medical
practice is or may be pursued in any or every country of the world,
even to the remotest corners of the earth. The work has been com-
piled with great care, and must have required a vast amount of labour
and perseverance on the part of its author." Dublin Medical Journal.
" This work supplies a want long- felt... .The chief value of Dr. Hard-
wicke's volume, to students, is in the information he gives concerning
the rules of practice in other countries, and the possibilities opened up
of making a livelihood in them To teachers the manual will be in-
valuable ; it will not only inform them of usages abroad, but enable
them to glean many useful hints lo aid the conduct of their own classes
here. We commend the work as a most admirable resume of the slate
of medical education and practice in the world." Students' Journal.
" This opportune and very useful work...... gives exact and in some
instances complete information of the requirements, curriculum, &c. for
obtaining a diploma in every part of the world Some idea of the
labour undertaken by the author may be gathered from the fact that'
the index contains nearly five hundred references The book will be
a mine of reference for medical legislators, and will doubtless . colour
the provisions of the new Medical A.ct so clamorously demanded in
England, and of the Act to which we are about to commit ourselves
here/' Australian Medical Journal.
" A great deal of useful and convenient information is contained in
this work hi regard to the subjects of which it treats, and the infor-
mation, as a rule, seems to be fairly accurate and reliable. The part
devoted to the United States opens with the Philadelphia Record's full
account of the bogus traffic in that city. The position assigned to this
narrative is, perhaps, unnecessarily prominent, but we do not think the
exposure of those vile practices can be too minute or widely circulated.
This diploma traffic, whether carried on in Pennsylvania, New York,
or Massachusetts, was and is a disgrace to us, and we may as well
acknowledge it." Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, U. S.
" The want of such a book has been long felt by all who take any
interest in medical education, and is specially needed at the present
time, when the attention of our government has been called to certain
abuses, and it is about to introduce reforms. The book is a most ex-
haustive one, and deserving the attention of all who are in any way
interested in the advancement of medical education and reform."
American Specialist.
" This book, which extends to 202 closely-printed pages, with double
columns, is undoubtedly the remarkably comprensive treatise promised
by the title. The labour of the undertaking- must have been indeed
great, and the author must possess a rare knowledge of his subject to
be able to condense such a huge mass of information into a single
volume of 202 pages* We can strongly recommend the work as being
the only complete treatise on the subject. No portion of the whole
world has been omitted, and the author is to be congratulated on the
very satisfactory result of his eminently difficult task." Family Doctor.
" This work is a valuable manual, of interest not only to medical
men, but also to the literary public, who evince at the present day so
much enthusiasm in studying the intellectual condition of other nations,
chiefly, no doubt, from magazine articles. Medical legislation is, as
experience amply proves, one of the latest developments of civilisation
......Let us, for instance, glean from -Dr. Hardwicke's book facts as to
the condition of medicine in some parts of the Spanish -American repub-
lics .Let us turn to civilised countries where medical teachers keep
step with ' the march of intellect.' We have still much to learn
from Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, yet it is undeniable that the general
social and intellectual position of the medical profession is as high in
these islands as abroad, where technical education is in many respects
better. It is by the young doctor, who finds the profession over
stocked in his own country, that Dr. flardwicke's manual will be found
particularly valuable." Athenceum.
" Those who are about to engage in medical study will do well to
consult Dr. Hardwicke's * Medical Education and Practice,' as an exact
knowledge of the relative value of the innumerable medical qualifica-
tions would often prevent much after annoyance."-- Westminster Review
* In this book, says the author, ' will be contained the conditions
under which a medical practitioner may practise his profession, and the
requirements for the medical degree at the universities and medical
corporations in almost all the civilised countries of the world.' This
promise is kept It contains much information not easily accessible,
and likely to be useful." Chemist and Druggist.
J. & A. CHURCHILL, 11 New Burlington St., London, W..
8w. 1^2 pages, Price 2/6.
HEALTH RESORTS AND SPAS OF EUROPE.
" We have never yet seen anything- that quite equalled the delicious
brevity of Dr. Hardwicke's remarkably curt and incisive little hand-
book. In the brief space of 184 pages he introduces us to all the
health-resorts and spas of the entire eastern hemisphere, from Erg-land
to Egypt, and from Madeira to St. Moritz. We are bound to admit
that, so far as it is possible to test his information by the light of
personal experience, his short paragraphs are thoroughly up to date,
even as regards the smallest and most insignificant watering-places."
Pall Mall Gazette.
" Contains, in addition to chapters On the climatic and hygienic treat-
ment of disease, and the properties and uses o'f various mineral waters,
succinct accounts, in alphabetical order, of the different health-resorts
and spas of Britain and of the continent of Europa. The exposure,
the elevation, the range and limit of temperature, and other amenities
of each watering-place, are briefly described ; in many cases also an
analysis is given of the constituents and properties of the various
chalybeate and other springs. In short, a great mass of information,
such as invalids are most in quest of, is found in condensed and handy
form." Scotsman.
" Contains some valuable knowledge -of the climatic treatment of
diseases, of which all should avail themselves. The usefulness of such
a book must appear evident to those who experience the power of
climate over the human constitution. It should be bought and studied
and will doubtless give beneficial advice." Brighton Gazette.
" Ought to be welcomed by the large number of invalids whose
daily avocation, as the author justly remarks, consists almost entirely
in battling against their formidable foes. ' weather and insalubrity.' Dr.
Hardwicke has some highly useful observations on the different stages
of consumption The chapter on the properties and uses of water is
also full of excellent hints Spa life on the continent is graphically
described A carefully compiled index greatly enhances the value
of this work, which is not to be judged merely by its size." Liverpool
Mercury.
" The author gives some very practical remarks on the properties
and uses of water, hygienic ablutions and baths, and treats of mineral
waters and spa life. Succeeding chapters give brief but evidently
careful and authentic accounts of the leading health resorts and spas
of Europe." Yorkshire Post.
" The introductory chapters on the treatment of disease by climate,
the properties and uses of water, and on mineral waters and spa life,
contain some valuable advice, which invalids will do well to take. Dr.
Hardwicke's work does really supply a want felt by many persons."
Sheffield Independent.
" A great deal of information is conveyed, and the avoidance of
technicalities will be an additional recommendation." Bristol Mirror.
" A very handy little manual stating clearly and concisely the
advantages and disadvantages of the various health resorts and spas."
Sussex Daily News.
" The ordinary reader will find this little volume far more interesting
than is usually the case with books dealing with medicine or me'dical
matters. The subject, is one of. very great importance, and the author
deals with it in a way that will be fully appreciated by non-medical
readers. He avoids technicalities, and places before us the salient
points very clearly and concisely." Rotherham Advertiser.
" This little volume will be welcomed as a guide to the many health
resorts in Europe The book should have a large demand, for it con-
tains a great deal of information in a little space." Doncaster Gazette.
" Will be found very useful by everyone whose health requires either
change of air or the use of mineral waters." Batnsley Independent.
" As a hand-book to any sufferer desirous of knowing in a general
way which are the baths most likely to suit his particular complaint,
this volume will be useful." Bradford Observer.
" Many useful hints may be derived from this little book, for which
valetudinarians will be thankful." Christian World.
W. II. ALLEN & CO., 13 Waterloo Place, London, S.W.
8z>0., cloth bound, Price 5/-
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MANORS OP
PATTINGHAM AND WORFIELD.
" Very complete, and must have been a work of very great labour."
Salopian and West Midland Monthly Illustrated Journal.
Published by the author.
Pt ice 5/- 8#<?., cloth bound.
GUIDE TO EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES.
" For those who contemplate studying- abroad, this guide will prove
of great use." Lancet.
" This little book is a g-uide to the medical department of the various
universities in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Italy
and Austria Most complete Those who intend visiting 1 any
continental university should first of all read this very useful guide*
Family Loctor.
Published by the author.
8m, price 3d. (post free
CREATION AND FALL.
Published by the author.
%vo., price M. (post free
MAN WHENCE AND WHITHER ?
Published by the author.
8m, price %d. (post free 3%d.)
INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS IN EUROPE
Published by the author.
&vo., price 3d. (post free
EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA
Published by the author.
Svo., price Zd. (post free 3J.)
GENUINE LIBERALISM.
Published by the author.
Demy SIY?.,//. 274,/r/tv 5/6.
THE POPULAR FAITH UNVEILED.
"We cannot do better than recommend all friends of independent
thought, and, to use Milton's. phrase, 'unlicensed printing 1 ,' to repay the
author's energy by writing to him for the volume, which they will find
intelligent and fearless in an eminent degree, while it evinces a by no
means common acquaintance with the science of comparative raligion.
The basis of Dr. Hardwicke's theory and arguments about the popular
faith is the zodiacal origin of religious myths, and there is no doubt he
is in agreement with. the greatest authorities so far as the broad lines
go." Westminster Review.
"Dr. Hardwicke treats the extensive and difficult subject of the
evolution of Christianity from preexisting religions with great boldness
and candour from the purely theistic and anti-dogmatic standpoint."
The Scotsman.
" It is an exceptionally valuable book to Freethinkers The work
affords evidence of scholarly attainment and well-directed research,
and should occupy a place in the library of every intelligent anti-
Christian." .SV^/tf/ Review.
* " The result of this bold measure is more than creditable consists
of a careful examination of the Biblical records, full of suggestion."
The Freethinker.
" In a manner at once searching and succinct it proves the Bible to
be little else than an effete old almanack, conceived in the earliest
dawn of thought, when man glowered tremblingly at the spectra in his
own brain, naming them heaven or hell, god or devil, as they produced
pleasure or pain." The Agnostic, Dallas.
" A scholarly examination of the various legends that make up what
is called the Christian religion A very valuable contribution to the
historico-scientific freethought literature of the period." Lucife? , tJie
Light-bearer, Kansas.
" A better book than this we have scarcely noticed in our columns.
It is the result of laborious researches and a deep erudition on the part
of the author." The Anti- Christian, Calcutta.
Published by the Author, Sharrow, Sheffield.
Svv., price l/-
VOX HUMANA ;
OK THE ART OF SINGING FROM A MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.
" This multum in parvo is a remarkably cheap and thoroughly ex-
haustive pamphlet The subject is well dealt with, and contains a-
large amount of very valuable information." Family Doctor.
" Contains a large amount of very valuable information and advice.
Dr. Hardwicke has treated his subject not only ably, but in a manner
which must interest all who peruse his pamphlet." Rotherham and
Masbrough Advertiser.
" Just the kind of work to place in the hands of vocalists, or would-
be vocalists." Sussex County Herald.
" A perusal of the doctor's remarks, with reasonable attention there-
to, would result in a vast increase of really good voices.'.' Eastbourne
Gazette.
(Remainders only from the Author)
^vo., price II-
SKIN ERUPTIONS ;
THEIR CAUSES AND PREVENTION.
" Will be found very useful reading. It will be especially valuable
to those who have any family predisposition to skin disease, as there
are given , number of very useful hints concerning the preservation of
the skin in a healthy condition. There are also .contained many good
suggestions for keeping school-children free from skin diseases of an
infectious or contagious nature. We recommend Dr. Hardwicke's
production as a very cheap and useful treatise." Family Doctor.
" Throws considerable light upon diseases of the skin, and points
out the general laws of health which should be observed to prevent
such diseases manifesting themselves." Lincolnshire. Chronicle.
" This recognised authority on skin diseases has produced a tractate
which appears to be the condensation and essence of much observa-
tion and practical experience." Sussex County Herald.
" Anyone may understand the treatise, and there is much in it that
will tend to correct many mistakes on the subject treated upon."-
Eastbourne Gazette.
.(Remainders only from the Author.)
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